Yellow Dragon

Travellers in warm coastal areas look up to see a winged shape circling over the sea, occasionally diving into the waves to snatch a passing fish or similar creature. A reclusive dragon with a more bestial side, the yellow is as at home in the ocean as it is in the sky.

Yellow dragons are good swimmers and swim to catch fish and other smaller creatures of the ocean, and they will sometimes attack and try to sink passing ships for the goods on board or sometimes just for fun and sport.

The dragon's scales range from a light orange or tan to a pale yellow-grey in colour, with the older adult’s scales hardening and taking on a golden hue. Their scales are not as hard as those of other dragons, sacrificing some armour for extra mobility. The yellow is among the most dexterous of all dragonkind, better adapted for dodging in mid-air and snatching unsuspecting sea creatures out of the water. Its breath is a jet of boiling hot water containing a strong salt compound, causing scalding burns and stinging lacerations. Underwater, however, its breath takes the form of a billowing cloud of burning steam, unleashed with equally deadly results against any prey in its vicinity.

Territorial Hunters. Like the white dragon, the yellow has a more animalistic side that compels it to drive other dragons and similarly threatening creatures off its territory. If another creature threatens it, the yellow dragon will find a way to attempt to drive it off. It may set up a trap or ambush where it can wound its rival before escaping to fight another day. If the dragon knows that its rival is more powerful, it will usually stay out of its way, not wanting to risk its life or hoard.

A yellow dragon's territory extends to beneath the waves. The dragon stalks along the seabed, hunting for sufficient prey, and when it finds such a creature, it uses its breath weapon to boil the water around it, scalding it to death, before pouncing to grab it. Accomplished diggers, they may also bury themselves in a layer of sand until potential prey walks or swims by, or to hide from a greater threat.

Yellow dragons are very energetic and active, wasting little time in their lairs and preferring to spend their time flying or swimming. This lifestyle means that they are always hungry and need massive amounts of food every day to keep going, so securing a territory with plentiful food is key to their success. Because of this, a yellow dragon will eat almost anything edible, and they have been known to attack humanoid crews of passing ships. However, its favoured prey is fish.

Vengeful Skulkers. Yellow dragons hate and fear other dragons, especially the bronze, whose coastal natural habitat they often share. This hatred also applies to other yellow dragons, as they only ever seek each other out a few times in their lives in order to mate. If another dragon moves into its territory and the yellow knows it to be more powerful, it will back down and remain out of sight, valuing its life over its territory. However, it will not forget the insult and will look for opportunities for revenge. Over time, the yellow dragon may shadow it, tracking it to its lair and finding out its lifestyle.

Despite being less intelligent than other dragons, yellow dragons are very cunning and methodical when it comes to vengeance. It will wait until the other dragon is out of the way, and invade its lair, looting its treasure and killing its servants in its rage. But by far its favourite way of taking revenge against another dragon is to steal and eat its eggs, which it considers a delicacy due to the extreme difficulty of procuring them. Many yellow dragons’ favourite food by far is the egg of their greatest rival.

Rapacious Thieves. Yellow dragons grab treasure from wherever they think they can, their favourite of which is gold coins. They will slay weaker dragons to claim their accumulated wealth, steal from more powerful dragons that have offended them, and attack merchant ships to claim their goods. Yellow dragons drag broken pieces of ships into their caves and stash their treasure inside them before burying them under water and sand. More awkward and slow on land than other dragons, the yellow prefers flying or swimming most of the time, and so may place the treasure underwater or high up on a hidden ledge so as to be both harder to access for enemies and easier for the dragon. The dragon likes to keep its hoard near its resting place, so it can quickly tear apart an intruder who dares lay a finger on it. However, as the dragon rests little, it usually just keeps both its lair and the treasure within well hidden, and may occasionally employ other creatures to guard them.