Crystalline Dragon [Mystara]

Close kin to crystal dragons elsewhere, these are bigger and have more Hit Dice. Hatchlings have glossy, opaque white scales like packed snow. With age the scales clear into something like glacial ice. A mature dragon glows softly in dim light, and a venerable one blazes so brightly in strong light that looking at it hurts. It speaks its own language and the shared tongue of gem dragons.

Its breath is a cone of glittering, icelike shards that freezes exactly like a white dragon's. What makes it unique is the second effect. A victim who fails the save takes full damage, and each nonliving item he carries must save vs. disintegration or become crystal; a successful save means half damage and no effect on gear. A crystallized weapon, tooth or claw still works, but on a successful hit it shatters on a 1-5 on 1d6, dealing minimum damage and being destroyed. Stone to flesh restores as much as 100 cubic feet of unbroken crystal gear, enough for the gear of one to three people. Dispel magic also works, treating the dragon's age category as the caster level to beat.

It loves glaciers in polar lands and high mountains and lairs in caves dug into living ice, where its shimmering hide blends with snow and ice. Its kind is graver and more disciplined than the playful crystal dragons of other worlds.

It feeds on ore and gems and considers crystallized adventuring gear a particular treat. Glaciers suit it well: as they creep across the land they drag along vast amounts of rock and earth, and the dragon tunnels through the ice with its great claws to reach mineral-rich layers scraped up centuries ago.