Heir of Tarakul

The Cindergnaw Tyrant, Heir of Tarakul

“The shield keeps death from him, and life as well.”For a few years now, a tribe of Cindergnaw (kobolds who live beneath the volcanoes) has obeyed a dwarf who wears the complete Deepvein Set, five cursed pieces. The Göldunn (the dwarves of the volcanic mountains) call him the heir of Tarakul. Tarakul Dyr Goldar was meant to become a guide of the Fire-Son (the dwarven god of the fire of the deeps). Out of fear of death, he melted a sacred axe into the shield Dumzahar, and the god cursed him: whoever holds that shield cannot die, but no longer heals. No one knows whether the tyrant is Tarakul himself or another who took his place inside the armor. Years in the set have made him violent, greedy, and cowardly.

Appearance

You glimpse him. At the end of the gallery the rock glows a dull red, and the heat rises as you draw closer. A dozen kobolds stand hunched, snouts to the ground. In their midst, a massive figure advances behind a great shield and never lowers it once. Even from here, you can hear his breathing, short and whistling.The ambush. The kobolds pour out of every crack at once, small, fast, shrieking. You have barely pushed them back when the air turns scorching behind you. An axe sweeps over their heads and comes down on you, and where it strikes, the iron of your armor runs like wax.

Combat

How he fights. He lets his kobolds do the fighting and only steps into the melee to finish someone off. His gauntlets wake his axe, Yarnhal, whose edge melts the iron of armor. Whoever strikes him gets the fire of his breastplate in return. And as long as he holds his shield, no wound can kill him.
How to fight him. Every blow that lands leaves him a wound the fire closes without healing, and each one wears him down a little more, which makes him cautious. Kill his kobolds and he will fall back. The only way to end him is to make him let go of the shield: he then dies all at once of everything he has accumulated. He knows it, and he will fight like a madman to keep that shield in his hand.