Steel dragons are sociable, clever, and curious. They often prefer to navigate the world shapeshifted into the form of a human to learn all they can of humanoid life and customs. The scales of a steel dragon range from a deep blue-grey at birth to a lustrous and burnished steel in adulthood. The brighter the scale’s shine, the older the dragon. Their faces are extremely expressive and easily portray their emotions to creatures of other species. They have a wide wingspan with sharp, segmented wings that create the illusion of bundled blades. They also have fine steel spines that grow from their head and neck that raise and lower depending on the dragon’s mood. The creature smells of wet metal and moves with feline-like grace. 

Curious Minds. Steel dragons are incredibly hard to detect due to their penchant for enjoying humanoid life. They have a deep love and curiosity towards all humanoid lifeforms, especially humans given their relatively adaptive nature. To   sate this curiosity they will spend the majority of their life shifted into the form of a humanoid creature, living among them, experiencing their culture, and forming true friendships with a great many people. They naturally gravitate towards those who share their curious mind, a preference that typically leads them to places of learning such as colleges, libraries, or other locales that attract scholarly types. In exchange for good conversation and a healthy dose of questioning about all manner of things, the dragon will happily share some of its more useful knowledge with unsuspecting friends. 

Paragons of Order. Steel dragons are generally good natured, however, they also crave order. To them, the basis of a good civilization is a proper code of laws that are just and upheld with no ambiguity. While these dragons don’t typically get involved with the politics of the places they live, they will step in, maintaining their disguise if possible, to guide a city in the right direction or to help in the city’s defence against some kind of outside threat. Unlike gold dragons who often seek to hunt down and punish evil doers with zealous fervour, steel dragons are more concerned with the state of their own city and are very unlikely to venture out into the wider world unless convinced there is some kind of threat to the people they are so fond of. 

Many Lives. While it may not be peculiar for a dragon to live for several thousand years or more, in the case of even the longest lived humanoid races, the lifespan of a dragon seems nearly infinite. Understanding this, and not wishing to have their true identity compromised, steel dragons in disguise will use their magic to gradually create an illusion that they are ageing, imitating the lifespan of whatever race they masquerade as. Eventually, they may even fake their own death or use some kind of excuse to explain why they are leaving town, never to return, only for the dragon to take on a new persona and arrive back in the same town they love to start all over again. They often transition between identities of various different races and walks of life, however, they always have a telltale sign that indicates their true heritage such as a streak of steel-grey hair, metallic fingernails, or even a steel accessory such as a ring or bangle. To a steel dragon, each new persona is a chance to better understand the people the dragon shares a world with. 

Peaceful Titans. Due to the massive amount of power that a steel dragon holds, they almost never resort to violence. Not only would they easily destroy most creatures who threaten them without knowing what they truly are, but the resulting chaos could only serve to harm other people in the area. When pushed into a corner and given no choice, however, a steel dragon will fight tooth and nail to defend its domain and loved ones. They often prefer to use their poisonous gas to knock enemies unconscious rather than simply destroying them. 

Unlearned Scholars

Due to the steel dragon’s propensity to spend such long periods of time in humanoid form, some scholars and sages have tried to argue that they don’t even exist, and instead, that the steel dragon is merely a misidentified silver dragon or perhaps some other kind of metallic creature with draconic ancestry. While these claims are understandable, and in some cases may be true, they only serve to display the care and discretion taken by steel dragons to protect their true identities. 

Steel dragons are all too real, and as far as they’re concerned the longer they can convince the misinformed scholars of the world they’re not, the better.

A Steel Dragon’s Lair.

Steel dragons often make their lairs in stone towers, libraries, colleges, large buildings or sometimes will even claim an entire city as theirs. The dragon’s lair is always a place they own by deed and is open to the public of any given city population. While they often favor locales that attract those interested in academia, in some cases, they simply wish to learn all they can about as many people as possible and will instead establish themselves in a hotel, gambling den, artisan’s guild, public house, or some other kind of area bound to attract a diverse range of people. While the dragon is able to use its massive intelligence and long life span to amass wealth, the true treasure on the mind of the steel dragon is connection with other creatures and learned experience. In a sense, the dragon’s “horde” is many lifetimes of lived experience, something not even the most accomplished thief could steal. 

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:

• All creatures of the  dragon’s choosing in the lair must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence Saving Throw. On a failed save a creature has one spell slot of their lowest unexpended level drained away by the dragon as if it had been used to cast a spell. The dragon gains 1d4 temporary hit points for every level of spell drained.
• The lair shakes and a large piece of the ceiling comes loose and falls. All creatures in a 10 foot area within 120 feet of the dragon take 2d12 bludgeoning damage, or half as much on a successful DC 14 Dexterity Saving Throw. A creature that fails this save by 5 or more is knocked prone and restrained beneath the rubble. A restrained creature is restrained until they, or an ally within 5 feet, use an action to push the rubble aside. 
• The dragon magically rearranges the layout of its lair. It can cause up to 30 feet in length of an existing wall to recede into the floor, or cause a new wall of up to 30 feet in length to spring up from the floor into the ceiling. A new wall may have doors and windows, or be completely featureless. Any creatures occupying the space of a new wall must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity Saving Throw or be pushed up to the ceiling of the room and then fall down on a randomly determined side of the wall, taking fall damage depending on its height. A creature who succeeds on this saving throw can move into an unoccupied space on either side of the wall they choose. 
  
  
  

Regional Effects

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

• All creatures within 1 mile of the lair have advantage on Intelligence checks. 
• Creatures that spend more than 24 hours over the course of a week in the dragon’s lair must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom Saving Throw or find themselves fascinated with the location. While fascinated, a creature is unable to speak poorly of the dragon’s lair and if they truly did enjoy themselves there, will be forthcoming with others about how much they like the place. This is a charm based effect. Creatures that pass the saving throw have no inclination that there was a magical charm at play. 
• Creatures within 3 miles of the dragon’s lair who have a chaotic alignment are known to the dragon. It does not know their precise location, but it is aware of their presence.