Hill smiled and counted the magical items on the terrace. He could tell just how obsessive these Dracoliches were: sixty-eight treasures, all roughly equal in power and value.
Sixty-eight. That was probably every Cult of the Dragon Dracolich on the continent of Faerûn.
It did not sound like many, but Hill remembered there had been fewer than twenty before the Dragonrage.
The Cult of the Dragon had grown stronger after driving out and killing most of its members who had become Dracoliches from humans. The Chromatic Dragon Queen's efforts had not been wasted after all.
The cult still had human members, of course, but they could no longer take dragon form. They were merely Dragonkin controlled by the Dracoliches, who held both their Soulfire and their bodies in their claws.
They were nothing but puppets, mostly used to gather intelligence and serve as low-level muscle.
The cult had chosen its envoy well. They had clearly learned a little about Hill and had specifically sent Elsara, a Lich who would not provoke nature's wrath, to Aglaia.
When Gem Dragons became Dracoliches, their bodies and minds were forced into violent conflict. Most spent that time with their souls in a strange, wandering state. To date, only two had endured long enough to keep their dragon bodies active through spiritual power.
Elsara now existed somewhere between life and death.
Before he killed the White Dragon Queen, Elsara had always worked hard to preserve his sanity and keep his obsession from straying.
At least so far, the Topaz Dracolich had committed no crimes. He even remained on friendly terms with some of his Topaz Dragon relatives.
A faction like Hill's, which was relatively friendly toward dragons, would not attack a Dracolich on sight. The Nature Consciousness around Hill, for instance, disliked Elsara but could