Mercury Dragon

Small-bodied and long-tailed, mercury dragons are fast and agile fliers. Dull silver at hatching, their scales brighten steadily until adults gleam like polished mirrors, and reflected glare off scales and wings can dazzle onlookers.

Whim governs everything a mercury does. It may talk, strike at once or wander off, and it rarely holds a decision for long. Good creatures are attacked only under real provocation. It always prefers spells, with a casting level of 10 plus its combat modifier, and can find a clever combat use for nearly any of them.

By bending its mirrored wing membranes, the dragon collects even faint moonlight into a brilliant beam aimed at one foe per round, in place of its wing buffet. The target saves vs. spell or goes blind for 1d4+1 rounds. Out of combat it works as a searchlight. The breath weapon is a hot yellow ray, 60 feet long and 5 feet wide, save for half; burnable items that fail a save vs. magical fire catch alight.

Mercuries hatch immune to fire and every form of magical blindness, with +3 on saves against light attacks. Later gains: gaze reflection at will (young), mirror image 3/day (juvenile), polymorph self 2/day (adult), telekinesis 2/day (old), project image 1/day (wyrm).

They speak the good dragon tongue so rapidly that listeners have just a 75% chance to understand. Loners with few friends nearby, they guard their lairs with traps and magical or mechanical sentries when absent. Mating is a careless romp, yet once eggs are on the way the male grows protective, and both parents will die for their young, who stay home until juvenile age.

Mercuries eat anything but love metal ore. They have no venom of their own, but their flesh is highly poisonous.