My dear friend, let me take a rare moment to discuss the topic of this
day in the early weeks of January 2023 to clarify and reassure you I am only
stopping my videos about the specific intellectual property of one company.
And with that, I always find it's better to show rather than tell, so...
Settle back and grab yourself a tasty beverage; we are about to get deeply nerdy.
We all know there are a lot of different types of dragon, so it should come as no surprise that here
is another one you probably have never heard of; found primarily in the world of Golarion, it is
not well known to the people there because these dragons prefer to keep a low profile and enjoy
nothing more than being master manipulators and sadistic murderers of humanoid adventurers. They
are not the most physically formidable dragons, but they are incredibly deadly in their behaviour.
The dungeon dragon is a rare dragon race that delights in building intricate underground
dungeons and mazes to ensnare would-be-delvers. A dungeon dragon is approximately 15 feet long,
with a long serpentine neck, tiny atrophied wings, and glistening distinctly triangular
scales of somewhat dull grey, but tipped in carefully applied melted gold and dustings
of glittery emerald and turquoise. Two small horns like those of a mountain goat dominate its
classically draconic, wedge-shaped head with its darkly sunken eyes that are rounded and usually
a bright yellow colour. A dungeon dragon tends to rear back and stand on its hind legs when casting
spells and using magic items, as they spend a lot of time collecting and studying the assorted
treasures that hapless adventurers leave behind in the dragon's lair. The Dungeon dragon is good at
fighting in melee combat. Still, its claw and bite attacks are no worse than that of a crocodile,
so it tends to rely on magic and weapons, preferably magic weapons or by spitting a blast
of warm mist in a 100-foot line or a 50-foot cone that confuses its victims considerably.
In Golariun, they carry the names Dungeon Dragon and Draco Carcer Dominus, which local sages assure
me is a better way to refer to them. Regional names for them can be odd and contradictory,
even wholly mistaken, which can lead to dragon-slaying adventurers walking into
a deadly lair with a new type of dragon they have no preparation to fight and no
forewarning of its true abilities. But I'm not sure that technical language is even gnomish,
to be honest, I shall have to track down the planet that it came from, as indeed they must
have a wealth of monsters that they invented a whole language to catalogue them with,
an idea I find quite appealing, given the task ahead of me now, exploring the entire multiverse.
In the world of Golarion, dragons have much less influence, being on the same level of power as
the most mighty mortal wizards. However, few humanoid wizards are worshipped by other races.
The dragons of Golarion, as on many different worlds, have long fostered their adulation
among lesser species, as they have the limitless narcissism common to all their kind, and fawning
worshippers tend to steal less of their gold and provide an endless source of free labour,
food gathering, lair maintenance and expansion, but most importantly a very reliable early warning
system should the dragon's lair be invaded while they are spending weeks or months in deep slumber.
Perhaps the Dungeon Dragons' smaller size or some gross obsession with its lair security
drives their malicious behaviour. Still, maybe they are just vicious,
scheming little scumbags whose only real excuse is that they enjoy being needlessly sadistic.
As soon as they are old enough and large enough to start intimidating what they refer
to as 'minions'; such as the goblins, non-infernal imps, kobolds and such, they manipulate them into
the construction of a dungeon, if not expanding directly on their cramped and dingy cave or ruin,
then always quite close by, so they can keep careful tabs on everything going on in and around
their cunningly designed deathtraps. They love dungeon design. They have particular avarice for
new books on traps and weaponised architecture. Offering up a rare tome on dungeon design,
the dragon may even be persuaded to let you live temporarily, but don't count on it;
dungeon dragons are very well known for their lies and inevitable betrayal, even to their detriment!
As for the nature of these dungeons, well, they are highly diverse,
ranging from clever imitations of other, actual dungeons, except packed with additional traps,
confined monsters and so forth. These dungeons are the origin of so many unbelievable tales
of the most sinister and cruel traps that seem so outlandish and deadly that nobody
in their right mind would ever construct such things. Rooms that move? False piles of buoyant
metallic coins floating on top of pools of acid? Precisely balanced walls, floors and staircases
that suddenly tip to crush, isolate, slide and fall, slam into other surfaces or reveal
porcupine nests of wickedly sharp-pointed stakes, waiting to impale more victims.
Dungeon dragons like to have their minions go out into the world, hunting down, securing,
containing and providing enough to keep the monsters relatively healthy even though they
are likely to go out of their right mind with the relentless boredom of their lives. By the time any
adventurers show up, the intelligent monsters within the place will enthusiastically take out
their pent-up frustration on hapless adventurers of course, usually given some unfair advantage
by the master dungeon dragon, but sometimes hampered by the dragon, so as not to murder the
adventurers too quickly and spoil all its fun. Dungeon dragons require adventurers to come to
them, and as ambush predators, they are known to litter clues, rumours, and bits of treasure maps,
usually full of misleading details. If need be they will kidnap victims to draw
heroes to their doom. The classic tales of dragons capturing or demanding the periodic
sacrifice of princesses and virtuous maidens can often be attributed to Draco Carcer Dominus.
Don't expect them to come rushing in to murder the adventurers themselves, and you
are unlikely to encounter them as some end boss challenge because these dragons are not stupid;
they know full well that the average party of experienced, well-equipped adventurers can very
likely kill them in a straight up fight, so they never let it come to that on purpose, unless they
have become so outraged by the adventurers that their rage clouds their reason. But one should
be careful with that tactic, as even then, the dragon is just as likely to unleash every monster
they have at their disposal at once and may even cause the dungeon to self-destruct, collapsing
in on itself and likely wiping out every living creature inside it, except the dragon of course.
The existence of such villainous draconic puppet masters explains a great deal about the possible
origin of the dwarves' formidable skill at clever dungeon design and likely has inspired
more than a few eccentric wizards, isolationist liches and so forth in their choice of lair.
My name is AJ Pickett, I create videos exploring the lore of almost all tabletop roleplaying games;
thanks for listening, and as always, I will be back with more for you very soon.