Corymang the Ancient Dragon Turtle

Dragon turtles are mighty creatures whose inherent magic is intimately linked with the oceans of the Material Plane. The dragon turtle presented in the Monster Manual is a typical adult, at least a century old and boasting a valuable hoard. You can use the stat blocks in this section for older or younger dragon turtles. In addition, Chapter five of Fizban’s treasury of dragons includes lair actions and regional effects that can be used for adult or ancient dragon turtles. An ancient dragon turtle is a mythic creature akin to a greatwyrm, combining the power of multiple echoes from across the worlds of the Material Plane. Such a creature can be as large as an island— and indeed, legends suggest that many unwitting sailors wrecked at sea have mistaken slumbering dragon turtles for solid ground.

Ancient dragon turtles might sleep for years or decades while floating along the surface of the ocean, enjoying the warmth of the sun and letting vegetation take root on their shells. An angry ancient dragon turtle is terrible to behold, radiating heat from the shell to boil the surrounding water—and any creatures in it. And even if an enemy wears down the dragon turtle’s defenses, magical storms manifest to shield the dragon turtle and strike at foes.

Corymang in particular is a 10,500 year old dragon turtle who is older than most civilizations on the planet he resides in. His first 300 centuries were spent eking out a carnivorous, animalistic lifestyle until he became as large as a blue whale, upon which he became more intelligent and started to develop his magical abilities and lifestyle. At age 600, he learned how to plane shift into the elemental plane of water, which he established multiple lairs in, spending 3,000 years simply establishing multiple lairs and growing in size. He visited many elemental cities, and learned from a few mermish wizards during this long time frame. At age 4,000, he started traveling the multiverse, stopping around 6,000 years of age. At this point, he simply hibernated for another 1,000 years, then he woke up and decided to travel back to his world of origin, touring the ocean floor and learning that the Draconic and giant kingdoms had gone to war and fractured during his disappearance. He was depressed to learn that the metallic and chromatic dragons, which had formerly gotten along to some extant, had become enemies like everywhere else in the multiverse. At age 9,000, he found a Red dragon Wyrmling abandoned on a volcanic island, which he befriended with the intent of proving to himself that even chromatic dragons could be good. He succeeded in turning the dragon’s heart, but instead of being chaotic evil, she simply became lawful evil. Currently, she is an ancient red dragon who regards him as her “papa” and the only being she actually loves. 

Personality wise, Corymang is good, but he can’t muster up the energy to directly intervene in worldly affairs, although the gnomes of the Zilon isles have granted both him and Dreadclaw, his daughter, nobility titles to appease them under King Fredrick II, King Brock’s grandfather. He is perfectly happy to give advice to good or neutral aligned beings, and use intermediaries to fulfill his will, however. Corymang spends most of his time drifting above the island of Aver-Domard, where he can speak with his adopted daughter in peace. He is so massive as to be noticeable on a world map, and displaces so much water that he causes floods by swimming. As a result, he does not move very much in the material plane out of fear of hurting people, instead, he’ll stay in one place for a few months to allow people to visit him, then when he needs to move, he plane-shifts to the elemental plane of water to navigate as he pleases and check up on his lair. He likes to hum whale songs and sing sea shanties, and also allows tours of his various lairs whenever anybody bothers to come visit him in the elemental plane of water. Corymang is an idealist who believes that the Multiversal tide can change towards the better, and takes a lazy curiosity to the world, using his gift of prophecy, Dragon-sight, or his many agents to shape events throughout the multiverse, although he pays the most attention to his home world. He secretly subverts the will of the Tiamat-Poemi Draconic-devil alliance, and also works to take out any Merrow he can find to destroy any Abyssal influence. He dislikes malovent aberrations, but finds weaker ones to be interesting specimens. Corymang is powerful enough to have influence in the four dwarven kingdoms-Mzulft, Alftand, Nchardez, and Anestia, the Zilon Isles, and he wields considerable influence in the southern continent, where he aids the metallic dragons occasionally as well as checking up on the Tabaxis. Additionally, the Confederacy of Bestial Races and the northern giant empire of Karotheim sometimes send people around the continent to pay respects to him, and seek his wisdom. He is a particularly good friend to a Tabaxi named Chaos Cat and is personal friends with the leaders of the aforementioned nations, although they live for so little of a time that he has trouble remembering their names.

Corymang has also fathered 3 Turtle-Dragonborn’s, Steamtugg, Reefmonger, and Fire-shaper via a mermaid priestess named Glackllig in the elemental plane of water, which reside in Dreadclaw’s lair as her “little brothers”, which she treats favorably, along with her own Dragonborn children she had with a dwarven king; Redclaw and Savage, both of which she treats as her children. She has no love for any of them, as red dragons notoriously find it difficult to care for others than themselves, but she finds herself caring for them anyway with a fair and just attitude that she brings to the rest of her island Domain-not because of inherent goodness, but because she finds that being a just ruler rakes in profit and causes people to worship her.

Redclaw is a Dragonborn Elementalist (Creature codex, 122), Savage is a Dragonborn Edjet (121). Steamtugg, Reefmonger, and Fire-shaper are all Dragonborn sorcerers of roughly equivalent skill. Along with them, there is also a Saphire Dragonborn who is a divination wizard, Safjet, who was exchanged to Dreadclaw by Xindryt, a sapphire dragon living in the underdark underneath Dreadclaw’s island in exchange for peace, along with five eggs from a female Saphire dragon colleague who had recently died that were converted into five Draconian dreadnoughts (Fizban’s treasury to dragons, 177). These five are named Errhutelad, Bafras,
Klompoth, Troulasar, and Kuuphiaxeargeal. There is also a female Draconian mastermind created from one of Dreadclaw’s own eggs; named Fimoniga. Redclaw, Savage, Steamtugg, Reefmonger, Fire-shaper, Safjet, Errhutelad, Bafras, Klompoth, Troulasar, Kuuphiaxeargeal, and Fimoniga all live within Dreadclaw’s lair and act as her advisors and enforcers, along with a small council of one person of every race on the island that is significant enough to earn her attention-Gramrik Mightgift and Hjulmiir Bloodfist, the two male dwarves representing the mountain and hill dwarves, Zinna Bronzegrace, a female representing the rock gnomes, Cuvus Sugulvath, a male Triton, Coralglitz, a female mermaid, Burr representing the bear-folk, male Zinran Greendew representing the wood elves and female Shalee Malkildraphes representing the High elves; Kobolds were represented by Zuks. 

Dreadclaw’s lair has two real hoards, but they are animated as hoard golems to destroy anybody she has not authorized to enter the vicinity, and another fake hoard-a hoard mimic-famously serves to deter enemies. Redclaw, Savage, Steamtugg, Reefmonger, Fire-shaper, Safjet, Errhutelad, Bafras, Klompoth, Troulasar, Kuuphiaxeargeal, and Fimoniga all have Dragonell mounts and a personal retinue of Kobold servants; the kobolds have a variety of functions, but mostly serve as guards and soldiers to defend Dreadclaw’s lair if the dragon blood oozes she has set up as traps and hoard mimic and hoard golems don’t work out. Finally, she has an Irid and Chernomoi as pets, which she keeps trapped in a cage-they are named Celestine and Iventim respectively. Additionally, a small retinue of five Ash Drakes like to hang around Dreadclaw and play in the Ash that she creates-they are named, Burning, Smog, Ash, Soot, and Flame. Dreadclaw keeps Hoard scarabs in her treasure room to clean her scales. 

Dragon Turtle lair:

Dragon turtles make their lairs in underwater caves and coral reefs. Most such lairs are situated deep beneath the waves near the ocean’s floor, though some dragon turtles prefer coastal lairs with easier access to settlements they can trade with—or prey upon. Particularly reclusive dragon turtles seek lairs in even more remote locales, including deep-sea trenches or underwater volcanoes.

Dragon turtles are largely unconcerned with the design of their lairs and seldom work to improve them. A dragon turtle’s primary concern when selecting a lair is ensuring that the site is large enough to accommodate the creature’s prodigious size as the centuries wear on. After that, proximity to shipping lanes and freedom from irksome neighbors take precedence.

Dragon Turtle Lair Features

The underwater caves inhabited by dragon turtles are structurally similar to the seaside caverns where bronze and topaz dragons lair. When constructing a dragon turtle’s lair, you can simply take a coastal map and translate it to an underwater environment or use the map as-is if the dragon turtle is content to lair near the surface.

As an example, map 5.14 (Fizban’s treasury) depicts a topaz dragon’s lair in a seaside cavern, but it could be reimagined as a grotto in the side of a coral reef rising from a shelf on the ocean floor, with the following features:

Shelf Floor. The sandy beaches represent the ocean floor at a depth of 100 feet, which is coated in a soft layer of fine sediment. The water around the lair is clear but dimly lit. The water’s edge on the map represents the lip of the shelf, which descends to a dark plain twelve hundred feet below.

Coral Reef. The rocky cliff side depicts the contours of a coral reef that rises 80 feet above the shelf. The exterior face of the reef is covered with stinging corals.

Reef Hollow. The dragon turtle’s lair lies in a hollow in the reef’s interior that was bored out by a giant sea worm the dragon turtle killed. The original entrance at the level of the shelf floor ascends through a weed-choked tube that opens into the main chamber. Here, the dragon turtle nests in a recessed shelf along the back wall, where the creature can gaze down at the hoard scattered across the chamber floor. Although the lair is mostly flooded with seawater, a layer of breathable air is trapped in the top 3 feet of the main chamber.

Coral Shelf. A secondary entrance grants access to a coral shelf 40 feet above the shelf floor and illuminates the lair for a few hours each day with a shaft of dim sunlight.

Lair Actions

As they are presented in the Monster manual, dragon turtles don’t have access to lair actions while in their lairs. At your discretion, you can give an adult or ancient dragon turtle access to lair actions, increasing its challenge rating by 1. On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon turtle can take one of the following lair actions; the dragon turtle can’t take the same lair action two rounds in a row:

Blasting Current. A strong water current moves through the dragon turtle’s lair. Each creature within 30 feet of the dragon turtle must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be moved 30 feet in a direction of the dragon turtle’s choice. On a success, the creature is moved 10 feet instead.

Entangling Kelp. Strands of spectral kelp reach out to ensnare creatures in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point in the lair that the dragon turtle can see. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or be restrained until the end of its next turn.

Steam Eruption. Steam erupts in a 15-foot cone from a point on the ground the dragon turtle can see within 120 feet of it. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Being underwater doesn’t grant creatures resistance to this damage.

Regional Effects

The region containing a dragon turtle’s lair can be transformed by its presence, creating one or more of the following effects:

Diverting Currents. Underwater currents push unwanted visitors away from the lair. While swimming in these currents, each foot of movement costs 1 extra foot (2 extra feet in difficult terrain), even if a creature has a swimming speed.

Elemental Portals. Crevasses on the ocean floor within 1 mile of the dragon turtle’s lair form two-way portals to the Elemental Plane of Water, allowing creatures of elemental water into the world to dwell nearby.

Hot Water. Geothermal vents heat the water within 6 miles of the dragon turtle’s lair to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the dragon turtle dies, these effects fade over the course of 1d10 days.