Old King Dreggar or Dreggar the Undead King is a supporting antagonist from Heroes of Might and Magic IV: The Price of Peace campaign. He was a zombie lich, leader of his own undead horde, ruler of his underground kingdom, and the guardian of the Rainbow Crystal.
Personality[]
What is certain is that Dreggar was a very cold, merciless and emotionless personality, literally dead. His tactics and strategies also show that he was a mean, ambushing, ruthless and dishonest person who used a fighting style that relied more on the power of surprise and unexpected backstabbing and deception.
Biography[]
Dreggar was a zombie lich, living in an underground cave system who created his own horde of undead, from whom he built an organized army and owned two ancient cities, from which he created a small but strong underground kingdom. He was followed by several necromancers and death knights, as well as a notorious lich, Aislinn. In one of the old cities, which was located at the deepest point of the cave system, there was a huge crystal in the city fountain, which had a strong hypnotic magic power, and Dreggar realized that this could be used to his great advantage. However, the crystal had already attracted the attention of others, and on one occasion an adventurer named Bozilast, his companion Holman and their small army tried to obtain the crystal, but it ended disastrously. After that, another, but much more serious attempt followed. The Immortal King of Bracada, Gavin Magnus, sent his djinn servant, Solymr, to obtain the crystal for him. Solymr met with Holman, who told him to try and tell him as much as he could. But the scout said that he would not be able to move quickly, because he said that Dreggar had walled up the only entrance to his underground kingdom and that there was no way around it. Solmyr did not give up, he believed that he could somehow break through the defenses or find another solution, so he looked around the area. After capturing the two cities in the area, he found a purple key tent next to one, which was guarded by orcs, but he defeated them, then continued east. He found a hut where a kind and helpful seer woman had lived for a while, who the genie awaited him with a lemon cake of his liking. She told him that in order to find Dreggar and his goal, he would need the help of a red key master and would help him get there if the genie helped him, namely in recovering his relic, the Cap of Knowledge, which had been stolen from him by harpies. The monsters were in the northeast part of the area, but in front of their nest there was a tower that required a purple keymaster's password, but since Solmyr had already obtained it earlier, he immediately went further, killed the harpies and brought the old lady the relic back. After that, the lady told Solmyr where the red key tent was, and that he was now free to go there, and the genie went and got the password. Not far from the tent, he found a small hut where two dwarves lived, who were wearing fur coats, as it was very cold in their hut. They told him that they could not light a fire, as they were experimenting with explosives and offered that if the genie gave them 6500 gold and twenty doses of mercury, they would blow up any wall or rock for him. Solmyr then realized that he finally had a solution to break through Dreggar's defenses and get underground, so he immediately and happily accepted the offer and paid the dwarves the necessary raw materials. The two dwarves counted everything to be sure and when they saw that the djinn had kept his word and had everything, they happily declared that they would immediately get to work and remove the wall. The explosion was successful, the way underground was now completely free. However, before going underground, Solmyr prepared thoroughly. In his army there was a large number of golden golems and djinns,and finally, the first truly completed, flawlessly manufactured, and deployable dragon golems came under his control. Why he wanted to go underground with such an army was still a secret.
When they got underground, Solmyr began reading Bozilast's memoirs, which Holman had given him, and found important things. He described that the underground tunnel was initially very similar to the one used in Nighon by the evil dragon queen, Mutare, and her minions, but still somehow different, as the air was bitter, damp, and increasingly foul, with a putrid smell, which led them to conclude that there were undead underground. After that, Solymr found even more interesting and important things in the memoirs. Bozilast described that the leader of the undead was indeed King Dreggar and that during each attack, each of them shouted his name, and during the battles, Bozilast's strength was reduced by half, exhausted, tired, and afraid. Holman said that he and Bozilast began to argue, because the latter believed that he could destroy the Dreggar undead horde with a strong attack and believed that they were unbeatable in this situation. However, this was a big and serious mistake, because the undead were prepared for exactly this. At first, it seemed that nothing surprising would happen, there was no unexpected attack or raid, Bozilas's troops were moving straight into the depths of the cave. However, they were increasingly attacked by smaller groups and Holman became suspicious that the undead were too organized, so it was no coincidence, but Bozilast ignored this and continued on. They finally arrived at an abandoned old city, where he was impressed by the fountain in the middle of the city, which had a huge crystal in it. He only said about it that it was very beautiful, colorful, magically shining and named it the Rainbow Crystal. However, this was a trap, as suddenly the invaders were attacked by corpses and undead moving from all directions, and in a short time there was great chaos. Solmyr was a little surprised, because at first he thought it was invisible undead, but Holman explained that they were not invisible, but the magic power of the crystal had bewitched Bozilas and his soldiers, who believed that there was nothing around them. There were a lot of undead, Bozilas and a few of them came to their senses and wanted to protect the fountain and the crystal at all costs, but they had no chance, and Holman preferred to flee, because he saw that the situation was completely hopeless.
However, Solmyr decided not to make the same mistake that Bozilast did, he learned from his failure and had already developed a great strategy to defeat Dreggar's legion and tactics, but first he had to find him. After that, they fought several smaller battles against the undead, who were not too numerous yet, so they did not pose a challenge to the djinn and his army. Then they went even deeper into the cave system, to the east, and Solmyr began to understand why the master wanted to obtain the crystal and how dangerous its hypnotic, magical power was. But after that, he was again involved in battle, this time against Aislinn, whom he surprisingly quickly defeated, imprisoned her, captured the first old city, and then continued east. Here they encountered not only the undead, but also other creatures that were hostile and attacked them, but in the end the genie was victorious and found a vampire mansion, not far from which was a narrow entrance, which required a red keymaster's password to pass through, but since he had obtained it earlier, it was no obstacle for him.
After that, Solmyr immediately felt the thought-clouding power of the Rainbow Crystal and shouted loudly to his soldiers and all his units to stop immediately. Learning from Bozilat's mistake, he did not enter the old city, but waited. Dreggar noticed that his enemies did not want to come into the city and probably suspected a trap and saw that they would not change this, so he decided to deal with them outside the city, since the power of the crystal was weaker there, but it was still able to influence the thoughts and actions of the enemy. However, Solymr knew this exactly, so he started shouting to his soldiers to hit the right side, their comrade next to them, and if they did not do this, he would hang the resisters. This was not a serious thought on his part, but he believed that the threat of violence was the best strategy here and it worked. He and everyone else who wasn't a machine took a big hit and when they came to, they saw that the enemy was already there in front of them and was about to strike. Dreggar launched an attack with his horde, but Solmyr was prepared for battle and caused a big surprise for the zombie lich. He deployed a large number of golden golems against him, which was a great move, and finally Magnus' dragon golems could be deployed. Since the golems, machines and mechanical units had no consciousness, they were absolutely unaffected by hypnosis and brainwashing, so the magic power of the Rainbow Crystal was absolutely useless against them, and the djinns were able to support and help them with their spells from a safe distance. Dreggar probably realized that his opponent's unpleasant surprise had cornered him, but he also saw that he had nowhere to retreat, since his cave had only one entrance and exit, so he deployed all his reserves and ordered a full attack on the undead and his entire legion moved in. The moving corpses, as well as skeletons, zombies, ghosts and vampires, were indeed a terrifying sight, but the golems, being machines, knew no fear and attacked the enemy mercilessly, and their attacks, combined with the magic of the djinn, began to quickly thin out the undead. Dreggat saw his horde being destroyed, but he did not give up, but Solmyr destroyed him with a spell. To make sure that neither he nor his legion would ever return, he burned them all on a huge pyre on the edge of the old city, successfully obtaining the Rainbow Crystal and handed it to Magnus.
Powers and abilities[]
Dreggar was only slightly stronger than most lichs. His magical power was greater, he was marginally stronger, faster and more agile than most zombies. What made him an extremely dangerous enemy was that he was not a general or a military genius, but he was still exceptionally talented in strategy. Dreggar brilliantly combined environmental and psychological warfare with his magical powers and the mesmerizing effects of the Rainbow Crystal. The situation is that his enemies had to fight him in a cave full of organized undead, in narrow passages, which has only one exit and the power of the Crystal disrupted the enemy's thinking and concentration, giving him a very significant advantage. He was also surprisingly talented in psychological warfare, as his ability to destabilize his enemy, shatter their hopes, and make unexpected moves that were almost indefensible practically completely broke his enemies mentally. However, his big mistake was that he based all his plans and decisions on this very effective but predictable strategy and was not prepared for possible creative solutions from his opponents.