Looking more like a sea monster than a typical dragon, the brine dragon gets its name from its dedicated aquatic lifestyle and its affinity for consuming salt.

A brine dragon resembles a mix between a dragon and a plesiosaur. It has an elongated neck and flippers in place of legs, giving it limited land mobility and rendering them much less useful for combat. Its long tail has a horizontal fin at the tip. Its mouth is filled with oversized, pointed teeth that cause it to have a constant, malicious grin. This also gives it a more vicious bite to make up for its lack of claws. A brine dragon's body is dotted with chunks of salt that have stuck to its body. Its hide is rough and mottled with shades of green and brown, and its scales are irregularly sized and don't all fit together, creating a craggy appearance.

Wildly Unpredictable. Brine dragons behave in very strange and unpredictable manners. They are often incredibly violent, usually attacking anything that moves. They are slightly dull creatures and usually act on their instincts alone. Despite this, they will occasionally forgo combat when one would expect them to fight, instead ignoring the would-be target or even, on rare occasion, striking up conversation. This wild variation even extends to their parenting. When a brine dragon lays its eggs, the mother is usually the one to stay and care for them, though the fathers will sometimes watch them instead, with the mother leaving. Occasionally, both parents will care for the eggs together, or neither of them may, instead abandoning the eggs in a location they deem secure enough. In the rare times when brine dragons are actually willing to talk to another creature, most have very nihilistic personalities, though they can flip back to their primal, violent nature on a dime. Interacting in any way with a brine dragon is usually not recommended for these reasons.

Lovers of Salt, Haters of Black Dragons. Brine dragons enjoy eating and absorbing salt as they swim through the waters, with it even fueling their breath weapon. They can often be found around salt marshes, which may rarely bring them into conflict with black dragons. Brine dragons care little for most other dragons, seeing them only as food at most, though they harbor an intense hatred for black dragons for unknown reasons. They will attack black dragons at any opportunity they get, usually utilizing stealth to get the upper hand when possible, however they will still charge head-on if they can't sneakily gain the advantage. Physically, brine dragons are weaker than black dragons, and since neither side's breath weapons affect each other, a brine dragon fighting a black dragon of similar age will usually be forced to retreat unless it managed to get the jump on the black dragon. Fortunately for brine dragons, they are faster swimmers than any other dragon and can often manage to escape conflict through the waters if their plans goes awry.

Coveters of Nothing. Interestingly, brine dragons do not keep any treasure, their lairs usually devoid of anything precious. The most a brine dragon will keep in its lair are the corpses of its kills that it saves for later. Brine dragons believe that treasure, money, and anything traditionally considered valuable is ultimately worthless as most mortal beings will eventually lose everything they own when they die, with other beings inevitably coming along to steal everything that the previous owner once coveted. Brine dragons care for little more than the fundamental necessities of life. Some treasure may make its way into a brine dragon's lair by way of having been in the possession of a creature the dragon took as a meal. These items are usually left to lie wherever they fall, becoming encrusted in salt over time from neglect.

A Brine Dragon’s Lair

Brine dragons make their lairs out of coral and rock, using their breath weapon to glue pieces together into a cave. The amount of space around its cave that it classifies as its territory varies wildly from day to day, with the cave itself remaining its only fixed point of interest. They prefer to build their liars in waters with high levels of salt, though they will lair just about anywhere in the ocean if need be.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects:

• A strong current swirls around the dragon. Each creature within 60 feet of the dragon must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from the dragon. If a creature collides with a solid surface, it takes 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage for every 5 feet it was pushed. If a creature collides with another creature or an object, the damage is split evenly between the two targets.
• A cloud of salt swirls about in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the dragon can see within 120 feet of it. The cloud spreads around corners. Each creature in it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be blinded for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Regional Effects

The region containing a legendary brine dragon’s lair is warped by the dragon’s magic, which creates one or more of the following effects:

• Aquatic beasts within 1 mile of the dragon's lair behave violently and erratically, attacking most things on sight.
• Water within 6 miles of the dragon's lair becomes saltier than normal, making it painful for creatures that aren't adapted to high-salinity environments when keeping their eyes open underwater. Such creatures have disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight while underwater in the area.
• Whenever a creature with an Intelligence of 5 or higher finishes a long rest while within 2 miles of the dragon's lair, it is overcome with an intense feeling of emotional emptiness for 10 minutes after finishing its rest. This effect ends early if it leaves the 2-mile range of the effect.

If the dragon dies, the emotional effects end immediately, beasts return to their usual behaviors within 1 day, and the salinity of the waters returns to normal within 1d10 days.