Silver-scaled cold wyrm
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Resplendent scales of royal blue brighter than cut gemstones form nigh-impregnable armor over the cold wyrm's sinuous form, sheened with iridescent silver that leavens the intensity of their hue. For all her preternatural beauty, there is a cruel cast to the wyrm's visage. Her snout is tapered and full of serrated teeth, and her predatory amber eyes have slitted pupils. A frill of spines frames the wyrm's head, bright with bands of silver that glint threateningly in the ambient light. Two vast wings branch from the wyrm's shoulders, membranous and paler than the rest of her body, immensely sized to hold the wyrm aloft when riding on currents of air.
Hunting Strategies
While a few adventurers have killed silver-scaled cold wyrms in solo combat, the monster is designed with the intent of requiring a party of player characters to defeat. However, if in a room with with more than five characters present, an automatic suppression mechanic triggers that renders all characters present non-functional for a time.
Damage Over Time Effects
The "mind wrack" psychic flares caused by low steel are highly effective against silver-scaled cold wyrms.
Warrior
Berserking with training in multi-opponent combat for multi-strike is the most sound strategy for a warrior. It outputs substantial damage each round, and should the warrior come under the influence of the wyrm's Dominating Gaze the berserk will continue to target the wyrm and other monsters in the room for the duration of the effect. If a warrior is berserking with multi-strike and is affected by Dominating Gaze, only one of the multi-strike attacks will target another character (if one is present), the remainder will target the wyrm and other monsters in the room.
Detailed Combat Information
The design of silver-scaled cold wyrms is currently in flux and has been adjusted over the years. It has indicated by staff that the current iteration is not its final form. Both the mechanics and behavior of silver-scaled cold wyrms has varied greatly between these different versions with each being more challenging than the previous.
The locations in the Hinterwilds that silver-scaled cold wyrms will not enter are the confines of Cold River village, Chthonian Dark, Crystalline Glade, River of Color, and the waters of the Issenflow River. They will enter structures throughout the Hinterwilds, including areas that other spawned creatures will not access.
Creature Spawning
Silver-scaled cold wyrms are rare "boss" creatures that periodically spawn in the Hinterwilds once every 8 hours (+/- 10 minutes). There is a series of monsterbold alert messaging seen throughout the entire Hinterwilds locale that warns that a wyrm is about to spawn. Silver-scaled cold wyrms are actually spawned upon the final iteration of these alerts, which also indicates the general area of where the silver-scaled cold wyrm has appeared.
The specific areas in the Hinterwilds where a silver-scaled cold wyrm may spawn are: Angargreft *, Boreal Forest, Eldurhaart, Fjallarhaart, Ojandhaart, and Sanguine Grove.
Once spawned, a silver-scaled cold wyrm will quickly travel room-by-room throughout the Hinterwilds areas. If the wyrm is not engaged for a period of about 10 minutes, it will automatically de-spawn.
With a roar of defiance, a cold wyrm soars overhead, the colors of the aurora suffusing its burnished scales with dazzling color! As the cold wyrm passes overhead, your thoughts dissolve in a wash of colors and alien emotions, rendering you senseless! Roundtime: 6 sec. A silver-scaled cold wyrm plummets down from the skies, landing in the immediate vicinity!
Spawn messaging is also broadcast to all other area rooms. The outdoor spawn messaging can vary:
The thunder of great wings peals out over the land as the bulk of a great draconic figure soars across the firmament, the aurora's wavering colors illuminating the edges of its great silhouette. With a roar of challenge, it circles once over (Hinterwilds location) to stake out the area as its territory before embarking on a hunt!
A hunting cold wyrm glides in a predatory circle over the Boreal Forest, glints of the aurora's light making its scales shine with strange hues. Like a bolt of silver, a sinuous cold wyrm streaks over (Hinterwilds location)! With a roar of defiance, a cold wyrm soars over (Hinterwilds location), the colors of the aurora suffusing its burnished scales with dazzling color! Shrieking its rage as it swoops down low over (Hinterwilds location), a draconic figure on wings that shine like moonlight streaks through the sky. >A silver-scaled cold wyrm plummets down from the skies, landing in (Hinterwilds location)!
Spawn messaging is also broadcast to all other area indoor rooms:
A terrible feeling of dread overwhelms you as a monstrous alien presence infringes upon the sanctity of your mind. Your thoughts are pulled to the skies outside!
Flying Status
Silver-scaled cold wyrms alternate between two states after spawning: flying and prowling on the ground. This indicates if the wyrm is flying or on the ground, similar to all other creatures capable of flight.
- Flying
You also see a silver-scaled cold wyrm that is flying around.
- Ground
You also see a silver-scaled cold wyrm. With astonishing grace for a creature of her size, a silver-scaled cold wyrm prowls (direction). A silver-scaled cold wyrm prowls in, maneuvering her vast bulk with astonishing grace.
Animalistic Rage
- Activating
Reptilian cunning and rage glisten within a silver-scaled cold wyrm's swirling eyes!
- Deactivating
The animalistic rage empowering a silver-scaled cold wyrm subsides.
Physical Attacks
Claw and bite attacks from a silver-scaled cold wyrm seem to randomly alternate between slashing, puncture, and crushing damage. Tail swing and dive attacks are always crushing damage.
- Flying
Diving down from above, a silver-scaled cold wyrm rakes at you with her scythe-like talons! A silver-scaled cold wyrm swoops low and extends her sinewy neck so she can snap at you! A silver-scaled cold wyrm folds her wings against her back and plummets down from the skies, aiming her bulk at you!
- Ground
Striking like lightning, a silver-scaled cold wyrm snaps at you with a maw full of serrated fangs! Her hind legs bunching powerfully, a silver-scaled cold wyrm sweeps her immense tail at you! A silver-scaled cold wyrm lashes out with a scythe-like talon at you!
- Focused Multi-Strike
Cold rage blossoms in a silver-scaled cold wyrm's slit-pupiled eyes as she focuses her fury on you in a flurry of vicious attacks!
- Unfocused Multi-Strike
Cold rage blossoms in a silver-scaled cold wyrm's slit-pupiled eyes as she erupts into a flurry of vicious attacks!
Other Attacks
Acid Breath
This attack utilizes messaging similar to Major Acid (1710).
Venom sacs in a silver-scaled cold wyrm's throat swell precipitously before she unleashes a torrent of corrosive acid at you! The bubbling ball of acid strikes you, blossoming into a much larger sphere of acid upon impact. A burst of acid from a silver-scaled cold wyrm's bubbling ball of acid flies off and hits (other character)!
Acid Mist
This is an area effect used only by a flying silver-scaled cold wyrm. It utilizes a SMR roll.
A silver-scaled cold wyrm opens her maw while flying by, belching out a caustic mist that rains down on the ground below. Hit: The mist settles on you, cold pinpricks quickly blossoming into scorching pain as the acid eats into your flesh! Miss: You hurtle free of the encroaching cloud of acid!
Combined Acid and Frost Breath
This attack utilizes a SMR roll.
Flying: A silver-scaled cold wyrm drops down from on high, her vast wings holding her at a hover. She draws in a deep breath as the venom glands to either side of her neck swell precipitously. Reptilian visage twisting with contempt, the cold wyrm opens her maw and sprays a frigid slurry of caustic sludge at you! Ground: A silver-scaled cold wyrm plants her feet wide, her immense claws digging into the ground. She draws in a deep breath as the venom glands to either side of her neck swell precipitously. Reptilian visage twisting with contempt, the cold wyrm opens her maw and sprays a frigid slurry of caustic sludge at you! Hit: The toxic wave consumes you, searing away your flesh! Miss: The toxic wave spews past you, eating away at the ground where it lands!
Dominating Gaze
This attack utilizes messaging identical to Sympathy (1120).
Hypnotic colors whirl in a silver-scaled cold wyrm's eyes as she locks gazes with you. You feel her intellect hurl itself against your mental defenses in an attempt to dominate your mind. Warding failed! A silver-scaled cold wyrm pushes past your defenses, threading her will through your thoughts. You find yourself overwhelmed with a desire to serve her! You are overwhelmed with sympathy for a silver-scaled cold wyrm.
WARNING: As with hunting any creature that casts Sympathy (1120), when a character is under the influence of a silver-scaled cold wyrm's Dominating Gaze, they will focus attacks upon other characters. This includes melee, ranged, and spell attacks. Since the wyrm is immune to the death flares of xazkruvrixis, it is highly recommended not to use the material during combat with the silver-scaled cold wyrm since the death flares can trigger against other characters to immediately kill them.
Forceful Plummet
This attack utilizes a SMR roll. It is an area effect used only when the wyrm is flying. After this effect, the wyrm remains on the ground.
Folding her membranous wings against her back, a silver-scaled cold wyrm plummets toward the ground in a breakneck dive and strikes with the fullness of her mass! You lose your footing as the area quakes with the impact! Roundtime: 13 sec.
Frost Breath
This attack utilizes messaging similar to Major Cold (907).
A silver-scaled cold wyrm inhales deeply before spewing a torrent of frosty spittle at you! The freezing ball of pure cold strikes you, blossoming into a much larger sphere of frost upon impact. A burst of frost from a silver-scaled cold wyrm's freezing ball of pure cold flies off and hits (other character)!
Preemptive Strike
A silver-scaled cold wyrm rears up before you as you try to attack her. Too fast for the eye to follow, the wyrm lashes out in a brutal preemptive strike!
The preemptive strike will negate that single attack against the wyrm regardless of whether or not the preemptive strike is successful.
Tail Sweep
This attack utilizes a SMR roll.
Shifting her bulk and moving with terrible speed, a silver-scaled cold wyrm sweeps her vast tail across the ground! The tail slams into (character), knocking (him/her) into the air before he crashes back down!
Terrifying Roar
This attack utilizes a SMR roll.
A silver-scaled cold wyrm focuses her gaze upon you and lets out an ear-splitting roar that spans multiple octaves, the sound accompanied by a violent telepathic assault! Unnatural terror buries itself in your chest like a frigid knife, and you find yourself unable to voice a scream that quavers pathetically in your throat. (Stunned)
Defensive Abilities
Energy Immune Scales
Corruscating glints of prismatic color race over a silver-scaled cold wyrm's scales, forming a lattice of protective energy! Corruscations of color play along a silver-scaled cold wyrm's scaled hide, disrupting the offensive energies!
Restore Self
A silver-scaled cold wyrm's eyes glint with liquid silver as she diverts a fraction of her concentration into restoring herself.
Immunities
Silver-scaled cold wyrms have the following immunites:
- Critical Damage
- Sleep Effects (The sleep effect will take place, but is immediately broken.)
- Non-magical Attacks
- All Unarmed Combat Attacks
- Xazkruvrixis death flares (See important warning about this material in relation to the wyrm's Dominating Gaze.)
- Damage from elemental energy attacks (before energy immune scales are diminished)
Silver-scaled cold wyrms cannot be tracked by rangers.
Other Information
Lore
Squamous reptilian mutants are gigas that have been mutated by the wyrms into the perfect caretakers for their young. The mutants are known collectively as the Wyrmcult.[1]
Colossal boreal undansormrs are recently hatched wyrm larvae. Undansormrs will eventually cacoon for a time and then emerge as juvenile wyrms.[2]
Juvenile cold wyrms have azure color scales and a blunted maw. Their scales become a silver-sheened royal blue and their maws tapered as they mature. For a short time juvenile cold wyrms spawned in the Hinterwilds as azure-scaled cold wyrms[3], but have stopped appearing since having been replaced with the adult silver-scaled cold wyrms. There are environmental references to the azure-scaled juveniles throughout the Hinterwilds.
Example from Angargreft, Hanging Gardens (L#30045 / u7503474):
The corpse of a huge winged creature with cloudy blue scales lies splayed on the stones, its silvery eyes filmed over in death. The creature looks to have been a juvenile from its size and the bluntness of its maw.
The burrow beneath Angargreft seems to have once been a treasury of the Gigas, but in its ruin the locale has become a sort of metamorphosis lair for cold wyrms. Within the semi-sheltered halls of the burrow, the colossal boreal undansormrs cocoon themselves for a time in acrid chrysalides of slimy wormsilk secreted from the larval wyrm's acidic glands. Wormsilk is an acidic oobleck substance, similar to the strand-like webs sometimes expelled by undansormrs to trap their prey. Wormsilk bears heavy and persistent musky odor and presents a phosphorescence that provides dim illumination throughout the burrow. Its corrosive nature has caused substantial damage to most of the stone structure beneath Angargreft.
Juvenile cold wyrms often return to this lair during ecdysis. As the wyrmlings outgrow their scales, they leave behind brittle grey husks which are eventually dissolved by the surrounding wormsilk.
NPC Commentary
When Bittergale, the frostling who sometimes dwells in the Crystalline Glade, is asked about wyrms they reply, "They have dwelled in this place for as long as I can remember, dark shadows of a broken past. Beware the shadow of wings."
Undead Wyrms
Undead variants of the wyrm do not naturally spawn, however silver-scaled cold wyrms are susceptible to the effects of a necrotic ring, and if one is active when the wyrm is killed it may spawn a non-corporeal ghost variant. All undead wyrms have sheer fear. If the necrotic ring has Lich's Curse active, a spectral variant of the wyrm may also be spawned. The ghost variant is a level 120 non-corporeal undead creature. The spectral variant is a level 121 non-corporeal undead creature that gains additional randomized abilities per the effect of Lich's Curse.
Death
When a silver-scaled cold wyrm kills a character, it celebrates.
A silver-scaled cold wyrm's vast, membranous wings spread wide as she throws back her great head, trumpeting her victory!
When a silver-scaled cold wyrm is killed, its corpse cannot be skinned or searched. The corpse immediately becomes a silver-shot black stone wyrm upon interaction or upon decaying. This lifeless stone wyrm becomes a temporary prop in the room in which the wyrm was slain and persists for six hours before crumbling away.
>LOOT wyrm Color leaches from the scales of the mighty cold wyrm as they lose their vital sheen, degenerating into a lustrous substance with a hue reminiscent of anthracite, but streaked through with veins of flashing silver. Soon, all that remains is a tenebrous stone monument resembling the wyrm in her death throes. >LOOK at wyrm The statue is eerily lifelike and stands more than forty feet tall. It has been expertly fashioned to resemble a vast, winged saurian beast in its death throes, and looks as if it might spring to life at any moment. Cracks spiderweb a silver-shot black stone wyrm. Vast chunks fall away from it, crashing to the ground with enough force to leave only dust behind. Soon, nothing is left of the tenebrous monument.
Wyrmscale
When the scales of a wyrm are used as a material it is referred to as wyrmscale. Two cylindrical wyrmscale Survivalist's Kits were auctioned of at the Grand Auction of 5123. The process of obtaining wyrm scales from a silver-scaled cold wyrm remains a mystery, however the gigas of Ojandhaart in the Hinterwilds have devised a method as evident in the wyrm hides being prepared in their village:
Ojandhaart, Furrier (L# 29912 / u7503306) Acrid fumes belch forth from the open windows of a huge hut with hides stretched across drying racks in the surrounding yard. Bear and wolf pelts commingle with hides that are vivid blue and heavily scaled. A worktable sits next to the tall doorway of the home, and a bronze skinning knife with a blade nearly the length of a falchion's is jammed, blade first, into the wood.
Mystery of the Missing Wyrm
Observations have recorded that roughly 15% of the silver-scaled cold wyrms that spawn in Angargreft (as indicated by their area-wide spawn messaging) never appear. The reason for this is unknown. It may be a bug with the way that wyrms spawn in the Hinterwilds, but it has also been speculated that perhaps those instances of silver-scaled cold wyrms are spawning in an area that remains undiscovered or yet to be released.
Puzzle
It has been indicated by staff that slaying a silver-scaled cold wyrm will eventually be an entry point for puzzle not yet released. [4]
On occasion when a silver-scaled cold wyrm has been slain, an unusual event happens. It has been stated that this will be a part of the unreleased puzzle.
Flying badly, the battered form of the great cold wyrm is wracked by a terrible convulsion. The wyrm wheels into a death spiral, wings and tail rippling limply in the air as she plummets toward the ground. The cold wyrm crashes down with a thunderous impact and does not move again. Nearby, you spot several gigas in pale robes stitched with golden wyrm scales. One of them nods approvingly to you, and beckons as if expecting you to follow. Without waiting to see if you comply, the vast figures retreat from view toward the settlement of Eldurhaart.
The Gemstones Quest (puzzle) was announced in the Gemstones Panel at Simucon 2024, and it was confirmed that slaying a silver-scaled cold wyrm in the Hinterwilds will be the entry point to bein this world-wide quest. The estimated release date for this quest was stated to be late 2024 or first quarter of 2024. [5]
Behind the Scenes
Silver-scaled cold wyrms were created by GM Auchand as dragons. The World Team QC would not allow the noun "dragon" so it was changed to "wyrm" for production. However, there are several environmental references in the Hinterwilds that still refer to wyrms as dragons or draconic.
The wyrms of the Hinterwilds were inspired by the dragons found in the Realm of the Elderlings series written by Robin Hobbs including their life cycle (egg → serpent → cocoon → dragon), telepathy, and acid breath. Likewise the concept of the Squamous reptilian mutants were loosely modeled after the elderlings of the same series who were humans altered by the magic of the dragons into their likeness and charged with tending to the dragon cocoons. [6] [7]
Cold wyrms first started spawning in the Hinterwilds (in Prime) on October 30, 2022. The first encounters with the creatures were the juvenile "azure-scaled" cold wyrms which were relatively easy to kill. On November 9, 2022, the juvenile cold wyrms stopped appearing and the substantially more difficult adult "silver-scaled" variant began spawning. Additional testing was conducted on the test server in 2023[8] as the wyrm's abilities were modified.
To commemorate killing 100 wyrms in the Hinterwilds the player of the character Myharl attempted to use premium points to obtain the pre-name title "Wyrmslayer". The request was denied on the grounds that the title may (no promises) become an obtainable title at some later date.
Historical Footnotes
- The first azure-scaled cold wyrm slain in the Hinterwilds (Prime) by Jaysehn and Myharl on Restday the 30th of Jastatos, 5122.
- The first silver-scaled cold wyrm slain in the Hinterwilds (Prime) by Bakarus, Glaves, Maliku, and Myharl on Leyan the 9th of Eoantos, 5122.
- The first to slay a silver-scaled cold wyrm in one-on-one "solo" combat in the Hinterwilds (Prime) was Myharl on Tilamaires the 22nd of Eoantos, 5122.
Links
- Town Square Central, Ep. 30: Scandalous Hoar Giants - Milax interviews GM Auchand and silver-scaled cold wyrms are discussed.
- Myharl's Character Wiki Page - Myharl's player records wyrm kills and maintains several combat logs of successful wyrm hunts
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- ↑ Discord link GM Auchand, regarding the Wyrmcult
- ↑ Discord link GM Auchand, regarding undansormrs cacooning
- ↑ Discord link GM Auchand, regarding azure-scaled cold wyrms
- ↑ Discord link GM Auchand, regarding the charms/gemstones system
- ↑ Twitch Link GM Auchand & GM Nyxus, regarding Gemstones Quest
- ↑ Youtube Link Interview with GM Auchand, regarding inspiration for the Hinterwilds
- ↑ Discord link GM Auchand, regarding inspiration for the Hinterwilds
- ↑ Discord link GM Auchand, regarding Test Server wyrm testing on 04/15/2023