Fire lizard

Fire lizards, also known as false dragons, were a very rare and gargantuan species of lizard.

Description
The alternative name of these creatures was derived from the fact that they closely resembled red dragons, though lacked wings. Their bodies were covered in grey scales, with reddish undersides and mottlings of reddish-brown on their the back. Hatchlings had light grey scales and as they aged their scales grew darker in color.

Fire lizards typically moved at a slow pace and had an average lifespan of 50 to 100 years.

Behavior
Fire lizards had an animalistic level of intelligence and were attracted to shiny objects. Because of this they shared dragonkinds' habit of hoarding things in their lair, particularly gems and metals.

Abilities
Fire lizards could breath a puff of fire from their mouths, much like a red dragon though not as large. This puff of fire generally reached to about. Their bodies were also impervious to harm from fire.

Dracoliches were capable of possessing the corpses of fire lizards.

Combat
Besides their fire breath, these creatures generally attacked with their claws or by biting.

History
Among scholars who championed the proto-dragon theory, sages speculated that these reptiles may have been one of the many ancestral species to dragonkind or an evolutionary offshoot of a common ancestor.

During the 14 century DR, some fire lizards were known to dwell inside the depths of Undermountain. In 1369 DR, one these creatures specifically dwelled within the layer of Undermountain known as the Crystal Labyrinth.

Ecology
Fire lizards were solitary creatures and spent much of their daily lives sleeping. Shortly after hatching, fire lizards would leave the nest and go out hunting on their own.

Diet
Fire lizards were a carnivorous species. They would leave their lairs to hunt for prey once every two weeks, taking whatever game they catched back to their lair.

Lairs
These creatures generally made their lairs underground.

Habitats
Fire lizards were very adaptable, able to live in most forms of terrain, though they were only ever encountered in warm climates. They could sometimes be found lairing within ruins. On Toril they were known to be found in the Fire Marshes of High Moor.

Outside of the Prime Material plane, fire lizards inhabited the Celestial Bureaucracy's plane of Qui.

Relationships
True dragons generally avoided interacting with fire lizards, especially red dragons.

They were sometimes domesticated by firenewts, who used them to guard the hatching grounds of their lairs.

Usage
Fire lizard eggs could fetch prices of up to around 5,000 gp. Their hatchlings could fetch prices of up to around 7,000 gp. The fertilized eggs of these creatures were partly prized because they could be altered by use of the spell create ibrandlin into an ibrandlin.

Some were known to harvest the blood of these creatures for use in the creation of potions of fire resistance.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Undermountain: Stardock
 * Comic Books
 * Song's End, Tale's Beginning