De Origine Draconum III: Wyrmling

“With a terrible singleness of concentration he achieved the union of his new skin with his body, preventing rejection. No corner of his body was left to dwell upon the terrifying consequences of what he did here. Only the necessities of his trance vision mattered…

“They were all over his body now.…He could feel the pulse of his blood against the living membrane. A curious excitement suffused his body.…My skin is not my own.”

Philippe Druillet

Covering the body in axolotls creates a wyrmling, an axolotl/humanoid hybrid. The symbiosis alters the quiddity of both creatures resulting in a being that is neither human and nor axolotl, but a wyrmling, a species utterly different from either. 

The wyrmling experiences alienation from its former species, which may manifest in a variety of ways. It may develop a hostility toward its species, either lamenting what it has lost or looking down on that species as an inferior species. Alternatively, the wyrmling may view themselves as a blessed paragon of their species, elevated above the common human or demihuman, developing a sense of responsibility for their less-evolved brothers and sisters. 

Wyrmlings often become leaders of dragonborn cults, revered as the single-sexed fathers and mothers of their kind. Dragons, on the other hand, often view wyrmlings as threats to their superiority and often seek to destroy wyrmlings. Good-aligned dragons, understanding the dangers of the process of transformation, will try to dissuade wyrmlings from continuing their evolution.

The wyrmling loses all of the benefits of their former species (excluding bonus feats or skills, but including ability score increases) and gains the following:

Ability Scores: Your Strength score increases by 2, and an ability score of your choosing increases by 1.

Living Armor: The axolotls that cover every inch of your body fuse into a scaly skin, granting a natural AC bonus of +4. This bonus does not stack with other types of armor, but does stack with magical rings, amulets, bracers, etc.  

Living Weapon: Your fingertips harden into claws. You deal 2d6 + your Strength modifier in slashing damage.

Regeneration: Once per short rest, regain 1 + your Constitution modifier hp at the beginning of each turn for 1d6+1 turns.

Surface Awareness: The entire surface of the body is an organ of sensation. Wyrmlings cannot be surprised and have advantage on Dexterity saving throws and Perception checks. 

Breathing: The wyrmling breathes through the axolotl’s organs rather than through their original apparatus (lungs, mouth, nose). As a result, a wyrmling cannot be drowned or suffocated the way a normal human can. 

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Axolotls | Part 3: Wyrmlings | Part 4: Dragonborn | Part 5: Dragons

De Origine Draconum II: Axolotl

“And in this final solitude to which he no longer comes, I console myself by thinking that perhaps he is going to write a story about us, that, believing he's making up a story, he's going to write all this about axolotls.”  

Rebecca Guay, "A Blessing of Leeches"

Before becoming a dragon, one must form a symbiotic bond with creatures called axolotls. This process may take years or even decades, and all but the most robust, most intelligent, and most wise among those who attempt the transformation will survive.

Axolotls are spontaneously generated by the collision of arcane currents that surround portals between planes. On the Prime Material Plane, these portals are found in the most extreme environments: the deepest ocean trenches or most remote mountain lakes might hide a portal to the Plane of Water; volcanic wells plunging into the churning ocean of molten rock below the earth might lead to the Plane of Fire; the thick mist and fog that obscures the highest mountain peaks might lead to the Plane of Air; a labyrinthine cave complex hidden at the bottom of a great canyon may lead to the Plane of Earth. Where these planes collide with and overlap the Prime Material Plane, great energies are released, energies that tear open the veil between worlds and engender all sorts of bizarre phenomena. These lizardlike creatures, with their pearlescent skin that seems to glow with an inner light like a gemstone and their probing, curious fingers, are just one of the many creatures that may result from a puissant confluence of arcane energies.

After finding these rare creatures, the potential dragon must entice the axolotls onto their body, which is not an easy task since the axolotls are naturally aggressive and seek to destroy any heterogeneous substance it encounters. In order to survive this ordeal, the host must make a series of saving throws: a charisma save (DC 20) to entice the axolotl colony onto the host’s body; constitution and wisdom saves (DC 20 each round for the 1d4 rounds it takes for the axolotls to cover the body). Those who succeed move on to the next step, while the rest succumb to any number of terrible fates, as outlined on the table below.

While the personality of the host determines the genus of dragon (chromatic or metallic), the type of axolotl the host bonds with has an even greater role to play, determining the species (most commonly identified by color).  

Mirra Gray, "Shining Axolotl"

Axolotl

Climate/Terrain: Portals between planes

Organization: Colony

Diet: Scavenger

Intelligence: Varies

Treasure: None

Alignment: Varies (elemental axolotls are unaligned)

Number appearing: 8d8+10 (1 colony = 18-74 axolotls)

Hit points: 2d10

Armor class: 12

Speed: 20ft

Saving throws: Wis, Cha

Damage resistance: Varies by type

Damage immunity: Varies by type

Condition immunity: None

Special abilities: Regeneration. An axolotl regains 5 hit points at the beginning of its turn.

Senses: Darkvision 60’, passive perception 16

Languages: none

Challenge: ¼ (50xp)

STR 6 DEX 14 CON 11 INT 2 WIS 16 CHA 4

When axolotls are generated by the confluence of interplanar energies, they immediately seek to consume any substance different than that of the plane from which they originated. Whatever they consume is excreted within minutes as the substance of their associated plane: Water axolotls turn matter into water, Air axolotls turn matter into air, Ethereal axolotls turn corporeal substances ethereal. It does this without thought or malice.

Axolotls are always found in colonies. One axolotl alone poses little threat to anyone, but a colony of 15-20 could pose a threat to most creatures. This is because axolotls in close proximity to one another form a hive mind and become a swarm, acting as one creature with one intelligence. Though a single axolotl has an Intelligence of 1, four axolotls together have an Intelligence of 2. Add another four and the swarm’s Intelligence increases to 3, and so on, with no upper limit. A colony of 72 axolotls possess the intelligence of the sharpest humans, along with all of the language and magical capabilities such an intellect would bestow upon a creature. This networked intelligence is what makes bonding with a colony so difficult and dangerous. 

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Axolotls | Part 3: Wyrmlings | Part 4: Dragonborn | Part 5: Dragons

De Origine Draconum

Abstract: A dragon is the result of a long process of self-transformation. A wizard who wishes to become a dragon must carry out the following steps: 1) Seek out axolotls, 2) Enter into a symbiotic relationship with the axolotls, allowing them to colonize the body, 3) feed these symbionts so that the humanoid body may transform into a dragoniod one.

Jakub Rebelka, "Witcher Memories"

Part 1: Introduction

It is inevitable that each of us will, eventually, become subjects of Death’s Empire. Mortality is our fate, whether due to an accident of nature or the design of the gods, such that it defines us and sets us apart from the fay creatures. If indolence is the curse of fay immortality, restlessness is the curse of human mortality, for we have but a limited span in which to leave our mark on the world. This immutable fact, however, has not prevented the powerful and ambitious from seeking to lengthen the wick of their life’s candle. Since humans are, by definition, mortal, the only way to attain immortality is to shed one’s humanity. There are a few paths open to those mad and avaricious enough to undertake such a journey: become a lich, become a vampire, or become a dragon.

Each of these apotheoses comes with its particular curses: to see your human flesh slough and rot while your quintessence clings jealously to a phylactery; to take the moonlight as your betrothed and the blood of the living as your only milk; to become huge and monstrous on a scale unimaginable to the human mind. To further complicate matters, vampirism is not a choice, but a condemnation: it is often the case that only those who truly wish for death above all else are granted that eternal life-in-death. This peculiar predicament fuels the hatred of the vampire. The lich, likewise, is caught in a trap: neither living nor dead, neither human nor beast. These transformations seem to foreclose as many possibilities as they open up.

Wyrmhood is a more ambivalent prize. Both the lich and the vampire are compelled to take the lives of others in order to sustain their own. As such, they are creatures of hate and hate alone, tax collectors for the Emperor of Death. For all of their fearsome powers and conniving intellect, they are  but uncomplicated creatures. There are as many varieties of dragon, on the other hand, as there are planes of the multiverse. There are dragons who protect the weak and dragons who choose to dominate them instead, dragons who care only for treasure, dragons who prefer parley or trickery to physical force, dragons who cloak themselves in flame, who are at home among the glaciers, who breathe in and out the miasma of the swamp. The type of dragon a host becomes depends, in part, on the personality of the host.  In leaving behind one’s humanity and embracing wyrmhood, all of the myriad shining facets of the gem that is the human personality are reduced to a single burning ember. If mortality defines the human, and hate defines the lich and vampire (albeit in different ways), it is this single-mindedness that defines the dragon. 

Part 2: Axolotls | Part 3: Wyrmlings | Part 4: Dragonborn | Part 5: Dragons