Perilous Gateways

The Dragons' Claw Portals

By Robert Wiese

The Dragonjaw Mountains Portal

The Dragonjaw range is home to clans of gnomes, who make jewelry, tools, and inventions. They then trade these things and iron to the humans in the nearby city of Milvarune. A small number of copper dragons live in the mountains, too. Copper dragons aside, the presence of gnomes with gems and metals and other goods is a strong temptation, and Valraxaxath felt it behooved him to link this area to his portal network. The copper dragons might not be interested in his plans to bring more wealth to dragons, but plenty of blue, red, and white dragons find the gnomes not only good wealth sources, but tasty as well. Unknown to many in Thesk, a few chromatic dragons have moved into the Dragonjaws and have begun preying on the gnomes in a quiet way. The gnomes know, of course, and do not know where these new dragons have come from, or why their copper dragon friends don't know either.

The portal is located, like the others in this network, in the highest peaks. This one, however, is in a cavern that once served as the lair of a copper dragon. Valraxaxath killed it some thirty years ago. The portal is actually set in the cave opening to the lair and is triple the normal size for a portal. One uses the portal from the outside, and those arriving appear in the cave and depart through the portal aperture. This portal works four times per day, and, to reach any destination, one must activate it by a key. It is variable, with no default destination. Valraxaxath did not want anyone appearing in the cavern and then accidentally being sent somewhere dangerous.

The keys and destinations are as follows:

With few in the area even knowing that a problem is brewing, the new dragons have had an easy time starting hoards. They are moving slowly, because a rash of dragon slayers entering the hills would be bad for their plans. The gnomes have increased their defenses, but they are still working under the "lone dragon" paradigm, and they are in for a rude surprise.

How to Incorporate the Dragonjaw Mountains Portal Into Your Campaign


The Dragons' Claw Portals