Crimson Dragon [Savage Coast]

Probably a red dragon variant, the crimson dragon hatches already the dull deep red of a mature red. With age its scales grow larger and thicker and darken until they look black, with a polished metallic sheen much like wardsteel, the curse-warding red metal of the frontier coast. It speaks a dialect shared with its own kind and evil dragons; 15% of hatchlings can talk with any intelligent creature, plus 5% per age category.

It never strikes at once. A born showman, it bursts out of brush or rises from a lake, often triggering several curse-born gifts in random directions as fanfare. It might rear back a claw, then merely scratch its head, or draw a huge breath and enjoy watching heroes dive for cover. Humiliating proud foes is its specialty.

When the real attack comes it may use any dragon combat ability: wing buffets and tail slaps to sow disorder, then claws and bite for the kill. It feints at least once before breathing, unless its foes' reaction shows they expect the breath, in which case it breathes first and feints afterward.

The breath does not improve with age. From juvenile on it is a 100-foot cone, 5 feet across at the mouth and 50 at the far end, and it drains all wardsteel in the area (spoiling any crimson essence). Every ounce depleted adds a cumulative 3% chance of instantly gaining a new gift; crimson dragons already have plenty.

These dragons live alone and never share a lair with a mate; a group nearly always means a mother with one to three young, whom she drives off before they turn juvenile. They roam the cursed lands widely, favoring caves in foothills and lower slopes, or dens dug into soft forest or plains soil, never the high peaks. They avoid busy roads, but their urge to drain wardsteel keeps them near settlements.

Each keeps several lairs and revisits a region every few years, but only one holds the hoard. The dragon carries its useful magic and a few baubles and seals that lair when it leaves, hiding the treasure in a deep cave pool or a collapsed tunnel, with an animal guard and a disguised entrance. Dug lairs are refilled without a trace.

It hungers for power of every kind, from treasure to territory to new gifts, and uses wealth and magic to dominate other intelligent beings. Its goals are secret and varied, and it is mildly paranoid, inventing rivals when none exist.

Its only enemies are araneas, other dragons and humanoids. Draining wardsteel both empowers the dragon and harms the araneas, who need the metal to stave off the curse's deforming final stage; humanoids just know these dragons ruin wardsteel deposits, which is reason enough to hunt them.

The hide also wards like wardsteel, but so few scales carry the effect that one dragon yields one suit of scale mail. An alchemist skilled in crimson essence must strip and treat the scales, consuming one or more potions of crimson essence. The armor protects only its wearer until seriously damaged: a single slashing, piercing or magical hit of over 15 points calls for an item saving throw, and failure releases the scales' magic as a cloud equal to a blasting powder detonation.