Salutations! It’s me, Luis Loza! I am saddened to say that we are at the end of our draconic journey. Last week, we took a look at the mighty and benevolent empyreal dragons. This week, we close out our exploration of dragons by looking into the crystal ball and revealing the mysterious omen dragons. Let’s have a look!
Illustration by Kent Hamilton
Omen dragons are tied to the occult tradition, granting them strange powers. In the case of omen dragons, those powers are connected to prophecy and fortune-telling. Although proper prophecy no longer works in the world, short-term fortunes like those explored via augury still function. Beyond that, fortunes become less accurate, but might still have nuggets of truth within them. It’s these short- to medium-length fortunes in which an omen dragon dabbles.
Every omen dragon is constantly seeing glimpses of possible futures. These dragons’ occult nature compels them to share what they see with the relevant parties, regardless of the people involved or the nature of the future glimpsed. The dragon usually shares this future through their prophetic wings. An omen dragon’s wings have a reflective inner portion that is much like a mirror. The dragon can use their ability to allow another person to glimpse their future, sometimes months into the future, within the wings. Since an omen dragon has no other information beyond what it shares in the glimpse, they leave the task of deciphering the vision and dealing with the future to the people involved.
Omen dragons have a number of additional abilities tied to the fate and prophecy. Every omen dragon is unbound by the restrictions of fate, making them immune to fortune and misfortune effects except when the omen dragon chooses to be subject to them. They can also twist the immediate future to force misfortune on foes who attempt to attack the dragon. Even the breath weapon of an omen dragon is tied to fate and future. An omen dragon’s breath grants victims a small taste of an omen dragon’s power, inundating the victim with countless visions of possible futures that can overwhelm.
As they’re always seeing these future glimpses, omen dragons often collect items and treasures related to the future. Omen dragon hoards tend to be smaller than that of a typical dragon, but most omen dragons maintain several hoards at once. Most of these hoards hold items of some future importance, such as a weapon that will strike down a great power or a relic that can save an entire village. People who want or need these items can speak with the dragon in an attempt to claim the items, but doing so can be a difficult feat!
That’s the omen dragon, and with that we’ve finished our look at all the dragons in Monster Core! The book has been out for a few days now and I’m sure some of you reading this already had access to your PDFs or received your physical copies and learned about the omen dragon. In a way, you got to see the future before others, making you not unlike an omen dragon! I want to thank everyone who followed these draconic previews and I hope you’ve had a good time reading them. Also, special thanks to Kent Hamilton for his incredible work and being a great collaborator in helping create these dragons. These dragons wouldn’t be what they are without him!
As the author for the new dragons, I’ve been excited to talk about them, but I’m more excited to hear how everyone uses them in their games. I look forward to exciting stories in the months and years to come!
A Fated Encounter With Dragons!
Friday, March 29, 2024
