Craum Straug

Craum Straug was a senile geriatric red dragon whose bones were used in creation of the legendary musical instrument called the Pipes of the Wheezing Dragon.

History
By the time Craum Straug met his death, he was already venerable in his great age and senile in his fading mind. Long before the, Craum Straug succumbed to a severe case of whooping and wheezing cough. He wandered to a small logging village of Hornhollow in search of help. However, draconic cough just meant that his fiery breath uncontrollably belched flames all over the town, setting it aflame, and scaring the inhabitants away. Craum refused to leave, and the fires started spreading. The loggers held a lottery to see who was to negotiate with the dragon to force the wyrm to leave their homes. A traveling minstrel, Aznee Fraystrings, was the unlucky winner.

The minstrel discovered that Craum Straug suffered from the draconic equivalent of a bad cough. The solution was a remedy that once helped Aznee's elderly uncle – tea of crushed maiden's milk flower. Later, sages speculated if the minstrel confused maiden's milk for bellows root or if Craum Straug drank the bubbling cauldron of medicinal tea too fast, but the dragon vomited the concoction out in an instant, incinerating Aznee and several acres of the Wood of Sharp Teeth. After a long rampage of fierce vomiting and belching flames, Craum Straug finally collapsed dead. His body could not weather so much physical activity.

The loggers of Hornhollow returned the following day and discovered the dragon's bones. The bones still carried echoes of the ancient dragon's coughing fits, and the skeleton continued to creak and wheeze. The reverberant corpse was sold to a local wizard who used Craum Straug to create several enchanted music instruments called the Pipes of the Wheezing Dragon, made famous throughout the Realms by the early 14 century DR.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Icewind Dale II
 * Icewind Dale II