Dzalmaus Dragon

Dreaded both for its hunger and its enormous bulk, the dzalmaus lacks the bright, glittering scales of most dragons. It is a dull sandy brown shading to pale yellow along the back, with a flat body free of the usual dorsal ridges. Its neck forks into three broad heads, each with eyes set high on the skull. For all its bulk it hides astonishingly well in tall steppe grass. It speaks the dragon tongue and the languages of the steppe peoples.

Forever hunting, it stalks across the plains or dives from the air, then rips prey apart with its three heads, biting up to three targets per round as long as all are in its forward 180-degree arc; its necks are flexible but cannot reach behind it. It hunts with its jaws alone, saving claws, tail and wings to defend itself.

Adults and older have a dreaded breath: a 60-foot cone of vampiric life drain that widens from a single foot at the jaws to 20 feet. Everyone inside saves vs. breath weapon or loses one energy level on the spot, along with the matching hit points, spells and fighting skill; the drain of older dragons is strong enough to penalize the save. Each level taken becomes an extra Hit Die for the dragon, without altering its THAC0, damage, age or size, and any damage it suffers comes off these bonus hit points first. Once it holds stolen levels equal to its own Hit Dice, it cannot breathe again until they fade.

The loss is temporary. After 1-4 hours victims regain their levels, hit points, combat ability and known spells, unless they died in the meantime, though memorized spells already lost stay gone. At that moment the dragon loses its bonus dice and can breathe again. Its fierce will shrugs off every charm and mind-controlling spell, and it gains a modest magic resistance as it ages.

Unlike most dragons, the dzalmaus has no sociable streak at all, not even toward its own kind, and avoids other dragons, especially other species. Intelligent yet savage and solitary, it keeps no lair and gathers no treasure, roaming the dusty grasslands in the wake of the nomad tribes whose people are its prey.

It mates only when necessary, and the female raises the young alone in a hidden nest of tall grass or a small copse. Daring hunters seek out these nests to snatch the young while the mother is away. Every such theft sends her on a rampage, and the thief had better be long gone.

Its diet is meat, chiefly horses and then humans, though in famine it eats whatever it finds. Luckily for the species, nothing useful can be harvested from its body, though a live youngster sells as an exotic rarity for between 5,000 and 10,000 gp.