
Young Red Shadow Dragon
D&D 2024 monster: Young Red Shadow Dragon. Source: Monster Manual (2014). challenge rating 13, creature type Dragon, Large size, speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.,... Shadow dragons are true dragons that were either born in the Shadowfell or transformed by years spent within its dismal confines. Some shadow dragons embrace the Shadowfell for its bleak landscapes and desolation. Others seek to return to the Material Plane, hungry to spread the darkness and evil of the Plane of Shadow. Dark Portals Portals to the Shadowfell manifest in forlorn places and the deep gloom of subterranean caverns. The dragons that lair in such places often discover these portals and find themselves transported to a new realm. Ancient dragons that sleep in their lairs for months or years at a time might find themselves spirited away, never knowing that a portal has formed without their knowledge as they dream. Recast in Shadow The transformation to a shadow dragon happens over a period of years, during which time a dragon's scales lose their luster and fade to a charcoal hue. Its leathery wings become translucent, its eyes paling to pools of opalescent gray. Shadow dragons find sunlight abhorrent, and they are weaker in bright light than they are in darkness. Darkness makes the dragon fade to a spectral shadow of its former self. The magical nature of dragons holds an attraction for the Shadowfell, which seems somehow to crave the might and majesty of these great reptiles. The Shadowfell also has a dispiriting effect on its denizens, such that the longer a creature remains on the plane, the more it accepts the plane's malaise. As months and years pass for a dragon on the Shadowfell, it becomes aware of the transformation being wrought upon it, and yet can do nothing to prevent it. Back in the World A shadow dragon is so suffused with the power of the Shadowfell that even a return to the Material Plane can't undo its transformation. Some shadow dragons attempt to lure other creatures from the m...