It has no wings, and it does not need them. The Wyvern of Vetustus owns the forests and the rock walls of the Island of the Elements. It hunts in packs, no one has ever tamed one, and the club at the end of its tail carries a poison that can stop a warrior’s lungs.

Built for the forest

An adult measures 50 to 60 feet and weighs about three tons: half the length of a common dragon. Where the dragon rules air, land and water, the Wyvern is made for the ground. Four heavy legs with retractable claws let it climb sheer rock and slip between the giant conifers. Its long neck strikes from angles no one expects. Its skin, dark green to gray, disappears into the trees.

A pack that cannot be tamed

Wyverns move in packs of three to eight, led by the strongest. They coordinate, cut prey off from its group and share out the work of the kill. They keep away from adult dragons, but wherever dragons are rare, they become the top predator. Every attempt in Vetustian history to train them for war has failed. Even the corrupted, who can bend a young dragon with resonance, cannot reach a Wyvern’s mind.

Poison in the tail

The tail club is not only a hammer. Glands at its base fill the sharp spines on its surface with a fast neurotoxin. On intact Vetustian skin it only burns. In a wound, in the mouth or in the eyes, it brings paralysis, loss of coordination and, at high doses, respiratory failure. Dragons are almost immune: an adult can eat a Wyvern whole and feel nothing.

Habitat, nesting and the full effects of the venom are in the complete entry.