#northlands

Careful there Frostscythe, you're starting to sound like you got an axe for a face!

I love that as soon as Frostscythe goes for Cryozen again and Vilmor busts out her frozen blade you knew instantly that man was getting buried.

In the end, we say goodbye to yet another old villain from our past adventures in Book 1. Couldn't have asked for a more fitting death for someone who refused to see the error of their ways.

I enjoyed this little conversation between Vilmor and the Hero. I think it was important to acknowledge that it is still a good thing to have the option of offering redemption, or at least not killing them, for the chance of a better outcome but also just as equally fine if killing them is the only option left to you.

It's about time Vilmor's name with the Dragonlords be cleared. Although, I must say I never considered doing so might also involve reforming how the Order goes about handling their politics internally. With luck, they'll have better protocols in place should Vilmor's story repeats itself for someone else.

I admire this vision Galanoth has on shifting the governing principles of the Dragonslayers. I've said it before, but the man has gone a long way from wanting to put every dragon on a shirt.

Being a Dragonslayer should be about defending the public not just being able to hit harder against an impossible foe and proving you were better than them.

I was lucky enough to be a contributor to Kobold Press' Northlands Saga adventure path! I wrote one adventure called ATTACK ON BIRGKRONA, where a band of brave adventurers have to storm or infiltrate an ancient giant fortress to prevent Ragnarok.

All of this is currently live on Kickstarter if you want to check it out - the KS campaign is almost 4x over its goal, with 14 days left!

The kickstarter is full of great rewards for both Tales of the Valiant or D&D 2024, and it'll all be out sometime early next year.

You can hear me and some of the other designers talk about it here!

Thank you all for your support via this silly blog of goofs and fun

I knew we were likely going to see Frostscythe turning him into some sort of shroom abomination but my god I was still not ready for it. He's just so...sickly looking.

And of course, he's still the same prideful, envious, and butthead Donovan he's always been.

That's our girl!

Kind of curious if he genuinely believes this or if the Hollow have simply warped his mind enough to the point that giving the fungus what it wants also in turn gives him what he wants deep down.

Ice queen is going to owe us big for this one

The greed of baby dragons will never cease to amuse me

Vilmor, you literally saved us as Sepulchure's tower crumbled under the weight of Drakath's ego. We've practically been besties since the end of Book 1.

We all know the world is cooked if you lose us Draco.

Well, that's a little bit more comforting as to understanding the prowess of hunting skills of these new Hollow Dravir. It obviously still doesn't completely eliminate the threat of them spreading spores, but it does at least limit the threat of their spread rate than if they were actively hunting any and all targets, they can come into contact with. I suspect we stand a better chance at tackling the issue of the Hollow if they're more opportunistic in their approach.

Given how we know dragons tend to treat the Dravir in this setting I wouldn't be surprised to find if Aisha didn't care if they were loyal or not to be honest.

This isn't the first time we've seen the Hollow be able to replicate a dragon but the fact that only the horns are left...

I'm not sure which idea I find more disturbing: Either Frostscythe was consumed and/or replicated by the Hollow and the hive is simply utilizing whatever ice magic he knew of to grow and hide themselves or Frostscythe looked upon the Hollow and saw a weapon he could use to punish his enemies and is now using them to capture and "process" ice dragons to build an army to assail the Northlands.

I do love that while Vilmor just seconds before this scene was completely enraged at the thought of seeing Frostscythe alive again the anger she was feeling deflates a little as soon as she realizes that Cryozen's life could be threatened again by the very man that betrayed them both. She won't let her need for vengeance come at the cost of her friend's life.

Suddenly getting big Saint-14 vibes from Galanoth's relationship with the dragonlords from both before and after he became a Speaker.

Love how Cryozen is just utterly unimpressed with Draco here. Giving that younger sibling rolling their eyes at something their older sibling thought was cooler than it actually was energy

While not exactly graphic on its own, the large bloodstain invoking the image of a large dragon getting taken down by the Hollow and having their corpse slowly dragged away to their lair to nourish their kind is a haunting thought.

And the ice queen is indeed alive and well...and as prickly as ever

Ya know, you would think after Nivalis that she would be able to realize we'd have legitimate reasons to approach her territory even if she detests our presence from the get-go.

Based on that clear smirk I'd say someone is proud to have another sassy dragon child in the party

She said having previously had an entire saga where she took actions that would have threatened the balance on Lore and thus ruined Cryozen's one job.

Again very haunting thought

I knew she was going to try and collect on her vengeance the moment we saw her again but to see her dripping with such smugness is amusing. However...

Galanoth completely outplaying her obvious threat was absolutely delicious gravy. And it makes sense that Aisha would relent on her vengeance here because, as Galanoth later points out, she does not want to risk the ice dragons disregarding her authority especially after she can no longer keep them in check with the ice orb and they've clearly shown they're willing to turn towards other leaders that suit their interests, like in the case of Nivalis, when presented.

She has no choice but to play nice every now and again