Earth Dragon [Li Lung]

A li lung has the body and tail of a lion and a human face, with small black pupils set in golden eyes. Bright quills like peacock feathers fan from its leathery wings. Hatchlings are covered in pale green scales that darken and turn into coarse fur as the dragon grows; by juvenile age the scales are gone and the fur feels like thick wire, darkening until a great wyrm is nearly black.

Earth dragons would rather hide in shadows or bury themselves in rubble until intruders leave. Cornered or attacked, a li lung first tries to entomb its foes with an earthquake, then turns to brutal melee: claws and bite in front, kicks behind, and, from young adult age, wing buffets at the flanks. Kicks do claw damage; a victim who fails to roll Dexterity or less on 1d20 is hurled back 1d6 feet plus 1 foot per age category and must also pass a save vs. petrification (penalized by the dragon's combat modifier) to stay on its feet. Buffets also do claw damage and knock down anyone failing a Dexterity roll on 1d20. Throughout melee the dragon roars nonstop, a sound like metal scraping stone that drowns out everything else within 60 feet.

In flight it can perform a wingover, swinging through a 120- to 240-degree turn whatever its speed or bulk; it cannot climb that round, though it may dive.

Once a day it can cause an earthquake as the spell, but impossible to dispel, covering a square whose sides in yards equal 10 times its age level (50 by 50 yards for a young adult). Earthquakes never hurt it, natural or not; if its cavern collapses, it simply digs itself out. Gains, each 3/day: stone shape (juvenile), wall of stone (adult), move earth (mature adult). Its claws let it burrow through soil at movement 9 and through solid rock at 1. It can swim but cannot breathe water.

Li lung live at the heart of twisting labyrinths deep underground, as far from civilization as possible. They rarely emerge except on the celestial court's orders, usually to shake heretic communities with earthquakes, and occasionally to reward struggling ones by revealing a hidden mine or spring. Besides a language of their own, they know the celestial court's speech and every human tongue.

Earth and stone are their staple food, though precious metals such as silver and gold are favorite treats. They keep away from other dragons and work with them only under direct orders from the celestial court.