Cobalt Dragon [Ferrous]

A cobalt hatches in the colors it keeps for life: a blue so deep it is nearly black, blotched with paler and darker patches that only grow larger with age. It speaks its own tongue and the common ferrous speech. About 15% of hatchlings can also converse telepathically with any intelligent being, a chance that rises 5% per age category.

Cobalts are schemers, not brawlers. Their hunting grounds are rigged with rock slides, deadfalls, trees primed to topple and illusions, and the dragon pounces on whoever trips one. Once a fight starts it is pitiless and efficient.

The breath is a beam of magnetic force 5 feet wide and 100 feet long that batters victims with impact, debris and tumbling; a save vs. breath weapon halves the damage, but anyone in ferrous armor saves at -4 regardless of size. Creatures up to two size categories smaller than the dragon are thrown back 2-5 feet per age category (double for ferrous armor), and hitting something solid adds damage as from a fall of half that distance. Larger creatures must save vs. breath weapon again or be knocked down and roll 1-10 feet back.

Spells and magical powers work at 7th level plus the dragon's combat modifier. From hatching it breathes water and is immune to electricity and to other cobalts' magnetic blasts; more powers come with age.

Cobalts den in dark forests and thick jungles, sometimes in caves whose mouths always open among trees. They spend their days building snares for food and hunting trespassers. They gather only to mate or at their sovereign's command. Cruel as they are, they make excellent parents until the young reach the juvenile stage, then drive them off and attack any that return, so families last about 25 years. Some pairs mate for life; just as many part ways.

A cobalt feeds on the abundant game of its woods and can eat almost anything in hard times. Green dragons are its bitter rivals, each treating the other as a rival for the same ground, and the two never live near each other.