Dragon	-	Monsters	-	Dragon #134
-	-	Footnotes	-	-

The slender, middle-aged man considered the question for a moment, then
pulled a map from a drawer and unfolded
it on top of his desk. Placing bric-a-brac on
the corners, he glanced from it to the
young men who faced him in his study.

?You?re sure that you want to hunt down
a dragon?? he asked quietly. ?Isn?t there
something smaller and less offensive you
could go after, then work your way up??
He jabbed a finger down at a wooded area
on the map. ?Now, here is reputed to be
the lair of a wondrous sort of being
known as a cyclopskin. Much less impressive than a dragon, to be sure, but not as
deadly. This cyclopskin??

The brawny youth who seemed to be
the leader placed a hand on his sword.
?You calling me a coward, Nimodes?? he
asked.

The sage hesitated and sighed, but he
never looked up. He adjusted his spectacles. ?Well, if it must be a dragon. . .? He
bent over the map. ?Now, there are three
dragons known to have lairs within two
m o n t h s ?   m a r c h   o f   h e r e .   .   . ?

A gangling youth moaned. ?Two months!
Haven?t you got anything closer??

?Sorry,? Nimodes said, though truly he
didn?t sound sorry. ?You take a dragon
where it lies. Dragons are so voracious
that they cover wide areas for their hunt
ing grounds. When you?re dealing with the
big dragons, this range encompasses
entire kingdoms as their own territories,
so they never run out of food or loot. A
wizard I know who lectures on the ecologies of various monsters says that dragons
have no ecology: They ravage it. Now, if
you want to meet some great wizard and
have him bring a dragon to you, I can
arrange for that. I?m merely a hedge wizard and a scholar, but I have some friends
who could do this. Of course, it will cost
you much. . . .?

After a short silence, the sage coughed
and pointed to the map, to a range of
mountains surrounded by forest. ?Here is
the nearest true dragon, in an ice cave
atop the highest summit around. His
human name is Frostbite, a friend to elf
and dwarf. He is huge and of the silver
breed. He hoards only knowledge, and this
is the treasure that most seek from him.?

?I think that one would not be worth the
trouble.? The brawny leader said casually.
He had lost interest after hearing the
words ?hoards only knowledge.? The sage
noted this and dropped his gaze back to
the map. It was as he?d expected.

?The second dragon is probably not
worth it, either;? he said, ?as she is
employed by the City-State of Helsford as a
guardian, and even has a rank in the army
t h e r e .   S h e   i s   F r o s t b i t e ? s   d a u g h t e r .   H e r e ,
then. Look over on the other end of this
range, where another sort of dragon
makes his lair. Pyre is his name, a red
dragon. If I recall the passage correctly,
The Lorebook of Aramar  writes of him:

    ?Red blood his color and delight,
    Red flame his breath that burns the
    night,
    Long scimitars he has for claws,
    A fang-ringed cavern ?twixt his jaws,
    Red armored is this deadly Pyre,
    Who stole our gold to stoke his fire;
    A hundred men sought out his lair ?
    Not one did Pyre the dragon spare.?

At the mention of gold, the youths
smiled and nudged one another. They
didn?t seem at all bothered by the last two
lines ? except, noted Nimodes, for one
youth in the rear, who had an intense,
bookish look about him. The sage briefly
wondered if the youths had some powerful talisman or magical weapon that gave
them such confidence. He immediately
rejected the idea. They had nothing but
youth and enthusiasm ? and a fatal
naivete. Nimodes vaguely recognized most
of them as being of farming families. Nothing wrong with that, but challenging a red
dragon wasn?t in their league. Damn those
lying adventurers, he thought, who had
passed through the region last month.
Loose talk about mounds of gold and easy
victories had obviously borne results that
he should have foreseen. These boys were
going to die.

The brawny youth grinned widely.
?Pyre. That sounds like the dragon for us.
What can you tell us of it??

?Him. A point in your favor.? A worthless
one, Nimodes added mentally. ?Of the red
dragons, it is the female which is the most
dangerous, for she is less likely to bargain
or surrender under duress.? This does not
mean that males are weak. The city that
sent the small army after the gold was
burned to the ground shortly thereafter.
Only a handful of the residents survived
the firestorm. That was two hundred
years ago; since dragons grow throughout
their lifespans, Pyre is all the mightier
now ? though perhaps weaker, too, as he
is at least six centuries old.2 He may be
even older.?

Much of the grinning ceased, but the
youths did their best to look only mildly
concerned at the news. The one youth in
the rear who seemed to have doubts
before now appeared concerned but very
thoughtful. For some reason, Nimodes was
pleased to see it.

?Oh, to be sure,? Nimodes said smoothly,
?the red dragon has its weaknesses. Pyre
is old and getting to be slow, despite his
incredible power. Sadly, his age has not
diminished his might once he brings it to
bear. He may yet have other vulnerabilities
peculiar to him, if legends are to be
believed.?

?What sort of vulnerabilities?? It was the
youth in the back of the group. Nimodes
noted from the boy?s clothing that he was
probably from one of the towns near the
Greenwitch River. The sage smiled. He had
hated to think that the brawny lad was the
brains of the group. Maybe the boys had a
chance of surviving an encounter with
Pyre, if not being talked out of it altogether in time. He certainly had no hope that
they?d defeat the monster itself.

?Dragons, particularly the older ones,
sleep a great deal ? rather like house cats,
I suppose.? Nimodes sat back, looking past
the group as he thought. ?It is during sleep
that older dragons are especially vulnerable, but only if their senses are on the
wane. Their sleep is very deep, and they
dream a tremendous amount, but dragons
rarely speak of their dreams. Some say
that dragons do not dream so much as
they remember in full detail earlier experiences in their lives, rather like elves. Some
texts say that they experience past lives in
these slumbers, which accounts for a
slight disorientation when they awaken.? A
dragon may sleep for extremely long periods of time, even hundreds of days. Sadly,
awakening from such a long sleep leaves a
dragon in a great hunger. When it
awakens, it yearns to lay waste to its surroundings.?

?You said something about vulnerabilities
that were Pyre?s alone,? reminded the
youth in the back.

Nimodes blinked. ?Hmm. Yes. Well, during Pyre?s attack upon Valesburgh two
hundred years past, he was said to have
lost an eye to a machine-hurled bolt. A
survivor of the battle saw the dragon
bleeding from his head, roaring as he
clutched his right eye with a foreclaw.
Pyre is now many hundreds of years old,
and even a dragon?s senses won?t improve
forever. He might be blind now.?

The youths grinned at the news.
?Another weakness of the red dragon is its
greed,? Nimodes continued. ?A red dragon
seeks gold above all other things in life, for
gold gives it status among other red
dragons. The male red dragon?s second
great love is to eat, the third is to sleep.?
But a love of gold will drive a male red
dragon to any lengths. That focus has
been used to their disadvantage in traps
and trickery against them on a few occasions, though a vengeful red dragon is the
worst of enemies. It is best to kill them
swiftly rather than to tease or bargain
with them; they are too dangerous.?

The scholarly looking youth spoke up
again. ?I have heard that some dragons
somehow resist spells.?

Nimodes instantly placed the boy. Rumor
said a river-town wizard had recently
turned his apprentice loose. ?True enough.
Some are indeed able to throw off spells,
but they cannot negate the existence of
magic itself. They are merely tougher than
we are, and they are partly magical in
nature. Speaking of which, you should
know that some dragons have gained from
their parents knowledge of spell-casting
Dragons that were abandoned at birth
cannot even speak, much less cast spells,
but they are rare ones in these lands. Pyre
is the hatchling of Infernalle, a female
dragon who would not accept that any
offspring of hers would be anything less
than a menace to civilization. It is known
that Pyre favors fire-based spells ? ah, I
had forgotten to say, yes, Pyre is a spellcaster, and he was very good at it, too. I
cannot say how good he is at present; he
has not been seen in some time. Pyre is
said in legend to rejoice in the casting of
fiery spells, always in the service of
d e s t r u c t i o n . ?

?Magic is of little consequence to cold
steel,? sneered the brawny youth as he
drew his blade to brandish it. Nimodes
noticed that he held his blade in the mann e r   o f   a   c l u b .   A   f e w   r u s t   s p l o t c h e s   m a r r e d
the steel, and there were notches along its
length. Not a magical sword, though one
that had seen quite a bit of use in its longago day. Nimodes resolved to talk to the
apprentice later, privately if possible; it
was a shame to throw away talent.

?Pyre uses magic, yes, and he breathes a
cone of flame. His senses are exceptionally
acute. Should he taste your blood, he can
t r a c k   y o u   b y   s c e n t   t o   t h e   e n d s   o f   t h e
world.5 His bite is powerful, his claws can
hold a target fast, and his cone of fire can
cleanse all remains away. Pyre is quite
capable of melting away even . . . ah,
nevermind. I know ? fire is of little consequence to cold steel.? Nimodes wished he
could smile, but it was too painful.

The apprentice spoke up again. ?Do your
books mention any of Pyre?s habits or
traits that could be exploited?? At a bored
look from the leader, he added, ?No point
in spending more time than we have to.?

Nimodes nodded, pleased. ?All red
dragons share certain traits with the common house cat. They play with their food,
like to sleep near a heat source, bury their
wastes, and hate getting wet. Pyre, as with
some of his kind, likes to talk with his
food, meaning those who are unfortunate
enough to be captured by him. One text of
mine claims that Pyre is fond of riddles
and jokes. To win a riddling contest with
Pyre, he must be unable to guess the
answer of one of yours while you must
answer all three of his. It is unlikely,
should Pyre gain the upper hand, that all
his prisoners would escape. Perhaps one
in ten could bargain his way out. Indeed,
Pyre has a unique single trait which irritates others of his own kind: a fondness
for puns. The worse the pun, the better
Pyre likes it. A jester named Fered the
Moor once managed to get three adventurers out with a single pun. Of course, Fered
was legendary among jesters across this
whole-?

?This is getting boring,? interrupted the
brawny youth. ?We don?t plan to let the
dragon get the upper hand. Since you?ve
been paid for information, make it useful.
Where can we strike the most telling
damage??

The sage looked up into the leader?s
eyes, stared hard at him, then turned
away. ?As you wish. If you have the
chance and can strike there, hit the eyes.
A direct hit upon the eyes will cause any
dragon to draw back. If the blow doesn?t
go deep, the dragon will go berserk and
scour the area with flames and claw. It is
told that the red dragon Firetongue was
struck so, and only one returned to tell
the tale. That one escaped when the
enraged dragon brought the cavern down
on her attackers and herself. Any dragon
fears the loss of its senses. Blindness is the
worst fate that a dragon could imagine,
worse even than the loss of its wings and
limbs. A blind dragon is at the mercy of all
other creatures, vulnerable when it was
once all-powerful; it cannot bear it.?

?As for exploitable fears, Pyre has none
that anyone knows about. Perhaps he has
only the one common to all dragons ?
fear for his own life. Dragons are cowards
at heart . . . but you must be very strong
to bring this fear out.? I musn?t encourage
them, Nimodes thought. ?Fear, however,
will certainly be your problem.?

?And why is that, mighty wizard??
sneered the leader.

Nimodes just looked back, refusing to be
baited. ?Most dragons project fear itself as
an effect of having a magical metabolism.
This is the dragonaura, a literal cloud of
terror which surrounds the dragon when
it wants to show itself in its glory. Some
with special training, such as knights and
paladins, can throw off this effect, and
certain magical protections can also negate
this terror-cloud.

"Yet even the dragonaura is pathetic
compared to the most valuable and critical
trait of dragons like Pyre -- their cleverness, pure and simple. Pyre has lived a
long and full life, and has learned every
trick in the book. His lair will be filled
with traps and perils, ready to be
unleashed at a moment's notice.

A red
dragon on the southern coast once located
casks of alcohol so that they could be
shattered with a swipe of his tail, sending
alcohol down onto his cavern floor. One
breath would have ignited the whole
cavern in a fiery blast that would not have
harmed the dragon greatly. He was a
clever dragon."

"What happened to him?" asked the
youth in the back.

Nimodes smiled and glanced at something on his wall. "Oh, the dragon ran into
adventurers more clever than he."

The apprentice cleared his throat. ?What
can you tell us about what a red dragon
eats and drinks??

?Nothing that can be poisoned in a way
that will affect the dragon, except perhaps
in centuries. The red eats what it can
catch and kill.? As for drink, alcohol is its
preference, though it will never become
drunk. Water is taken in small doses, as
living prey is moist enough for its needs. A
dragon need not eat or drink during the
time its sleeps, regardless of the time
involved, and it suffers little even from a
loss of fresh air while asleep. One red
dragon was buried by a rock and mud
slide while asleep, only to awaken and dig
its way out later in the year. When it does
eat, the red dragon can consume twice its
body weight before dragging itself off to
digest the meal.?

Pyrosternia

"And where will its greatest treasures
be?" asked the brawny youth loudly, not
liking to be left out of the conversation.

Nimodes sighed. ?And that is all I know
to tell you. If you have more money, I
could research the topic in the library at
the Castle Mardelaine, where-?

The leader cut him off. "That's enough,
old man," he said with a wave of his hand.
"We have what we need. Good day." He
turned and forced his way through the
group of youths around him, and they
followed after him, muttering strategies
among themselves. Nimodes watched them
go, wondering if he should stop them.
They were fools who had as much chance
of killing Pyre with those swords and farm
implements as they would with snowballs.
He thought, then slowly released his grip
on the arms of his chair. No, they would
never listen. So be it. It was a waste.

Then he noticed the apprentice, who
had stayed behind. The boy was staring at
the object on the wall at which Nimodes
had glanced earlier. "A trophy of sorts?"
said the youth with interest.

    A jagged yellow tooth was in a bottle on
the shelf. A full five hands long, it came to
a sharp carnivore's point. Nimodes looked
at it and smiled faintly. "A relic of my
adventuresome    youth."

    The apprentice laughed then. "Perhaps
I'll bring you another -- not now, but in
time. I sense that I should study this
adventure before us a while longer before
we set out. If the others leave without me
-- well . . . " The boy sighed and shrugged.
"I wish them well, and they will be missed.
But I want to do this right the first time.
Good day, Nimodes, and my thanks."

Staring at the closed door a moment
later, Nimodes was lost in thought. He had
a feeling he would indeed see the apprentice again.
He knew it in his bones.

Footnotes
1. Female red dragons, at the DM?s
option, may be harder to subdue than
male ones. When attacking to subdue, take
one and a half times the female dragon?s
hit-point total to calculate her effective hitpoint value for subdual purposes. Thus, a
44-hp female red dragon effectively has 66
hp for purposes of subdual combat; if 33
hp subdual damage is inflicted on her,
there is only a 50% chance that she will be
subdued. Double her hit-point total for
subdual purposes if the female red dragon
is defending her young or eggs. Female
red dragons will not listen to bribery,
though flattery may impress them.

2. Like many dragons, red dragons shed
their skins as they pass into each new life
stage. Red dragons eat their old scaled
skins, so as to gain certain nutrients from
them. A very young red dragon is about 6?
long; between its fifth and sixth years, it
grows to l2?, then gains another 12? in
length for every stage of life thereafter.
Thus, an adult red dragon is 48? long. The
size differences of ?small,? ?average,? and
?huge? refer to the dragon?s body mass; a
small dragon is thin and wirey, and a huge
dragon is thick-bodied, muscular, or fat,
with length remaining constant for all
body types.

Red dragons of particularly advanced
age (600 years old or more) suffer debilitating effects from their age. Their
chances of sleeping increase by 10% per
decade thereafter, with additional reductions of ½? per decade in the range of
their ability to  detect hidden or invisible
creatures,  and of 5? per decade in the
range of their infravision. Dragons that
are 700 years old or more have a 95%
chance to be found sleeping, and have
infravision to a range of 10?; they cannot
detect hidden or invisible creatures  except
within a range of 3?. Their chances of
death per decade after their 700th year
are 5% per decade, cumulatively. Dragons
that can cast spells suffer a 5% spellfailure penalty for every decade of age
past their 600th year, to a 95% spell-failure
maximum. For a few weeks prior to its
death, a red dragon may become senile
and insane, and is especially dangerous as
it becomes so unpredictable.

3. Dragons of ancient age are disoriented when awakened from sleep. Allow a
loss of initiative when appropriate for
their response to an attack or confrontation if suddenly awakened. A dragon older
than 600 years loses intiative for the
round following its awakening and makes
no attacks in the round it was awakened.

4. Female red dragons differ from males
in their preferences. Females like to fight,
first and foremost, and especially love to
fight females of their own kind. They are
even more territorial than males and less
tolerant of other species. A male might be
bribed to look the other way while a ?morsel? escapes, while a female will take bribe
and briber both. The female is also the
aggressor in mating. It has happened that
when young dragons leave their nest, the
female becomes temporarily insane and
slays the male. She then devours her former mate and any of the hatchlings which
return. After fighting comes an interest in
food, then in gold and treasures, the
female liking reflective surfaces. Female
red dragons have only a 15% chance to be
caught sleeping.

-
5. A red dragon that has tasted someone?s blood can track that person as can a
ranger of a level equal to the dragon?s age
stage, using the information in  Unearthed
Arcana,  page 21. Thus an adult red dragon
has a 60% chance of tracking a wounded
victim. Using smell, sight, and hearing
alone, the dragon has one-half this chance
of tracking someone that it has previously
detected but not wounded.

6. Dragons value their sense of sight
highly, even above their senses of smell
and hearing. A blind dragon makes all
attacks at -4 to hit and will retreat whenever possible from determined opposition.
If cornered, the dragon snaps at every
sound and scent, but may be more than
willing to bargain or plead for its life.
Dragons without senses of smell or hearing are not affected in this manner.
Dragons may be struck in their eyes only
if attacked while sleeping. There is a 10%
chance per level of the attacker that a
blow aimed at a dragon?s eyes will drive
into the most sensitive part and not be
turned aside by the tough eyelids (this
chance rises to 20% per level of the attacker if he is a fighter or cavalier, or one of
the subclasses thereof). At least 8 hp damage must be done to permanently blind
the dragon in one eye; otherwise, the
dragon is blinded for only 2-5 rounds,
then has a -2 to hit for 5-10 days thereafter, then sees and fights normally.

7. Some dragons, notably the green, red,
bronze, and white, swallow small stones
and bits of metal which go into a small
second stomach. This is similar to the
gizzard of a bird, needed because these
dragons are unable to chew food. These
coins and other bric-a-brac aid digestion
and are eventually left in waste products.
Many dragon breeds, particularly the
fastidious red, bury these wastes outside
their lairs. Red dragon wastes, in addition
to including small bits of metal, contain
large amounts of sulfur and potassium
nitrate. Thus, a sharp odor is a clue to the
location of such a burial spot. To the surprise of many, the presence of sparks or
fire, whether from a shovel striking a rock
or from a dragon?s fiery breath, causes
these sites to suddenly explode with tremendous violence. Red dragons have used
this physical property of their wastes as a
secret weapon; they lure a group of
attackers to either dig into a waste-pit or
stand over it as the dragon breathes upon
the ground. The explosion produced, as a
rule of thumb, does half as many hit
points of damage as the dragon?s own
normal hit points, or one-quarter of this
amount if a saving throw vs. breath weapon is made. The radius of effect equals the
dragon?s hit points expressed in feet. Red
dragons, given their tough hides and
resistance to fire, take only one-quarter or
one-eighth damage, depending on their
saving throws if they are within the area
of effect.

8. Since dragons are reluctant to discuss
their dietary habits (beyond their threats
to eat those who inquire into such matters), little information is available to PCs
on this topic. Red dragons are, as everyone knows, carnivorous. Also, thanks to
their magical metabolism, red dragons can
go for prolonged periods without actually
eating (this is how they can sleep for durations of 5-500 days). If awakened after a
sleep lasting at least 30 days, a red dragon
will do anything to get food before performing most other actions. Red dragons
have a +4 bonus to their saving throws
vs. poison and take only half damage from
it (or lose half their normal hit-point maximum if a failure to save means death).

ROGUES GALLERY
zb

6. Rastibaxas (mature adult; 93r.11)

5. Avildar (old, 534; 91.340)

4. Edomira, "Red Watcher"
(AC -11, THACO -5, 1325: Great Wyrm; 91.298)

3. Flame (AC -11, THACO -5; 1453 Great Wyrm; 91.248)

2. Inferno (920 Venerable; 91.239)

1. Smolder (92: young adult red dragon | 91.221)