Flame drake

Flame drake
(Creature)
Common CE Large Dragon fire Level 5 Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Images of flame drakes Source: Bestiary, pg(s). 131 Type Dragon (fire) CR 5 Environment Temperate mountains or hills Alignment LG NG CG LN N CN LE NE CE Images of flame drakes Source: Bestiary 2, pg(s). 106

Powerful, brutal and demanding well describe a flame drake. These menacing creatures are not to be reasoned with—not because they do not want to be, but they simply do not understand rational arguments.

Appearance

Flame drakes have red to yellow-colored, iron-hard scales, long tails and leathery wings, and large horns pointing backwards from their heads. Unlike true dragons, flame drakes possess no forearms and walk bipedally.

Ecology

A flame drake attack.

Flame drakes are thought to be distantly related to red dragons, but—while fearsome by human standards—they are far from the might and power of their relatives.

Male and female flame drakes usually live in gender-segregated packs known as rampages, only coming together once a year to mate. The females then choose a spot in the mountains where they build a nest and lay two or three eggs, brooding them and raising the resulting young for two years before abandoning them and returning to their pack. The infants are thereafter left to fend for themselves in the three remaining years until adulthood.

Society

Flame drake society is a loose one at best, and centered on the pack. Members of a rampage can cooperate enough to hunt, but once the kill is made the drakes descend into squabbling and bickering over the meat. Some flame drake rampages are known to force settlements into giving them tribute, enforcing their dominance with the threat of destruction. Even so, the drakes welcome refused payments, as this gives them an excuse to indulge in violence and destruction.

On Golarion

On Golarion, flame drakes inhabited Varisia's Bloodsworn Vale until adventurers wiped most of them out; some hatchlings survived, however, and on reaching adulthood have begun to form alliances with evil fey and giants in the Mindspin Mountains in order to take revenge on the Varisians. Flame drakes also inhabit Darkmoon Vale alongside forest drakes.

References

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