Also known as Deathbearer Dragons, Fester dragons are among the smallest of the planar dragons, standing only about 22 feet in height at the shoulders at an adult age, having a wing span of about 56 feet and being about 38 feet long from tip of their tail to snout. Coming from the dark far plane of Imenssia, these are covered in dark green scale that are heavily matted and not shiny at all, these scales are hard, but not as hard as of other dragons. Fester dragons move with grace and agility, being extremely agile and quite slender for dragons, only weighing about 8 metric tons at adult sizes. Easiest way to distinquish a Fester dragon are it's spikey scales, which cover it's whole body except it's stomach, and their complete and utter lack of any horns or head features. These spikes are thick and large, helping the dragon dig through soft rock as it burrows. Their crooked and sharp claws give them the ability to hang onto walls and ceilings with relatively little effort. Their tails are thick and not overly long, only making about a third of the dragon's length. Omnivores with a heavy meat preferences, Fester dragons make for relatively poor fliers and usually stay on the ground if they can help it.

Planar Nomads.

Unlike most dragons, Fester dragons do not build lairs, instead they live a nomadic life style, wandering from place to place and rarely staying in one place for longer than five years. This makes Fester dragons have a habit of showing up just about anywhere except for the most extreme of climes or planes. They do, however, greatly prefer moist and humid locations that are either warm or hot, usually places that their relatively small bodies can retain heat well in.

Fester dragons are known to be able to traverse the astral and ethereal planes relatively safely, even getting to places they really are not supposed to be able to get to. This planar travel ability also means that they have been spotted on several material planes, suggesting they have the ability to leave the planespace completely, though this is highly suspect among planar scholars.

Exactly what caused so many Fester dragons to leave Imenssia is as of now unknown, but some scholars have theorized that the dragons left to avoid being consumed by a dark invading force that entered the plane. Many Fester dragons now, however, are born and live their entire lives on planes other than Imenssia, though they are known to be present on Imenssia once more.

Bringers of the Deathly Mist.

Fester Dragons are so named because they constantly emit a festering, disgusting but odorless mist, which appears to be magical in nature, constantly spewing out from special pores in between it's stomach scales. This mist is lethal, but not immediately so, instead it makes the ones within feel extremely ill and to have their skin start to slowly suffer from Necrosis as the skin slowly dies. Breathing in the mist has the exact same effects upon the internal organs of the creature breathing it in. Even other dragons are not immune, though Fester dragons themselves are, just that it makes most other dragons feel nauseous and very uncomfortable. It is theorized that mist consists of spores of a fungus that lives within the dragons stomach in specialized organs, but this has never been confirmed as actually killing a Fester dragon is extreme difficult. Not only does the mist protect the dragon by concealing it, making it harder to hit, but the dragon itself is extremely agile for a dragon, far more so than any mere humanoid.

Their agility is so remarkable that they have been to be known to quite easily be able to out right dodge spells that are normally not avoidable. This only makes the dragon even harder to kill, as many, many unfortunate spell casters have found out. Fester dragons in general are considered to be the most agile of all dragon kind, which certainly help compensate for their small size.

But these are not the only tools at the dragon's disposal, as the dragon has two known traditional dragon breath weapons, Poison Gas and Paralyzing Mist, as well an ability to shoot out a beam of Dark energy from it's mouth. These give the dragon a lot of options when it comes to combat because their agility and deadly abilities, they are usually avoided by other dragonkind.

When it comes to physical attacks, the dragon isn't out of options either, as it's sharp teeth and four pairs of external teeth are well suited to biting and tearing flesh, it's crooked claws are still perfectly capable of inflicting wounds. But most interestingly, the dragon doesn't use it's tail as a weapon. Instead, it stores excess energy that it might need later in it's tail, which grows a thick fat storage around the base tail. Naturally, this makes the tail ill-suited for combat, but instead, the Fester dragons have an extremely long tongue, which is covered in an acidic and extremely poisonous, thick saliva.

Poor sighted Telepaths.

Fester dragons, despite their power are known to be quite sensitive to light, and thusly have pretty poor vision in places other than complete darkness or underground. This does not hold the dragon one bit though, as it's sense of smell and hearing are highly developed. It's hearing especially is phenomenal, bordering on the magical, they have been known to be able to hear the sounds of battle dozens of miles away, or the sound of the flap of wings of another dragon from over six miles away. They are even able to hear a whisper within 600 feet of themselves. This does not mean the dragon is easy to deafen, quite the opposite actually. The ears of the Fester dragon are hidden underneath it's head scales, and they only bring them out to enhance their hearing further, when seeking a mate, or when they are actively hunting. They are also able to extend and retract their velvety ear webbing rapibly, this webbing usually being cyan in coloration with stripe of black and red upon them. Not only does this allow them to protect their ears quite easily, but it means they are able to adjust their hearing very accurately to hone in on their prey or a nearby dragon hunter. Their smell on the other hand, can detect the smell of blood up to three miles away, the smell of newly hatched or born prey or the smell of a group of adventurer's trying to avoid it.

Because of these senses, it is almost impossible to sneak up on a Fester Dragon, especially when the dragon is highly alert and has a rather fast metabolism, for a dragon. This causes them to search food about half the time they are awake. Fester Dragons are also able to enter a state of deep hibernation, where they consume very little energy. They have been known to hibernate for centuries at a time.

Fester dragons are also powerful telepaths, able to use their telepathic ability to detect the presence of mind of other creatures within 360 feet of themselves, and able to send simple messages much, much farther.

Loyal Schemers.

Fester dragons are among the more interesting dragons in terms of social interaction with one another, as they scheme against one another constantly, but never anything too harmful that might kill one of their own kind, nor will they ever scheme on a family member, be that parents, partner(s) or their spawn. This also caused them to very rarely to break their word when they intend to speak the truth, but do be cautious when interacting with one, for they are cunning and won't hesitate to lie and threaten to get their way.

While their cunning comes nowhere close to Green dragons or the like, their cunning and keen awareness of tactics is one their major sources of pride. They often arrange mock battles between various minions that might follow them.

When it comes to family, Female Fester dragons partner for live, as do males, however, a single male may have up to four female partners that it travels with. Unsurprisingly, these females constantly scheme against one another, trying to out do each other a delicate game of "Scheme but do not kill". However, when it comes to raising young this family unit, known as a "Plague", always works together, and will fight to protect one another and the spawns of their plague ferociously. When the plague nests, they build their nest in humid, fetid swamps, deep within a rain forest, a coastal cave or next to an underwater river or lake, in general any place that is humid and not too cold for the hatchlings. These hatchling stay with the plague until they are old enough to wander on their own, usually at young adulthood.

Wanderlust's End.

Despite their nomadic nature, some specific plagues of Fester Dragons have decided to settle down in locations that are far away from civilization and other dragons. Usually these places include: The deepest reaches of the underdark, Haunted swamps, Deepest thickets of a rainforest or other similar places. In these cases, their presence begins to cause the area near where they have settled to slowly become fetid, putrid and rotten. Rotting carcasses litter the ground, the stench of death in overwhelming and an imminent sense of dread over takes any who dare wander too close. These locations are also heavily guarded by variety of nasty and putrid minions, constantly diseased and undead kobolds and goblins, zombies covered in heavy moss and dripping black poisonous muck. These places are slowly, overtime, shaped by the plague of Fester Dragons to be a deadly, putrid maze usually with just enough water to hinder the movement of most would-be intruders. These places are areas that other dragons try to avoid, but sometimes particularly arrogant Black or Green dragons try to enter, only to be quite quickly surrounded by the plague and mercilessly slaughter, the corpses and bones of these dragons usually left to rot on the outskirts the Deathculls, a name given to these rare and hard to get to locations. Any hatchlings born to these Deathculls, usually stay within them for the majority of their lives, heading outwards wandering but always returning, suggesting that the Fester Dragons do in fact have the capability of setting up lairs, just that their culture favors wandering. Should another plague happen upon these locations, the inhabitants and the newcomers will try and negotiate passage, through a game of schemes, pranks, tricks and jokes.

Should humanoids wander within, they will be told to leave via telepathy or more rarely, in person by one of the plague members. As Fester Dragons do not gather hoards, there is little profit in entering their Deathculls, save for curiosity or thrill seeking, or having a death wish, for these places are truely horrid, and entering usually means you come back diseased, barely breathing, with horrid necrosis on your skin or not come back at all. There is a saying among wood elves that goes as follows "Beware the places where plague of Dragon dwell, for they are places of death and undeath, not of life", which, truth be told, is quite accurate.