Iriridium of course gets its name from the Greek God of the Rainbow Iris, a divine messenger and goddess of the rainbow (so just squeezing this one in at the end of Pride month). And while yes, there are a range of different coloured salts and some genuinely bonkers materials you can make by bonding irirdium ions with various organic ligands, its not exactly one to make a rainbow out of. Iridium and chrome together might make for that, I guess.
This one was devised as something utterly fantastical, weird, based on the name and vaguely on the weirdness of the metal itself, and in part on the importance of iridium as a metal in my campaign (a story for another day).
Dragon, Iridium (Spectrolite)
by Cab Davidson
| Stat | Small | Large | Huge |
| AC: | 0 | -2 | -4 |
| HD: | 5** | 8*** | 11**** |
| Move: | As White Dragon | As White Dragon | As White Dragon |
| Attacks: | As White Dragon | As White Dragon | As White Dragon |
| Damage: | As White Dragon | As White Dragon | As White Dragon |
| Number Appearing: | 1d4 | 1d3 | 1d2 |
| Save As: | F7 | F22 | F36 |
| Morale: | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Treasure Type: | H | Hx2,I | Hx3, Ix2 |
| Intelligence: | 9 | 12 | 15 |
| Alignment: | Lawful (Iridium), Neutral (Spectrolite) | ||
| XP Value: | 325 | 2300 | 4300 |
| Spells | |||||
| Levels | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| Small | 4 | 3 | 2 | ||
| Medium | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | |
| Large | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
Breath Weapon: Cloud of magical force (Iridium), with Chaos (Spectrolite)
Iridium dragons are among the smallest of dragonkind, and if motionless can seem quite innocuous – they are oddly angular creatures, as if made of silvery grey metallic crystals joined together in a form that just so happens to be a bit like a dragon. Were you to turn away from one having just seen it and then turned back, you wouldn’t be surprised to see you’d actually spotted an outcropping of silvery rock. And then, the dragon moves.
A motionless iridium dragon, underground, will surprise a foe on 1-5 on 1d6 if it isn’t moving. But if in motion it is unmistakable and completely impossible to miss – each motion creates cascades of bright colour around them, in every direction. Ahead of them the air appears blue or violet, behind there is orange or red, and to either side there is yellow or green. If they turn there are cascades of rainbow colours, shimmering and reacting with other light to create mesmerising iridescence. All seeing this must make a saving throw vs. spells or be enthralled, unable to look away unless the dragon moves out of sight or attacks them.
Iridium dragons are rarely aggressive, choosing to make their homes in the great underground caverns deep beneath the ground, where they are friendly with gnomes, dwarves, myconids and shadow elves. In this habitat they are the mortal enemies of violet dragons. Few other than the truly evil are hostile towards them. When forced to fight their breath weapon is a cloud of bright, shimmering rainbow coloured gas that crackles with magical energy, inflicting damage as per any dragon breath as if a shower of magical force. Any character failing their save vs. dragon breath will not only take full damage, but they will be blinded for 1d6 turns.
Like all metallic dragons, iridium dragons are master shapeshifters although in any form they give off the same pulsating colour patterns. As a result they tend to choose quite fantastical forms, and many of the stranger reported encounters with bright coloured fey creatures may have been with iridium dragons.
Spectrolite dragons are even stranger creatures. The pulsating colour patterns appear within them as they move, refracting outwards in similar patterns to iridium dragons. They maintain lairs in similar habitats to iridium dragons, and are likewise unlikely to be aggressive. If forced to fight their breath weapon has the additional effect of creating chaos in its area for 1d4 turns – this is similar to that created by a gremlin, only far, far more potent. Any creature within the area must make a saving throw with a -1 penalty per HD of the dragon, or they will be struck with a terrible case of Murphys Law until they leave the area or the duration of the spell ends (treat as the chaotic aura of a gremlin). Spectrolite dragons are, of course, immune to this effect, as are gremlins, and both species seem able to ignore each others chaos. Consequently, wherever spectrolite dragons are found, gremlins friendly to them are not far away.