Emerald dragon

Emerald dragons were a breed of gem dragon known to be inquisitive and often more knowledgeable than most sages and for their similarity to emerald.

Description
When a wyrmling, an emerald dragon had translucent sea-green scales. As it grew older, its scales hardened and developed countless different shades of green, with everything from a minty hue to a deep emerald. These scales scintillated in any light and, owing to the wide range of shades, its hide appeared to be constantly moving. Conversely, their pupils faded with age, so a great wyrm's eyes were naught but blank green glowing orbs. On the whole, however, they were quite beautiful.

A hatchling had a body and  tail, while an adult had a body length of  and a tail length of. The biggest great wyrms grew to long in the body, with tails  long.

Personality
Emerald dragons were deeply inquisitive, with a keen interest in local customs and history. They often exceeded the greatest human scholars for knowledge in particular fields of study. Nevertheless, they would rather only observe, not get involved.

However, they also tended to be paranoid and distrustful of visitors, and their lairs often had many traps. They were reclusive did not like anyone going anywhere near their hoards. Hence, it was very hard to make even a casual acquaintance with an emerald dragon, let alone learn what they knew.

Abilities
In place of dragon breath, emerald dragons could instead make a loud keening wail. Its sonic vibrations were powerful enough to cause pain and injury to those who could not evade  or resist, and leave them deafened and disoriented  and possibly stunned. In one version, this sonic assault could affect all in hearing range, which was from its mouth for an adult and its effects could last up to an hour, but only made twice a day. In another, it was a more limited cone of sonic energy extending to with effects lasting only up to a minute for an adult, but made much more frequently. Ironically, the deafness meant one could not be stunned or deafened by the dragon again.

Hence, emerald dragons were naturally immune to sonic spells.

The ever-shifting green shades of its scales could be quite distracting to those who saw it, and emerald dragons knew it. By undulating its body and rippling its scales in certain ways, it could hypnotize creatures watching it. After three minutes of dealing peaceably, an emerald dragon could take one by surprise with a sudden attack or flight, if it chose.

They might also generate a cloud of fog to blind opponents.

Like any dragon, and in addition to the common powers of gem dragons, emerald dragons gained an array of magical powers as they aged, though accounts of these varied. In one version, they could flame walk from hatching as often as they needed, young dragons could create an audible glamer thrice a day, juveniles could cast hypnotism thrice a day, adults could produce Melf's minute meteors thrice a day, mature adults could hold person thrice a day, and venerable dragons could animate rock once a day and great wyrms could place a geas once a day. Both hypnotism and geas were accomplished via the precise rippling of its scales. Alternatively, young dragons could cast improved invisibility thrice a day, juveniles could produce a fog cloud thrice a day, adults could cast legend lore whenever they liked, old dragons could use clairaudience/clairvoyance and nondetection both thrice a day, and ancient dragons could sculpt sound thrice a day. Finally, great wyrms could use shield of prudence thrice a day, extending their senses into the future a few moments, granting them greater ability to defend themselves against surprise attacks. Psionic emerald dragons could use object reading rather than legend lore, control sound instead of sculpt sound, and augmented invisibility instead of improved invisibility.

Similarly, emerald dragons could acquire and cast new spells of their own, whether arcane or divine, but they were most noted for their talent in psionics. Those who were so gifted learned the psionic attacks psionic blast, id insinuation, or psychic crush and the psionic defenses mind blank, tower of iron will, or thought shield. For general powers, they favored the disciplines of clairsentience or telepathy. Common clairsentience powers for crystal dragons were aura sight, object reading, and precognition and common telepathy powers were contact, mindlink, ejection, ESP, life detection, probe, sight link, and sound link.

They were skilled in acquiring information, hiding, and swimming.

Society
Emerald dragons were especially protective as parents. They took good care of their young and wished them to stay in their lairs with them for as long as was possible so they could protect one another. Families raised clutches of two to five offspring, and they were likely to be encountered alone or in such clans.

They were omnivorous, but favored the flesh of giants and lizards.

Emerald dragons spoke Draconic and both their own language and a language shared among all gem dragons. Moreover, more than one in seven hatchlings could communicate with any sentient being, and the others gained this power as they aged, with almost half possessing it by the time they were mature adults and over two-thirds when great wyrms.

Like the rest of the gem dragons, emerald dragons were rarer in the Realms than the common chromatic and metallic dragons.

Relations
Emerald dragons were afraid of red dragons for their rapacious greed and were openly aggressive to fire giants.

They would occasionally have sapphire dragons as their neighbors.

Emerald dragons acted as servants of the deities Thard Harr and Amaunator.

Lairs
Emerald dragons preferred to live underground. Their favored spots for their lairs were the cones of volcanoes that were dormant or extinct, or at least rarely active. Although reclusive, they did prefer to dwell in areas close to some sort of civilization and people of any race, though not where they were likely to make their presence known. Even when on the Inner Planes, they kept an eye on their favorite places back in the Material Plane.

Tactics
Distrusting all visitors, emerald dragons surrounded their lairs with alarms and concealed traps, both physical and magical, to give them timely warning. If intruders were not discouraged, the emerald dragon hid itself or turned invisible and used its powers to spy on them and rarely opened conversation. It would reveal itself only if the trespassers discovered the dragon, its hoard, or its hatchlings. The emerald dragon would often burrow underground to take intruders by surprise then attack with claws and wail to disable as many as possible. They could use their sonic breath or animate rock to cause mudslides, rockslides, or avalanches to bury foes. Alternatively, they obscured their vision with a fog cloud before charging in or snatching foes while on the wing. Emerald dragons were very reluctant to get into melee with their foes, and would much rather weakened them as much as they could from a distance first.

If encountered at sea for some reason, an emerald dragon brewed up a storm somehow or smashed ships with its tail, starting with the masts before targeting the hulls. If feeling almost merciful, it would cause them to be becalmed or lost in fog or it would break a few masters, forcing the ship to limp back to port. If not, it would force a ship to a place it chose, interrogate the crew and examine the cargo, then take all it desired or ransom the ship, cargo, and, presumably, crew.

Finally, if outnumbered or outmatched, an emerald dragon retreated and began plotting its revenge, and this could take years to play out.

Notable Emerald Dragons

 * Smargad, a thane of the gem dragon deity Sardior, the Ruby Dragon.
 * Behrshimmer, a wyrm who laired in the Giant's Run Mountains in the Vilhon Reach.
 * Raulothim, the Silent Shadow, a great wyrm who laired within an extinct volcano on Axgard near Ruathym.
 * Esmerandanna, the Resplendent Queen and Daul of Thard, a great wyrm of the Peaks of Flame in Chult and friend to the wild dwarves.
 * Vercevoran, a very old emerald of the Moonsea and Dalelands.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Realms of the Dragons: "The Prisoner of Hulburg"


 * Card Games
 * Blood Wars