Frost Linnorm

A newborn frost looks furry, but tiny pearl-like scales take over before it leaves the hatchling stage. Over time they thicken into sharp, icy plates whose color drifts between white, pale blue and clear, camouflaging the beast against snow and ice. Its small forelegs have grasping claws too feeble for combat.

Frosts know their own tongue and those of their Norse kin. A hatchling has a 25% chance of being able to speak magically with any creature of Intelligence 2 or better, and each age category adds 15%.

Possibly the most territorial Norse dragons, frosts cannot rest while any other intelligent being lives in their domain. They plot for months, rehearsing every battle in their heads until all contingencies are covered. They prefer to strike in winter and to target their victims' weak points, always exhausting breath, runes, magic items and powers before closing with bite and tail slap. Ice is their chosen battleground, since they never lose footing, timing or bearings on slick ground.

Their breath is a cloud of ice crystals 40 feet high, 60 wide and 80 long; a save halves the damage. Both natural and magical cold leave them untouched.

Age brings powers usable at will, three times daily each: audible glamer and meld into ice (young adult); ice shape and phantasmal force (adult); control temperature in a 40-foot radius and improved phantasmal force (mature adult); transmute rock to ice and spectral force (old); heal (very old); transport via ice and advanced illusion (venerable); transmute wood to ice (wyrm); transmute metal to ice and programmed illusion (great wyrm). The ice powers are icy variants of standard spells. All their magic works at level 7 plus combat modifier, and their rune spells never fail.

Frosts live in icy lands, from polar wastes outward, and in winter they range abroad to plunder and wreck human settlements. Older ones use their magic to freeze their territory and carve it into elaborate, gleaming lairs.

Unusually for linnorms, frosts are family-minded, keeping their young close until adulthood and folding them into the eldest's intricate battle plans. The smaller a group, the older its members tend to be; a lone frost is always venerable or older, its mate dead and its offspring long gone. Treasure is buried in the lair, usually under ice. Gems, jewelry and coins are valued, art most of all, and the finest pieces are set out where the dragon can admire them.

Frosts eat little and never devour what they kill. Sages suspect they draw sustenance from breathing bitter winter winds.