Veshumirix

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Veshumirix

(Person)

Alignment

Chaotic evil

Ancestry/Species

Magma dragon

Gender

Male

Homeland

Saggorak, Five Kings Mountains

Deity

Dahak

Source: Fires of the Haunted City, pg(s). 90–91

Veshumirix is a vicious magma dragon and the younger brother of the legendary Moschabbatt, who has allied himself with the slavers of the Scarlet Triad and is attempting to take over the undead-haunted city of Saggorak.

Background

Early life

Veshumirix was hatched as part of a clutch of magma dragons laid in a volcanic crevice deep beneath Droskar's Crag. He was the second dragon to hatch and attacked his older brother, Moschabbatt, immediately after hatching. He was badly defeated and was forced to retreat to recover and lick his wounds. Unknown to the magma dragons, however, events on the surface soon destroyed their home as the gold dragon Mengkare shattered the Orb of Gold Dragonkind and triggered the cataclysm known as the Rending. Veshumirix allowed himself to be swept along with the magma, hoping to be taken to the source of the disaster. He imagined it to have been triggered by a mighty magma wyrm, but was greatly confused to only find a gold dragon leaving the site. After exploring his new surroundings in hope of discovering the cause of the event, he came to the erroneous conclusion that Mengkare possessed the ability to deliberately set off eruptions.

Veshumirix was enraged at the thought of another kind of dragon possessing such mastery over volcanic forces. He decided to eclipse Mengkare's supposed power over volcanoes, fancying a mighty future version of himself tearing the gold dragon limb from limb before setting of an eruption that would cover the whole world with ash and magma. Before this happened, though, Veshumirix was determined to bring ruin to Moschabbatt. However, this confrontation also turned against Veshumirix, who only survived because Moschabbatt failed to check for lingering signs of life in his brother's broken form. Veshumirix pretended to be dead for several days before fleeing from Droskar's Crag and settling within another system of volcanic caverns. There, he licked his wounds and alternated between banditry, petty tyranny over underlings whom he inevitably destroyed in fits of rage, and brooding within his magma lake.

Saggorak

This state of affairs lasted until Veshumirix's two hundredth birthday, a milestone that drove to seek out knowledge of Mengkare and the eruption he had caused. He found nothing, and his frustration drove him into a violent rampage through the surface world and the Darklands alike. This raised him to the attention of the cultists of Dahak, and Veshumirix began to receive disturbing visions of ruin and destruction, which he embraced. Veshumirix continued to watch his brother's rise in power, seething in jealousy as Moschabbatt became a figure of legend and gained the allegiance of a kobold tribe and beings of elemental fire, until he received a vision of the ruins of Saggorak, where he stood on a pile of treasure with a crown on his head and his brother's corpse at his feet.

Obsessed with seizing control of the city, Veshumirix headed to Saggorak and began systematically destroying it and the undead dwelling there in search of their leader. His rampage eventually drew out the city's ruler, King Harral, who fought him fiercely but was destroyed. Veshumirix seized the king's treasures, including his crown, and took control of the city and its undead residents. Veshumirix then set his sights on Kovlar, a settlement of living dwarves abutting Saggorak, but knew that it was heavily defended and that a direct attack would lead to a constant stream of dwarven warriors attacking him in retribution, and so decided to use intermediary agents in his attack. Veshumirix chose hryngars, the dwarves' ancestral enemies, for this purpose, resolving to build an army of undead, grey dwarves and Darklands monsters with which to seize control of a fledgeling underground empire.

Recently, Veshumirix has entered negotiations with the Scarlet Triad, a slaver organization seeking shards of the Orb of Gold Dragonkind such as the one in Veshumirix's possession. The dragon was reluctant to part with a relic from his early youth, but the Triad agents successfully secured his aid through promises of gold and slaves and, after discovering his faith, through suggesting that they could use the shard to release a manifestation of Dahak.