Dragon Egg woes

[GorogIrongut]

I've got a wonderful character, Dragonborn Draconic Sorceror who walks around with a patch on his backpack that says, 'Make Bahamut Great Again!'. He has, however, been having a crisis of faith of late. He was sitting in a temple of Bahamut having a fully roleplayed out, realistic religious discussion with one of the head's of the temple (note the player is an atheist which was kind of fun and I'm the opposite of an atheist).

So, I didn't want to push it too far as the other players were there and I didn't want it to become to religious'y, so the Abbot said, 'The gods speak to us in many ways my friend. To one he speaks to his heart. To another he speaks in dreams. In your case, this is the answer to your questions.' And then the abbot hands him what looks to be a dragon egg... a honkin, big, watermelon sized sapphire.

At first the player was excited by the dragon egg. Then he was excited by the idea it might just be an incredibly expensive non magical sapphire. He finally did some research and the answers he's received lead him back to the original premise... that it's an egg of a sapphire dragon.

Here's where I need your assistance. The information on gem dragons can be scarily precise at times and equally as vague at other times. I have all the reasoning mapped out for why he was given the sapphire dragon egg. I have all the hows and whys put in place...

The one bit of information I can't seem to find is about hatching a sapphire dragon egg. How long does it take? What measures need to be taken to facilitate incubating the egg? I can't seem to find that information anywhere... Sure it's available for chromatic and metallic dragons, but I can't find it for any of the gem dragons.

At the moment, I've been playing it by ear and so far the egg reacts whenever it's coated in blood (see a couple vicious fights against a demonic blood cult). I haven't however implied what that reaction means.


For a few more nitty gritty details the egg is actually an emerald sapphire hybrid as per the following text:

Sapphire allies
About the only being other than their mate that an emerald will truly trust is a sapphire dragon. Often an emerald and a sapphire will team up, with the emerald making a lair above the underground one of the sapphire and covering both the underdark and overland with their watchful vigil. Such alliances are beneficial to both parties, and even the paranoid emerald dragon knows that there are more rewards than there are risks in seeking out and accepting such a partnership. This also has lead to an interesting phenomena; while cases of differing draconic colors interbreeding are heard of, for the emerald and sapphire dragon it is almost commonplace, and often just seen as a natural extension of the alliance. Children of such a pairing are raised by both parents, no matter how contradictory their teachings may sometimes be, and are often some of the most celebrated draconic generals and historians in the mortal world.

[Unoriginal]

I've never heard of Sapphire Dragons in 5e, or of any Gem Dragons in this edition, for that matter.

So you could say whatever you want.

You could say that the egg only incubates when a Sapphire or Emerald Dragon uses their breath on it, and is otherwise in stasis.

[Vaz]

Whenever you want.

Sapphire Dragons are referenced in the 3.0 Monster Manual 2, but little else.

There's this excerpt from the Draconomicon; http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031107a

With a CL of 19th in 3.5, it's arguably equal to Reds, Golds and Silvers, but it never reaches Colossal size; and caps out at 38HD; which leaves it more akin to Green or Copper Dragons. This would average out at; (720+660+660+540+480)/5 = 612; the nearest to that being 600 in the above table.

Given that a Sapphire Dragon is native to Elemental Plane of Earth, and Underground, I'd imagine that it should be packed in Clay or Sand, similar to a Copper Dragon (also an Earth subtype). I don't think it's particularly desert dwelling like a Blue, so, 600 Days max Incubation (-150 due to the Ready to Lay, and then any additional amount of time it has taken since).

For reference, it's a Wyrmling until it's 16 years, Young until 101 years, and Adult until 801 years to go by the 3.5 allocation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm).

Emerald Dragons are Air Dragons, cap at 39HD and have 19 Levels, so I think that's pretty similar.

Both Dragons have a Sonic Breath Weapon - perhaps they require a certain amount of time being sung to each day (say must have 4 hours of being sung to, so spend their Short and Long Rest singing to them, at the risk of not being stealthy), or they must take Con checks or take damage if they're ever caught in an area of silence.

[Moredhel24]

Not sure how much this'll help but Gnomes2169 did a 5e Gem Dragon conversion. I'm not able to post link.

[GorogIrongut]

Not sure how much this'll help but Gnomes2169 did a 5e Gem Dragon conversion. I'm not able to post link.
Yes. I already found that but thanks for the head's up.