Green Dragon

Green dragons, also known as forest dragons, are a variety of Chromatic Dragons known for their manipulative and self-serving nature. They are considered master conspirators that revel in corrupting lesser creatures.

Description

Green dragons are most notable for their large, wavering crest or find that starts at the dragon's nose and runs the entire length of the dragon's body. They have exceptionally long, slender, forked tongues.   Green dragons' scales do not fully harden, granting them greater flexibility than other chromatic dragons. They have particularly long legs and elongated necks that allow them to peer over treelines. Their wings often feature dappled patterns and become lighter the further away from the claw it gets. Green dragons have no actual ears, rather ear holes on either side of the head.   Although they are not the most intelligent of True Dragons, they are especially creative in their cruel manipulations.   A dragon egg can be identified as belonging to a green dragon by the greenish-white tinge seen when held in front of an intense white light, though this trait is shared with white dragons and any dragon breed with a gas or vaporous breath weapon.

Personality

These dragons are known to have very bad tempers and a tendency for evil behavior. They love intrigue and secrets. Green dragons put up a front of diplomacy and deceit when dealing with stronger foes, but they reveal their cruel and petty nature when intimidating lesser beings or when gaining the upper hand. They especially enjoy enslaving intelligent woodland and Fey beings.   They delight in stalking their enemies and listening in for any information they can gather before moving in to attack. On occasion, however, they are known to attack outright without being provoked.

Combat

When hunting, green dragons stalk their prey for extended lengths of time, continuing for days on end, until they can execute a deadly ambush. They revel in the fear they inspire in lesser creatures, and always leave at least one survivor whenever possible. Green dragons will take dominion over their victims, interrogating them for information, especially that regarding nearby treasures.   If they get into a conflict with more powerful creatures, or other dragons over territory, green dragons often feign weakness to glean more information about their foes. Like when stalking their prey, they will wait as long as necessary—years or decades at a time—to find the right moment to strike out against an opponent.   Green dragons' scales lend them a natural form of camouflage within the lush woodlands of Elaris.

Breath Weapon

Beyond fighting with their massive jaws and claws, these dragons are capable of expelling a cone of poisonous chlorine gas. They can use this unique breath weapon even while completely submerged underwater.   According to some rumors, the chlorine breath of green dragons cannot penetrate animal hides that have been treated with urine or vinegar.

Society

Green dragons are mostly solitary creatures, but rarely work together in pairs or small groups when an especially lucrative opportunity presents itself.   Green dragons value their territory. They are extremely cunning and duplicitous foes, and love double-crossing others.   Amongst their own kind, green dragons display brazen rudeness and crass behavior. This is more evident among female green dragons than males.

Habitat

These dragons are typically found to live in or near woodlands, primarily preferring temperate forests. They dislike particularly wet locales, such as jungles or bayous. The domains of powerful green dragons are often easy to spot, as a heavy fog that faintly smells of toxins lingers over their domain.

Lair

The typical green dragon lair is located underground and is a complex of caves and tunnels, with its main entrance hidden behind a waterfall. The preferred green dragon lair is a cave high up on a cliff, but such locations are usually hard to find and thus only home to the oldest and most powerful green dragons. If necessary, green dragons will hide their lair behind thickets of magically-grown plant life.   Within their lair, green dragons can command tangles of roots and vines to immobilize intruders, or compel barriers of tangled, thorny bushes to rapidly extend out as needed.   Green dragon lairs occasionally develop what is referred to as 'chlorine haze', a buildup of residual chlorine gas. It lingers within their domain and remains ever-harmful to anyone vulnerable to its exposure.

Hoard

Like all other evil dragons, green dragons enjoy amassing more treasure for their hoard. Among material wealth, they prefer wood carvings, instruments, sculptures, emeralds, and beryls. On occasion, they adorn their treasure with rare plants that they cultivated within their own lair, creating truly unique and priceless pieces of art.   A green dragon's true favorite possession, however, are the sentient beings they claim as servants. Renowned personalities of Elaris—such as famous artists, adventurers, or even scholars—are considered by green dragons to be the most prized individuals to add to their collections.

Reproduction

Female green dragons initiate courtship with males, a process that is reflective of the females' offensive and crass behavior. After impregnation however, the relationship between mated green dragons changes, and a strong bond is formed. Incubation of green dragon eggs continues for about sixteen months, with the eggs being laid at about the four-month mark.   The mated pair develops strong ties to each other and wholly dedicates themselves to the newly-hatched wyrmlings. Both the mother and father typically stay close to their eggs while they are incubating. Green dragons are the only species of Chromatic Dragons known to sacrifice their own lives for their brood.   A green wyrmling can be easily mistaken for a black dragon, due to their nearly black scales. As the wyrmling matures, its scales become steadily lighter in color until they reach the striking green shade of an adult. The wyrmlings typically stay with both parents until they reach young adulthood, at around 51 years of age. Once a green dragon sets out on its own, the mated pair goes their separate ways, and the bond they formed is broken.

Lifecycle

Wherever a green dragon dies, new and deadly plant life flourishes in an area around its corpse. Especially poisonous plants grow and blossom to abnormal sizes extraordinarily fast. These sites are often more connected to Faerie than the surrounding terrain.

Relationships

While green dragons typically exploit non-dragons with their schemes, they are not above moving against their own kind. They typically do not, however, scheme or plot against their own parents.   They often accept more servile creatures as their minions. Among those known to regularly serve green dragons are kobolds, goblins, ettercaps, orcs, yuan-ti, and ettins.   Some green dragons are known to hold a strong connection to Faerie, and some are known to serve malevolent Archfey.

Ecology

Appetite

Green dragons are omnivorous and eat just about anything they can get ahold of, including a variety of plants and living animals. They especially enjoy consuming Fey creatures like sprites and fey-descended creatures like gnomes, which are considered a delicacy to a green dragon.   According to some dragon sages, their appetite can be discerned by the direction of their eye movement: lateral movement means they crave vegetation, while a straight-on stare means they desire meat.   Green dragons, as with most other dragon breeds, are unable to chew their food. Hence, to aid digestion, they swallow small stones, pieces of metal, and even coins, which go into a small secod stomach like a bird's gizzard. These stomach stones grind down food and are eventually expelled in waste.

Uses

Certain poisonous roots found throughout Elaris have mildly psychoactive effects on green dragons when consumed. The effects of these roots exacerbate the already impudent behavior they demonstrate when socializing with their own kind.   Armor made from the scales of green dragons is light and flexible and offers the wearer protection against clouds of poisonous gas, such as that released by iron golems and the cloudkill spell.   One of the ways of creating a Wand of Stinking Cloud was using a horn of an old green dragon.

Notable Green Dragons

• Olymbracalyth - A young green dragon that has infiltrated a circle of druids near Corinthar.
• Thalmyzzarene - An extremely powerful green dragon that had befriended the Half-Elven warrior Gleinafinion Fein.