Gift of the Dragon-Fathers – Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard

This is a guide for Gift of the Dragon-Fathers, Chapter 5 of the Lizardfolk campaign in Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard. It includes a detailed walkthrough, a handy map, and a table listing all the points you can earn throughout the mission.

Gift of the Dragon-Fathers Map

Legend

1. Nexus
2. Umbragen Nexus
3. Lizard Nomads
4. Dragon Skull
5. Minotaurs
6. Pyramid
7. Birthing Altar
8. Thri-Kreen Burrow
9. Lizard War Totem
10. Minotaur Hoard
11. Test of Strength
12. Riddle Gate
13. Battle
14. Illithid Portal
15. Mausoleum
16. Genie Bottle
17. Locked Gate
18. Test of Wits

Exits:

• A: Tunnel to the minotaur area.
• B: Tunnel to the test of strength.
• C: Tunnel. You won’t be able to use this tunnel until you’ve helped the lizard nomads (#3).
• D: Tunnel.

Description

The Lizardfolk must now go forth and awaken the mighty fire drakes in the hope that their molten wrath will decimate their foes. Ancient trials of strength and wits must be endured in order to awaken the drakes, for he who seeks to command them must be both strong of arm and spirit.

New Units

• Fire Drake

Walkthrough

You’ll get to use Darroc once again in this chapter, and, like before, we’d suggest that you pair him up with a complementary champion like Wowen rather using than a second melee champion like Redfang. In fact, that suggestion is even better for this chapter, because in this chapter you’ll face a lot of aerial attacks.

Note: Darroc’s “dragon leap” ability can hit flying units.

You’ll have two goals in this chapter: to defeat the Umbragen nexus (#2), and to wake up the fire drakes. The first objective is straightforward. The Umbragen will cheat in this chapter — they’ll be able to produce all sorts of units (including champions and juggernauts) despite never harvesting any dragonshards — but strategies that have worked in the past should work again here. The only wrinkle is that the Umbragen nexus is located on a plateau, and so you might want to build up some air units (or wait for the fire drakes) before you make your attack.

Waking up the fire drakes is more complicated. For that objective you’ll have to pass two tests. The test of strength (#11) is about what you’d expect. You’ll have to defeat a medusa, a frost beast, and a beholder lord in rapid succession. So make sure that you’ve built up your units before attempting the test.

The test of wits has two parts. In the first part (#12), you’ll have to pull levers to open a riddle gate. In the second part (#18), you’ll have to answer three riddles by placing emblems on pedestals.

Each time you pass a test, you’ll earn a 1/2 spirit of the drake token, and then once you’ve completed both, you’ll automatically put them together to form the full spirit of the drake token. The full token will allow you to go up to the birthing altar (#7) and summon some fire drakes to your side. Summoning the drakes will also allow you to build draconic monuments in your nexus (#1).

The fire drakes will start out level 5, meaning that you won’t have to place four draconic monuments in your nexus to build them up. They’ll be ready to go, and since you’ll probably also have claimed the dragon skull (#5), which will give your flying units a bonus to damage against buildings, fire drakes are your best weapon against the Umbragen nexus. So build a draconic monument in your nexus (perhaps with some regular monuments around it), and then use a bunch of fire drakes to support your ground units when you attack the nexus. Let the drakes focus on the towers while your ground units deal with the Umbragen units, and between the two you’ll probably do significant damage to the Umbragen nexus in your first attack. Once you’ve defeated the Umbragen nexus, the chapter will end.

1 – Nexus

2 – Umbragen Nexus

3 – Lizard Nomads

The lizard nomads will ask for your help so that they can leave the region. To help them, you’ll need to retrieve their navigation tool from the thri-kreen to the northeast (#9) and kill the minotaur who is blocking their exit to the northwest (#5). Once you’ve done both of those things, the nomads will open up the nearby exit (Exit C).

But fair warning. Opening Exit C will not only allow your units to walk up to the Umbragen nexus (#2), it will also let the Umbragen units walk up to your nexus. Worse, it will trigger the Umbragen army to go into attack mode, and so you should make sure that your army and nexus are prepared for the coming onslaught.

Note: For an easier battle against the Umbragen, build up a bunch of pteranodon riders and send them against the Umbragen nexus (#2) before completing the quest for the lizard nomads. Chances are, they’ll find the nexus almost completely undefended.

4 – Dragon Skull

Controlling this place of power will give your flying units a bonus to damage against buildings.

5 – Minotaurs

You’ll find a few minotaurs and a minotaur lord here. You’ll need to defeat them to help the lizard nomads (#3), but it’s also useful to defeat them just so that you can loot the treasure boxes behind them.

6 – Pyramid

You’ll find a couple of mummies here. Once should stop a masterwork sword when it dies.

7 – Birthing Altar

8 – Thri-Kreen Burrow

The burrow will create over a dozen thri-kreen units over time. Thri-kreen units are pretty wimpy, but still, you should be careful when you approach the burrow lest your army gets swarmed.

9 – Lizard War Totem

The lizard war totem is a place of power that will increase the damage your units do by 2. Next to the totem you should run into a few thri-kreen units: two shamans, a warrior, and a hunter. The hunter will drop the navigation tool that belongs to the lizard nomads (#2).

10 – Minotaur Hoard

You’ll find a lot of gold here, plus several minotaurs and minotaur lords.

11 – Test of Strength

The test of strength involves three battles — one each against a medusa, a frost beast, and a beholder lord — that you’ll have to fight in succession. The beholder lord in particular is a tough opponent, so make sure you’ve built up your army somewhat before attempting the test.

Once you’ve defeated the trio, head back down the tunnel towards Exit B, and talk to the guardian of strength. He’ll give you a 1/2 spirit of the drake token.

12 – Riddle Gate

You’ll find a plaque and a pair of levers next to the riddle gate. The levers will be labeled “joy” (on the left) and “sorrow” (on the right), and the poem on the plaque will contain four stanzas. People will be happy in the first and third stanzas, and they’ll be unhappy in the second and fourth stanzas, and so to open the gate, you should pull the joy lever, then the sorrow lever, then the joy lever again, and finally the sorrow lever again.

13 – Battle

Beyond the riddle gate, you’ll find some yuan-ti units fighting some mindlfayers. Once the battle is over, one of the yuan-ti units will ask you to help them against the mindflayers by destroying their portal to the north (#14). If you do that for them, then the yuan-ti units will join your cause, and they’ll give you the yuan-ti key that you can use to open the gate to the west (#17).

14 – Illithid Portal

You’ll need to destroy this portal for the yuan-ti units to the south (#13), but three times after you’ve done enough damage to the portal, mindflayers will come through it and attack you, culminating with a mindflayer illusionist at the end. If you want to be careful with your units, then move them away from the portal after each mindflayer attack, so that they can rest and heal.

15 – Mausoleum

The mausoleum is a place of power that will grant you temporary control over a skeleton fighter each time one of your non-soldier units dies.

16 – Genie Bottle

When you approach the genie bottle, the efreeti inside will ask you to free him, and he’ll promise you “fantastic riches” if you do so. To free the efreeti, you’ll need to dispel the bonds that are holding him in place. The game will indicate that scrolls of dispel magic can accomplish this, but the scrolls have never worked for us. So to free the genie, you’ll probably have to train a night skink to level 2, and then have it use its “dispel magic” ability on the bottle.

Once free, the efreeti won’t give you any riches. Instead, he’ll attack. But when he dies, he’ll drop a talisman of vitality.

17 – Locked Gate

You’ll need the yuan-ti key (#13) to open this gate.

18 – Test of Wits

Inside this room, you’ll find three emblems (they’ll look like shields) to the east and three empty pedestals to the north. In front of each pedestal, you’ll find a plaque with a riddle on it. The answers to the riddles can be found on the emblems. So to complete the trial, you’ll need to put the right emblems onto the right pedestals. If you get an answer wrong, then flames will shoot out and damage your army.

From left to right, the correct answers are: the emblem of the spear, the emblem of the club, and the emblem of the fang. After completing the test, simply talk to the guardian of wits outside the room to receive a 1/2 spirit of the drake token.

Points Chart