KIMONO DRAGON

There is no other animal in the world whose protective armor is so structurally laudable as the kimono dragon. Not to be confused with the kimodo dragon, this reptile stands only about four feet tall, commonly dressing in a formal kimono (the most frequent style made of a lovely, purple and cream-colored floral brocade)with the traditional obi around its minuscule waist. The head, not much larger than a grown man's hand, is covered with bright, beautiful yellow scales, shading to orange and then to red at the throat. Wrists and hands are a brilliant emerald green, while the lower legs and tiny bare feet are of the deepest violet color.

Found on the surface and the underground, the house of a kimodo dragon is made of bamboo and rice paper and of varying sizes. Most contain a front room furnished formally with a small table in the middle of the room surrounded by tatami mats, with sliding rice-paper doors leading to others. Depending on the age of the dragon and how many adventurers it had managed to conquer, rooms are filled with modern art of their own creation, which are sculptures welded together from the armor of failed heroes made solely for pleasure.

One must not be deceived by the red eyes that are usually cast down modestly toward the ground, the low, humble voice, or the courtesy bow, for this is the most dangerous of any dragon seen or heard. If one waits too long outside of its house, the fierce and beguiling dragon will take it as a challenge and come out to invite the adventurer into its home for a tea ceremony. For the kimono dragon is fond of tantalizing riddles.

The only way to defeat this terrible beast is to correctly answer its riddle. The most devastating thing about the riddle, is that they are tricks—the correct answer is usually disguised as an attempt to instill the wrath of another pseudo-god. Choosing wrongly will cause for the challenging adventurer and all of his companions to instantly die and all of the inventory will be added to the dragon’s collection of art.

How exactly the kimono dragon kills its victims is still a matter of much debate, as no one is recorded to have survived the attack, and overcoming the riddle instantly destroys the creature before it is able to counterstrike. Some survivors have speculated that since the nature of the riddles always involve incurring the wrath of a large part of the pseudo-gods, that the kimono dragon itself does not bring about the death of the adventurer, but merely uses the riddle to instigate a supernatural death. Retreating from the presence of the kimono dragon has been known to kindle The Powers that Be into preventing such a thing from happening.

While most lesser adventurers will sit and drinking and playing its deadly guessing games until he is just another notch on the kimono dragon’s obi, there are other alternatives. For example, one kimono dragon riddle that had been present for many decades until it was finally solved by the end of the tenth century by a man named Mirakles. This particular kimono dragon presented him with a Frobozz Magic Golden Apple inscribed with “For the Fairest”, telling him that he must take it and tell her to whom she wished it to be delivered. Instead of incurring the wrath of one of the pseudo-gods who would undoubtedly consider herself more beautiful that whomever he choose to present it to, Mirakles cut the apple in half, producing two halves. The half that read “For the Fair” he would give to the princess he desired, while the other half “est” (meaning “He is”) was for the Control Character. Thus that particular kimono dragon was instantly killed, and the solved riddle no longer circulated amongst the kimono dragon population henceforth. Keeping the nature of the riddles in mind, as well as the solution, adventures are now able to occasionally overcome this deadly reptile.