Adult Grey Dragon

A Grey Dragon’s Lair

Grey dragons lair in icy caves and deep subterranean chambers far from the sun. They favor high mountain vales accessible only by flying, caverns in cliff faces, and labyrinthine ice caves in glaciers. Grey dragons love vertical heights in their caverns, flying up to the ceiling to latch on like bats or slithering down icy crevasses.

A legendary white dragon’s innate magic deepens the cold and heat in the area around its lair. Mountain caverns are fast frozen but feel warm by the white dragon’s presence. A grey dragon can often detect intruders by the way the keening wind in its lair changes tone.

A grey dragon rests on high ice shelves and cliffs in its lair, the floor around it a treacherous morass of broken ice and stone, hidden pits, and slippery slopes and steam geysers. As foes struggle to move toward it, the dragon flies from perch to perch and destroys them with its freezing breath.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the dragon can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:

• Freezing fog fills a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the dragon can see within 120 feet of it. The fog spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured. Each creature in the fog when it appears must make a DC 10 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that ends its turn in the fog takes 10 (3d6) cold damage. A wind of at least 20 miles per hour disperses the fog. The fog otherwise lasts until the dragon uses this lair action again or until the dragon dies.
• Jagged ice shards fall from the ceiling, striking up to three creatures underneath that the dragon can see within 120 feet of it. The dragon makes one ranged attack roll (+7 to hit) against each target. On a hit, the target takes 10 (3d6) piercing damage.
• The dragon creates an opaque wall of ice on a solid surface it can see within 120 feet of it. The wall can be up to 30 feet long, 30 feet high, and 1 foot thick. When the wall appears, each creature within its area is pushed 5 feet out of the wall’s space, appearing on whichever side of the wall it wants. Each 10-foot section of the wall has AC 5, 30 hit points, vulnerability to fire damage, and immunity to acid, cold, necrotic, poison, and psychic damage. The wall disappears when the dragon uses this lair action again or when the dragon dies.

Regional Effects

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

• Chilly fog lightly obscures the land within 6 miles of the dragon’s lair.
• Freezing precipitation falls within 6 miles of the dragon’s lair, sometimes forming blizzard conditions when the dragon is at rest.
• Icy walls block off areas in the dragon’s lair. Each wall is 6 inches thick, and a 10-foot section has AC 5, 15 hit points, vulnerability to fire damage, and immunity to acid, cold, necrotic, poison, and psychic damage.
  If the dragon wishes to move through a wall, it can do so without slowing down. The portion of the wall the dragon moves through is destroyed, however.

If the dragon dies, the fog and precipitation fade within 1 day. The ice walls melt over the course of 1d10 days.

Lone Masters. White dragons avoid all other dragons except whites of the opposite sex. Even then, when grey dragons seek each other out as mates, they stay together only long enough to conceive offspring before fleeing into isolation again.

Grey dragons can’t abide rivals near their lairs. As a result, a grey dragon attacks other creatures without provocation, viewing such creatures as either too weak or too powerful to live. The only creatures that typically serve a grey dragon are intelligent humanoids that demonstrate enough strength to assuage the dragon’s wrath, and can put up with sustaining regular losses as a result of its hunger. This includes dragon-worshiping kobolds, which are commonly found in their lairs.

Powerful creatures can sometimes gain a grey dragon’s obedience through a demonstration of physical or magical might. 

Treasure Under Ice. White dragons love the cold sparkle of ice and favor treasure with similar qualities, particularly diamonds. However, in their remote arctic climes, the treasure hoards of white dragons more often contain walrus and mammoth tusk ivory, whale-bone sculptures, figureheads from ships, furs, and magic items seized from overly bold adventurers.

Loose coins and gems are spread across a grey dragon’s lair, glittering like stars when the light strikes them. Larger treasures and chests are encased in layers of rime created by the white dragon’s breath, and held safe beneath layers of transparent ice. The dragon’s great strength allows it to easily access its wealth, while lesser creatures must spend hours chipping away or melting the ice to reach the dragon’s main hoard.

A white dragon’s flawless memory means that it knows how it came to possess every coin, gem, and magic item in its hoard, and it associates each item with a specific victory. Grey dragons are notoriously difficult to bribe, since any offers of treasure are seen as an insult to their ability to simply slay the creature making the offer and seize the treasure on their own.