Bookwyrm, Ancient

Family: Dragons

Large dragon, lawful neutral

Armor Class 19 (natural armor
Hit Points 346 (33d10 + 165
Speed 40 ft., fly 80 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 22 (+6) 21 (+5) 21 (+5) 17 (+3) 27 (+8)

Saving Throws Dex +12, Con +11, Wis +9, Cha +14
Skills Arcana +16, Insight +9, Investigation +16, Perception +9, Stealth +12
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities blinded, deafened, poisoned
Senses blindsight 60 ft., darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 19
Languages all
Challenge 20 (25,000 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack. The bookwyrm can use its Overwhelming Presence. It then makes three attacks: one with its Bite and two with its Claw.
  • Multispell. The bookwyrm casts up to two spells, the combined spell level of which cannot be greater than 9th level.
  • Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) piercing damage.
  • Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) slashing damage.
  • Tail Quill. Melee Weapon Attack: +12 to hit, reach 20 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 19 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour. If the target fails its saving throw by 5 or more, the creature is also unconscious while poisoned in this way. While so poisoned, the creature is treated as though it has three levels of exhaustion and suffers the related penalties. The creature may attempt a DC 19 Constitution saving throw to wake up if another creature takes an action to try shaking it awake or if it takes damage. On a successful saving throw, the creature is no longer poisoned and is immune to the bookwyrm’s Tail Quill poison for the next 24 hours.
  • Overwhelming Presence. Each creature of the bookwyrm’s choice it is aware of within 120 feet of it must succeed on a DC 19 Intelligence saving throw or suffer disadvantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws and ability checks for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the bookwyrm’s Overwhelming Presence for the next 24 hours.
  • Spellfire Breath (Recharge 5–6). The bookwyrm exhales blue spellfire in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must attempt a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw, taking 28 (8d6) fire damage plus 28 (8d6) psychic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The spellfire doesn’t damage objects or structures.

REACTIONS

  • Spell Reflection. As a reaction when the bookwyrm is targeted by a spell or magical effect from a creature it can see within 300 feet of it, it can force the creature to attempt a DC 22 Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, the creature targets itself with the spell. If the creature cannot target itself in this manner, the spell instead fails.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

The bookwyrm can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The bookwyrm regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.

  • Cast a Minor Spell. The bookwyrm casts a spell of 1st level or lower.
  • Hide. The bookwyrm takes the Hide action.
  • Readiness. Until the start of its next turn, the bookwyrm gains an additional reaction.
  • Cast a Major Spell (Costs 2 Actions). The bookwyrm casts a spell of 5th level or lower.
  • Tail Attack (Costs 2 Actions). The bookwyrm makes a Tail Quill attack.

LAIR

Bookwyrms tend to lair within old, ruined libraries and archives, and their lairs are filled with a vast collection of ancient books and scrolls. In place of the typical valuables most dragons collect, a bookwyrm gathers its favorite reading materials into one part of its home where it enjoys resting and exploring these written works. The value an adventurer can find in these texts varies. Sometimes they fetch a great price among enthusiasts or nobles who wish to add these volumes to their own collections, and occasionally these tomes carry a magic all their own that grants various boons an adventurer may prize.

A bookwyrm’s lair is typically rather modest compared to most draconic abodes, as the bookwyrms themselves tend to be comparatively diminutive. Their halls tend to accommodate those of similar stature and abilities, and they are difficult to explore for the large and brutish. Bookwyrms don’t seek to gather minions of their own but sometimes take curious creatures under their wing who are enthralled by their wisdom and seeking to learn. These minions are tasked with things that require leaving the lair, as this leaves the bookwyrms to their more preferred tasks: pondering and documenting their findings.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the bookwyrm takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects.

  • A whirlwind of pages fills a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on a point the dragon chooses within 120 feet of it. The whirlwind remains until the bookwyrm dismisses it as an action, uses this lair action again, or dies. The area is lightly obscured.
  • Any creature in the whirlwind when it appears must attempt a DC 15 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) slashing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A creature that ends its turn in the cloud takes 10 (3d6) slashing damage.
  • The bookwyrm analyzes a creature and discerns its weaknesses, gaining advantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws against the creature until initiative count 20 on the next round.
Regional Effects

The region containing the bookwyrm’s lair is warped by the bookwyrm’s magical nature, which causes the following effects within 10 miles of the lair.

  • Creatures attempting to recall or learn information within 1 mile of the bookwyrm’s lair receive advantage on ability checks made to do so if the subject relates to material contained within the library of a bookwyrm. If a creature fails an ability check to recall or learn such information, it is inexplicably drawn toward the lair. Whenever a new book or scroll is brought into the bookwyrm’s lair, the bookwyrm knows the location of the creature carrying it.
  • Creatures in the affected area have advantage on Arcana ability checks and can read magical scripts. If the bookwyrm dies, these effects fade immediately.

ABOUT

Sages and scholars aren’t rare among dragons, as they are long lived and more intelligent than most other creatures, but few among them can compare to the living fonts of knowledge that are the bookwyrms. These dragons may not eclipse others in size or ferocity, but what they lack in bulk they more than make up for in wisdom and understanding of the texts from which they are comprised. The hallmark of an encounter with a bookwyrm is a rustle of papers faintly heard in some abandoned library, moments before some dastardly tomb robber locks eyes with these keepers of the tomes. A bookwyrm’s body is made of various scrolls and pages from books inscribed with text that glows a faint blue hue when the dragon recounts the written details, tipped by a pointed tail covered in glowing ink. Their eyes are small blue flames which exude no warmth, with which they analyze their surroundings, taking in those who seek to infringe on their hoards. The musty smell of old parchment and the pages of ancient books permeates the air around them.

Bookwyrms form where civilization has crumbled and left behind vast amounts of written knowledge. Wyrmlings arise as the text from ancient books and scrolls magically combines to form the delicate, intricate creatures. They spend their early years exploring this environment and reading all they can, occasionally consuming books and scrolls, preserving their knowledge onto their forms in small, complex writing, and growing as they do. When the dragons reach youthhood, they begin adding their own writings to their forms, documenting things they’ve seen around them with terms they know and eventually venturing out of their initial lairs. Upon reaching adulthood, some bookwyrms seek a place near interesting phenomena or fastidious scholars and spend the rest of their days documenting these curiosities. Others, who feel they’ve fully explored nearby realms, may choose to migrate into civilization or toward new horizons, carrying what they can of their written hoard within their forms.

Bookwyrms are reclusive in their early years, fearful of what they do not yet understand and protective of their life’s work, yet ever curious and eager to learn more. As such, those who intrude upon their domain are met with caution but not immediate hostility, as the dragon studies their guests and attempts to parley with them. If bookwyrms encounter seekers of knowledge, they may agree to an exchange of written works. Interactions between bookwyrms and other creatures are bizarre—their voices cannot be described or mimicked, and even those who cannot hear, cannot read, or do not share a language with the dragon know their words as if they read them straight off a page.

In ideal conditions, bookwyrms are invaluable archivists and wellsprings of knowledge, ever eager to further the cause of understanding the magical worlds in which they find themselves, blissfully ignorant of their potentially darker side.

Others, however, suffer ill fates. Bookwyrms that fail to advance their field of study or who are attacked and suffer great losses to their collection enter an unstable frenzy, turning the magic around them wild and showing complete hostility toward all outsiders. Unfortunately, this state persists until they perish, and rarely is there a way to bring them back to their thoughtful, gentle state.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Dragonflight Copyright 2022 2CGaming, LLC Authors Ryan Servis, Casey Machado, Joshua Mendenhall

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