Dragon, Geyser

Geyser Dragon

Geyser dragons, also known as steam quasielemental dragons, are wispy creatures. They are aloof and distant, never remaining in contact with other beings for long. They prefer solitude to the companionship that most other creatures crave. They see the company of other beings as an excuse for idle chat and flights of fancy—things which they do not normally endorse. One notable exception would be mist dragons, their alleged progenitor species. Geyser and mist dragons tend to carve lairs near each other, although they don’t talk to each other much, preferring to meet in silence.

When in solid form, geyser dragons look like be misty cloud dragons. A slight vapour always seems to be rising from the surface of their bodies, although, in truth, its just a part of their bodies, similar to hair on a human. They tend to be grey in colour, although the grey runs the gamut of light to dark.

Geyser dragons speak their own language and that common to all catastrophic dragons. At birth, they have a 16% chance to speak the language of any sentient creature. This chance increases by 5% per age category.

COMBAT: Steam dragons prefer to avoid combat if possible, viewing it as a waste of their time. When engaged in combat, they seek to end it as quickly as possible, often attempting to take out what seems to be the leader, before engaging the remaining attackers. They very rarely chase cutters who flee from them.

BREATH WEAPON/SPECIAL ABILITIES: A geyser dragon’s breath weapon is an energetic jet of scalding steam, 90′ long, 30′ wide, and 30′ high. Creatures caught in the cloud can roll saving throws vs. breath weapon for half damage. In still air, the cloud remains for 1d4+4 rounds. On the second round and third rounds, it inflicts half normal damage, on the fourth and subsequent rounds, it condenses into a clammy fog that blinds creatures for 1d4 rounds and inflicts 3d4 points of drowning damage per round for as long as the creature remains in the cloud (a successful save vs. breath weapon negates both effects).

• Geyser dragons cast spells and use their magical abilities at 14th-level plus their combat modifiers.
• Geyser dragons are immune to energy draining, water attacks, and heat (but not fire).
• Geyser dragons are born with the ability to assume (or leave) a cohesive mist-like form at will, once per round. In this form, they are 75% unlikely to be distinguished from normal mist. Their armour class improves by -3 while in mist form and their magic resistance increases by 15%. They can employ spells and innate abilities while in mist form, but they cannot attack physically or use their breath weapons. They can fly at a rate of 9 (MC: A) while in mist form.
• As they age, they gain the following additional powers. Very Young: Fog cloud three times per day. Young: Wall of fog three times per day. Juvenile: Stinking cloud three times per day. Adult: Solid fog three times per day. Mature Adult: Cloudkill three times per day. Old: Death fog twice per day. Very Old: Neutralise gas three times per day. Ancient: Airy water three times per day.

HABITAT/SOCIETY: When encountered outside their home plane, geyser dragons prefer to lair near natural hot springs, on foggy banks, and in hot, steamy jungles. At least one has spotted in Gehenna, among the fumaroles of Khalas. They’re among the few elemental dragons who do not necessarily prefer their home plane to others. In the Plane of Steam geyser dragons carve their lairs in pockets of solid material. They prefer magma and mineral pockets, can make do with earth or ooze, but avoid ice and salt.

The majority (80%) of geyser dragons are neutral in alignment. Otherwise, there is an equal (10%) chance of them being good or evil. A surprising majority (90%) of geyser dragons are lawful. The rest (10%) are neutral. No chaotic geyser dragon has ever been encountered. While there’s no shortage of screed considering the Dawn War and the dark of catastrophic dragons, chant-mongers struggle to point a finger at whomever transformed what kind of Prime dragons into these creatures. Chant goes that they can trace their lineage to the exceedingly rare pearl dragons, who also possess a breath weapon of scalding steam, and mist dragons, who have a strong affinity for fog. Unless, of course, that barmy dragon Raulothim was right, and any Prime dragon, who lingers outside of Prime for too long risks changing into planar one.

ECOLOGY: Geyser dragons sustain themselves on vapours and water droplets suspended in the air. They shy away from deserts and arctic climates because of the lack of moisture in the air. They tend to be non-damaging to the environments they prefer to live in. However, like other catastrophic dragons, they get the urge to propagate their element on other planes as they reach maturity. With their breath and magical abilities, frenzied geyser dragons create far-stretching banks of fog that may easily envelope entire cities. While this is generally much less deadly than a hurricane or an earthquake, it can still have catastrophic consequences. Evil geyser dragons even intentionally seek out dangerous reefs prone to shipwrecks, and cover them in dense fog, revelling in the opportunity to see a vessel run aground. The resulting cloud of fog is often significant enough for a dragon to return home through a spontaneously-formed vortex. When the fog is dispersed, an egg is left behind somewhere in the nearby underground hot springs, or an especially humid area. The wyrmling that eventually hatches will feed on water and tiny critters until it finds its own way to the Quasi-Elemental Steam.

Age Category	Body (‘)	Tail (‘)	AC	Breath Weapon	Wizard/Priest Spells	MR	Treasure	XP Value
1	13-25	12-22	-2	3d6+2	Nil	Nil	Nil	15,000
2	25-37	22-34	-3	5d6+3	Nil	Nil	Nil	18,000
3	37-49	34-44	-4	7d6+4	1	45%	Y, Z	19,000
4	49-61	44-56	-5	9d6+5	2	50%	X, Y, Z	20,000
5	56-73	56-66	-6	11d6+5	2 2	55%	X, Y, Z	22,000
6	73-86	66-76	-7	13d6+6	2 2 2	60%	X, Y, Zx2	23,000
7	86-99	76-90	-8	15d6+7	2 2 2 2 / 1	65%	X, Y, Zx2	24,000
8	99-112	90-101	-9	17d6+8	2 2 2 2 2 / 2	70%	X, Y, Zx2	25,000
9	112-126	101-114	-10	19d6+9	2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2	75%	X, Y, Zx3	27,000
10	126-140	114-126	-11	21d6+10	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2 2	80%	X, Y, Zx3	28,000
11	140-154	126-139	-12	23d6+11	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 / 2 2 2 2	85%	X, Y, Zx3	29,000
12	154-168	139-152	-13	25d6+12	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2 2 2	90%	X, Y, Zx4	31,000

Source: John Kastronis, Jon Winter-Holt, Margarita. Canonwatch: this elemental dragon used to be simply called ‘steam dragon’. We made a decision to combine those homebrew dragons with catastrophic dragons from 4e, who were named after natural disasters and other calamities.