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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7645217" data-attributes="member: 4937"> <table style='width: 100%'><tr><th>Shadow Dragons </th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th><th></th></tr><tr><th>Age Category </th><th>Category Name </th><th>AC </th><th>Move Rate </th><th>Small </th><th>Normal </th><th>Huge </th></tr><tr><th>1 </th><th>Hatchling </th><th>0 </th><th>18"/24" D </th><th>1+4 </th><th>2+8 </th><th>2+8 </th></tr><tr><th>2 </th><th>Very Young </th><th>-1 </th><th>18"/24" D </th><th>2+10 </th><th>3+15 </th><th>3+15 </th></tr><tr><th>3 </th><th>Young </th><th>-2 </th><th>18"/24" D </th><th>3+15 </th><th>4+20 </th><th>4+20 </th></tr><tr><th>4 </th><th>Young Adult </th><th>-3 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>4+20 </th><th>5+25 </th><th>6+30 </th></tr><tr><th>5 </th><th>Adult </th><th>-4 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>5+30 </th><th>6+36 </th><th>7+42 </th></tr><tr><th>6 </th><th>Old </th><th>-5 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>6+36 </th><th>7+42 </th><th>8+48 </th></tr><tr><th>7 </th><th>Venerable </th><th>-6 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>7+42 </th><th>8+48 </th><th>10+60 </th></tr><tr><th>8 </th><th>Ancient </th><th>-7 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>8+56 </th><th>9+63 </th><th>11+77 </th></tr><tr><th>9 </th><th>Wyrm </th><th>-8 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>8+56 </th><th>10+70 </th><th>12+84 </th></tr><tr><th>10 </th><th>Great Wyrm </th><th>-9 </th><th>18"/24" E </th><th>9+63 </th><th>12+84 </th><th>14+98 </th></tr></table>Shadow DragonTreasure Type: D, Q x 20In the youth of the world, a chromatic dragon male of exceptional cunning, sleekness, and vanity dared to imagine himself the consort of the dragon queen.  The dragon queen spurned him for a rival suitor of greater girth and strength, and rather than ending up as a repast for either queen or rival as would be the usual result, the rejected male escaped injured in body and pride and vowing revenge.   Seeking powers that this rivals could not defeat, and vowing to become king over all evil dragons, the male exchanged his spirit for that of shadow stuff using a rite probably not unlike those that a humanoids sometimes use to become Shades save that either owing to the rite or the caster’s draconic nature, it left him fully fertile and able to sire offspring.  This male then became the first of the Shadow Dragons, and his brood has lurked in the deep dark places of the world ever since.Despite his vow, the Shadow Dragon King never was able to usurp the Dragon Queen or avenge himself on evil-dragon kind.  And over time his linage has diminished in stature, becoming smaller, leaner and sleeker, for the deep places of the world do not favor those with great appetites.  However, at least in one respect, the Shadow Dragon King has attained his wish, for his clan is decidedly patriarchal in arrangement, and the male of the species is larger and more dominate than the female.Scholars argue over what the original race of the Shadow Dragon King was, for it has been lost to history.  Perhaps he was a cunning green, a stealthy black, or even an ambitious white.  Whatever race he was, the Shadow Dragons are now a race apart though they still closely enough resemble their chromatic forebears in demeanor and nature that much that is true of dragons generally apply to them.  Unless stated otherwise, the common abilities of dragon-kin are also present in shadow dragons. A shadow dragon has scales of dull ebony, woven with gray shadows of different tones, some lighter and others darker, seemingly drawing their color from their nature and not from outward light for light falling upon them does not change their hue nor the brightness.  Their wings are diminished in size and often appear semi-translucent, as can parts of their body.  The head of a shadow dragon is proportionately larger than other evil dragon kind, and the eyes of a shadow dragon are a dark reflective gray much like polished hematite. Shadow Dragons may have diminished in stature, but the shadow stuff that now animates them gives them unnatural fortitude and strange powers.  All shadow dragons are serpentine and lithe, and have an effective dexterity of 19.  The sinuous agility of a shadow dragon allows them to make constrict attacks with their tail and body, but their insubstantial wings are relatively useless as weapons and do damage as a dragon 4HD smaller than their actual size (a shadow dragon of 4HD or less may not make wing bash attacks at all) and likewise any special attacks with wings are earned or made as if the shadow dragon had 4 less HD.The breath weapon of a shadow dragon is a cloud of chilling darkness 2/3” inches long and ½” wide and tall for each age category of the dragon.  This tangible stuff blinds all within its confines even those that have infravision, and lowers the life energy of all living things to only 25% of their usual vitality (level or HD) for as many turns as the shadow dragon has age categories.  On a successful save, 50% of the usual vitality is still lost.All shadow dragons may hide in shadows and move silently as a 10th level thief.Shadow dragons are cold loving creatures, and resist the first 5 damage from cold or acid attacks per age category.  Shadow dragons are immune to the breath weapon of their kind, and to all attacks and magic which drain life energy.  A shadow dragon has 12% magic resistance per age category.  Owing to their nature and substance, all shadow dragons may only be harmed by magic weapons.A shadow dragon’s intelligence is 2 higher than usual for a chromatic dragon up to the adulthood, at which point it is 4 higher than is usual for evil dragons.  This gives the shadow dragon proportionately greater chances of acquiring the power of speech and spell-casting ability.  A shadow dragon which has acquired the power of speech casts spell as an Illusionist of level equal to ½ of the dragon’s intelligence (rounded down).  Those with an intelligence of at least 15 may employ spell-books.  All huge shadow dragons are male, while all small ones are female.   There is a 25% chance that any encounter with an adult or older shadow dragon is with a mated pair, with male generally dominating the relationship and bullying the female (which is always smaller and of a lower age category).Shadow dragons are especial collectors of black and grey gemstones, and as indicated by the treasure type "Q x 20", will have 10-40 such gems in an average horde.   When determining the nature of such gems, consult the following table:<table style='width: 100%'><tr><td>Roll</td><td>Gem</td><td>Base Value</td></tr><tr><td>01-15</td><td>Cat’s Eye Scapolite</td><td>    10 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>16-30</td><td>Hematite</td><td>10 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>31-45</td><td>    Obsidian</td><td>     10 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>45-60</td><td>    Jet</td><td>     10 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>61-65</td><td>    Black Star Diopside</td><td>    50 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>66-70</td><td>    Moonstone</td><td>     50 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>71-75</td><td>    Onyx</td><td>     50 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>76-80</td><td>    Smoky Quartz</td><td>     50 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>81-84</td><td>    Black Garnet</td><td>     100 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>85-89</td><td>    Black Tourmaline</td><td>     100 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>90-93</td><td>    Grey Spinel</td><td>     100 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>94-96</td><td>    Black Pearl</td><td>     500 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>97-98</td><td>    Black Opal</td><td>     1000 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>99</td><td>    Black Diamond </td><td>    1000 g.p.</td></tr><tr><td>00</td><td>    Black Sapphire</td><td>     5000 g.p.</td></tr></table><table style='width: 100%'><tr><th>Shadow Dragon Level and XP Value    </th><th></th><th></th><th></th></tr><tr><th>Age Category</th><th>    Small (Female)</th><th>    Normal</th><th>    Huge (Male)    </th></tr><tr><th>1    </th><th>III/92 + 2/hp</th><th>    IV/165 + 3/hp</th><th>    IV/165 + 3/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>2</th><th>IV/165 + 3/hp</th><th>    IV/280 + 4/hp</th><th>    IV/280 + 4/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>3    </th><th>IV/280 + 4/hp</th><th>    IV/430 + 5/hp</th><th>    IV/430 + 5/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>4    </th><th>IV/430 + 5/hp</th><th>    V/750 + 6/hp</th><th>    VI/1175 + 8/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>5    </th><th>V/750 + 6/hp</th><th>    VI/1175 + 8/hp    </th><th>VI/1825 + 10/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>6    </th><th>VI/1300 + 8/hp</th><th>VII/2000 + 10/hp</th><th>    VIII/3300 + 12/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>7</th><th>VII/2000 + 10/hp</th><th>    VIII/3300 + 12/hp</th><th>    IX/6300 + 14/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>8</th><th>VIII/3300 + 12/hp</th><th>    VIII/4950 + 14/hp</th><th>    X/11400 + 16/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>9</th><th>VIII/3300 + 12/hp</th><th>    IX/6300 + 14/hp</th><th>    XI/16600 + 18/hp    </th></tr><tr><th>10</th><th>VIII/4950 + 14/hp</th><th>    X/11400 + 16/hp</th><th>    XI/16600 + 18/hp    </th></tr></table></blockquote>

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