D&D 5E (2014) Any lore on ambush drakes?

[Sword of Spirit]

Is there any actual 5e lore about these creatures somewhere (more than just a physical description of their appearance), or are we merely given statblocks and encounters in Tyranny of Dragons?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

No 5e specific lore write-up so far as I can tell. Hoard of the Dragon Queen was developed by 3rd party designer Kobold Press while 5e was still in its infancy and they seem to have just adopted and adapted a creature from 3rd and 4th edition, probably assuming DMs running the adventure would know what it was from prior editions or have the monster manuals of prior editions handy to look up the lore, which maybe wasn't an unreasonable assumption about the early adopter DMs of late 2014, but seems like a strange assumption these days.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Yeah, I just got Hoard of the Dragon Queen recently realized there was no lore to this critter. Apparently 3e Monster Manual 3 had it (and I guess 4e?) but that was one MM further than I bought in 3e, and I barely got into the MM1 in 4e, so it's not really something I'm familiar with. I wander if Kobold Press just assumed it would be in the 5e MM in a few months with lore. Which would be kind of a weird assumption, since it's such an obscure monster.

 

[Amros]

As Benjamin wrote, no 5e specific lore on Ambush Drakes. But the Guard Drakes made an appearance in Volo's Guide to Monsters, coming in all the chromatic varieties. Given how similar the Ambush and Guard Drakes seem to be, I'll just go with the same lore for both of them, but each one being trained for a different task: ambushers/hit-and-run, or guards.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

All the in-world lore that exists about these creatures is vague at best and based on unsubstantiated rumors. Because anyone who has tried to study the ambush drake ends up getting… well, you know.

 

[Demetrios1453]

As others have said, there's not much. But, being draconic creatures, they might get some info in the upcoming Fizban's Treasury of Dragons...

 

[Casimir Liber]

(Very belatedly) from 3e, ambush drakes had limited telepathy (communicating with each other within 30 feet). They had grey and/or black scales. In 4e, packs of them roved plains and they weren't telepathic any more. Did not see any lore about their origins (which I was pondering myself)