Mistinarperadnacles Hai Draco

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Mistinarperadnacles, or Mist as she is more commonly known, is both a typical and an atypical specimen of the red dragon species. Physically, she is as formidable as any red of her age, but psychologically, she's most unusual. (See Habitat/Society and Ecology below for details.)
Her appearance is common for her species. Her drab rust-colored scales darken to a purplish hue near her gem- and coin-covered belly. Her mouth is filled with teeth the size of swords, her yellow eyes are immense, and she has fleshy "whiskers" surrounding her mouth, but are most prominent on her chin
==Combat==
In combat, Mist is an awesome engine of destruction. Her claws and bite inflict terrible damage; she has a variety of spells to choose from which she casts as a 19th-level spellcaster; her dragon-fear aura has a 40-yard radius and saves against it are made with a -2 penalty; she's immune to fire and normal missile weapons; and her fiery breath weapon is a cone 90' long, 5' wide at the dragon's mouth, and 30' wide at the terminus. A blast causes 20d10+10 points of damage. Mist's spell collection includes the following wizard (2/2/2/l) and cleric (1) spells:
1st- charm person, feather fall;
2nd- ESP, wizard lock;
3rd- clairaudience, hold person;
4th - detect scrying;
1st - animal friendship.
In addition, Mist has the following spell-like abilities (due to her age): affect normal fires three times/day, pyrotechnics three times/day, heat metal once/day, suggestion once/day, hypnotism once/day, and detect gems, kind and number in a 100' radius three times/ day. For more details on the full combat capabilities of dragons and red dragons in particular, see the MONSTROUS MANUAL tome.
==Habitat/Society==
Like all evil dragons, Mist prefers to spend her time alone with her treasure hoard. She is not, however, horrifyingly evil or cruelly vicious. Mist is rather more refined than that, and perhaps even a little naive regarding her outlook on life. Mist finds wanton destruction-say, torching a village just for giggles-to be extraordinarily dull. She also has unusual tastes in treasure. Beyond the standard monetary and magical types of loot, Mist is interested in music and stories. In fact, she's gone as far as to kidnap and hold hostage a bard to entertain her-under threat of becoming Mist's next meal, of course.
==Ecology==
After treasures of all kinds, Mists primary motivation is to assure herself of a steady diet of warm-blooded prey. While she dines on large animals such as cattle or horses most of the time, she looks forward to those times when adventurers come to her, seeking honorable combat or her ill-gotten booty. Mist tends to play with her prey, often chatting with thieves and adventurers before devouring them. (It's this chronic underestimation and penchant for toying with her adversaries that eventually cost her her life.)
Mist shares her mountain cavern lair with a flock of large ravens, several of which she's used animal friendship on to act as sentries for her.
==History==
Mist's first known activity (though she certainly must have kept herself busy for the hundreds of years it took to reach her age) was taking part in the Flight of Dragons that descended on Yulash and Shadowdale several years ago. While Mist had nothing to do personally with the death of the "Witch of Shadowdale," Syluné Silverhand, she did learn that mass destruction was not her style.
After leaving the Flight, Mist settled in the Storm Horn mountains west of Cormyr. There she battled and defeated a younger male red for his lair and treasure hoard, though the male struck a nearly fatal blow before plummeting from sky, his wings torn to shreds by Mist. From this locale, Mist preyed on the merchant traffic from Suzail to Waymoot, destroying at least one adventuring party along the way.
From one caravan, Mist plucked the halfling bard Olive Ruskettle, whom Mist allowed to live for as long as she could keep the dragon entertained. Ruskettle was rescued from Mist though, by the actions of Alias the tattooed swordswoman. She managed to defeat Mist in the challenge known as the Feint of Honor, an ancient code of honorable, ritual combat of subdual that all dragonkind follows, regardless of alignment (see below).
Enraged at her defeat by the human swordswoman, Mist vowed to destroy her, code or no. Although she came close, Mist never again saw Alias. She did, however, catch up with Olive Ruskettle.
The bard was then in the company of Dragonbait the saurial paladin, who challenged Mist to another Feint of Honor. The pair managed to defeat the dragon, and the price of their victory was Mist's aid in battling the avatar form of Moander the Darkbringer.
After an initial skirmish, Mist and the heroes met the growing form of the avatar in a spectacular battle over the city of Westgate. Mist was taking the worst of the battle until she breathed fire into the mostly hollow form of Moander's avatar. As Moander is the god of decay, his avatar had taken the form of a huge, mass of rotting vegetation. Rotting vegetation puts off flammable gases, and it was these gases that Mist's fiery breath ignited. The resulting blast destroyed both the god's avatar and the mighty dragon.
Mist's animated skull reappeared 10 years later as the scrying device/advisor of VICTOR DHOSTAR (also known as the Faceless), leader of Westgate's Night Masks thieves guild. It too seems to have been destroyed later, however.
==Feint of Honor==
The Feint of Honor hails from the ancient history of the Realms when dragons were much more numerous and often came into conflict. The Feint of Honor was devised so that the battles needn't end in the death of one of the draconic combatants. In brief, the code of the Feint of Honor is as follows:
* Each combatant first asks the name of the other, if not already known. Each must answer truthfully.
* A list of offenses is given by the challenger, ending with the simple phrase, "For these barbarities, I challenge you!"
* Terms of the combat and any spoils of victory are then offered by the challenger, to which the challenged may make counter-offers. Only when agreement is reached can the combat begin. The code notes that the more conditions the challenger places, either on the combat or the spoils, the more concessions the challenged being may demand in counter-offers.
* When both parties agree, both must state their agreement aloud. The challenger then says, "The code is honored, the pact is made," and combat begins.
Sources: Azure Bonds.
Category:NPCs
Category:Villains' Lorebook NPCs