Thesdian

Thesdian is an NPC from the Temphere campaign universe. He is a bronze dragon, currently allied with the adventuring party.

History
Thesdian was first described to the party by Itisko, who learned about him while she was researching the Rowshaw Coast. According to her research, the dragon was known to live near the coast, and occasionally help those who sought him out to protect it. The party was advised to seek out Thesdian if they could, to help fight off the suspected storm giant quintessent that was causing incessant rain on behalf of their old enemy Karrak.

The party heard about the dragon again while reading a note from one of the lookouts who tended the drawbridge that lead to Thesdian’s forest. The note stated that there was “still no sign of that dragon,” implying that Thesdian hadn’t been seen in the area in some time.

The party finally ran into Thesdian in person while traveling through the forest. He was lying on the ground, injured and poisoned, surrounded by a field of dead, scorched kuo-toa. Though initially wary of the strangers, he mellowed once he learned the party were adventurers and opposed to the kuo-toa. Dahlia healed him of the poison with lesser restoration, and the party explained their errand to him. Though initially skeptical of their claim that a storm giant was behind the foul weather, he acknowledged that a quintessent was a possibility. He agreed to help the party by fighting the giant while they held off the kuo-toa, sahuagin, and deep scion.

Still worse for the wear after his fight, however, Thesdian needed to rest, and observed that after fighting through a spider infested forest, probably the party did as well. He offered to let them rest in his lair provided they didn’t try to steal anything, which the party agreed to. After a brief detour to a shrine to the storm god Raskris, Thesdian led the party to his home.

When they got to the lair, a capsized ship, it was being looted by a small band of kuo-toa and sahuagin. Thesdian made short work of the interlopers, and invited the party inside. They noticed a trio of eggs in Thesdian’s lair, which he explained were guard drake eggs that he had taken from a thief who wanted to sell them to bandits. He had them in a magical stasis to keep them from hatching, as the forest couldn’t support three large, hungry predators. He hoped the person the eggs were stolen from would track the thief and reclaim them, but so far no one had done so.

The following day, after dressing himself in custom-made dragon armor, Thesdian accompanied the party to confront the storm giant. He was in invaluable asset in the battle, allowing Dahlia to ride him and survey the progress of the fight from on high while he attacked the storm giant, and at one point using his breath weapon to take out a mob of sahuagin. Eventually Anther was able to use a nearby ballista to take down the storm giant, and Fracture a second to kill one of the sahuagin commanders, forcing Karrak to flee into a crossover to what Thesdian confirmed to be the Everdeep, the plane of water.

After the battle Thesdian invited the party back to his lair to rest, an invitation they accepted. After speaking with them for a time, learning of their previous encounters with Karrak and their attempts to stop him, Thesdian decided that the party was honest enough to be trusted with one of the drake eggs he'd been keeping in stasis. He allowed them to take the brass egg, giving them instructions for its care and wishing them well.

Personality
So far Thesdian is a polite and honorable dragon. He agreed to help the party readily enough, and seems to be very principled given his liberating the guard drake eggs from thieves. Though he was a bit aloof before the battle, understandable when dealing with strangers, he thawed more afterwards and became more amiable. In combat Thesdian comes alive a lot more, seeming to enjoy flaunting his power and roasting enemies with his lightning breath. He seems to generally think highly of himself, a pride noted to be typical of megafauna apex predators with access to magic and humanoid-level intelligence to back it up.