Plague Dragon (Keran Creature)

Living in the depths of fetid bogs and swamps, plague dragons are hateful creatures that enjoy spreading disease to the “lesser” creatures they encounter. Four of these beasts attacked me and my companions while I was gathering reagents for a certain magical ritual (I have yet to finish gathering all the necessary reagents but believe me I will eventually inform you of the results). This is when something happened that has postponed my research for the foreseeable future. While we fought off these four with no difficulty, in fact quite a bit of ease, another elder of the race attacked. Before we managed to fight it off, it managed to blast Sillana with its fetid breath weapon. While many of my companions came down with a disease I had not yet encountered, which I have since discovered is called the Black Spit, it proved easily cured by a simple expenditure of magical energy, although it did prove difficult and resistant to such attempts. Unfortunately Sillana’s proved completely immune, my research informs me that such a disease cannot be conventionally cured instead requiring a special ritual and special reagents unfortunately only found deep within the Abyss. As such I write this before heading onto an expedition into that demonic realm, to inform future travellers of the danger these dragons represent.

Type:	Dragon (Water)
Environment:	Temperate and warm swamps
Organization:	Wyrmling, very young, young, juvenile, and young adult: solitary, or clutch (2–5); adult, mature adult, old, very old, ancient, wyrm, or great wyrm: solitary, pair, or family (2-5)
Challenge Rating:	Wyrmling 3; very young 4; young 5; juvenile 8; young adult 11; adult 13; mature adult 16; old 18; very old 19; ancient 21; wyrm 22; great wyrm 24
Treasure:	Triple standard
Alignment:	Usually Chaotic Evil
Advancement:	Wyrmling 6-7 HD; very young 9=10 HD; young 12-13 HD; juvenile 15-16 HD; young adult 18-20 HD; adult 21-22 HD; mature adult 24-25 HD; old 27-28 HD; very old 30-31 HD; ancient 33-34 HD; wyrm 36-37 HD; great wyrm 39-40 HD
Level Adjustment:	-

Dragons by Age
Age	Size	Hit Dice (hp)	Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha	Base Attack/ Grapple	Attack	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Breath Weapon (DC)	Frightful Presence DC
Wyrmling	S	5d12+5 (37)	13	10	13	8	11	8	+5/+2	+7	+5	+4	+4	2d4 (13)	-
Very young	M	8d12+16 (66)	15	10	15	8	11	8	+8/+10	+10	+8	+6	+6	4d4 (16)	-
Young	M	11d12+22 (93)	17	10	15	10	11	10	+11/+14	+14	+9	+7	+7	6d4 (17)	-
Juvenile	L	14d12+42 (133)	21	10	17	10	13	10	+14/+23	+18	+12	+9	+10	8d4 (20)	-
Young adult	L	17d12+68 (178)	23	10	19	12	13	12	+17/+27	+22	+14	+10	+11	10d4 (22)	19
Adult	H	20d12+80 (210)	25	10	19	12	13	12	+20/+35	+25	+16	+12	+13	12d4 (24)	21
Mature adult	H	23d12+115 (264)	27	10	21	14	15	14	+23/+39	+29	+18	+13	+15	14d4 (26)	23
Old	H	26d12+130 (299)	29	10	21	14	15	14	+26/+43	+33	+20	+15	+17	16d4 (28)	25
Very old	H	29d12+174 (362)	31	10	23	16	17	16	+29/+47	+37	+22	+16	+19	118d4 (33)	27
Ancient	G	32d12+224 (432)	35	10	25	16	17	16	+32/+56	+40	+25	+18	+21	20d4 (33)	29
Wyrm	G	35d12+281 (508)	37	10	27	18	19	18	+35/+60	+44	+27	+19	+23	22d4 (35)	31
Great wyrm	G	38d12+343 (590)	39	10	19	18	19	18	+38/+64	+48	+30	+21	+25	24d4 (38)	33

Dragon Abilities by Age
Age	Speed	Initiative	AC	Special Abilities	Caster Level	SR
Wyrmling	40-ft, fly 100-ft (average), swim 40-ft	+0	15 (+1 size, +4 natural), touch 11, flat-footed 14	Immunity to disease and acid, water breathing	-	-
Very young	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	17 (+7 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 17	Diseased Saliva	-	-
Young	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	20 (+10 natural), touch , flat-footed 20	Withstand Magic	-	-
Juvenile	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	22 (-1 size, +13 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 22	Festering Wounds	-	-
Young adult	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	25 (-1 size, +16 natural), touch 9, flat-footed 25	DR 5/magic	1st	22
Adult	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	27 (-2 size, +19 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 27	Contagion	3rd	24
Mature adult	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	30 (-2 size, +22 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 30	DR 10/magic	5th	27
Old	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	33 (-2 size, +25 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 33	Stench of the Plague	7th	28
Very old	40-ft, fly 150-ft (poor), swim 40-ft	+0	36 (-2 size, +28 natural), touch 8, flat-footed 36	DR 15/magic	9th	29
Ancient	40-ft, fly 200-ft (clumsy), swim 40-ft	+0	37 (-4 size, +31 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 37	Death Rot	11th	31
Wyrm	40-ft, fly 200-ft (clumsy), swim 40-ft	+0	40 (-4 size, +34 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 40	DR 20/magic	13th	32
Great wyrm	40-ft, fly 200-ft (clumsy), swim 40-ft	+0	43 (-4 size, +37 natural), touch 6, flat-footed 43	Evil Plague	15th	34

These dragons have a dull brown hide, growing darker and nearer to black as they age. Their head has a single horn, reminiscent of both that of a blue dragon and that of a unicorn. For it has the spiral nature of an unicorn, but is short and stump-like, useless for actual combat, like a blue dragon’s. This resemblance to a unicorn is puzzling as one has the power to alleviate others of plague while the other inflicts it, and begs for more research that I sadly lack the opportunity to perform at this moment.

--Zasper the Dragon Sage

Combat

Breath Weapon (Su): A plague dragon has a single breath weapon, a cone of disgusting, bacteria-ridden acidic sludge. This cone deals the listed acid damage and also deals 1 point of Constitution damage per 2 age categories; a successful Reflex save halving both. A Fort save (same DC) is also required. On a successful Fort save the Con damage is further halved (or reduced to 0 if both saves are successful), but on a failure the creature becomes infected with Black Spit (see below).

Black Spit: The disease’s name come from one of the more interesting symptoms, it colors the patient’s saliva and phlegm an ashy black. As a warning to caretakers the disease seems to spread through bodily fluids. This is a supernatural disease. Incubation Period: 1d4+1 days; 1d4 hours via a plague dragon’s breath weapon. Fort save DC: 14; when infected via a plague dragon’s breath weapon the DC is based off the dragon’s hit dice and Constitution, normally equaling the save DC of their breath weapon (heighten breath and ability focus [breath weapon] do not raise this DC). Damage: 1d3 Constitution, and 1 Wisdom.

Diseased Saliva (Ex): A very young or older plague dragon’s saliva carries another dangerous disease. This is a particularly virulent, and fast acting, strain of Red Ache.

The incubation period for this strain, when directly inflicted by the plague dragon, is 1d8+1 hours, otherwise it is 1 day. The Fort save DC, when directly inflicted, is based off of the dragon’s hit dice and Constitution (this is the same formula used to get Breath Weapon DCs so they are normally the same), when not directly inflicted the DC is only 16 (1 higher than normal for Red Ache). Finally the damage, also, is increased to 1d8 Strength damage.

Withstand Magic (Su): Any disease inflicted by a young or older plague dragon is hard to remove even by magic. Any attempt to magically remove the disease, such as by the Remove Disease spell, is prevented unless the caster makes a successful Caster Level check (DC is the same as the Fort save to resist the disease). A paladin using their Remove Disease spell-like ability gains a +5 to their Caster Level to remove the disease, and a unicorn gains a +10 to their caster level when using their racial Remove Disease spell-like ability. This affects any disease inflicted by the plague dragon even extraordinary ones, and those inflicted by it in an anti-magic field (this ability is negated in an anti-magic field, though, hence it is supernatural).

Festering Wounds (Ex): Elements in a juvenile or older plague dragon’s diseased saliva also prevents wounds from closing properly. Any creature that takes damage from a plague dragon’s bite attack suffers an additional 1 damage per round until they receive at least 1 point of magical healing or someone performs a DC 20 heal check as a standard action to remove the chemicals.

Spellcasting: A young adult or older plague dragon casts spells as a sorcerer of the indicated level. They may also cast spells from the druid spell list as if they were sorcerer spells.

Contagion (Sp): Adult or older; 3/day.

Stench of the Plague (Su): An old or older plague dragon is surrounded by a horrid stench. Any creature coming within 30-ft which can smell the plague dragon must make a Fort save (DC is Charisma based, therefore identical to frightful presence DC) or be nauseated for 1d4 +1/age category rounds. A creature with scent suffers a -4 to this save, and is affected at double range (and can smell an old or older plague dragon at 4 times normal range). A creature that saves against this ability, or fails and is affected by it, is immune to that plague dragon’s Stench of the Plague for 24 hours.

Death Rot (Su): The Constitution damage inflicted by an ancient or older plague dragon’s Black Spit is increased by 2, and it requires 3 consecutive successful saving throws to remove it. The Black Spit is now completely incurable by normal magic, but can be cured by gathering special powerful reagents (details left to the DM; suggestion is actually make a quest out of it, but if you don’t want to do that DC 15 + CR of dragon Knowledge (Arcana) check and 800 times CR of dragon GP to buy them) to empower the spell, or by a paladin or unicorn’s Remove Disease ability.

Evil Plague (Su): A great wyrm plague dragon’s red ache now deals 2d6 damage per failed save and requires 3 consecutive successful saving throws to remove it. It is also now completely incurable by normal magic, but can be cured by gathering special powerful reagents (details left to the DM; suggestion is actually make a quest out of it, but if you don’t want to do that DC 15 + CR of dragon Knowledge (Nature) check and 800 times CR of dragon GP to buy them) to empower the spell, or by a paladin’s Remove Disease ability. In addition their black spit is now incapable of being naturally healed, or cured by a paladin’s Remove Disease or unicorn’s spell-like ability.

Skills: Bluff, Heal, and Survival are class skills for a plague dragon in addition to those standard for all true dragons.

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