Overview
Perhaps something still lurks in the abandoned city (22.25), but that is not what keeps travelers away from those lands, it is the great dragon Tharaxes the Blue Death a great blue dragon of enormous power. It appears without warning out of the blue sky with claws that slash through rock and lightning breath that can split a tree in a moment. Only would-be dragon slayers, fools and very rare and very heavily guarded caravans enter these lands, which is just how the local desert gnome (23.23) population wants it. The Dust Walkers know the evil that outsiders do, deep unforgivable evils, and do not want too many of them intruding in their lands so they created the Blue Death out of smoke and glamour, chiseled its claw marks into canyon walls and artfully burn and split many of the few scrub trees that grow in these lands.
This serves to keep most intruders out of the lands of the desert gnomes, but those pesky would-be dragon slayers remain. If possible the gnomes try to capture them and subject them to the trial of the fountain but for those who seem too powerful the gnomes, who do not want to stain themselves indelibly with sin, merely lead on a wild goose chase. But those outsiders who are especially evil (as the gnomes define it) are lead to the “lair” of Tharaxes: a tall and lonely plug of rock that rises suddenly out of the foothills of the Devil’s Fingers. There is no dragon and no treasure to be found there, but danger enough…
Connection
- The gnomes have succeeded in scaring off many, including a certain band of slavers (28.21).
Hooks
- What sort of danger can be found in the “lair” of Tharaxes if there is no dragon there?
- Has anyone managed to see through the gnomes’ illusions?
- What sort of interesting tricks have the gnomes played on outsiders by using “Tharaxes”?
- What sorts of things do the desert gnomes consider unforgivably evil?
