Dragonslayers

“HA HA HA! AN EXCELLENT DAY TO FIGHT SOME ICE DRAGONS BEFORE WE GO HOME, DON’T YOU THINK?”

— Tui T. Sutherland, Dragonslayer

Dragonslayers are groups of mercenaries across Haven that make a living of hunting dragons. It is a highly dangerous occupation but also very lucrative.

Description

In the ice-world of Haven, every winter the adolescent frost dragons of the far north wander south into the sky-road mountains and other cold-spots, fleeing from their competition and from the Horned Wolf.
Along the way, these beasts fight amongst themselves and terrorize the common folk. They devour great amounts of cattle livestock and threaten many villages into giving them tribute in the form of food or riches.

Dragonslayers are called upon to get rid of dragons that emplace themselves near villages or to take revenge for those they have slain.
Dragons are also very valuable, both alive and dead. Dragon bones, blood, organs and scales can be sold to blacksmiths, sorcerers and alchemists. If one manages to kill a dragon and take apart its corpse, one can get very wealthy. If their eggs or newly hatched young can be found, they can be sold too. Some wealthy mages pay greatly for an enslaved dragon.

Risk and reward: Dragonslaying is highly dangerous. These warriors go into the fight expecting to die. They make all the preparations they can, bring healing elixirs, poisons, ballistae and nets, set ambushes and bait, and still for every dragon killed many men die. Even a very young dragon is expected to kill half a dozen men before being slain. There are also plenty of unsuccessful hunts, where several men die and the dragon escapes despite their best efforts.
It is also not uncommon for a mercenary band to pick a fight with a dragon too experienced in fighting humans and simply never be heard from again.
Still, a successful quest to slay a dragon will pay thousands of golden crowns and the sale of its body will yield several thousand more. Enough to pay for the relatives of the deceased and equipment for the next hunt twiceover. Thus, to some, it is worth it.
Dragonslayers will only very rarely engage with fully matured dragons, the risks of engaging them simply too great compared to the rewards. Better to go for hatchlings and adolescents instead.

Dragon Cultists: An unpleasant subculture of dragonslayers are dragon cultists. These people act the same as dragonslayers, but they drink and bathe in the blood of the dragons they slay, breaking a cultural Taboo. In so doing they become half-human, half-draconic monsters. Many of them mutate or die. Nonetheless if they survive, they are granted great strength.
The dragon cultists hide their mutated members if they are in civilized lands, for fear of being chased off.

Appearance

Dragonslayers mostly look like bands of mercenaries; Mismatched equipment worn by crude men. They are often distinguished from normal mercenaries due to the special equipment they carry with them in the form of ballistas, nets and other special tools of their trade.

Type

Military, Mercenary Group