Stellar Dragon

Huge, calm and brilliant, a stellar dragon has iridescent deep purple scales, each tipped with a drop of chrome, and gems of every hue scattered across its hide. Two great lionfish-like fins flank its torso, four vast lacy wings steer it, smaller fins cover the rest, and it has no visible limbs.

Those jewels are digested knowledge. The dragon feeds on information and turns it into clear or milky stones, called gems of wisdom and pearls of knowledge, that push out to settle among its scales. More stones mean higher rank and, roughly, greater age; venerable stellars are crusted with them. The one leader, the mikado, wears a single crystal horn on its forehead.

Though rarely hostile, it defends itself easily. Its 'breath' is gravitic: an internal sphere of annihilation, focused through the mouth, drags things inward along a cone 50 feet wide at the jaws, 600 feet wide at the end and 1,200 yards long. A save vs. breath weapon resists the pull.

Three other powers back this up. It can teleport an attacker at random 500-6,000 yards (1d12 hexes) away. It casts any standard wizard spell flawlessly and repeatedly, and can invent or merge spells, such as blending darkness, 50' radius with fireball into a 'shadow flare.' And each round, for as many as seven rounds, it can call a creature from another plane (the game master's pick, up to half the dragon's Hit Dice), which serves slavishly for 2d6 rounds before snapping home.

Stellars roam the entire cosmos, seeking out the guardians of the crystal shells for talk, so meetings are rare. Their domains stretch into other planes and dimensions; they bargain over borders and haggle constantly over which thriving civilizations each may watch. Neutral and aloof, they find meddling with lesser beings tasteless.

Once every 500 years they gather, and the mikado chooses the worthiest to breed. Each produces one fully sentient offspring that departs alone.

A respectful visitor bearing new information has an even chance of a hearing, or of being ignored while the dragon 'digests.' Truth is its goal; its words may be cryptic but never false, and misunderstanding is the listener's fault. Lies give it agonizing indigestion, and a hurting dragon is perilous. Some say a famous human wizard traded a choice secret to one for the two 'hand' spells that bear his name.

Having seen countless civilizations rise and fall, stellars understand how the multiverse works. Legends claim the gems in artifacts and relics are theirs, fueled by crystallized knowledge, though how they were taken is unknown. The jewels are nearly priceless, their stored knowledge worth fortunes, and sages and wizards will do almost anything for one.