Dragon, Serpentinite

Serpentinite Dragon

Also known as mineral dragon, asbestos dragon, rock-poison dragon

Serpentinite dragons are creatures composed entirely of, you guessed it, minerals. They look somewhat similar to earthquake dragons, except that they have multifaceted crystals, sparkling alloys, and precious metals imbedded in them. This gives them a hide even tougher than an earth’s. They have no wings, and cannot fly, but they can burrow through earth and minerals with incredible speed. Their wingless appearance made many clueless sods misread and misinterpret their name as serpentine dragons. While they definitely appear similar to snakes, their name comes from serpentinite, a mineral that is known for producing infertile soils rich with poisonous metals and baleful asbestos.

They are highly protective of their home plane and minerals in general. They hate those who take metals and other valuable natural objects from the earth. They harbour an especially deep hatred of dwarves, gnomes and dao, who mine the earth simply for that purpose. They also dislike earthquake and landslide dragons, of whom they think as brutish fools. In all other situations, they are generally slow to move to emotion. This slowness is misleading, however, as serpentinite dragons can be extremely quick and deadly.

Serpentinite 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: Serpentinite dragons rarely enter combat, except against those who try to remove minerals from the ground. When they do face these types, they attack ferociously without remorse. Otherwise they try to end combat quickly. They will use and abuse their borrowing abilities and magic spells. Many serpentinite dragons attach magical or spell-storing gems onto their skin to use in times of need.

BREATH WEAPON/SPECIAL ABILITIES: A serpentinite dragon’s breath weapon is a blast of fast moving needles of asbestos, 100′ long, 10′ wide, and 10′ high. Creatures caught in the blast can roll saving throws vs. breath weapon for half damage. This breath weapon can pass through solid earth and stone and damage earth-gliding creatures such as elementals.

• Serpentinite dragons cast spells and use their magical abilities at 13th-level plus their combat modifiers.
• Serpentinite dragons are born immune to energy draining, earth attacks, mineral-based poisons and radiation.
• Serpentinite dragons are born with the ability to turn opponents into crystalline statues. They may use this power in lieu of attacking up to 5 times per day. The attack requires a successful attack roll where the dragon grasps the target in its claw. If the target fails a save vs. petrification, he is instantly turned to crystal. This can be reversed by the dragon at will, or through the use of a modified transmute stone to flesh spell.
• As they age, they gain the following additional powers. Very Young: meld into stone at will. Young: wall of stone three times per day. Juvenile: stone shape three times per day. Adult:spike stones three times per day. Mature Adult: transmute rock to mud three times per day. Old:animate rock twice per day. Very Old: dig three times per day. Ancient: stoneskin three times per day.

HABITAT/SOCIETY: Serpentinite dragons encountered outside of their home plane they often make homes in areas of rich mineral deposits. As such, they come into conflict with dwarves and other mining races. The dragons either destroy the population or flee to find a better home, depending on alignment. It is thought that serpentinite dragons trace their lineage from gem, mercury and ferrous dragons, who sided with Primordials during the Dawn War. While most of them allied with Grumbar and became earthquake dragons, some found the Quasi-Elemental Plane of Minerals more appealing and struck a bargain with Crystalle.

Serpentinite dragons are not as greedy as their Prime kin. Gems and metals interest them as alchemical compounds, and their favourite ones are the deadliest: arsenic compounds, mercury, cobalt, uranium and asbestos make up the bulk of their hoard. These dragons are loners, but some of them work together with Mistress of the Copper Mountain.

Serpentinite dragons’ alignment in relation to law/chaos is mostly neutral (50%), somewhat lawful (30%), and a little chaotic (20%). On the good/evil scale, again most are neutral (45%), some are evil (35%), and a few are good (20%). Good dragons prefer to launch their attacks on healthy and uninhabited worlds, while evil ones delight in starving agrarian societies and smothering dying ecosystems.

ECOLOGY: Serpentinite dragons eat the minerals to survive, which often angers dwarves and other treasure seeking people. They also have a lot of effect in the environment in which they live. Aside from interfering with mining races, their mere presense poisons the earth. It becomes richer with beautiful gems such as cinnabar or realgar, but stunts plant growth and replaces necessary nutrients like calcium and phosphoros with their toxic cousin minerals. This ability isn’t incidental, in fact, it is needed for serpentinite dragons’ reproductive process. When they travel to the Prime Material Plane, they search for the big and prosperous ecosystem to wilt and pollute. When a field or a forest is reduced to barren earth by the dragon’s ravage, a small egg spontaneously appears deep below it. A serpentinite wyrmling that hatches from it will subsist on minerals and organic material before locating a way to return to their ancestral home plane.

Age Category	Body (‘)	Tail (‘)	AC	Breath Weapon	Wizard/Priest Spells	MR	Treasure	XP Value
1	7-20	7-17	-2	3d6+2	Nil	Nil	Nil	15,000
2	20-32	17-29	-3	5d6+3	Nil	Nil	Nil	18,000
3	32-44	29-39	-4	7d6+4	Nil	45%	H, Q	19,000
4	44-56	39-51	-5	9d6+5	1	50%	H, Qx2, E	20,000
5	56-73	51-61	-6	11d6+5	2	55%	H, Qx3, E, S	22,000
6	73-86	61-71	-7	13d6+6	2 2	60%	Hx2, Qx3, E, S	23,000
7	86-99	71-85	-8	15d6+7	2 2 2	65%	Hx2, Qx3, E, S, T	24,000
8	99-112	85-96	-9	17d6+8	2 2 2 2 / 1	70%	Hx3, Qx4, E	25,000
9	112-126	96-109	-10	19d6+9	2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2	75%	Hx4, Q, E, S, T	27,000
10	126-140	109-121	-11	21d6+10	2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2	80%	Hx5, Q, E, S, T, U	28,000
11	140-154	121-134	-12	23d6+11	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 / 2 2 2	85%	Hx5, Qx2, E, S, T, U	29,000
12	154-168	134-147	-13	25d6+12	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 / 2 2 2 2	90%	Hx6, Qx3, E, S, T, U	31,000

Source: John Kastronis, Jon Winter-Holt, Margarita. Canonwatch: this elemental dragon used to be simply called ‘mineral dragon’ and wasn’t tied to toxic minerals. We made a decision to combine those homebrew dragons with catastrophic dragons from 4e, who were named after natural disasters and other calamities. This dragon and its powers are entirely homebrew.