Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Living Shadow. While in dim light or darkness, the dragon has resistance to damage that isn’t force, psychic, or radiant.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, the dragon has disadvantage on attack rolls, as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
Multiattack. The dragon makes one Bite attack and two Claw attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 16 (2d10 + 5) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) radiant damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) slashing damage.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 18 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone.
Breath Weapon (Recharge 5–6). The dragon uses one of the following breath weapons:
Nightmare Breath. The dragon exhales mist in a 90-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or fall unconscious for 10 minutes, experiencing a short nightmare. This effect ends for a creature if the creature takes damage or someone uses an action to wake it.
Moonshade Breath. The dragon exhales a beam of moonshade in a 90-foot line that is 10 feet wide. Each creature in that area must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 49 (9d10) necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A humanoid reduced to 0 hit points by this damage dies, and an undead shadow rises from its corpse and acts immediately after the dragon in the initiative count. The shadow is under the dragon’s control.
Spellcasting. The dragon casts one of the following spells, requiring no material components and using Charisma as the spellcasting ability (spell save DC 19):
At will: faerie fire
1/day each: calm emotions, invisibility, revivify
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the dragon can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
The dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at one time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Tail. The dragon makes one Tail attack.
Cast a Spell (Costs 2 Actions). The dragon uses Spellcasting.
Description
Ancient legends suggest that when the gods came to the First World and tried to populate it with their Humanoid followers, a clever dragon fled to the Feywild to hide a clutch of eggs. The magic of that faerie realm suffused the eggs, which hatched into the first moonstone dragons. Their descendants are now found throughout the Feywild.
Moonstone dragons are graceful and elegant creatures with opalescent scales and ruffs of emerald-green fur running down their chins, chests, backs, and tails. One horn arcs from the back of a moonstone dragon’s skull and another at the tip of the nose; the two horns together form a shape that’s reminiscent of a slender crescent moon. Moonstone dragons are playful and impetuous forces of mischief in their early years, but the best of them mature into wise teachers and storytellers who anchor Feywild communities. The worst of them are pompous and ill behaved, but even those remain gentle by nature and curious about all things—especially travelers from faraway places.
Moonstone dragons can project themselves into the realm of dreams to communicate with the creatures that sleep near their lairs. In this way, they inspire artists and poets, encourage great thinkers, and spur adventurers to heroic deeds. They sometimes give guidance to those in need or request help from adventurers to encourage them to greatness.
As a rule, moonstone dragons are not particularly interested in gold or copper, but they love silver, platinum, and mithral. They also cherish treasures whose value can’t be easily quantified—a song sung from the heart, a lock of a loved one’s hair, or a painting of a favorite place. A story of happy times fondly remembered is more precious to a moonstone dragon than a sack of gold.
Creating a Moonstone Dragon
Use the Moonstone Dragon Personality Traits and Moonstone Dragon Ideals tables to inspire your portrayal of distinctive moonstone dragon characters.
Moonstone Dragon Personality Traits
| d8 | Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I often lose track of whether I’m in the Feywild or on the Material Plane. |
| 2 | I have been known to throw caution to the wind when in pursuit of new items for my hoard. |
| 3 | No matter how old I get, I always delight in harmless pranks and tricks. |
| 4 | I’ve always been mature for my age, and I can’t wait for the day I can retire to my lair to be taken care of by doting fey. |
| 5 | I look down upon any being who resorts to violence to solve a problem. |
| 6 | Conversing with others is often difficult because I’m so easily distr… oh my goodness, is that circlet made of silver? |
| 7 | I find the waking world tedious and mundane and would much rather spend my time asleep, in the realm of dreams. |
| 8 | I find the whimsy of fey, and whimsy in general, to be exasperating and exhausting. |
Moonstone Dragon Ideals
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Curiosity. I might never be able to experience everything in the multiverse—but it doesn’t hurt to try. (Any) |
| 2 | Nonviolence. Violence need never be the answer in a multiverse of infinite possibilities. (Neutral) |
| 3 | Whimsy. Why waste time on boring, ordinary concerns when the world is filled with fantastic and ludicrous wonders? (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Beauty. There is beauty to be found in even the simplest things if you look hard enough. (Good) |
| 5 | Inspiration. Great are history’s artists and creators. But greater still are those who inspire them. (Any) |
| 6 | Power. Creatures are at their most vulnerable in their dreams, and I am the master of dreams. (Evil) |
Moonstone Dragon Adventures
The Moonstone Dragon Adventure Hooks table offers suggestions for stories and adventures involving moonstone dragons.
Moonstone Dragon Adventure Hooks
| d8 | Adventure Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | A wealthy and well-known artist’s muse—a moonstone dragon—has stopped appearing in their dreams. The artist is desperate to hire adventurers to find the dragon. |
| 2 | A clutch of moonstone dragons has discovered a portal to the Material Plane and is wreaking havoc on nearby villages, pilfering every bit of silver the locals own. |
| 3 | A moonstone dragon seeks the platinum crown of a Fey prince—and will do anything to get it. |
| 4 | A gluttonous moonstone dragon is consuming all the moonlight in a small forest, making the darkened path through the woods ideal for banditry. |
| 5 | A moonstone dragon hosts a storytelling competition in the Feywild, and the winner gets to claim any one item on display in the dragon’s lair. |
| 6 | A moonstone dragon, offended by gifts of gold, is causing nightmares among the local nobility. |
| 7 | A powerful spellcaster is forcing a captive moonstone dragon to invade the dreams of adventurers, sending parties on quests to assist the spellcaster’s nefarious schemes. |
| 8 | A moonstone dragon that accidentally stumbled through a portal to the Material Plane can’t find a way back home to the Feywild. |
Connected Creatures
In the Feywild, moonstone dragons interact mostly with pixies, sprites, and other Fey creatures who revere and serve the dragon. Outside the Feywild, they often prefer to communicate with other creatures through dreams.
Adult Moonstone Dragon Connections
| d8 | Connected Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | A Fey noble has sent an archmage advisor to parley with an adult moonstone dragon whose lair is in the noble’s territory, and it isn’t going well. |
| 2 | Fascinated by the dreams of a myconid sovereign, an adult moonstone dragon has befriended the whole myconid colony. |
| 3 | In the midst of a werewolf invasion, someone suggests that a nearby adult moonstone dragon’s hoard could be a good source of silver. |
| 4 | An adult moonstone dragon’s burgeoning hoard attracts the attention of an arcanaloth seeking a powerful Feywild artifact. |
| 5 | An adult moonstone dragon attempts to help a beholder worried that its dreams will soon give birth to a rival beholder. |
| 6 | Members of a night hag coven are determined to prevent an adult moonstone dragon from contacting creatures in the dream realm, and the dragon has no idea why. |
| 7 | An adult moonstone dragon is called upon to discipline a group of moonstone dragon wyrmlings that rampaged through a Fey noble’s territory. |
| 8 | An adult moonstone dragon has amassed a menagerie of figurines of wondrous power and activates the items regularly to liven up the lair. |
Moonstone Dragon Lairs
Often, a moonstone dragon’s lair is not a single location, but rather a collection of personally significant places spread out across multiple planes of existence and connected through portals under the dragon’s control. A lair might include a secluded grove on the Material Plane, a well-protected tower in the Feywild, and even a hidden corner of the Ethereal Plane. Moonstone dragons often use locations in the Feywild as their primary residences, locations on the Material Plane for entertaining guests, and locations on the Ethereal Plane for storage. Occasionally, though, a whimsical moonstone dragon delights in shaking things up, insisting that visitors come to the Border Ethereal for a meeting or sleeping in the middle of a heavily trafficked forest on the Material Plane.
Moonstone dragons navigate their multiplanar lairs by opening portals between planes at will. They sometimes forget to close those portals, allowing the inhabitants of one plane to wander into others.
Moonstone Dragon Lair Features
You can look to other maps in this chapter as inspiration for the scattered parts of a moonstone dragon’s lair. For example, a well maintained and above-water version of the black dragon lair’s tower (map 5.2) makes a great Feywild audience chamber, while a vibrant, living version of the green dragon lair’s enormous tree (map 5.10) makes for a very comfortable bedchamber in a grove on the Material Plane. And features such as the cloud bridges of the silver dragon lair (map 5.13) can be used for the parts of a moonstone dragon’s lair that lie in the Border Ethereal.
Shadow Dragon Personality Traits
| d8 | Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am a creature of endless consumption, always looking for the next thing to possess or devour. |
| 2 | I am rarely satisfied with what I have. I envy others’ lives and belongings. |
| 3 | I’m constantly calculating my next move. If I’m not at least one step ahead of foes, I’m a step behind. |
| 4 | I loathe my existence, and the only thing that pleases me is sharing my misery. |
| 5 | It isn’t that I’m unsympathetic to others’ needs; I just don’t let sympathy get in the way. |
| 6 | Everything is a transaction. I don’t do anything before I know what’s in it for me. |
| 7 | It’s nearly impossible for me to conceal my contempt for others. |
| 8 | I truly regret the things I have done and will do whatever I can to atone. |
Shadow Dragon Ideals
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Merciless. Life doesn’t offer second chances, and neither do I. (Lawful) |
| 2 | Hedonism. The multiverse is painful enough. Seek pleasure wherever you can find it. (Chaotic) |
| 3 | Cruelty. The only release for my pain is to visit it upon others. (Evil) |
| 4 | Aspiration. I will one day find an escape from this condemnation. (Any) |
| 5 | Self-Serving. The petty concerns of other creatures are of no concern to me. I have enough to occupy my attention. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Compassion. My existence is misery, and no one else should have to suffer such torment. (Good) |
Shadow Dragon Adventures
The Shadow Dragon Adventure Hooks table offers suggestions for stories and adventures involving shadow dragons.
Shadow Dragon Adventure Hooks
| d8 | Adventure Hook |
|---|---|
| 1 | A shadow dragon hunts the descendants of the miners who, centuries ago, uncovered the Shadowfell portal that caused the dragon’s corruption. |
| 2 | A magical catastrophe has transported a town into the Underdark. The only path back to the surface goes directly through a shadow dragon’s lair. |
| 3 | A young woman seeks heroes to retrieve a family heirloom stolen from her. The woman is actually a night hag, the heirloom is her heartstone, and the thief is a shadow dragon in Humanoid guise. |
| 4 | As war brews in a Material Plane world, a shrewd shadow dragon exploits a convergence with the Shadowfell to establish a cross-planar arms trade. |
| 5 | A hundred years ago, a savvy ruler bargained with a dragon to ensure the safety of the populace. The treaty is about to expire and must be renegotiated, but in the intervening century, the dragon has fallen to shadow. |
| 6 | A group of shadar-kai (elves native to the Shadowfell) arrive at a city’s gates, seeking refuge. They are fleeing the despotic rule of a shadow dragon—but fail to mention that the dragon pursues them. |
| 7 | A shadow dragon has seized control of a city’s criminal underworld. Those who want to depose the dragon face an army of assassins and Undead shadows. |
| 8 | Night after night, innocent folk are drained of their life’s energy and rise as shadows. A shadow dragon living in the area is suspected of the foul murders, but the real culprit is something else. |
Connected Creatures
Shadow dragons often attempt to blunt their despair by dragging others into their gloomy lives with them. These are generally short-lived relationships, though, as most shadow dragons can scarcely bear the bleakness of their own existence.
Adult Shadow Dragon Connections
| d8 | Connected Creatures |
|---|---|
| 1 | An adult red dragon continues to serve as the steed for a githyanki knight even after transforming into a shadow dragon. |
| 2 | An adult shadow dragon and an evil lich vie for control of a crumbling empire, whose thousand-year history chronicles their struggle. |
| 3 | An adult shadow dragon and a death knight are both hunted by adventurers. In their previous lives, the two were sworn enemies, but now they join together against their common foes. |
| 4 | An adult shadow dragon and a beholder share a precarious bond, allied against an ancient sapphire dragon neither can defeat alone. |
| 5 | An adult shadow dragon is gathering a fomorian army for some mysterious purpose. |
| 6 | A recently transformed adult shadow dragon uses the new power of shadow to terrorize the adult silver dragon who has been a rival for centuries. |
| 7 | An adult shadow dragon hired a vampire to convert the dragon’s lizardfolk servants to immortal Undead minions, but the dragon now vies with the vampire for the Undead lizardfolk’s loyalty. |
| 8 | Two mated adult metallic dragons try to rebuild their lives after one becomes a shadow dragon. |
Shadow Dragon Lairs
When dragons become aware of the Shadowfell’s malign influence seeping into their territories, most scoop up their hoards and abandon any compromised lairs. But some are stubborn, prideful, or bitter enough to stay, even in the face of inevitable corruption. More often, a dragon is unknowingly swept up by the Shadowfell while asleep, awakening after a years-long rest to find that both dragon and lair have changed. In these cases, a shadow dragon’s lair undergoes the same transformation as the dragon, becoming a shadowy, melancholic version of the original site.
Shadow dragons that are born on the Shadowfell or seek out new lairs after their transformations establish lairs according to the preferences of their kind, though they find comfort only in the most gloomy and cheerless of places. Reconciling these sometimes-contrasting urges can lead to some very unusual lair choices.
As an example, consider the red dragon lair in map 5.11 as the lair of a red shadow dragon. In this case, the once-active volcano has now lapsed into dormancy. Its lava flows have cooled into a blackened, alien landscape. Ash coats the slopes of the caldera, picked up by the weird swirling winds common to this region and drawn into the atmosphere. Clouds of ash periodically cast the surrounding lands into deep shadow, before the fine grit once again falls to the ground in a hazy gray blizzard. The shadow dragon prowls the region during these hazes, rendered all but invisible by the eddies of ash.
In the heart of the lair, even the brightest light is muted, and creatures find their eyes playing tricks on them as details and distance are distorted. The shadow dragon rarely leaves this place except to hunt and is attended by dozens of shadows.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Moonstone Dragon’s Lair
For their lairs, moonstone dragons look for places kissed by the moon; lonely peaks, forest clearings, and placid lakes are among their favorite sites. Their whimsical nature makes them more likely than other dragons to establish multiple lairs even at a young age. They link their scattered sites with magic portals, often splitting their time between the Feywild, the Material Plane, and the Ethereal Plane.
The challenge rating of a legendary moonstone dragon increases by 1 when it’s encountered in its lair.
Lair Actions
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon can take one of the following lair actions; the dragon can’t take the same lair action two rounds in a row:
Banish into Nightmare. The dragon targets a creature it can see within 120 feet of it and attempts to send that creature to a nightmare plane. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or be banished to a harmless demiplane until initiative count 20 on the next round. While there, the target is stunned, tormented by the nightmare. When the effect ends, the target reappears in the space it left or in the nearest unoccupied space.
Compulsive Lament. The dragon targets a creature it can see in its lair, and a sorrowful lament begins to play that only the target can hear. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or fall into a wallowing sorrow until initiative count 20 on the following round. The wallowing creature is incapacitated and movement is reduced to 0.
Disorienting Visions. Disorienting illusory images flit through the dragon’s lair. Each creature in the lair must succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or have disadvantage on ability checks until initiative count 20 on the following round.
Banish Light. Any nonmagical source of illumination within a 60-foot-radius sphere centered on the dragon is snuffed out, and any spell that creates light within that same area is dispelled.
Regional Effects
The region surrounding a legendary moonstone dragon’s lair is altered by the dragon’s magic, creating one or more of the following effects:
Dream Communication. Whenever a creature that can understand a language sleeps or enters a state of trance or reverie within 6 miles of the dragon’s lair, the dragon can establish telepathic contact with that creature and converse with it in its dreams. The creature remembers its conversation with the dragon upon waking.
Brooding Despair. Creatures within 1 mile of the dragon’s lair that have an Intelligence score of 5 or higher feel forlorn and hopeless.
Dying Light. Light is diminished within 6 miles of the dragon’s lair, lightly obscuring the land in gloomy shadows.
Planar Transition. The veil between planes is thinned near a moonstone dragon’s lair. Various portals link the Material Plane, the Feywild, and the Border Ethereal within 6 miles of the lair. Creatures can pass through a portal in either direction by spending 5 feet of movement.
Gloomy Portals. Some caves, caverns, pits, and other places of deep gloom within 1 mile of the dragon’s lair form portals to the Shadowfell, allowing creatures from that plane to dwell nearby.
If the dragon dies, any portals near the lair close immediately.
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