Wyvern

A wyvern was a large winged lizard, distantly related to the dragon, with a poisonous stinging tail and sharp teeth.

Description
They had dark brown or grey bodies, around 15' (4.6 m) in length, weighing around a ton. Their huge tails comprised almost half of their bodies ending in a thick cartilage knot with a stinger protruding out of it, not unlike a scorpion's. Their wingspan could get over 50 ft. Wyverns' jaws were filled with long and sharp teeth, and their eyes were usually red or orange. These creatures only had hind legs as opposed to the usual 4 legged dragons. They were not greatly intelligent although they did speak Draconic fluently. Among other telltale sounds wyverns could produce were loud hisses and throated growls akin to alligators.

Behavior
They were not averse to attacking anything less powerful than themselves. Their sleek, strong legs proved very useful for an attack.

Combat
Wyverns were highly aggressive and stupid, their main combat tactics were diving from above, grabbing the prey with their hind leg claws and stinging it to death. They could also do slashing attacks when flying by.

Ecology
Wyverns can be both solitary and group animals. They did not have a strong odor, although their lairs often could be tracked by following the smell of their recent kills.

Cloud giants kept griffons, perytons, and wyverns, akin to what humans did with hawks and other birds of prey. These tamed wild creatures could also be often encountered patrolling the cloud giants' gardens, together with other tamed predators like owlbears. Dragons, griffons, and wyverns had a fierce rivalry over hippogriff meat. Manticores, chimeras, griffons, perytons, and wyverns were territorial rivals.

History
Wyverns were created by the aearee of Viakoo in.

Cultural Significance
Some wyverns served the dark Chultan demigod Eshowdow, and their appearance was seen as a good sign by his followers.

House Dlardrageth, a powerful sun elf family from Arcorar that corrupted their bloodline by breeding with fiends, used the image of a golden wyvern against three red crossed swords as their house's insignia.

Uses
Wyverns were used as mounts by various races and cultures, including Zhentarim skymages and the extradimensional marauder Imgig Zu. Wyvern hide was used in the creation of bookbindings, and its blood was an ingredient in the belarris poison. Additionally, the poisonous barbed tail of the beast was used in the creation of poison darts.

The dried blood of a wyvern was one of the components used in create darkenbeast spells.

Notable Wyverns

 * Trill, companion of Mattias Farseer.
 * Wyvernspur family received a magical ability to be able to transform into a wyvern. Not everyone in the family was able to channel said magic. Giogi and aunt Dorath were the only family members in recent years able to transform using the Wyvern Spur heirloom.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Hoard of the Dragon Queen
 * The Secret of Spiderhaunt (mentioned)
 * Comics
 * The Gathering
 * Computer Games
 * Baldur's Gate
 * Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear
 * Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
 * Curse of the Azure Bonds
 * Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor
 * Gateway to the Savage Frontier
 * Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition
 * Neverwinter Nights: Wyvern Crown of Cormyr
 * Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
 * Pool of Radiance
 * Secret of the Silver Blades
 * Novels
 * Realms of Valor (mentioned)
 * Sandstorm
 * Swordmage
 * The Wyvern's Spur
 * Realms of Valor (mentioned)
 * Sandstorm
 * Swordmage
 * The Wyvern's Spur