Vorzhak Lifesbane the Guardian

Vorzhak's long, sinuous body wears sleek gray scales speckled with gold, and decorative ridges of tough hide shield his belly and face from mortal weapons. He is not yet full-grown, but once he is, he will rival the toughest of the continent's dwindling dragons.

In melee he uses his bite and foreclaws, and he has all the usual special attacks of a great dragon. Countless stories of fiery dragon-death may trace back to his breath, which still flares in the deep passes when he is on the hunt. Once every six rounds he can breathe a cone of flame 50 feet long and 30 feet wide at its end, dealing 20d6+20 damage, halved with a save. Every object in the cone, magical or not, has to save vs. magical fire or be consumed, whether by burning, melting, or disintegration.

While hunting he freezes prey with his gaze: a victim saves vs. paralyzation at -4 or is frozen in terror for 1d3 turns, to be killed and eaten at leisure. Like other great wyrms, he can also spend a full round bending his will against someone caught in his gaze to impose geas, suggestion, or feeblemind with no save. When he enters battle, every foe within 50 feet must save vs. fear at -4, though he can suppress this aura when he would rather not kill, and even then the boldest hero's knees may shake.

His scales and the power his mother has poured into him mean that every damage die that comes up a natural 1 against him simply does nothing, whatever the modifiers or magic involved. He casts wizard spells at 16th level, or 18th while holding the Stone Heart and drawing on his mother's energies, and his victims save at -2 (-4 with the Stone Heart). Many of his spells are unknown to human wizards, yet uses magic sparingly, as his mother has taught him, so as not to anger the gods who granted her peace.

Unusually restless for a dragon, he seldom slumbers longer than twelve years at once, and lightly even then. He believes he exists solely to guard five great mountain summits and to subdue or destroy anyone who intrudes. Brave heroes may approach him for wisdom if they make contact carefully, but hunting down his lair could prove fatal. He loves treasure like any dragon and has added a good deal to his mother's famous hoard, but he will never abandon his duty to gain more.