A dark blue dragon, its wings immense and its tail tipped with a hooked stinger, lands on two taloned feet and roars a challenge.

Travelers in the wild sometimes look to the skies to see the dark-winged shape of a wyvern carrying its prey. These cousins to the great dragons hunt the same tangled forests and caverns as their kin. Their appearance sends ripples of alarm through the borderlands of civilization.

A wyvern has two scaly legs, leathery wings, and a sinewy tail topped with its most potent weapon: a poison stinger. The poison in a wyvern's stinger can kill a creature in seconds. Extremely potent, wyvern poison burns through its victim's bloodstream, disintegrating veins and arteries on its way to the heart. As deadly as wyverns can be, however, hunters and adventurers often track them to claim the venom, which is used in alchemical compounds and to coat weapons.

Aerial Hunters

A wyvern doesn't fight on the ground unless it can't reach its prey by any other means, or if it has been fooled into a position from which aerial combat isn't an option. If forced into a confrontation on the ground, a wyvern crouches low, keeping its stinger poised above its head as it hisses and growls.

Aggressive and Reckless

A wyvern intent on its prey backs down only if it sustains serious injury, or if its prey eludes it long enough for another easier potential meal to wander along. If it corners a fleeing creature in an enclosure too small to enter, a wyvern guards where the quarry hides, lashing with its stinger whenever opportunity allows.

Although they possess more cunning than ordinary beasts, wyverns lack the intelligence of their draconic cousins. As such, creatures that maintain their composure as a wyvern hunts them from the air can often elude or trick it. Wyverns follow a direct path to their prey, with no thought given to possible ambushes.

Tamed Wyverns

A wyvern can be tamed for use as a mount, but doing so presents a difficult and deadly challenge. Raising one as a hatchling offers the best results. However, a wyvern's violent temperament has cost the life of many a would-be master.

Wyvern

Draconic Hunter with a Venomous Sting

Opportunistic predators, wyverns are draconic ambushers that strike from above. These territorial hunters attack with their fangs and stinger-tipped tails. Wyvern stingers drip with deadly venom, a painful toxin feared by monster hunters and coveted by alchemists.

Wyverns are aggressive and claim sizable territories around the mountains, crags, and ruins where they dwell. Despite their considerable strength, they're opportunistic hunters that target unwitting livestock and groups of encamped travelers. Wyverns usually land only to finish off creatures they've weakened with their poison and strafing attacks. Creatures that fight back or take flight might deter wyverns, convincing them to search for easier prey.

Once wyverns overpower a quarry, they carry it to their cavernous lairs to either consume it in safety or trap it to eat later. Most wyverns don't hoard treasure, but their lairs are littered with the possessions of past victims. It isn't uncommon for wyverns to carry off chests, carts, or small boats along with their prey.

A huge flying lizard with a poisonous stinger in its tail, distant cousin to true dragons

A distant cousin to the true dragons, the wyvern is a huge flying lizard with a poisonous stinger in its tail. A wyvern's body is 15 feet long, and dark brown to gray; half that length is tail. Its wingspan is about 20 feet. A wyvern weighs about one ton. They are built more like bats than lizards, having two legs and two wings; contrast this with true dragons, which have four legs and two wings. Wyverns are of animal intelligence, but are excellent predators with good hunting abilities. When attacking they will make a loud hiss, or sometimes a deep-throated growl much like that of a bull alligator. Wyverns attack nearly anything that isn't obviously more powerful than themselves. A wyvern dives from the air, clawing at its opponent with its talons and stinging it to death. Any living creature hit by the wyvern's stinger must save vs. Poison or die. A wyvern can slash with its talons only when making a flyby attack or when landing. If a wyvern hits with both its talons, it may attempt to carry off its victim; only victims weighing 300 pounds or less can be carried off, and the wyvern can only carry a victim for at most 6 rounds. While flying with a victim, the wyvern cannot make

Winged, two-legged, dragon-like monsters with a long tail tipped with a venomous stinger. Dwell in any terrain, but favour cliffs and forests.

A huge flying lizard with a poisonous stinger in its tail, distant cousin to true dragons

Wyverns are distant cousins of dragons, extremely voracious but dull of intellect. They do not have front legs, and cannot attack effectively with their hind legs. In combat, wyverns rely on their bite and deadly poison stinger. If a character is hit with the wyvern's sting, in addition to the normal damage he must save vs poison or fall dead.