Grazhul

Grazhul are the result of a young dragon's brush with Zargon's blight — a malignant influence whispered of in cult texts and lost on battlefields. Unlike full-fledged corrupted wyrms that become monstrous champions of Zargon, Grazhul remain small and erratic: they possess the instincts of a dragon but answer to the slow, insistent hunger of the taint within. Folk in frontier villages trade whispered warnings: see a Grazhul near water and salt the wells. The cult of the Second Meridian, a small cabal that studies Zargon’s mutations, keeps a ledger of Grazhul sightings; their field notes suggest these drakes are drawn to sites of sudden death and places where iron and blood have mingled for long enough to sour the soil. Scholars such as Mirek Halvors of the Cartographers of Vesh argue Grazhul are neither fully sentient agents of Zargon nor simple beasts. They behave with a cunning narrow as hunger: they cache shiny objects, mimic simple animal calls to lure prey, and sometimes return to the same ruined homestead night after night. Adventuring parties that slay a Grazhul often find traces of ritual sigils etched into its lair, evidence that cultists sometimes use these tainted young dragons as testbeds for blight-magic or to distract neighbors while they harvest something far worse.

A Grazhul is roughly the size of a warhound-height Large drake, about 10–12 feet long from snout to tail tip with a 12–16 foot wingspan. Its head is narrow with a short, hooked snout and a row of small bony crests along the brow. Most striking are the black, oily veins that web outward across otherwise greenish-bronze scales; the veins shift slowly, as though alive. The underside scales are dulled to a gunmetal sheen. Wings are thin, translucent near the edges with tiny tears sealed by black filaments. Talons are slightly overlong and stained a rust color. Eyes are vertical-slit, glowing chartreuse; a faint, sulphurous mist curls from its nostrils. Size references: when crouched it reaches about waist-height on a human; when rearing or opening its wings, it can nearly fill a standard doorway. Textures: slick, slightly sticky surface along the veined scales; leathery wing membranes with hairline scars; the mouth often carries the scent of iron and rot.