Black dragons are among the most evil-tempered true dragons. They perfer dismal swamps or bogs, the more stagnant and fetid the better, but can be encountered anywhere water and dense vegitation are found together-including jungles, rain forests, and moors. They have no natural enemies, though they attack and kill almost anything unfortunate enough to stumble upon them. Black dragons living in forest areas often encounter green dragons, but the two species usually manage to maintain an uneasy truce, so long as the black dragons stick to the watery areas.

  Black dragons make their lairs in large, damp caves or multichambered sumerged caverns. They always dwell near water, and their lairs usually have a sumerged entrance and land entrance. Older black dragons hide both entrances to their lair with a plant growth spell. Black Dragons that dwell in dungeons perfer dark, watery locations.

            Identifiers
  A black dragon has deep-socketed eyes and broad nasal openings that make its face look like a skull. It has segmented horn that curve forward and down, somewhat like a ram's horns, but not as curley. These horns are bone-colored near their bases, but darken to dead black at the tips. As the dragon ages, the flesh around the horns and cheekbones deterioates, as though eaten by acid, leaving only thin layers of hide covering the skull. This phenomenon is not harmful to the dragon, but enhances its skeletal apperance.
  Most of a black dragon's teeth protrude when the mouth is closed, and big spikes stud the lower jaw. A pair of small horns jut from the chin, and a row of hornlets crown the head. The tongue is flat, with a forked tip, and the dragon often drools acidic slime.


           Habits





True Dragons