Month of the Dragon: Faerie Dragon

Expanding on Monster Mondays, I’m spending March digging deep into dragons. Inspired by James Jacobs’ 10 goblin facts written for Pathfinder, I’m working my way through the Monster Manual creating ten facts about each creature based on their art and lore. The goal is to provide habits, scene-setting tools, and plot hooks for encounters.

10 Facts About Faerie Dragons

1. Draconic Relations: Faerie dragons are considered a nuisance by most chromatic dragons and test the patience of even the kindest metallic dragons. Copper dragons, though, enjoy the company of faerie dragons, and many a copper dragon wyrmling has been raised in the company of a faerie dragon brood.
2. Tiny Rivalry: The unwary adventurer might, understandably, mistake a faerie dragon for a pseudodragon or vice versa. Though both part of the larger dragon family, truth be told, faerie dragons have closer ties to true dragons and take more than a little offense at being mistaken for their distant cousins.
3. Fairy Fellowship: Faerie dragons can often be found in the company of sprites and pixies. Rarely, they will even suffer the fey to ride on their backs.
4. Dragon Drought: In some parts of the world, healers and bartenders alike may offer travelers spirits poured from a bottle with a preserved faerie dragon inside. They claim that some of the properties of the dragon’s euphoric breath weapon are passed on to the liquor. Shocking to travelers. Horrific to faerie dragons.
5. Origin Oration: Folktales disagree on the origins of faerie dragons. Some stories say that faerie dragons are the result of an archfey’s curse on a true dragon that insulted it. Other stories claim that faerie dragons were actually the first dragons and that the true dragons have gotten slower and duller since the first of their ancestors emerged from the Feywild. Faerie dragons prefer the latter story.
6. Nut Nuts: Faerie dragons enjoy small cakes and dried fruits, but left to their own devices in the wilds, they hoard all manner of seeds and nuts.
7. Toy Takers: Faerie dragons will accept gifts of gold and jewels, but they take more pleasure in toys. Small novelties, things with moving parts, and noisemakers delight faerie dragons, and should an adventurer befriend a faerie dragon, they’re almost assured to be shown whichever trinket has most recently caught the dragon’s interest.
8. Stealth Stamina: Left to their own devices, faerie dragons sometimes pursue a contest to see who can remain invisible and undetected the longest. These competitions tend to fall apart because one or all participants become distracted, and the winner is typically the first faerie dragon to wander off before blinking back into visibility.
9. Ornate Ovum: Faerie dragon eggs tend to be brightly colored in hues related to the age of the parent. Some older faerie dragons have been known to lay eggs with unusual patterns.
10. Hidden Hatchers: Faerie dragons enjoy the assistance of other creatures when it comes to protecting their young. They will hide their eggs in the nests of birds or egg-laying reptiles, though they typically leave offerings of food to meet their end of the unspoken deal. Especially ambitious faerie dragons will attempt to mix their tiny eggs in with the brood of a larger dragon.