Cloud dragons have floated in and out of the world’s oldest role-playing game on and off 1st Edition, usually as neutral aloof beasts flying far above the cares of men. (It’s interesting that most new dragons added to the game tend toward neutral or even good. Apparently even the most hard-hearted monster designer secretly wants to ride Falkor.) Pathfinder’s cloud dragons, of the primal sept and associated with the Plane of Air, are more mercurial, free-spirited creatures, prone to acquiring expensive souvenirs of their travels.
A party of adventurers must race against time and a cloud dragon through the jungles of Kemf, in pursuit of a ruby hummingbird idol the size of a man. Failure means tracking the dragon to its lair on the Plane of Air.
An elven swanboat has gone missing, along with her pilot. The birdlike airskiff, the pride of the clan, was scooped up by an acquisitive cloud dragon, and the pilot cannot fly to freedom unless the skiff soaks up enough sunlight to recharge.
A flight of demons, vrocks in particular, boil in the skies over Inverness. Even the local dragons seem powerless—the demons’ ability to shrug off the dragons’ breath weapons telling greatly during the first engagement. But demons fear sonic assaults, and the thundering bite of an ancient cloud dragon might turn the tide, if only one could be persuaded to take an interest.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 2 96–97
“Basic” D&D fans will recognize the tribute to the Companion Set’s clan relics and The Voyage of the Princess Ark box set’s ship cards.
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