the reign of the archdragon
Out from among snow-covered peaks rise steam and smoke. Amid the bubbling of hot springs and the ringing of picks on stone lies the lair of the Archdragon, a scheming tyrant with a mind for industry and a heart for conquest. What plot does he advance perched on his icy throne?
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story hooks
The vermillion traded by these kobolds is sold at a very low price and after 30 or so years of operation their share of the market has grown dramatically. The owner of a rival cinnabar mine wants the source of this vermillion found and put out of business.
Occasionally, witnesses near the escarpment below the compound have reported spectral forms of dragons diving down from the plateau in the fog.
A wizard or group of wizards has detected a strong aura of transmutation magic coming from the foggy plateau and wants it investigated, thinking it might be generated by a magical item or an ancient arcane structure.
A group of kobolds are hiring adventurers to locate one of their old neighboring tribes, who decades ago disappeared overnight.
The inhabitants of the area surrounding the plateau are experiencing higher-than-normal rates of illness and congenital defects and are looking for answers.
the compound
The Archdragon’s compound sits on a high-elevation relatively narrow piedmont plateau. It is bitterly cold, covered in snow in all seasons, and dotted with hot springs. The steam rising from the springs cools rapidly, filling the walled compound and the plateau in general with thick fog that greatly reduces visibility and cascades gently down the cliff leading to the lands below.
The plateau is accessible by foot or horse via a winding series of switchbacks that takes several hours to climb. Small carts can generally make the ascent without incident, but most choose not to cart goods seeing as a wreck could easily result in the loss of those goods down the escarpment.
the wall and gate
The wall forms a semicircle around the kobold encampment and together with the cliff face that rises up into the mountain forms a complete barrier around the village. Fifteen feet high, the wall is constructed of solid ice that was once as clear as glass is now perpetually dusted with snow. Carved out of the ice is a rarely-used sturdy wooden gate with two massive doors that require several kobolds (or a couple larger creatures) to push open. Cut into one of the doors is a sliding hatch about three feet wide and two feet tall, fitted with a ledge used as a counter for trading. People who come to this encampment to purchase vermillion place their goods on the ledge, knock loudly, and wait for one of the kobolds (hooded to obscure their features and standing on a platform so as to appear five or six feet tall) to assess the value of their goods and offer a suitable amount of vermillion in exchange. If the deal is made, the kobold will tell the trader any goods they are looking for specifically for the next exchange.
the town
The kobolds’ town is bare, bland, with only the absolute essentials needed to provide for a community. There is a barracks, a tavern/cafeteria, an infirmary, a lecture hall, and a storehouse for vermillion. All of the hemispherical buildings are constructed of packed-snow bricks with just one entrance, and vary in internal temperature from 20°F to over 70°F depending on how many people are inside.
The barracks is composed of six of these buildings and each contains six cots for kobold guards to sleep in, in addition to chests full of thick furs, heavy winter coats, boots, snowshoes, face coverings, rations, and other supplies soldiers might need.
The kobolds’ tavern is where the vast majority of laborers, guards, and refiners eat, drink, and socialize with one another. The food and drink comes at no cost, and it’s understood by all not to eat or drink more than your share so that there will be enough for others. It’s rare that someone violates this rule or otherwise causes unrest in the tavern, but when it happens they are escorted out by guards and assessed for distress or illness. The tavern is open at all hours.
The infirmary is extremely basic; it’s closer to a field hospital than a hospital proper. The clinicians there primarily treat occupational injuries and hypothermia, and care for other ailments as they are able.
Young kobolds or adults who have been determined to be less than cooperative are sent to the lecture hall, where particularly charismatic speakers reiterate the grand purpose of the compound’s hard work and toil. They teach and remind attendees that these years of suffering will buy a future of draconic glory for their tribe, ushering in a new society of dragons defined by power, wealth, and safety for all within it. Specifically they highlight the importance of the mining and refining operations; the Archdragon needs mercury to refine the ritual that will elevate them all to dragonhood which comes from the cinnabar dug out of the mountain which is then refined into the much-needed mercury. The lecturers always claim that the Archdragon will finish designing the ritual any day.
The storehouse simply contains various containers of vermillion which the kobolds trade for essential supplies with outsiders. It is constantly guarded by several kobold soldiers due to its value, as even a small vial could be sold for a small fortune.
the refinery
The refinery is an outdoor collection of furnaces, retorts, and other alchemical equipment needed for the distillation of raw cinnabar into elemental mercury as well as massive mortars and pestles for grinding cinnabar into vermillion, an intense red or red-orange pigment valued by painters, potters, and other artists for its stunning hue. The majority of cinnabar mined from the mountain is ground into vermillion powder which is traded for supplies needed by the compound: food, medicine, furs, weapons, picks, among other things. A much smaller amount is distilled into elemental mercury. This requires the cinnabar to be roasted with plenty of exposure to oxygen. Mercury vaporizes and rises out of the furnace into a glass retort which, cooled by the icy mountain air, causes the mercury to condense into its liquid form. It then runs down the glass neck of the retort and collects in a vial at the end of the neck, ready to be transported to the Archdragon’s castle.
Elemental mercury is very toxic, especially as a vapor. Prolonged exposure to this substance has left many of the kobold refiners with muscle weakness, insomnia, memory loss, tremors, and made them prone to confusion and irritability. Most kobolds attribute these symptoms to the cold itself as the alchemical equipment is all outdoors and exposed to the elements, but the Archdragon himself and some of his personal knights know that the mercury is responsible.
Typically miners will be transferred to the refinery when they become less able to do the more physical work of the mines, whether due to old age or injury.
the mine
A small cave mouth leads into a sprawling tunnel system dug out by kobolds over many years. Branching down deep into the mountain, tunnels dotted by yawning caverns seek the Archdragon's beloved cinnabar. Kobold families dig out homes along the tunnels, especially in dead ends, abandoned branches of the mine where no cinnabar has been found, preferring the warmth of the caverns to the screaming chill of the mountainside. Families record their history in pictographs that cover the walls of their dug out homes. A family’s eggs mature in their dug-out homes, hatching about two months after being laid.
The work in the mine is straightforward: mine cinnabar deposits or dig tunnels seeking new ones, load the cinnabar and tailing onto carts, push the carts out to the compound, and pull the empty carts back to load again. It is extremely tiring work and typically a kobold will only do four or so hours of mining before switching to cart duty for another couple hours. After completing their day’s labor a worker is free to go into town to eat, listen to lectures, or spend time with friends and family.
the archdragon’s castle
On a hill above the compound rests an ice-wrought keep forged by the Archdragon’s ice breath that is bare of furniture or adornment. Dirty snow piles in the corners and at the edges of the halls, tracked in by booted kobold feet. Thin iceglass windows let light in and let sentry-knights peer out at activity in the compound below, while cold alchemical torches light the castle's depths.
The Archdragon's throne sits at the end of a long and narrow hall lined on each side with 10-ft diameter pillars sculpted with the figures of hundreds of flying dragons. Behind the throne a small, hidden flight of stairs leads down into the mountain on which the castle sits and into a chamber underneath the throne room.
In this room is a massive wizard's laboratory, and dozens of test subjects. Pigs, kobolds, and captured adventurers wander this chamber with various half-transmutations performed on them. It is here that the Archdragon is using stolen, poorly-written, damaged, and incomplete wizard's journals to attempt to discover the magical formula to turn himself and his people into dragons, as yet to little or no avail.
Only the Archdragon and his personal retinue of knights are permitted within the castle. The Archdragon himself never leaves, but sends knights out into the compound in his stead to convey his will and collect mercury, test subjects, food, et cetera.
the archdragon
The Archdragon, or Ischer, was born with uncommonly pale scales and an ability to tolerate cold temperatures. Exceptionally intelligent, he grew up in a community of kobolds who lacked formal education and there his mind scraped desperately for information to consume. Whenever he had the good fortune to participate in a raid he would break off from his tribe and scour buildings for books, maps, art, anything that seemed to him to be something which could expand his knowledge of the world. On one particular raid in his late teens he happened upon a wizard's spell book, which he studied eagerly until he was able to cast the spells within.
Thereafter he sought out books on arcane magic in particular, and in adulthood tried to steer his tribe to raid towns known for having a large magical community. Later in life Ischer found a book detailing the history and mythology of kobolds and discovered that it was commonly accepted that kobolds had descended directly from dragons themselves. Thereafter he developed an intense desire to restore his people to greatness, seeking out information about dragons, draconic deities and cults, and transmutation magic. He found a partially destroyed spell book that at one point contained the formula for the spell true polymorph, the only surviving portions of which were the spell's name and the fact that mercury was needed in its casting.
Knowing this little bit about a spell that could truly turn him and his people into dragons, their ancestors, he petitioned his tribe to move to a place where he knew they could find mercury in its raw mineral form. Being an elder kobold, his people saw his vision and eagerly followed him to a mountainside dotted with hot springs and with a rich cinnabar deposit. Ischer showed them how to mine the rock and how to refine it, both into mercury needed to test his spell, and into vermillion to trade for necessary supplies. He appointed knights and guards from the tribe's strongest warriors, and set to constructing the compound on the mountain.
Ischer is extremely intelligent but not exceptionally wise. He doesn’t consider the ramifications of hundreds of dragons suddenly appearing beyond that they would be able to take dominion over vast lands if they so desired. He is also egomaniacal. He knows that he could learn the formula for the spell he is studying much more easily by seeking out a wizard’s school or some similar institution but feels that asking for help is weakness. He prides himself on being selfmade despite having a massive mine and refinery operated by people that believe in him and his vision.
