Bronze dragon

Bronze dragons are the third most powerful of the metallic dragons.

Physical description


Physically, the bronze dragon is quite fierce in appearance, despite its good nature. While most of its body is a reflective bronze color, the wings are often tipped with green. The dragon has three large horns protruding from each cheek, pointing back towards the tail. The tips of these points are black and very sharp, and are often used for grooming. The tongue is purple-gray, long and pointed, and not forked. A large frill runs down the upper part of its neck. They smell like sea-spray. These dragons possess the ability to alter their form, assuming the appearance of any type of animal or humanoid creature they choose. As such, folks can encounter a bronze dragon without ever being the wiser. A friendly dolphin that saves a drowning child; a mercenary sailor eager to fight pirates; a diver specializing in searching undersea shipwrecks for possible treasure… all of these could be a bronze dragon. Many bronze dragons will use their shape-shifting abilities to get close to an enemy target; bronze dragons prefer melee combat.

Combat
While bronze dragons are often fascinated with battles, especially fighting to defeat evil, they have strong moral compunctions against killing living beings unless absolutely necessary. They will often join good-aligned armies to fight the forces of evil, either in human form or their own. In battle, their weapon of choice is to breathe repulsion gas, which is so putrid that it forces absolutely everything away. They also like to relocate a foe to a remote location where it can do no harm when possible. When absolutely forced to kill, the bronze dragon is a deadly combatant, roasting enemies with bursts of lightning or ripping them open with its clawed forelegs.

Breath weapon
Bronze dragons have two separate breath weapons. The first is a line of electricity similar to a lightning bolt, and the second is a cone of gas with affects the mind to feel a great repulsion to the dragon.

Ecology
They truly enjoy observing and interacting with smaller creatures, most especially humans. They will often go out of their way to help them, such as rescuing humans from a shipwreck or a dangerous foe. In many of these instances, the bronze dragon will transform itself into a human, so that those who it helps never know who really did the rescuing. They never seek payment for their help, in any form. They always seek justice as best they can, and cannot abide to see any creature being treated with cruelty of any sort. The older the dragon, the more pronounced that this passion for justice becomes. They are probably the most social species of dragon, and often swim and play together in groups. They also love to attend human festivals and parties, although usually in human form.

Lair
Bronze dragons are often found along the coastal regions of the world. They like to dwell along the sea, to make use of their aquatic abilities, while staying close to humanoid settlements. Many ship merchants will pay a bronze dragon to protect their trade routes. More nefarious bronze dragons will demand bribes for “protection” while accepting similar bribes from pirates to operate within their territories. Given its exceptional abilities as a swimmer, the entrance to a bronze dragon's lair is quite naturally underwater, and often disguised with seaweed and coral. The bulk of the lair is above water level, however, consisting of multiple tunnels and large chambers, some as much as a thousand feet above sea level. They prefer to make their lairs in an island volcano, if possible.

Parenting and development
Bronze dragons mate for life, and take their duties as parents with the utmost seriousness. They will protect their eggs and their wyrmlings at any cost. Although bronze dragons always live near water, they lay their eggs in a dry cave. Apart from a dry, relatively warm environment, bronze dragon eggs require no special conditions for incubation like those of most dragons. Upon hatching, the wyrmlings are raised, taught, and protected by their parents. A newhatched bronze wyrmling appears yellow with a tinge of green, and the scales will gradually shift to bronze as it matures. Bronze wyrmlings love to swim in the ocean, and frolic in much the same manner as dolphins.

Known bronze dragons

 * Lhammaruntosz
 * Nymmurh
 * Felgolos
 * Liiravre