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Join Llewyn, Taylor, and Travis, a trio of nerdy adults, as they spend way too much time and energy on exploring the lore of Dungeons and Dragons. Listen and laugh with them as they are way too excited about DnD for adults and that's okay!
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93: Dragons of Another Column
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This week, Llewyn is continuing her coverage of the annual specials of the Dragon's Bestiary column, which focus on various new types of the titular creatures.
You the adventurer. Yes, you. Do you desire knowledge of immense worlds and arcane power? A codex of untold stories and lore? Or perhaps simply easy listening for your daily commute. Then feast your eyes, or more accurately, yes, upon Dungeon Pedia. Shit's about to get nerdy in here.
SPEAKER_03Taylor Stanfield.
SPEAKER_04And I'm Travis Peasley. And for the first time in like a month. Or two. Or two.
SPEAKER_02Actually, maybe since the night we got engaged.
SPEAKER_04I think we did a little bit prior to that, but yeah, no. You mean after that? After that. Wow. Brain. Uh, we finally got clear skies. So we were actually able to get our telescope out for once.
SPEAKER_02It was nice.
SPEAKER_04But unfortunately.
SPEAKER_02Up until the sun started cut coming up.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because now it's just muggy, like our humidity is at like 98%. It's kind of shit.
SPEAKER_02Every time I walk outside, I feel like I'm just drenched in sweat. And grease. And I feel like I'm just like traversing through a tropical jungle. Also in part because I need to mow my lawn. But you know.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It um which I'm not a person. I am a person who enjoys the heat. I am a summer baby in more than one sense of the word. But I I'm like um every every Arizonan you've probably ever met within five minutes of mentioning that they're from Arizona. Like I prefer a dry heat as opposed to this 98% humidity. Ah yeah. Like Taylor said, trekking through the fucking rainforest.
SPEAKER_04Seriously, like people that live in any tropical environment, how do you do this?
SPEAKER_03Right?
SPEAKER_04Wow. Don't get me wrong, tropical environments are beautiful, but also this is what sucks.
SPEAKER_03The muggy and the but speaking of tropical environments, today we are going to take a brief jaunt into one. This transition's not the best because I have one thing I wanted to say before that. But we're gonna take a brief jaunt into a tropical environment, talk about one of the types of dragons that is in the uh second. Okay, well, not the second, obviously, this is not the second um publication of the Dragon's Bee Steries segment from Dragon magazine, but the way they did it was like every year for their like anniversary of the column, they would do a Dragon's Bee Sterie entry about dragons. So this is the second one of those. The second one of their kind of annual thing. The second one of their because last time I talked about the first one, and I thought I was gonna be able to do like half of them in in one episode, like half of the anniversary dragon segments, and then the other half in another episode, and then it turns out it would just be one per episode, because there's a lot there's a lot of there's a lot of dragons and information about them to cover in here. Um so we're doing the second annual anniversary, um, that's not redundant, uh, column of the dragon's bestiary. And this is from Dragon Magazine issue 146, which was published in 1989, and the segment is called The Dragon's Bestiary, all dragons, great and small. Okay. Okay. So before we get into these specific types of dragons, and we get to take uh Jaunt off to a uh tropical rainforest, aka stepping outside, of our home of not our home. I know it's here. Mine and Travis's their home. The the place I am at right now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, I'm going to remind everybody of some of the parameters that we discussed last time that kind of are uh like an overarching um set of standards for these dragons and how they relate to true dragons or other true dragons or whatever. Um listen, okay. It's complicated. Yeah, I'll say it's uh it's a complicated thing. It's complicated and the labels don't mean anything.
SPEAKER_04And the points don't matter.
SPEAKER_03And the points don't matter. That is correct. So uh unless otherwise stated, all of these dragons share traits usually found in the more common types of true dragons or just true dragons, because I take Umbridge with some of these being counted amongst the true dragons, but we'll get to that later. Um so some of these traits include but are not limited to the standard drag uh draconic age category progression, um, a 60-foot range infravision, uh senses that allow them to detect hidden or invisible creatures within I talked about this last time. It uses the inch marker, but I think it's it's a block. Yeah, actually actually, I believe Anthony um tweeted at us and agreed with that assessment that it's just the the the inch mark the five-foot radius is Yeah, so within one of those five-foot blocks per age level, a fear aura that they gain at an adult age, uh, improved saving throws, a penchant for treasure, and an ego that allows them to be flattered. Because dragons love treasure and are full of themselves. They love treasure and flattery. And them and themselves. Well, yeah, that that falls into the flattery, though. Yes. Um, also the the last sentence of the introductory paragraph from this particular article is quote, these dragons make terrible pets, but they make wonderful opponents, end quote, which I take a lot of issue with.
SPEAKER_02I mean I too like to fight my pets.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Fucking mood. We do fight our pets a lot, though. Damn, I'm not a fan of that.
SPEAKER_02And by fight, I mean Aries, stop trying to drink my tea.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna say by fight we mean pick them up and repeatedly move them away from trying to ingest things that will hurt them. Yeah, because they have no shame and will just Or self-preservation. Or self-preservation, yeah. Yeah. Or just varying degrees of both of those when it comes to the animal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Like Snoopy has self-preservation, but he has no shame. But the kittens don't have self-preservation either. Yeah. I love being a mother. Um, also, uh, I I didn't consider this whenever I wrote this initial uh sentence because I did this before I had started the research proper. Um, but the the statement these dragons make terrible pets will actually very specifically be contradicted later. So keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_02That's intriguing. Right? That well, okay.
SPEAKER_03I mean, sure.
SPEAKER_04Let's let's let's continue down that path then.
SPEAKER_03We'll sit tight, because it's gonna be a bit.
SPEAKER_04Can I sit loosely?
SPEAKER_03You can sit however you want, Travis. You can sit slowly. Sorry, I couldn't help it. Yeah, feel free to feel free to manspread in your in your chair over there. That's fine. Um, so first we are going to start with the Cobra Dragon.
SPEAKER_04Cobra Dragon?
SPEAKER_03Yes. And uh I like it. As it was in the previous uh episode where I talked about the Dragon's Beast series, uh, each one of these were created by a well, not necessarily different, but each one of these is like, it's not the article is written by so-and-so, it's like this specific segments for each dragon were created and written by uh so-and-so. Okay. So the Cobra Dragon was created by Randy Johns. Not Randy Johnson, not Randy Johnso. Randy Johns, I'm sorry, Randy. But I saw your name and I immediately thought of Randy John so and Renee Johnson, proxy. If you know, you know. But Randy John so first. I'm sorry, Randy.
SPEAKER_04So if you happen to be listening to this.
SPEAKER_03If you if you are somehow listening to this, we're very sorry. We're very sorry. Also, I love your work. Great job on the Cobra Dragon. Um, a Cobra Dragon is a glossy black dragon with an orange underbelly. As I'm sure that you can imagine, hence the name, on either side of its neck is a large hood of skin that resembles that of a king cobra. Wild. Beautiful. I like it. They look fucking sick. Um, so they as I said earlier, a lot of these share the same age category progression as regular dragons. So when they reach the uh ancient age category, which is the oldest age category, they are about 43 feet in length. Okay. Um, despite the resemblance to a cobra with the whole skin hood thing, um, they still have a quadrupedal form and wings. So it's a s it's literally just a dragon with a fucking snakehead.
SPEAKER_02Uh you know I'm into it. Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_04A dragon with a snakehead. I mean, that sounds regardless.
SPEAKER_03With a with a king cobra head. Right, excuse me.
SPEAKER_04Specifically the cobra head. Yeah. Which kind of does make it a little bit cooler.
SPEAKER_03Right. Which, like, I mean, yeah. Like, if you're gonna pick cool snake heads, like King Cobra's out there. Oh, yeah. For sure. So Cobra Dragons are lawful evil and they hail from the Far East, uh, and their aggression and greed match that of any dragon from the West. Uh or, you know, dragon of the West, if you will. Listen, it's required. We gotta get it in the world. Bible. Legally, legally. We have to. Or else the authorities will come after us.
SPEAKER_04Also, they should just sponsor us at this point.
SPEAKER_03Okay, come on with me, Mike and Brian. Okay, no, literally, listen, if if I had if I saw that email in our uh in our inbox, I would perish on the spot. You would have to replace Lewis. Yeah, you would have to replace me. I literally would perish. My heart would not be able to take it.
SPEAKER_04Um yeah, okay. No, that's fair enough.
SPEAKER_03We'd have to replace the whole uh cast, let's be real. Yeah. We would all perish.
SPEAKER_02We would all just fucking die.
SPEAKER_03And then CJ would have to tell everybody.
SPEAKER_02Hey everyone. Um this is the last episode because uh They all fucking died. Fucking died.
SPEAKER_03So okay. So um you might be you might be wondering why these dragons have snakeheads. Well, uh legend purports that some king cobras of great age transform into cobra dragons. That's it. Just a fucking there's just a fun legend of a king cobra turning into a dragon. Okay, listen, it saw the carp swimming up the waterfall and it thought, I can fucking do that, and then it swam up the waterfall and became a dragon. Fucking do that.
SPEAKER_04Get the fuck out of the way.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that that okay, I like that actually. Yeah, yeah. Especially because it's a big joke, but I like it. Yeah, especially because they live in the same they live in the same area of the world as like the lung dragons. So Yeah. Okay, I've decided that that's what they do. They just saw some that's that's it. They saw some carp dragons just trying to swim up a waterfall, and they were like, I can fucking do that.
SPEAKER_02And they did fucking watch me. And this is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_03We all did. And we were all proud of them. Except for now they're a lawful evil killing machine.
SPEAKER_04Look. I mean, so it it's a give and take here.
SPEAKER_03Like, right, yeah, like it's cool, but also. Um, so in Karatur, which they are found in, right, uh, they are found in the far south of the Tulung Empire and are said to be even more numerous in the lands south and west of the Tulung Empire. Um, Empire has two lungs. Yeah, lots except. Jeez. Jeez, how come your mom lets you have two lungs?
SPEAKER_02Okay, but also this empire has two dragons. This lung means dragon.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Geez, how come your mom lets you have two dragons? I don't even have one. Me. Also me. Also me. You say it. Anyways. So Cobra dragons live in caves and underground uh like cave systems in tropical and subtropical environments, but dislike swamps. So we're actually not taking a jaunt into the kind of environment we're in now because the outside feels like a swamp here. Yeah. They do not like swamps.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02To be fair, that that's just because we're far away from any sort of like ocean.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. If we were closer to a large body of water, it would be just pretty much swamp weather at this point.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Ugh. Ugh. Anyway. Gross and sticky. Ugh. Nasty. Um nasty. So Cobra dragons command a territory outside of their lair and are very hostile towards outsiders. Same. No, I'm not, but also I mean, depending on the outsider. Right. Like, let's be let's be honest. Anyway. Anyway. However, the power and charisma of a Cobra Dragon attracts followers who live with the Cobra Dragon and worship it as a god. So uh it they have around like two to eight followers, usually of um like various different types of humanoids. Uh, you know, humanoids, um, like lizardkin, that kind of thing. Right. So uh other cobra dragons are only tolerated in each other's territory during their spring mating season. Yeah, they don't like they don't like each other either. Uh quote, I just I just quoted this whole thing. Uh quote, the mating ritual involves the male and female entering non-inderous combat that results in a fiery display. Oh my.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no, I mean I mean non-inderous combat. That's on point.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, I feel like that's fairly you see that sometimes. Mating only occurs during age categories four and five. Cobra dragons past the adult stage of life boast of having outgrown the mating drive. End quote. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02They're like, yeah, I'm too I'm too cool. I'm too immature to partake in sex.
SPEAKER_04I'm too cool and and smart and mature to fucking alright, dude, miss out, but that's on you. That's on you. That ain't my problem.
SPEAKER_02Like, uh, like no no, no. I want to be clear that this is not an anti-sexual joke, but also right, like this is an anti-people who think that they that not having sex makes them smarter and better. Right.
SPEAKER_03Also, like, you know, like you know, even on your past age category five, if you if you're interested in it, you know, you can still get just some sweet love-in. Uh don't kink shame these older dragons.
SPEAKER_02Are you trying to start a um an info service for how older dragons can have sex?
SPEAKER_03Yes, I'm going to I'm going to buy the domain and make a dating site for dragons over the age of 55.
SPEAKER_02I I I like it. I support you on this. Okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_03So after this um non-enderous combat that results in a fiery display, but only between the age categories of four and five, uh, and only in the missionary position with the lights off, uh, for the purpose of procreation, under the watchful eye of Tiamat, uh, the female lays one to four 12-inch long eggs.
SPEAKER_02Excuse you, Bahamut. They're not chaotic. Or they're they're not they're lawful, not chaotic. But they're also evil. But they're ca but they're lawful. So both of them?
SPEAKER_03At this nope. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They can just um they can just call Sardior, maybe. Okay, yeah. He's down. Maybe. Maybe. Um, so the hatchlings stay with their mother until reaching um, I had not seen this word. I think this is from um an older, like Advanced Dungeons and Dragons era um of Dragon Age categories, but that is sub-adulthood, which I looked up, which is around 10.
SPEAKER_04Sub-adulthood.
SPEAKER_03So it's basically the stage before young adult. So like teenager? Yeah, so I would imagine that the human equivalent is kind of in the age range of like 14. 15 or 15. Yeah, 14 or 15 to like 17. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I mean, yeah, fair enough, I suppose.
SPEAKER_03Honestly, just throw 18 in there. Right, yeah. And plus, like, I mean, a 10-year-old dragon is probably smarter than the vast majority of human adults, so you know. You're not wrong. They're probably fine.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I was gonna say, you're not wrong. Like, I couldn't try to argue that, but I'm not going to because I believe I would lose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you would be wrong, probably. Yeah. Um, despite their high intelligence, cobra dragons do not use magic. In fact, they are resistant to it, both literally and figuratively, as they instead rely on their strength and natural abilities, which are no less formidable than the average magic user. Right. Um, they have an innate magic resistance that starts at 15% from the very young age category and ends at 80% in the ancient age category. Oh. So they are like literally physically resistant to magic. Oh, okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Interesting.
SPEAKER_03Um, so those natural abilities. Um in the uh dragon's mouth uh extend two 13-inch long fangs that inject a deadly venom into the target. Yes, we are back to snake stuff. Yep.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_03Also, 13-inch long fangs. Jesus Christ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's I mean, it's it's proportional. Like it is proportional to their size. So it's not like that. Oh, we have a ruler handy. Oh, we have a ruler handy, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so I mean, it's that and a little bit more. And then plus one. So Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So like about a laptop's worth.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, literally the length of my laptop, I think. I might I think mine's a 13 and a half.
SPEAKER_02Like so you're you're your dr your dragon. I feel like the thing would just go through something. Yeah, yeah. Like at that point.
SPEAKER_03It doesn't matter. At that point, the venom. Venom, excuse you.
SPEAKER_02You assume that they're biting down all the way.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, true. They just kind of like tap you a little bit. But yeah, like at that point, it's like it doesn't even matter if you've been injected with a deadly venom. Like you've just been impaled. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So like oh no, I've been impaled.
SPEAKER_03So um a victim bitten by the dragon immediately dies. No, they don't immediately die. Um they bleeds out begins to bleed out.
SPEAKER_04They should at least.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, I'll stop interrupting. No, you're you're you're fine. I'm actually like, I literally was like, oh, 13 inches, that's pretty big. That's what she said. And then moved on to just pondering the uh effects of the venom that I didn't even think, like, yeah, the average human would literally just be speared all the way through, and it's like, well, that's probably gonna kill you anyway. But if that doesn't kill you, they're venom.
SPEAKER_02Oh, good, good.
SPEAKER_03Um so the target immediately becomes weakened, so you reduce the strength score by half. Jesus! Yeah. Uh dizzy, so they have a negative three on all two hit rolls, and suffers uh just continuous nausea, uh, which adds a plus four to be hit by opponents. Uh after every round thereafter, the victim suffers one hit point of damage due to, quote, extensive bleeding under the skin, also out of the skin, because you've been impaled by a 13-inch long fang.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, like under the skin, no, I mean, sure, sure.
SPEAKER_03I mean, yes, that's also probably happening.
SPEAKER_04It's also going to be coming out of you because you know You've been impaled. Giant wound.
SPEAKER_03Right. So after 10 rounds, if the victim saves on a throw against poison, which I'm not sure if this is you have to live through those ten rounds, or if you can maybe try to save each time. It's just that I would assume you can try to save each time. It's just that this effect will last up to that long. Will last up to this long before it um gets worse. Um so if the victim saves on a throw against poison, they return to their normal uh level of function. So like strength normal strength score, they're not nauseated anymore, yada yada. Um if they fail, they fall into shock, upon which they're unconscious and will die in five rounds if not magically cured of the poisoning. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_04Magically cured. You have to magically cure them of this poison.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Uh victims of a cobra dragon's bite cannot ingest any food or liquids due to nausea until they have overcome the effects of the poison. So you can't even force feed your fucking poor friend a health potion or something. Unless they succeed their saving throws. Yeah, unless they fucking fight off the the effects of the poison. So yeah. Um, if that wasn't bad enough, these things obviously, as dragons, have a breath weapon.
SPEAKER_04Uh I mean kind of figured.
SPEAKER_03Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So, what is this going to entail? Because I'm a little scared.
SPEAKER_03Uh, yeah. Um, so they can use it three times per day, which is pretty average for dragons. Right. So three times a day, a cobra dragon can breathe a cone of fire, which is ninety feet long with a thirty foot base diameter. Um optionally, the dragon can also. So, this is a common tactic they use, especially when they're surrounded. Get the good those good AoEs. They can breathe their breath weapon directly under themselves as they are, we'll touch on this a little more later, they are completely immune to it. They're completely immune to their own breath weapon. So the breath weapon striking the ground forms a 40-foot diameter circle of flame that surrounds the dragon, which is similar to the wall of fire spell. So I mentioned they are not affected by their own breath weapon. They are also not affected by any other fire and heat-based attacks, both magical or mundane, but they do take a bonus two hit points per hit dice of cold damage on uh cold-based attacks. So they're essentially immune to fire, weak dice. Or cold, as it were. Listen, I uh my brain only knows Pokemon. No, I mean all other elemental attacks uh affect them normally. So when the dragon's fire breath is expelled, a black smoke cloud is released from its nostrils in a 90-foot diameter circle around a dragon. And this cloud is mostly stationary. Um all of those within the cloud, except the dragon, obviously, suffer from coughing, nausea, and irritated eyes, which result in a negative two to hit as long as you remain in the cloud. Uh the smoke cloud lasts for four to sixteen rounds before breaking up. It can be it can be moved by wind, both mundane and magical, but it can't be dispersed by wind. So you could move it away, but you can't just like You can't completely get rid of it. Yeah. Um also the effects from the smoke cloud are cumulative. So if it uses its three charges of its breath weapon in a row and you are within that stacking smoke cloud effect, you will have a negative six to hit.
SPEAKER_04God's such a large negative, man.
SPEAKER_02These are not your party at level two. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03But if you're if you really hate your friends, yeah. Also, that's a 90-foot diameter circle around the dragon. So that probably is even going to encompass your casters, probably. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean, most spell ranges are well in this particular edition, actually.
SPEAKER_03So one one thing um about them that is that they're terrifying. Well, they're terrifying. And also, um, reminder that these guys are uh evil, right? So they're they're bad. They're bad. Um they do they do have a uh rather charming pastime though, and that is uh skull collecting. Oh they like to collect skulls. Um skulls of um powerful monsters, uh rare creatures. It says their favorites include cave bears, dinosaurs, other dragons, giants, and unicorns. Oh. Um humanoid skulls are deemed interesting, but not very valuable since they are so easily obtained. Tam. T. Um scathing. Scathing. And uh going with uh what I mentioned earlier about them the having a somewhat, at least baseline, similar psychological profile to other dragons, they can be bribed and persuaded with gifts, and their preferred gift is um skulls. Yeah. Oh my god. Interesting, yeah. Interesting skulls.
SPEAKER_04Oh, isn't that just charming? I mean, I can't lie though, a unicorn skull would be pretty cool.
SPEAKER_03A dragon skull would be pretty cool. Yeah, too. You know? Yeah. A dinosaur skull? Fuck yeah. Catch me braiding the Smithsonian. No, I'm not gonna do that. Take me off that list. Take me off.
unknownNope.
SPEAKER_03I was kidding. It's too late. Damn it. Damn it. You and uh Nicholas Cage. So I'm in fantastic company. Lovely. So next we're going to talk about obsidian dragons. And you might be saying, Luan, you've already talked about obsidian dragons. Good.
SPEAKER_02You've already talked about obsidian dragons.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you talked about them in the Dream Dragons episode. Or you might uh just be unable to keep track of all of the different types of dragons that I may have mentioned in passing in one of these episodes. Probably that one. Yeah, probably that one. But I have mentioned obsidian dragons before, but it was in a very different context, I will explain. So, uh this uh section on the Obsidian dragon was written by Mark Mathis. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. Um, obsidian dragons appear in most respects to be like silver dragons, which are my if you guys didn't know, if if anybody didn't know, which I may not have.
SPEAKER_02You have to pick out a dragon for Lewin.
SPEAKER_03Which, yeah, I may I may not have actually even ever said this on recording, but silver dragons are my favorite type of regular dragons. The standard chromatic and metallic dragons. Um, the main difference between the two is that obsidian dragons are black with kind of um shiny silver highlights. Right. Um, they are about 56 feet long. So they uh appear in Greyhawk, uh, known only from the northern reaches of the continent of Auric, which I know absolutely nothing about because I don't know that much about Greyhawk. Uh well, this setting specifically. Right. Uh Obsidian dragons are thought to be the distant but more powerful cousins of silver dragons, hence their resemblance. And some people um speculate that they originated in the land of black ice, which I don't know much, but that is my favorite scent of car air freshener.
SPEAKER_04So it actually is really good. I'm it smells so nice.
SPEAKER_03I think it's not a sponsor. But like, hey, like little little trees, you you could you you could send us some stuff for free. That would be cool. I mean I'd like some little trees to put in my car. Um obsidian dragons are lawful with 65% of them being good, 25% neutral, and 10% evil. So they're skewed. They skew towards the lawful good side of the spectrum.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03Which I think this is interesting because this is the one time I've seen in um ones like these where it was like it was actually broken down as in like they're mostly good. You know what I mean? But they fall on the one side of the law and chaos spectrum. Yeah, that that is interesting. Um, so these guys are different from the obsidian dragons that I discussed in the uh Sardior episode, which were the um sixth type of gem dragon and represented by the sixth of Sardior's Thane Cyriades, which he had, I believe he yeah, he destroyed her. Um the reasoning why is cloudy, depending on the source she used, and then banished the rest of the obsidian dragons from his court. And those obsidian dragons are different in that they are evil because they're real bent out of shape about it. Um these ones are not. But like, even though they have the same name, I don't think that they have the same dragons. Yeah, they're not like I I don't necessarily think that inspiration was taken um from one or the other. I'm honestly not sure which one of these publications came out first. I believe this would have come out before the first mention of obsidian dragons in line with the gem dragons, but I don't think that there was inspiration taken from one to the other, even though they have the same name. So, um 85% of obsidian dragons are able to cast magic beginning in the youngest age category, with ancient obsidian dragons being able to cast up to eighth level, typically. Uh, 25% of them can know a single spell of ninth level. So they are very powerful magic users.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_03Um 45% of these magic using obsidian dragons have access to spell books, which obviously allows them to widen their repertoire beyond the um limited number of spells that they gain naturally. Because it's like a, you know, each level they get one of like, or each age category they get like one of a new um spell level, and then like two of the previous, and da-da-da. But by the by the time they're ancient, they can cast a lot of fucking spells.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, obsidian dragons take minus one hit point per hit dice of cold damage inflicted upon them, um, but they are not immune to their own breath weapons. In addition, they take plus one hit die uh HP per hit die of fire, heat, and electricity-based attacks. So they are uh resistant to cold, but they're weak to fire and electricity.
SPEAKER_04Okay, I was gonna say, so this is their way of basically saying that they have a resistance by saying negative one HP and then plus one. Okay.
SPEAKER_03Um as with silver dragons, these creatures are able to polymorph themselves at will to appear to be a human or a it says normal animal, which I think is funny. This is a normal this is a normal bear.
SPEAKER_04Normal bear.
SPEAKER_03Uh so the breath weapon of the obsidian dragon is a cone of black acidic frost. Oh my god. Which is 90 feet long with a 30-foot base. Acidic?
SPEAKER_02Yes. Like it's just the rain from Venus and made it frozen. Like the snow from Venus. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And just shot it out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04In a 90-foot by 30-foot cover.
SPEAKER_03Yes. So creatures who saw uh who fail their saving throws versus uh dragon breath take the uh damage from cold equal to the dragon's hit points, which fuck you. Um, but they must also save at negative two to avoid taking two to sixteen hit points of acid damage as well. Which that's either uh if you pass it, you don't take any damage, if you fail it, you take the damage. It isn't like a half or whatever. Um luckily they can only use this one three times per day, which is like I said, pretty typical.
SPEAKER_04Okay, right. But equal to the dragon's hit points.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Like at the beginning of the fight, you're you're yeah, you're in trouble. Like, especially because there are there are some of these that stats-wise it it could be the kind of thing that you could manage at lower levels, but like depending on the level you would uh encounter one of these things at, like, that's just all of your HP. Yeah, that's um, so three times per day, uh yeah, they have another power, fuck you. Uh three times per day, the obsidian dragon can also breathe a membranous web of black ice, which is 10 feet in diameter with a 60-foot range.
SPEAKER_04When the fuck did they become spiders?
SPEAKER_03Um, I at some point when they diverge from silver dragons, Travis. I don't know. Uh those that fail the saving throw versus dragon breath uses the same save as their actual breath weapon, are enveloped in the web and encased in uh black ice, essentially. Oh. All encased creatures are held immobile and must make another saving throw versus breath weapon to keep their faces from being covered. What? What the fuck? Yeah, otherwise they will suffocate in two to five rounds unless they make their uh Ben Bar slash liftgates checks, because you know, they had those back in the day. Yeah. Yeah. Um they also have this specific save against like dragon breath, which is, you know. I mean you highly specific, but okay. Right. So you can either break free from it by using a uh Ben bar slash liftgates check, or it you can inflict uh 12 hit points of damage onto the black ice web, which it has an AC of four, which in like Thacko is not spectacular.
SPEAKER_02Like In Thacko.
SPEAKER_03Well, in like no, I just like the way you phrase it. In Thacko. In Thacko. In Thacko. But going by the Thacko system, like that's not, again, that's not like you throw this at your level two party, but compared to like, you know, the the AC of the dragon itself, that's not bad. Right. And especially since you only need to inflict 12 points of damage. Uh, one quarter of the damage done to the black eye sweb is also inflicted on the victim. Because, you know, you're hitting the thing that they're wrapped up in, so it will also hurt them a little bit. Yeah. I'm I'm pretty glad these guys are 65% good. Well, they're they're good 65% of the time. Right. I'm glad that these guys are 65%. This is you. This is your badness level.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god, I was thinking that exact same thing.
SPEAKER_03Except it's broken up into three sections. It's like you have the goodness level, the neutralness level, and the badness level is like only their feetsies, because it's like 10%.
SPEAKER_04You two frighten me sometimes.
SPEAKER_02It's Lilo and Stitch, you need to watch it. What? You have I know. It's okay.
SPEAKER_03Listen, I've made this joke five times already, I'm sure. Taylor hit stop. We're gonna go watch Lilo and Stitch right now. Right now.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Is it time for the ad break, actually? Is it time let's go right now?
SPEAKER_03Yes. Like, we're gonna we're gonna take an ad break and we're we're gonna do our ads, and then we're gonna go watch Lilo and Stitch. It's happening. You just kinda have to deal with it. Uh go sit on the couch. I'll make the popcorn.
SPEAKER_04Can I sit in my chair instead?
SPEAKER_03No. Oh. I don't see why not. Okay, fine. Hey everybody, thank you so much for checking out our one millionth episode about dragons.
SPEAKER_02I mean, it's it's not in our name, but it's in the the name of the game.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The name of the game.
SPEAKER_04I mean there are so many dragons.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and so many dungeons. And we've covered almost none of them. We've only mentioned some of them in passing. But it's okay. Listen, guys, I just really want to get through this outbreak so we can go watch Lelo and Stitch. So Okay, well, then let's go. Full steam ahead. Full steam ahead to metallicegames.com, our affiliate partner. They make beautiful dice and dice-related accessories, including exclusive sets of dice that you can't get anywhere else. Dice and dice accessories. Dice and dice accessories.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, good dice.
SPEAKER_03Please tell me you get that reference, Travis.
SPEAKER_04I do get that reference.
SPEAKER_03Okay, good. So now we don't have to sit and watch the entire series of King of the Hill. No, I have watched King of the Hill. All right, good. We've narrowed it down to just Lilo and Stitch so far. And like five other things. But just Lilo and Stitch today. So you can use offer code Dungeon Pedia for 10% off your entire order at metallicdice games.com for your Das and DAS accessories.
SPEAKER_04Woo! We, of course, do still have our Patreon up and running if you would like to support us directly. It's just there. Dungeonpedia. You can search it, find it if you wish. If not, that's cool too. We just appreciate the listen. Yeah, absolutely. So don't forget, follow us on our Twitter and our Instagram. Both of those are at Dungeonpedia. You can get updates and random interesting facts. Fictures of dragons. Suggestions for maybe Patreon tiers.
SPEAKER_02Other movies that Travis needs to watch.
SPEAKER_04Okay, let's let's not go down that road because I will never be able to leave the house if that's the case. Or if you just want to correct us on something or ask us a more specific question about something we covered, that works too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. If you don't want to wait on our daily updates on Twitter to tell you when well, our d not our daily updates, our weekly updates on Twitter for when our new episodes go live, you can subscribe on whatever app you listen to podcasts on, and that way you'll get updates as soon as we go live. Or rather, as soon as that app updates, but happens very often. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02On those apps, sometimes there's a little rating system or a way to leave reviews. And if you could leave one, especially if you're on iTunes, that would be greatly appreciated.
SPEAKER_04It would help us so much.
SPEAKER_02But more importantly, keep on doing what you're doing, which I'm guessing because of how well it's been going. You guys have been spreading the word.
SPEAKER_04I mean, you had to you you yelled at the stranger across the street, didn't you? Of course. I do it. A plus. That's what you need to do.
SPEAKER_02Cellitize. Okay, but actually don't harass homeless people or strangers. Um, but like tell your friends, tell your family.
SPEAKER_04I mean, if you want to go through the effort, you could post flyers, but I mean, don't we're definitely not gonna like ask you to do that.
SPEAKER_02No, yeah, we're not gonna ask you to do that. Um please. That would be bad. Yeah. Um but if you guys could keep spreading the word, that would be great. It helps us so much. It helps us be able to reach more people and and just continue to improve this podcast.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Also, uh big thank you to Alexander Nakarata for our theme song Blacksmith, that has also helped us improve our podcast.
SPEAKER_02Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Because I mean, we have to do that.
SPEAKER_02And who doesn't love the music? That I mean, probably somebody, but you're wrong, so damn, called out. And and with that, let's get back to well, first we're gonna go watch Lilo and Stitch and then get back to the dragons.
SPEAKER_03Wow, I sure had a good time watching uh Lilo and Stitch just now. I was gonna say the year it released, but I didn't know offhand.
SPEAKER_022001? Okay, let's feel early.
SPEAKER_03Let's uh yeah, not worried. Let's uh no, we're we're Travis and I are literally both 2002.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so yeah, that was a year early. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03Close, but closer than I thought. For some maybe I'm just old. Way closer than I would have guessed. Yeah, no, because I was gonna guess like later in the in the aughts. No, I it was very formative for me. I mean, valid. I I think I'm just older than I thought I was. Uh anyway. Yeah, let's not touch that one. Yeah, let's not. Um, so next we're gonna talk about gray dragons, which this uh entry was written by uh Gregory Detweiler, who contributed a lot of them last time. Thank you, Gregory. That was creepy. Let's never do that again. Okay. Also, it's gonna keep happening. Right. So um, this is another one where you might be saying, Lewin, you've already covered gray dragons. Or potentially have they've gotten lost in the sea of other dragons.
SPEAKER_02Lewin, I'm fairly sure you've already covered gray dragons.
SPEAKER_04I'm not even sure at this point.
SPEAKER_03So, okay, kind of. What I covered was Fang Dragons, which at certain points have been referred to as gray dragons, but I did mention in that episode that the this actually I mentioned in this entry specifically back when I was a sweetsummer child who did not know the depth of what awaited me in the Dragon's Beastie Erie. Um, but I mentioned that basically kind of like the Obsidian dragons, like these dragons are here in this uh article, they're referred to as gray dragons, but I don't think they're the same thing. So yeah, yeah. Um you can be honest if you don't remember that.
SPEAKER_02No, I actually really do remember that.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I mean that's fair. I've there's a lot of dragons. So these are not the same as uh fang dragons, and the differences will become apparent as we continue. Apparent, yes. Um, though they're not as different, I think, as the two types of aforementioned Obsidian dragons. Um, so Grey Dragons are sometimes seen along the coasts of the Icewall Glacier, which is a polar ice cap of Crin from the Dragonlance uh setting. Right. Not a certain dynasty. Um the gray dragon is similar in size to the white dragon, uh, both being among the smallest and swiftest of dragon kinds, which they average around 24 feet long. Uh grey dragons do. Um gray dragons, however, are more intelligent, and their thick grayscales give them better uh protection than white dragons. So they're kind of and given the um environmental overlap, they're kind of in conflict with each other pretty frequently. Um gray dragons are neutral evil in alignment. Uh the okay, I gotta be honest, I'm gonna read this sentence and I don't know what half of these things mean because I do not know much about the Dragonlance setting. Um Gray Dragons are not known to have joined the forces of the Queen of Darkness during the War of the Lance. I'm assuming that's a probably a probably an important thing in that setting, but like I said, I do not know the most about Dragonlance. Um instead, they raid and kill any creatures that wander into their territories regardless of their origin. Oh. That's nice. And I mentioned that because it's kind of they they haven't thrown in their lot with what I'm assuming is the main evil faction. Um, but they're still not very nice. And uh this trait has not endeared them to anybody, and uh some crayotragons may find themselves being hunted by forces of both good and evil at the same time. Oh because they've just pissed everybody off by being assholes, essentially.
unknownDamn.
SPEAKER_03So they're they're evil, but they've not thrown their lot in with the main evil. You know what I mean? Right. They're just kind of They're just kind of dicks. Yeah, they're just side evil. They're just being Dicks on the side. Nope. Nope. So anyway, their mastery of magic is greater than white dragons, but not uh as advanced as uh the previously discussed obsidian dragons, even though I guess they exist in different worlds, so they would never come in contact. Anyway, um, very uh old and ancient dragons, which very old is an age category, uh have access to spellcasting up to fourth level, so quite a bit less powerful than obsidian dragons. Uh they are very tactical uh in their combat though, uh particularly placing an emphasis on immobilizing their enemies, often doing so by attacking the um leading sled dogs or draft animals before their actual opposition in order to trap them. Okay, yeah. So gray dragons, old enough to know fourth-level spells, favor the dig spell as it enables them to create pitfalls for intruders without actually having to go physically dig them. Um they also like to create phantasmal force illusions of like sometimes they also like to um like say they they happen upon like a contingent of like say a sleeping group of adventurers, they like to steal their sled dogs and take them back to their caves and shit. So then the people have to go get them. So they're in their their their territory so they can uh the specific word used was elegantly pick them off one by one. Just elegantly. Um so in line with this, they also enjoy creating a phantasmal force illusion of aforementioned like stolen sled dogs or draft animals or whatever, in order to tempt the intruders into a trap without actually like risking their uh you know upper hand, if you will. These guys are little shits. Yeah, so these guys are fucking assholes.
SPEAKER_04And just a little bit way too smart.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, they're yeah, so even though they have a they have a lower um level of spellcasting ability, they use it very well. Yeah. They're they're smart about it. Um their breath weapon is a paralyzing cone of cold with a base diameter of two feet, a length of 70 feet, and an end diameter of 50 feet. Um, as is typical, it can be used three times per day. That's literally all it is, is a cone of cold. There's nothing crazy going on with this one. Grey dragons take uh a bonus hit point per hit die of damage from attacks based on fire and electricity, but take um negative one hit point per hit die of damage from attacks based on earth and water. Okay Which is interesting because I I did go back and peek through their section just to make a hundred percent sure. But you think they would be immune or at least um resistant to cold damage, but apparently not.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03That is interesting.
SPEAKER_04That's kind of what I would have figured.
SPEAKER_03But you know, I mean, maybe it maybe it's somewhere that I just missed it in the very small print or something to that effect. But near as I can tell, they don't have any special weaknesses or resistances to cold, which you would think they would be resistant to it, but whatever. So, next, um, this is also by Gregory Duttweiler. Thank you, Gregory. Um, since it is Pride Month, we have a very special entry here with the Rainbow Dragon! Woo! Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay. I like it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so Rainbow Dragons. Uh the Rainbow Dragon is one is one of the most powerful of all evil dragons. They're evil, yay! Yay! Yay!
SPEAKER_02Evil Rainbow Dragon.
SPEAKER_03Yay, okay. Uh it is also the most beautiful. Um, it's hide displaying an ever-changing display of iridescent hues of all colors. Hence the name Rainbow Dragon. Is it real? Hello? No, it's iridescent. God. Jesus Christ. Uh there they are about 50 feet long. Uh when the dragon is in the bright light of the desert environments that it favors, this dazzling display of colors gleams so brightly that it is painful to the eyes, causing any attackers to attack at a negative two to hit or negative four, in addition to the regular penalty that they suffer if the attackers are unaccustomed to fighting in direct sunlight, such as Drow. Oh. Yeah, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Yeah. Well, don't let my character near one.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I was gonna say that was a I specifically mentioned that because I'm playing a drow currently. Yeah, I was gonna say, because Taylor has Taylor has the balls to play a full Drow one like me. Um, as expected, because I mentioned they were evil, they are neutral evil. Um Rainbow Dragons aggressively patrol their territories, um, typically in the daytime, because they prefer to attack when the sun is out for obvious reasons.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, like I said, they typically like to live in the desert, um, but sometimes like plains kind of areas, and they make their layers in old ruins and caverns, which is always a fun time. Oh, yeah. Uh all rainbow dragons can speak and they enjoy negotiating for larger tributes and payoffs from cities that do not want to be besieged by a giant sparkly dragon.
SPEAKER_02Who wouldn't want to be besieged by a giant sparkly dragon? That's what I'm wondering. I mean, honestly, like if you had to be besieged by a dragon, like like DM me, honestly.
SPEAKER_04I mean, yeah, I if you're gonna be besieged by a dragon, it might as well be like a beautiful rainbow dragon. Yeah, might as well be iridescent and at least beautiful to look at, and you can see before you die.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well, you probably wouldn't because it would probably blind you before you died. Anyway. Um, interestingly, their blood is an ideal component uh to be used in the ink for scrolls of spells such as color spray. I'm not surprised. Yeah, etc. Um, they have similar magical prowess to gray dragons as far as the levels go. Like they cast up to fourth level. Um, but 100% of rainbow dragons can cast spells as opposed to, I believe, gray dragons was like 40%. Um, they also resist electrical damage at a uh negative one hit point per hit die penalty, which is handy if a rainbow dragon comes into conflict with a blue dragon, which they often do as they occupy the same type of desert and like arid plains type environments. Right. So gray dragons have their Yes?
SPEAKER_02Please excuse dear Lilith. Uh she thinks that she's opinions. She she's been very vocal about her opinions on dragons today.
SPEAKER_04And she thinks she's dying. She's not, but she shows how she thinks she is.
SPEAKER_03Cats, am I right? I I understand now. I I I I've always been sympathetic, but now I really understand. So gray dragons have their beef with white dragons, and rainbow dragons have their beef with blue dragons. Right. Um, so five times per day, because it is Pride Month, uh, rainbow dragons can use their breath weapons of pure energy, which looks like a rainbow-hued blast of light. Hell yeah. Which is what happened, which is what happened to me. I was uh uh assaulted by a rainbow. I was a nice I was a nice little straight girl, and then uh I a rainbow dragon a rainbow dragon hit me with its rainbow energy beam. Shut up. Everyone knows that's how gay people are made. So the we the weapon does the weapon the weapon does damage equal to the dragon's hit points.
SPEAKER_02Oh god damn, you must have a lot of hit points.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but only if but if I I love the this next part makes me laugh. But only affects one target per attack. Like that's not like okay, well, you know. Yeah, our fucking meat shield paladin is still dead, but it only affected him, so we're good. We're still good. No. It's fine. And oh yeah, and there's four people and four more people in the party. Wait. Oh no. Oh no. We're still gonna die. It's just gonna take more rounds.
SPEAKER_02I love how it says that. Like that's um like that like that makes it better. I mean, like if Does it not? Balancing. Yeah, like that's balanced. I mean, I guess at least like technically, literally, it kind of is, but like But also, like it can just hit you four more times.
SPEAKER_03It would be different if that was like a once per day thing. Yeah. Even. Um, the breath oven is a five-foot wide beam of energy that extends for 100 feet. Yeah, so I guess at least like if you're if your paladin is meat shielding in front of, say, your sorcerer or something, like it at least is not gonna hit the squishy behind them. True. You know what I mean? I guess there's that. So okay, so and also this light is so bright, which I don't know why it specifies that this is at night, because I feel like this would also happen in the daytime. I don't know. But it says that this light is so bright that if the dragon attacks with it at night, everyone within 100 feet of the beam must save uh or be blinded for one to four rounds. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so my thought is that you are more ingested to bright light during the day. So it is not as sharp of a contrast. That's true.
SPEAKER_03Because I mean with their with like their scales, it makes sense that it would be worse during the day because then there's actual light refract like refracting off of them. But like the beam, yeah, that makes sense. Okay. That's fair. That's a good point. I mean, either way, it's probably gonna fuck you up.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Like at that point, honestly, the whole like potentially blinding your party members is really just rubbing salt in the wound.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Because like, whatever.
SPEAKER_02I mean, have you ever accidentally seen like a flashlight flash into your eyes at night versus in the day?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, or like when you're when you're lying in bed and you like you had your phone brightness on its daytime brightness and you like and then you drop it on your face. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. It's exactly that. Exactly. Exactly the same scenario. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um, so next we're gonna talk about the draken. The draken.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. No. The draken?
SPEAKER_03The draken. It's like kraken, but it starts with a D instead.
SPEAKER_04Oh.
SPEAKER_03No, that's not where you got really excited, and I'm just gonna let you down. That's not where we're going. I'm sad now. Um the this segment was written by Malcolm Bowers. Um a dragon. Thank you for letting him down, Malcolm. Yeah, Malcolm. How dare you!
SPEAKER_04I blame Moon for this one.
SPEAKER_03Oh. Wow. Yeah, I guess I was the one who said Kraken with a D. Yeah. Imagine a Kraken with a D. Anyway, uh, a Draken resembles a small three-headed blue dragon in appearance.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, hold on.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's got three heads.
SPEAKER_02No, no, no, no, no, no. You went with Kraken with a D. You know what my brain just did? Draken from Kim Possible. It's just Disney today.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It's just all Disney. It's a Disney. It's a Disney.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so I'm sorry, it's got three heads.
SPEAKER_03It's got three blue. It's got three heads and it's blue. But it is much darker than a regular blue dragon. The color that they described was specifically Prussian blue. Um.
SPEAKER_04With um I'm gonna have to look that up real quick.
SPEAKER_02It's like that okay. If you know an artist, ask them to pull out their blue.
SPEAKER_03It's that one. Yeah. And its wings and eyes are tinged uh cyan. So the draken is a variety of dragonette.
SPEAKER_02Which um Who would put a dragon in a net?
SPEAKER_04I mean hunters, probably. Yeah. Depending on the size. City guards.
SPEAKER_03Depending on the size, yeah. Yeah. Um, which a dragonet in I I I have taken it that it means different things depending on the addition. But in um Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, a dragonet is essentially, because my thought was immediately, which this is only partially influenced by Final Fantasy XIV, is like a baby dragon. Right. Like a small little baby dragon. But um in this um like rule set and um edition, it seems that a dragonette is essentially the name for a couple of varieties of dragon kin, basically, that are significantly smaller and less intelligent and altogether not the most dragony. They're like they're almost more like drakes. So anyway, um, the dragon is cousin to both the fire drake and the ice lizard, and distantly related to blue dragons in the same way that fire drakes are related to red dragons, and ice lizards are related to white dragons. Okay. Um, so they average about four feet long. Um, the specific sizing given for dragonets in general was about horse-sized, which this is like a Shetland pony sized, I guess. I don't know. But they have three heads, so I guess they don't need to be super duper horse-sized. Right. Um, they inhabit the Calum Desert of Calum Shan, which is in the Forgotten Realms, where they are renowned for their irascibility, which was the specific word used, and that was a that was my like word of the day, which irascibility essentially just means temper, irritability. Okay, they're they're they're angry.
SPEAKER_04I don't know if I've actually ever heard that word before.
SPEAKER_03I don't think I hadn't either. I I I like from context clues, from the fact that it literally looks like the word irritability. And like that, we're talking about dragons. And that we're talking about dragons, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Tendency to become angry or irritable.
SPEAKER_03Okay, well um they in keeping with their irascibility, I suppose, they are lawful evil. Which I take I take umbrage with that because they are in in in my onion, they are essentially relatively similar to animals insofar as But I mean I guess they are related to blue dragons, which are chromatic and therefore mostly evil. So I guess that makes sense a little bit more. But anyway, yeah. So given them being dragonets as opposed to dragons, dragons lack the size and age categories of their larger kin, um, and they grow to adulthood within a year's time after being hatched. And also, um, it doesn't say how long they live, but I looked up Fire Drakes, and they live roughly like 70-ish years, so significantly shorter than true dragons. Um, they also lack the sensory powers, fear aura, and saving throw bonuses, but they can also not be subdued or flattered with treasure and what have you in the same way that um their draconic cousins can, literally, because they're not really intelligent enough for that. So I mean, not to be mean, but like deadass. Yeah. Their primary form of attack is a breath weapon, which each head can use twice daily. Remember, they have three heads. Um, this is a bolt of lightning that is one foot wide and 60 feet long, um, that delivers two to sixteen hit points of damage. So these this is a little bit closer to the kind of thing that maybe your slightly lower level party could handle. Yeah. So each of the dragon's heads can bite in the same round. And if two of the bites are successful, a shocking grasp uh-like attack does 4 to 11 hit points of damage to the victim. And if all three hit, the extra damage is 9 to 17 hit points. Oh. So that third head just has more juice in it, I guess. It's probably just that it compounds on itself, but that was what my brain said. The third one is juicier. The third one's always the juiciest. Am I right? Um, the dragon may use any combination of bites and breath weapons from its three heads in a round. So it can be biting your meat shield with one head and shooting a bolt of lightning at your caster with another head. Uh.
SPEAKER_04Or laughing at you with a third head.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yes. Um remember, laughing is a free action. Laughing is free. Laughing is a free action. You know what else is a free action? Crying. Which is what I will be doing when I see one of these motherfuckers. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Um, the draken is immune to sleep spells and also all electrical attacks, which it makes sense because it's, you know, uh based around electricity. But I will say, I think it's immune uh immunization. Wow. It's been vaccinated against sleep spells. Good job. Good job. Um But it's it being immune to sleep spells is interesting to me. Yeah. I guess I don't sure. Usually I think of that as being a Faye specific trait. Yeah, like Fey and obviously elves. Yeah. It's just intriguing. Yeah. It's just kind of like a a little bit of a grab baggy type. Like, sure, it uh it can't be put to sleep by magic. Um, if it is sprayed with water, it cannot generate its breath weapon for two to five rounds. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Just keep creating water on top of it.
SPEAKER_03Fucking dump water on it. Oh, um, it takes um two hit extra hit points of damage per hit die from fire or heat base attacks. So, you know. But this is a little bit more, I think, of the kind of thing that your slightly lower level, the kind of dragon that your slightly lower level party could run afoul of before it goes off into like far into Calum Shan proper and encounters a blue dragon. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Even though it has three heads. Which is an obscene amount of heads. Yeah, like well, I mean, you think three is excessive. I've heard this dragon out there that has five. What a fucking bitch. What a fucking bitch, yeah. Honestly. So the last of the ones that we were gonna talk about today is the mini dragon, which my Google Doc fucking hates that I kept spelling it that way and not separating those words. Mini dragon. But it is one word. And this segment was written by David E. Cates. Thank you, David. Thanks, David. So, okay, alright. Like, I'm just gonna open with this one. If any of y'all know uh the Dragon Riders of Pern, the fire lizards, this is the vibe, okay? Okay. If any of y'all know what I'm talking about, fire lizards are the vibe here. Um these strange creature, okay, also this is this immediately contradicts itself. Um, the text says that these strange creatures look like winged snakes, but the picture shows them essentially just looking like very small wiverns. So So what's the truth? So what is the truth? I'm gonna say that they look like wyverns.
SPEAKER_02Okay, um, as we know from like a lot of different source materials, people think that wyvns are just snakes with wings. That is also true.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, they they look like wyverns. So they have the the wings, no front feet, kind of and back feet. Yeah. Yeah, you'll get it. Um, and they are distant cousins to fairy dragons.
SPEAKER_05Ooh.
SPEAKER_03Ah. Um, they usually live in or near like wild swampy type areas, and they make their homes in the trunks of giant trees. Uh mini dragons are a dull green color, while their underbellies are bright orange or scarlet. I just realized they probably look like frogs. Yeah. A little bit. What am I thinking of? Aren't there like fire bellieds? Well, no, firebellied toads aren't green though. Whatever. I've I've I've I've decided they look like poison dark frogs. Um their wings are patterned in alternating stripes of green and orange, or green and scarlet. I'm assuming it would match maybe with their belly color.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Um some rare colorations of mini dragons can have blue or yellowy uh tinges. Um also, this is a funny note. It says there are no obvious differences between males and females, which is pretty typical of a lot of dragons. Yes. I was gonna say reptiles in general. And there were like also no mentions from any of these other articles about a very distinct difference between males and females. But a lot of dragons don't necessarily have the strongest um like gender. Yeah, like they don't have the strongest morphism. Exactly. So but I guess these guys really, really don't. They are very small at the largest. Um ancient mini dragons are three feet long, and the very young ones can be as small as six inches long. We have arrived at inches, guys. Oh boy. Um, and they are neutral in alignment. So, like I said, like like literally fucking like fire lizard size. Um, so four times per day, a mini dragon of adult age or older is capable of spitting a nerve toxin. Oh! Uh yeah. The mini dragon must make a two-hit roll with its venom. Um, and if the uh venom hits, two saving throws must be made against its effects. Oh boy. So the first is against the effects of the nerve toxin proper. Um, so if the victim fails their saving throw versus poison, they take one to four hit points of damage per round for three to six rounds. Okay, this is weird. It says until death or until the poison is magical. Neutralized. So, but it also says for three to six rounds.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna guess that it just magically neutralizes itself after the time. That would be my guess. I mean, it sounds strange, but that's the only thing I can really think of that would make sense. Yeah. Or maybe it's for three to six rounds, or until death, or until the poison is neutralized magically.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And they just worded it weird.
SPEAKER_03Literally any of those I could see. Yeah. Furthermore, the intense pain of the toxin causes the victim to take a negative four modifier on to hit rolls, AC, and saving throws for the first one to four rounds. Damn! Because I mean it's a nerf toxin. Um, so the second saving throw is made for the victim's armor against a corrosive substance found in the venom. So um if the armor saves, it's fail versus acid, it loses one step of AC protection permanently. Um magical armors also lose their enchantments if this save is failed. Oof. So Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Hey Taylor.
SPEAKER_03No.
SPEAKER_04You're having flashbacks?
SPEAKER_03No, yes, but that. And it and it said that there is no way to like it even if you like you can magically cure the effects, uh, like the physiological effects of the nerve toxin, but there's no like doing so wouldn't restore the armor, obviously. Right. Like you could probably find like a shut up, go away, Travis. Like you could you could probably find a Deus X blacksmith who could help you out, but your wizard, your wizard couldn't just like Don't even talk to me. Well, this is gonna be awkward if Travis can't talk to you for the rest of this episode. Or, you know, in general, but I really don't care what happens after I leave, so um okay. So the thing is is that the nerve toxin thing is kind of crazy, right? It's kind of crazy that they're teeny tiny little baby they're not babies, but they're teeny tiny little dragons that share the same age categories for some reason. Those aren't the craziest things about these guys. So mini dragons have a permanent sense of empathy, as per the psionic discipline, which empathy is a telepathic devotion.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03If any of you guys are having flashbacks to the psionics, well, not the proper psionics episode, but the draconian psionics episode. That was also the Sardior episode. That was also my thesis for my master's degree in dragonology. Um, and this um sense of empathy functions within a 20-foot radius. Um and as the um the devotion empathy functions, it essentially allows the um psionicist, in this case the mini dragon, to detect the surface level emotions and at a certain level of psionic power, the um intent of anything that comes within their uh 20-foot bubble. Um so this power gives them a plus four to all of their saving throws if attacked by creatures within this range, since they're able to instantly like the since they can they can detect intention in that way, they can more quickly take evasive action. Okay. Um also because of their unique constitution, um, the fact that they can spin a nerve toxin, mini dragons receive an additional plus four bonus to um their saving throws against poison and acid. Um all mini dragons have an innate magical resistance of 35% and are immune to cha uh to uh charm and I thought you were gonna say immune to chunk. Immune to chunk. Uh they are immune to all charm and summon monster spells. Okay. Um so as I mentioned, mini dragons have the same age categories of other varieties of dragons, but they lack the same size categories, obviously.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Um they do not have the same sensory powers, fear aura, or heightened saving throw bonuses, and also cannot be subdued, sort of like the drag. Um mini dragons have 60-foot uh infravision, but are not usually nocturnal. Um, so this phrasing might sound a little weird at first. Um left alone, the mini dragon is even-tempered and will not usually attack humanoids unless angered or if its lair is disturbed. Um, even then, the mini dragon can usually sense via empathy if the intrusion is willful or threatening or not.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03Um, so if it senses that the intrusion is an accident, it tries to warn away the intruder. But if it senses that it is in danger, the mini dragon can be very cunning and they, you know, I mean, they're these tiny little these tiny little fast-moving guys. So they actually they have a better armor class while they're flying. Um, and when their colorful wings are folded to their bodies, because their bodies are that dull gray or that dull green color, um, they blend in their natural surroundings very well, so much so that they have uh on a D6 roll, they will be able to surprise on a one through five.
SPEAKER_02So they have very good camouflage. Yeah. I mean, I kind of would guess because of like their size.
SPEAKER_03Right. Um part of the warning thing um is because they freely associate with black dragons that they share an environment with, um, that marsh swampy kind of thing, which is interesting given their differences in alignment and just everything. Because black dragons are fucking asshole. Yeah. Also the idea of like this huge ass fucking black dragon with like this little tiny like fairy frog-looking dragon is their little friend is cute. I love it. But yeah, apparently they are just buddy buddy with black dragons, so there's that.
SPEAKER_02Um hey, sometimes you have this asshole who's your friend for some reason, and you just gotta protect.
SPEAKER_04Must protect.
SPEAKER_03Except you protect accidental intruders from your friend. Listen. Because I didn't say it made any sense. It makes perfect sense. Um, mini dragons have a very simple language that is based on the language that black dragons speak, which I I kind of interpret that as like draconic, but just like dialectical, you know? Yeah. Uh mini dragons prize shiny objects such as pieces such as pieces of glass, coins, or jewels. Same. They like shiny things. Um, they have a diet of usually like insects, small rodents, berries, nuts, that sort of thing. But says they're capable of the specific wording used was downing larger creatures for food if necessary. Um they're also fond of salt, same, and often react to it as a cat does catnip. So it would be important to keep in mind their diet and what things they like as treats, because in very rare instances, mini dragons form an empathic bond with a friendly human or demi-human. Yes. The chance of this occurring equals the charisma score of the humanoid uh expressed as a percentage chance that is rolled when the mini dragon and character meet. Um I would assume it is with when they come within their 20-foot radius. Right. Um, empathy bubble. Um, if this roll fails, it cannot be rolled again for that one character. So it's like random. Uh, if it succeeds, the mini dragon stays with the character and gains one point of intelligence every month for one to four months. The mini dragon learns to speak the character's preferred language in three to six months. Um, the increase in abilities is lost if the character and the mini dragon are separated by over 20 feet for longer than a month. And the maximum intelligence score for a bonded mini dragon is seven, which their standard in the wild, which is listed as semi, which is funny, is two to four. So these guys are not very smart.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_03But yeah, that's what I that's what I mean specifically by the vibe is very fire lizards from the Dragon Riders of Pern uh series. But yeah, so when they said at the top of this article that these dragons make uh wonderful opponents but terrible pets, they were literally lying lying. They literally contradicted themselves in the same thing because I would love a mini dragon as a pet. Yeah. Um yeah, like just a friend. Honestly, yeah, just like a pal. Like, fuck. I mean, yeah, that'd be great to have a tiny a mini dragon that can spit nerve toxins? Fuck yeah!
SPEAKER_02As long as it doesn't spit it at me, yeah. Exactly. Like that's totally fine. And like, if we're buds, then I know you won't because we're buds. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, that's the uh second annual uh uh article from the Dragon's Beastiary. Nice. And some fun dragons and dragon adjacent things. I don't think the dragon should be a dragon, but whatever. They didn't ask me in 1989 before I was born. So they should have that. They should have. They should have taken my opinion into consideration because it's the only valid one. I like dragons. But yeah, thank you for listening to me Rains About Dragons for the 100,000th time on this.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I feel like if you're listening to this podcast, which if you're listening to this, you are, then at that point Lewin's dying. You know that Luwin has dragon opinions. I have a lot. You have volunteered to listen to Luwin's Dragon Opinions.
SPEAKER_03That was actually one of our um uh ideas for the name of this podcast, which was just Lou's Dragon Opinion. And then we were like, we probably shouldn't have just one of our names in there, and we're not gonna put all three of our names in there. So then we decided on Dungeon Pedia. But I personally like Lewin's Dragon Opinions.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. Yes, whatever. Well, that's the name of the segment is Lewin's Dragon Opinions.
SPEAKER_04Segment, aka, this whole fucking episode. Yes. Pretty much any episode you have done.
SPEAKER_02Thank you guys so much for listening. Uh, don't forget to follow us on Twitter, on Instagram for more of Lou and Dragon opinions.
SPEAKER_03Tell your friends and family who maybe also have dragon opinions and want to fight Louin. That are not as good and valid as mine and want to fight Louin.
SPEAKER_02I mean, that's fine. If you I I I'll I will watch that happen if you guys want to fight Louin Dragon Opinion.
SPEAKER_03Okay, meet me at the Ruby Palace at 4.20 a.m. for an ass kicking. Alright?
SPEAKER_04If you have anything that you would like to suggest as a topic for us to cover, you can email us at dungeonpedia.podcastsidegmail.com.
SPEAKER_03Or if that time doesn't work for you, um I'm sure I'm sure we can have Sardior bring the Rudy the Ruby Palace somewhere else at a slightly different time if you do still want to fight. Um, but yeah, you can also email us that if we need to maybe change time of place a little bit, take a rain check.
SPEAKER_04And uh thank you all once again for listening, and we will catch you uh right here next week on Dungeon Pedia.
SPEAKER_03You know, I I thought about like a Kraken, but all of its tentacles are dragon heads, and then I realized I just reverse engineered a Hydra. You did. Still frightening though.