Firedrake (dragonet)

Firedrakes were dragonets similar to red dragons.
==Description==
Firedrakes had the proportions of a red dragon, but their hide was mottled with pink and burgundy and so thin it was a little translucent. The beast quivered, twitching almost imperceptibly. Firedrakes constantly, but slowly, beat their wings both to provide themselves with airflow and to ward away insects. They were often mistaken for red dragons.
==Personality==
Extremely skittish creatures, firedrakes attacked as often as they did anything else when disturbed. They responded with flame to any stimulus, not being as smart as red dragons. Young firedrakes were even more nervous than the adults.
==Abilities==
A firedrake was capable of breathing out a jet of its own pyrophoric, phosphorus-rich blood, up to five times a day. This jet was dangerous up to away, splashing a zone across at that distance. The heat from their bodies was dangerous to flying creatures, being sufficient to disrupt thermal currents for those fliers that depended on smooth airflow.
==Combat==
In combat, firedrakes did not hesitate to breathe out their own blood. When in melee, they used only their jaws, eschewing the use of their claws completely. They sometimes headbutted smaller prey in the air, simply to knock them out midflight, hoping to get them to perish during the fall. Their burning blood was so dangerous that anyone attacking one with a weapon that drew blood risked a mild, but perhaps deadly, backlash from the blood spilling out.
==Ecology==
Firedrakes were familial creatures: a mated pair kept watch over six to eight eggs, which hatched in about sixty days. The newborns' first flight occurred about sixty days after hatching. Young firedrakes left the lair during the early spring following their hatching. They could fly for scores of miles before meeting a firedrake of the opposite sex and establishing a lair; firedrakes mated for life. Mating fights were rare but fiery affairs; one of the males generally conceded rather than die.
Normally dragonets ranged up to from their territory, but they ranged twice that while their young were vulnerable.
Firedrake blood could be kept in an airtight sealed container, or underwater. Dipping a sword (for instance) in firedrake blood caused it to become flaming, even without magic, but this had a serious chance of destroying it. The creature's blood could also be used, if properly preserved, as flaming oil or as a firebomb.
Firedrakes could become familiars to a magician that adapted the find familiar spell by adding saltpeter to the herbal mixture. Sometimes, they sought out humanoid companionship on their own; when they did, they developed a unique empathic bond that operated out to , allowing them to communicate their emotional state to their bonded companion, and to know their companion's state as well.
==Habitats==
Firedrake Bay was named after a significant population of firedrakes that inhabited the very southern edge of the Firedrake Shores since before the region's discovery.
Firedrakes were known to hunt in the Stonelands and the Goblin Marches. In those locations, they were even active during the night.
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