This installment of the My First Monster Manual blog series is the Red Dragon.
Environment: Mountains, Cliffs, and Underground Caves
Monster Type: Dragon
Color: Red Scales, Beige Underside
Features: Wings, Horns, Spine and Tail Ridge Plates
Abilities: Flight, Fire Breath, Fire Immunity, Cold Vulnerability
Recommended Equipment: Fire Protection, Cold Enchanted Weapons or Spells
Introduction:
A Red Dragon is an incredible spectacle to behold. They have a large heads with prominent sharp teeth. Their entire bodies are covered in extra tough scales making them fearsome combatants. A Red Dragon is a master of perfect flight. The juvenile Red Dragon is about the size of a large carriage, not including the length of the tail. Red Dragons often live to an ancient age and will grow to the size of a large castle. Red Dragons are very intelligent, including speaking many languages. They learn many disciplines of magic but specialize in fire magic. Red Dragons have fire breath attack capable of melting metal. They are immune to all fire damage but extremely susceptible to cold magic and environmental damage.
Investigation:
Jukie, the Ogre Magi, lead the way carrying hundreds of pounds of raw meat. Moak the Dwarf, walked beside him, followed by me and my assistant. Duncan, ‘The Nose’, travelled behind us. We took a winding path through the woods until we came to a cave on the edge of a beach that formed a natural harbor. Directly in front of the cave was a large patch of shiny glass, like a plate resting on top of the sand. Jukie hurled the meat he was carrying into the center of the glass plate. Smoke and flame erupted from the cave engulfing the meat, instantly cooking it, charred and blackened. The excess heat from the fire breath melted more of the sand into shiny new glass.
Observations:
A young male Red Dragon came bounding out of the cave, lunging forward and devouring the pile of burnt meat. The Red Dragon, while only a juvenile, was impressively large, with wings and a long tail. His red scales shone bright in the morning sun. Once the Red Dragon had finished his breakfast, Jukie whistled and waved the monster over to us. The dragon approached us slowly, sat on its hunches giving us a wide toothy grin. Jukie introduced us to Dragmar. Dragmar couldn’t speak but could clearly understand us.
First, Dragmar did a demonstration of his flight capabilities. Then, he showed off more fire breath, even covering his whole body in flames to show his fire immunity. We spent all day playing and learning from the young Red Dragon. Night came and the air grew cold, so we started to make camp, Dragmar watched us intently. He snuck up close inspecting our cold protection enchanted bedrolls. Before we could respond, Dragmar snatched both our bed rolls and ran back to his cave entrance. He tossed them over his body and curled up. Since cold is a Red Dragon’s natural weakness, we suspected Dragmar wanted a little extra protection for himself!
Conclusion:
Fortunately for us, spare bed rolls and even a luxury magical camping tent was stored inside Reginald the Drago-chest. We had an amazing experience interacting with the juvenile red Dragon, Dragmar. After such an incredible day, we couldn’t help but feel forlorn as we slept knowing the young griffin and the juvenile red dragon might be used as weapons of war against each other in the near future.
About:
The Red Dragon is part of our “My First Monster Manual” blog series where we will feature each of the monsters we are considering for inclusion in our new children’s book. Click here to learn more info on My First Monster Manual.
Artist: Joshua Johnson – joshings.com
