dragon-magic-oef

Affiliation
Score Title: Benefits and Duties
3 or lower Not affiliated or junior member with no benefits.
4–10 Probationary Student: No access to secrets, but the group listens to you and shares its extensive store of open
lore.
11–18 Student Sejant: Gain a +2 competence bonus on Knowledge checks and Diplomacy checks (and on lore or
bardic lore checks) made in regard to dragons.
19–25 Student Rampart: Learn one extra arcane spell of the highest level you can cast or one invocation of the
highest grade you can use. (If you don’t cast arcane spells or use invocations, you don’t gain this benefit.) Take
a –5 penalty on Diplomacy checks to influence clerics of gods that do not include knowledge or magic in their
portfolios.
26–30 Professor Valiant: Gain a draconic feat; if you don’t qualify for any draconic feats, take Dragontouched as a
bonus feat. Members take your most casual statements seriously. At the end of each month, you must succeed
on a DC 20 Appraise check or the First Scroll loses 1 capital.
31or higher Professor Draconic: Honored as an important leader of the group. Gain a +2 bonus to your Leadership score (if
you have the Leadership feat). Once every three months, you can arrange a meeting with a rival (but not
enemy) affiliation head in 1d4 weeks.
Harrowers
Heraldry: A profile of a dragon’s head (usually red, but
any color can be used) with a downward-pointed sword
through it.
Background, Goals, and Dreams:
The Harrowers were originally an
adventuring company that was
most interested in earning money
and gaining powers. However, the
company suffered a major setback
when it raided a blue dragon’s lair
and nearly all its members were
killed. The few survivors formed a
new company and raided the same
dragon’s home. Again, nearly all were
lost. Driven as much by a desire for
revenge as by any noble purpose, the
survivors reformed again, this time
specifically recruiting those skilled in
the slaying of dragons. The old blue was
put down, and the Harrowers gained considerable
funds and fame.
Already full of dragonslayers and motivated
to eliminate serious draconic threats, the Harrowers
became an order dedicated to the removal
of evil dragons. It faced drake after drake, losing
members at a terrible rate and eventually coming
to dislike and mistrust all dragons. With a constant
influx of seized hoards to train and equip new parties,
the Harrowers have been kept from growing into a vast
military force only by their high rate of losses. But when a
new dragon threat arises, it is often the Harrowers who are
called by desperate locals to end the reign of terror.
Enemies and Allies: The Harrowers do not work with
dragons of any kind. Even good-aligned dragons, covetous
and proud, are seen as untrustworthy and dangerous. Those
affiliated with dragons—including the dragonborn, the
Shadow’s Fangs, and worshipers of Bahamut or Tiamat—are
mistrusted at best. Those who aid evil dragons for any reason
are hunted down and attacked at the slightest provocation.
Wizard colleges, churches dedicated to arcane magic, and
Emblem of the
Harrowers
groups that study or learn from dragons are viewed with
great distrust.
Despite their extreme stance, the Harrowers have
many allies. Clerics of St. Cuthbert appreciate the
motivation of the original Harrowers and consider
the current organization to be
seeking just vengeance. Towns and
borderlands freed from a dragon’s
power by the Harrowers are generally
very supportive of any members
who pass through.
Members: Most Harrowers are
fighters, rangers, and barbarians.
Paladins rarely join because of their
concerns over the group’s willingness
to judge all dragons by the actions of
a few, but exceptions exist. Clerics and
druids make up a substantial minority,
with arcane spellcasters accounting for
another fraction of that minority. Few
rogues, monks, or bards are drawn to the
Harrowers, but a handful have been recruited
for specific missions and found themselves
suited to the group.
A Harrower can leave the group at any time
without official retribution. However, a member
who quits to aid a good-aligned dragon (or associate
with others who do) earns suspicion at best and
outright disdain at worst from former Harrower allies.
Members who quit to help or fraternize with evil dragons
are considered enemies.
Secrets: The Grand Marshals of the Harrowers believe
that all dragons—good, evil, and neutral—pose a threat to
the world. Because power corrupts, dragons are by definition
more corrupt than weaker races. Evil dragons are the greatest
danger, so the Grand Marshals strive to eliminate them first,
but in time, all dragons must be dealt with. There’s no consensus
on the question of half-dragons and similar creatures.
Some believe that they, too, must be destroyed eventually,
while others claim that the nondragon blood in such individuals
can be enough to redeem them.
Illus. by M. Schley
CHAPTER 5
DRACONIC
CAMPAIGNS
143