Worlds Numberless and Strange
“Imagine furnace heat, searing glass, and brilliant light bound into one living, malignant force, and you’ve got an inkling of what it’s like to face a glass dragon.” ~Iron Stave of the Black Moon Explorers
Glass dragons are rabid accumulations of knife-sharp glass layered in sheets and shards like scales. Their wings are traceries of glittering light, and each of their eyes is the image of the sun as if focused by a lens. Draconic only in broad outline, these creatures appear as animate collections of shattered glass. Their fangs and claws are crystal-hard, flashing with reflected light. By day, the form of a glass dragon is easy to lose in a haze of brilliant light, which risks blinding an onlooker who stares overlong at the creature hunting him.
Motive: Resolving grudges
Environment (Ardeyn | Magic): In or near the Glass Desert (but sometimes, beyond the recursion’s borders, hunting in the Strange)
Health: 33
Damage Inflicted: Moderate wound (7 points)
Armor: 3
Movement: Short; long while flying
Modifications: Perception as level 8; Speed defense as level 6 due to size.
Combat: A glass dragon can bite one foe or claw two foes in immediate range as a single action. A bitten target is immobilized until he succeeds on a Might defense roll to break free (or until the dragon drops him). Glass dragons also have one or more additional abilities they can use in combat, including the following. Blinding Flash: A glass dragon can emit a chaotic series of light pulses so bright and fast that creatures within short range who fail a Might defense roll are blinded for one round.
Burning Beams: A glass dragon can emit twin beams of focused light from its eyes to long range, inflicting a major wound (9 points) on the target and all creatures within immediate range. This ability cannot be used in consecutive rounds.
Mirror Passage: A glass dragon can physically enter a reflective surface it can see (even one as small as a hand mirror) and reappear up to hundreds of miles away through another reflective surface that it has previously prepared. This ability cannot be used more than once every ten hours.
Sere Spirit Rider: Some glass dragons host the reflections of sere spirits. A dragon host can either release the sere spirits into a nearby reflective surface, or display the spirits within its own reflective body to its foes. Once it does so, the sere spirits attack the dragon’s prey without any additional action from the dragon.
Interaction: Glass dragons are well known for their grudges, and, unfortunately, humans and qephilim top the list for payback. Only negotiations that promise a dragon even greater vengeance have a chance of succeeding.
Use: A glass dragon is attacking kray out in the Strange, which seems to be drawing larger and larger swarms of the creatures back to Ardeyn.
Loot: A glass dragon usually carries a couple of cyphers and 1d6 x 10 gold crowns. A dragon’s hoard might contain 2d6 cyphers, 1d6 x 200 gold crowns, and possibly a few artifacts.
GM Intrusion: A character damaged by the glass dragon’s fangs or claws continues to bleed, taking 2 points of Speed damage (ignores Armor) per round until she can regain at least 2 points, which stops the bleeding.