Death-at-Sunset

Start-class article · First seen: s02 · Last seen: s03
Death-at-Sunset
the green dragon · the ancient green dragon
Portrait of Death-at-Sunset.
Character
StatusDead
First seens02
Last seens03

Death-at-Sunset was the ancient green dragon that 34 elves, led by Edvan, killed long before the campaign began, in the battle commemorated by the burial mound in the Corrupted Redwood Grove near Wyrmbough Grove [5]. Her skeleton lies in a cave beneath the grove, where her son Sunset is Nigh hid in her skull and called her his mother [12][14]. In session 3 Cholmondeley set The Egg beside her hoard, and it drew in her poison and the hoard’s essence and turned green for good [13].

Overview

Death-at-Sunset was the ancient green dragon that ravaged the land around what is now Wyrmbough Grove. The table recap of session 1 gave the legend that the five elf families came together to defeat her, but that she “comes back from the dead as animated bones” [1]. Gwen Homora told the party that 34 elves gave up their lives battling her, that their leader Edvan struck the final blow with his long sword, and that the uncorrupted mound at the centre of the grove is where they are buried [5]. Villagers still feared she had come back to haunt the land [6][7].

Her skeleton lies in a cave beneath the grove, with her hoard: thousands of gems and coins, mostly copper and silver, a looter’s corpse with a pistol, and a runed elvish sword, now Caelumn’s Dragonslayer Longsword [8][9]. Her son, the wyrmling Sunset is Nigh, hid in her skull [10].

Appearance and demeanour

Known only as a corpse and a dream. Caelumn dreamed that, dying, she breathed poison on dozens of elves who choked to death in her tunnels, and saw her enormous corpse resting in an underground cave [11]. In the cave, a thin pale green fog hung in the centre of a vast chamber above the skeleton of an enormous dragon [12].

Relationships

  • Edvan: her killer, whose burial mound and ghostly echo are the campaign’s main link to her death [5].
  • Sunset is Nigh: her son, who said “My mother is Death-at-Sunset” and sheltered in her skull [10].
  • The Egg: drank her poison and her hoard’s essence [13].
  • Wyrmbough Grove: the village that grew in the shadow of her death.

History in the campaign

Session 2: The Bark, the Dryad, and the Riddle that Wasn’t a Tree

Main article: Session 2

Death-at-Sunset is not seen. In the table recap of the unrecorded session 1, the party remembered being tasked with taking the Egg to the dragon’s hoard so that it could absorb the magical essence left there, and being warned that the land was cursed by “Death-at-Sunset, the ancient green dragon” [1].

Session 3: The Lair of Sunset is Nigh and the Death of Cholmondeley

Main article: Session 3

Gwen explained the burial mound and the legend of the battle, saying that on some nights Edvan can still be seen striking the final blow [5]. Asleep in the mound’s circle, Caelumn dreamed of the battle and of her corpse in a cave across the poisoned stream [11]. In the cave a pale green fog hung above her skeleton, and her son, hiding in the skull, said “My mother is Death-at-Sunset” [12][14]. After the fight, Cholmondeley put the Egg beside the hoard; it drew the poison and the hoard’s essence into itself and glowed a green that grew until it was fully green [15].

Status

As of session 23. Long dead. Her hoard’s essence is in the Egg, which has stayed green [13]. Her skeleton presumably still lies in Sunset is Nigh’s Lair, where the poison lifted but the cave was not destroyed [16].

See also

References

  1. ^ Session 2, line 20: The table recap of session 1 gives the legend of the dragon and the five elf families.
  2. ^ Session 3, line 176-178: Gwen Homora explains the burial mound; 34 elves + Edvan vs Death-at-Sunset.
  3. ^ Session 3, line 296-312: Caelumn's vision of the original battle.
  4. ^ Session 3, line 1526-1542: Egg absorbs the dragon hoard's essence; turns green.
  5. ^ Session 3, line 176: Inline citation.
  6. ^ Session 3, line 200: Inline citation.
  7. ^ Session 3, line 520: Inline citation.
  8. ^ Session 3, line 1548: Inline citation.
  9. ^ Session 3, line 1586: Inline citation.
  10. ^ Session 3, line 898-912: Inline citation.
  11. ^ Session 3, line 298: Inline citation.
  12. ^ Session 3, line 796: Inline citation.
  13. ^ Session 3, line 1532: Inline citation.
  14. ^ Session 3, line 912: Inline citation.
  15. ^ Session 3, line 1526-1540: Inline citation.
  16. ^ Session 3, line 1928: Inline citation.