Draga Salt-Biter was an infamous pirate of the Sword Coast of Toril that later became the darklord of Saragoss.[1]
Description[]
Draga was a brutally attractive man, with a weathered face that had been chiseled and hardened by the elements. He was rather tall and had a lean, muscular physique. He had grey eyes and black hair that was cropped close to his head. He wore a shredded and worn-out set of vestments typical of a priest of Umberlee.[3]
Personality[]
As a pirate he was a harsh taskmaster, but treated his men kindly and would repay their loyalty.[3] He was ruthless and cunning, reveling in the brutality of the pirate life,[1] and was skilled at bargaining. Despite his curse, Draga both greatly feared and despised sharks throughout his life, regarding them as "giant trash fish" he wished not to associate with. Because of this, he always felt some revulsion when he took on his lycanthrope form and swimming among them was a difficult task for him.[4]
Following his becoming a darklord, Draga was a moody man who suffered from melancholy, often preferring to be solitary. His fear of sharks intensified, while his mentality became more like them with each passing day. He feared that one day his humanity would entirely vanish, leaving him nothing more than a mindless shark.[4]
He was capable of reasoning with intruders in his realm, but he generally preferred to either ignore them or kill them outright.[4]
Abilities[]
Darklord[]
Draga had complete control over all sharks and undead within his domain, with the exception of those that had been undead prior to entering. He could summon sharks to his aid and on rare occasions one of them would be a megalodon.[2]
Once per day he could cast a version of animate dead that would raise everything that had been slain within his domain in the last twenty-four hours. If there were no obvious enemies, these undead would begin to fight one another.[2]
In addition, Draga was innately aware of any ship that entered his domain and the Dark Powers provided him powers that were identical to the ones he formerly had access to as a priest on the Prime Material plane.[2]
If ever killed within his domain, Draga's essence would divide and project itself into every shark. Those sharks would then frenzy, attacking and killing any kin they encountered over the course of a week, until eventually only one shark remained that possessed all his essence. Draga was reborn in this shark and was able to transform into his human form. However, he typically stayed in this form until more sharks entered his domain, because if he died without any sharks in his domain, Draga would die permanently.[5]
Lycanthropy[]
Unlike some lycanthropes, Draga had obtained such a level of mastery over his alternate form that he could switch between them almost instantaneously. Like most lycanthropes, he could only be harmed by enchanted or silver weaponry,[2] though he loved to trick his opponents into thinking that non-silver weaponry did hurt him so that he could lure them in close.[5]
Draga generally did not transform into his lycanthrope form unless he was in mortal danger, even if doing so would give him an advantage in the water. This was because of his fear of one day losing his humanity to the shark mentality. In addition, the Dark Powers of the Domains of Dread altered his lycanthropy in such a way that he was usually unable to breath above water[4] for longer than five minutes.[3]
Possessions[]
Draga possessed a specially made ring of air breathing, which allowed him to breath air for a period of two hours each day. He was known to use it whenever possible.[4]
Activities[]
Whenever he was above water thanks to his ring of air breathing, Draga spent much of his time socializing with those who inhabited his domain for he feared the isolation of the ocean depths would drive him to insanity. However, because of the Dark Powers ruling that he should forever be cursed with conflict, Draga was always met with arrows and curses.[4]
History[]
Born to two sailors, Draga had an innate love of the ocean at a very young age. He was raised to love the nature of the ocean, but at a young age he sailed away from his parents as they became increasingly abusive. While far from port, his ship was attacked by a gang of pirates that hacked apart every crewman and passenger aboard, leaving their bodies for the sharks below. Eventually they found the young Draga in the ship's hold, hiding amid bales of cotton.[1]
With murderous glee the pirates laughed as they decided to engage in shark-baiting with him. They drove a hook through Draga's calf, attached a rope, and then threw the young boy down into the frenzy of sharks. Whenever one came too close they dragged him back to safety, though they allowed some to strike him. In the end they decided to spare the boy's life, unaware that one of the sharks he had been bitten by was a wereshark.[1]
The pirates raised and trained the boy in their ways. Their old chaplain eventually instructed him in the ways of the evil ocean deity Umberlee and when Draga learned all he could from him, he murdered the chaplain to ensure that the position of priest on the crew would become available for himself. He continued to journey with the pirates for many years, all the while harboring hatred in his heart.[1]
When he had finally gained the trust of all the crew, Draga began to slay them one by one. A quick death met those who had shown him kindness, a slow and painful one for those who been curt with him. For those who had been instrumental in his torture, they were ripped apart in the water by his shark jaws. Following these events, Draga continued to operate as a buccaneer aboard a ship named Vengeance and made his name infamous across the Sword Coast over the course of a decade.[1]
At this time in his life, Draga demanded sacrifices from ships in the name of Umberlee. Once collected he would sail away for a short time, then return hours later to slaughter all but two of its crew. One was left to spread his name, while the other was used to engage in shark-baiting.[1]
On his twenty-fifth birthday,[1] Draga destroyed three entire ships so savagely that his earlier acts of carnage were made pale by comparison. His crew reveled in the torments they inflicted and the ocean's sharks fed well. Later that night, as the celebrations reached their peak a fog rolled across the ocean. When they awoke the next day their ship had been transported into the Domains of Dread and was beached on a massive bed of seaweed. The land felt familiar to Draga and a curious sense of power filled him.[3]
He sent some of his men to investigate their surroundings, anxiously waiting their return. When the night became pitch black he decided to have his errant scouts flayed alive, then lowered into the water. When all but his night watch had fallen asleep, he slipped overboard and crept across the bed of algae's surface to investigate himself. Smelling freshly spilled blood, he discovered the bodies of several crewmen torn apart, then followed their thin trail of blood further down and found a pack of sahuagin dragging their bloody prey to their lair. When he returned to the surface, Draga found that his human form was drowning in the air—his physiology altered by the Dark Powers.[3]
Enraged with the prospect that he might be trapped in the water forever, he began to rampage mercilessly in his shark form, destroying and devouring all creatures that stood in his path. When his frenzy finally ended and his senses returned, Draga found that he had killed many of his crewmen and he watched as his ship, the Vengeance, sank into the ocean depths along with anything else he held dear. From then on he swore vengeance upon[3] those who put him in this plight and would exact it from every creature within his reach.[4]
Relationships[]
Draga indirectly commanded all of the sea life within his domain, ruling through either direct or implied threats and his skills in bargaining. However, he was never able to make the aquatic beasts set aside their petty differences. In addition, he extorted promises of cooperation from the humanoid surface dwellers of his domain by promising them protection from his underwater beasts.[4]
Despite having control over the sharks of his domain, Draga usually let them do as they willed. This was because he loathed the mental contact necessary to communicate with them and it reinforced the deep-seated hatred he felt. In addition to sharks, the creatures that Draga had under his command included various species of fish, barracudas, lacedons, scrags, and sea zombies.[6]
Appendix[]
External Links[]
- Draga Salt-Biter article at the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting.
- Draga Salt-Biter article at Mistipedia, a wiki for the Ravenloft campaign setting run by The Fraternity of Shadows.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Scott Bennie, Colin McComb (1992). Islands of Terror. (TSR, Inc.), p. 38. ISBN 1-56076-349-3.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Scott Bennie, Colin McComb (1992). Islands of Terror. (TSR, Inc.), p. 47. ISBN 1-56076-349-3.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Scott Bennie, Colin McComb (1992). Islands of Terror. (TSR, Inc.), p. 39. ISBN 1-56076-349-3.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Scott Bennie, Colin McComb (1992). Islands of Terror. (TSR, Inc.), p. 41. ISBN 1-56076-349-3.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Scott Bennie, Colin McComb (1992). Islands of Terror. (TSR, Inc.), p. 48. ISBN 1-56076-349-3.
- ↑ Scott Bennie, Colin McComb (1992). Islands of Terror. (TSR, Inc.), p. 49. ISBN 1-56076-349-3.