ALL ABOUT DRAGONS Illus. by T. Lockwood
CHAPTER 1:
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pearl. They often keep pearls in their lairs, both as treasures and snacks. They admire other treasures from the sea as well, such as bits of rare coral and amber. Though they don’t care to admit it, their favorite metal is gold, which does not tarnish in their humid lairs. Bronze dragons usually attack only in self-defense or to defend those unable to defend themselves. They dislike killing anything they don’t plan to eat, and they try especially hard to avoid killing animals that are merely defending themselves. They usually try to distract attacking animals with food, using their repulsion breath to fend them off if distractions fail. Against intelligent foes, bronze dragons usually try to negotiate, but remain wary of duplicity. Often, a bronze dragon figures out a way to be victorious in a conflict without dealing damage, such as stranding a foe on an island or dismasting a ship at sea.
COPPER DRAGONS Copper dragons have a well-deserved reputation as incorrigible pranksters, joke-tellers, and riddlers. They appreciate all forms of humor. Most are good-natured but also have a covetous, miserly streak. Copper dragons like dry, rocky uplands and mountains. Their territories sometimes adjoin or overlap brass dragons’ territories. The two species tend to get along well, but meetings between the two usually devolve into marathon conversations in which the copper dragons bombard the brass dragons with humor while the brass dragons blithely continue to banter. Such sessions usually end with one dragon or the other taking its leave none too gently.
Copper dragons also find themselves with silver, red, or blue dragons for neighbors. The silvers avoid too much contact with the coppers. Blue or red dragons inevitably try to slay the coppers or at least drive them away. Many a copper dragon considers the presence of a blue or red dragon as challenge, and does all it can to annoy and embarrass the evil dragon without getting itself killed. Copper dragons make their lairs in narrow caves. They use their ability to move and shape stone to enhance their lairs, often concealing the entrances using move earth and stone shape. Within the lair, they construct twisting mazes, often with open tops that allow the dragon to fly or jump over intruders. Unlike most dragons, however, copper dragons are often happy to have cramped lairs that don’t allow them space for flight; they depend instead on their ability to climb stone surfaces for mobility inside the lair. Copper Dragon Identifiers Copper dragons are powerful jumpers and climbers, with massive thighs and shoulders. A copper dragon’s head has a short face and no beak. Broad, smooth browplates jut over the eyes, and long, flat coppery horns extend back from the browplates in a series of segments. The dragon also has backswept cheek ridges and frills on the backs of the lower jaws that sweep forward slightly. Layers of triangular blades point down from the chin, and as the dragon gets older more layers with larger blades develop. The dragon has a long tongue that comes to a single point. At birth, a copper dragon’s scales have a ruddy brown color with a metallic tint. As the dragon gets older, the scales
Copper Dragons by Size Size Tiny Small Medium Large Huge Gargantuan
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Overall Length 4 ft. 8 ft. 16 ft. 31 ft. 55 ft. 85 ft.
Body Length 1-1/2 ft. 3 ft. 6 ft. 11 ft. 18 ft. 25 ft.
Neck Length 1 ft. 2 ft. 5 ft. 9 ft. 16 ft. 25 ft.
Tail Length 1-1/2 ft. 3 ft. 5 ft. 11 ft. 21 ft. 35 ft.
Body Width 1 ft. 2 ft. 3 ft. 5 ft. 8 ft. 10 ft.
Standing Height 1 ft. 2 ft. 4 ft. 7 ft. 12 ft. 16 ft.
Maximum Wingspan 8 ft. 16 ft. 24 ft. 36 ft. 60 ft. 80 ft.
Minimum Wingspan 4 ft. 8 ft. 12 ft. 18 ft. 30 ft. 40 ft.
Weight 5 lb. 40 lb. 320 lb. 2,500 lb. 20,000 lb. 160,000 lb.
