Dragonbait

Dragonbait
Basic Information
Aliases	Champion
Home	The Lost Vale
Gender	Male
Race	Finhead saurial
Patron deity	Tyr
Rules Information
3rd Edition Statistics
Alignment	Lawful good
Class	Paladin 10

Dragonbait (also referred to as Champion) is the finhead saurial companion of the adventurer Alias. Dragonbait is a paladin of the God of Law from his world, with his spells currently provided by the god Tyr. He was brought over into this world by a cruel trick of Moander (prior to the Rotting God's death at the hand of Finder Wyvernspur during the Godswar) along with a small portion of his people. Dragonbait cannot speak Common and communication is difficult for him. He first appears in the 2E novel Azure Bonds by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb.

Appearance

Dragonbait stands roughly five feet in height, not counting the troglodyte-like head fin, though that is only in consequence to his posture, being canted forward at the hips, and balanced by a tail near long as his torso. His mouth is thinner and more rounded than the lizard-men of Faerûn, lipless to show sharp teeth to the fore and rounded molars to the rear. His scales are small and smooth, like beadwork. On his chest was a ring of symbols identical to those originally sported by Alias on her arm, which resolved themselves into a ring of blue ivy at the end of the events of Azure Bonds. He wields a strange sword named Hill Cleaver that features a small hilt sized to his small hands, whose blade ends in a wide wedge with serrated teeth on the hiltward side. The blade can negate magic on command.

Biography

Dragonbait received his current name the night he assisted Alias in disposing of some thugs in the service of her creators. Alias warned him that if he made a single false move, he'd be "dragon bait." He immediately took it as his name, and is only referred to as "Champion" by Grypht (and presumably other saurials). Dragonbait's near-abandonment of said previous name may have originated in the circumstances that brought him into the power of the creators of Alias.

Dragonbait had served Tyr single-mindedly for many years, until he fell in love with another saurial who served Lady Luck (likely Tymora). Believing that Luck's intrinsically fickle nature was in violation of the rigorous justice of Tyr, he demanded that his love leave her goddess' service and come to serve his god. The argument ended with no resolution, and apparently fearing his love for her would eventually taint his pure service to his god, he left for Tarterus to serve his god.

There, he was captured by the demon Phalse to be used for a dark purpose. While imprisoned, he had a vision, or perhaps only a dream, in which he was visited by Lady Luck. He was told that she would rather not see him ever again, but that her aid had been asked by the god of justice to save his servant. Wishing to live and not offend his god who had intervened on his behalf, he accepted the task she charged him with: to fulfill the service laid on him by the human sent to him.

Freed from his imprisonment by the Nameless Bard, Dragonbait became Alias' companion. He lives always to serve Tyr, but now he also pays homage to all other gods who can further the cause of justice.

As he cannot speak human tongues (at least, not audibly for most humanoids), after aiding Alias in destroying her evil creators, she taught him the thieves' hand cant, a fact that thoroughly irritated their companion, halfling bard Olive Ruskettle, when she learned of it. In the third book, Song of the Saurials, Alias used the finder's stone to cast a permanent tongues spell on herself, enabling her to speak Dragonbait's own tongue, which is a combination of clicks and whistles pitched outside normal human hearing, and scents to express emotions.

Dragonbait frequently refers to Alias as his sister, something that has been borne out as being true from the gods' point of view when Alias becomes a soul singer, a saurial gift that apparently follows genealogical lines. Perhaps more importantly, however, her soul was created from half of his own, as was revealed near the end of Azure Bonds.

Following the events of Song of the Saurials, Dragonbait and Alias apparently settled in the Lost Vale with the displaced saurials to aid them in their new settlement. A short time later, however, they started adventuring again.

Appendix

Sources

• Jeff Grubb, Kate Novak (October 1988). Azure Bonds. (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 0-88038-612-6.
• Jeff Grubb, Kate Novak (March 1991). Song of the Saurials. (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 1-56076-060-5.
• Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak (July 1995). Masquerades. (TSR, Inc). ISBN 0-7869-0152-7.
• Ed Greenwood, et al (1989). Hall of Heroes. (TSR, Inc). ISBN 0-88038-711-4.
• Ed Greenwood, Eric L. Boyd, Darrin Drader (July 2004). Serpent Kingdoms. (Wizards of the Coast). ISBN 0-7869-3277-5.: Web Enhancement by Darrin Drader and Sean K. Reynolds, p. 4-5