Sea Drake

A sea drake is a solitary, intelligent, enigmatic creature. It resembles the classical sea monster: serpentine body, webbed flippers, dragonlike head. Belying its ferocious appearance, it is quite intelligent and enjoys engaging the crew members of passing ships in conversation. It is, however, fiercely territorial, and every ship that passes through a sea drake’s water must pay a toll. Those who pay buy the creature’s goodwill and protection; those who refuse incur its wrath and invite destruction.

The toll is steep⁠—​4d6×100 gp⁠—​but paying it is the only way to pass through a sea drake’s territory unmolested. And the toll doesn’t merely buy protection against the sea drake. These creatures consider it a point of honor to keep their waters free of pirates, raiders, and other dangerous sea monsters. Many sea captains consider the toll a bargain compared to losing everything to pirates or slavers.

No one knows for sure what a sea drake does with its treasure, but some presume that it hides the swag in secret caves and grottoes on the sea floor. This treasure, combined with the booty from pirate ships and merchant ships sunk by the sea drake, makes a sea drake’s territory rich pickings for adventurers with the wherewithal to go after the prize.

Combat

Against enemies in the water, a sea drake can bite or slap with its tail.

Constrict Ship (Ex): Instead of crushing a ship with its tail, a sea drake can wrap its serpentine body around all but the largest ships and crush them or drag them below the waves automatically. This can be done to a rowboat (1 round), keelboats (3 rounds), longships (5 rounds), and sailing ships (10 rounds). Warships and galleys are too large for a sea drake to affect in this way.

Crushing Blow (Ex): A sea drake can use its tail flukes to smash a boat to splinters. The ship is hit automatically once every 10 rounds, taking tail smash damage (between attacks the sea drake is submerged). The ship’s pilot must make a Reflex saving throw (DC 20) after each hit to keep the vessel from being breached and sinking in 1d10 minutes. Apply a modifier to the DC based on the type of ship: rowboat +4, keelboat +2, sailing ship or longship +0, warship −3, galley −5. Regardless of the ship’s saving throw result, characters aboard the ship must make Reflex saving throws (DC 20); a successful save means the character takes 1d4 points of damage; on a failed save, a character on deck is hurled overboard and a character belowdecks takes 2d4 points of damage.

Swallow Whole (Ex): A sea drake can swallow whole any creature at least one size category smaller than itself that it successfully attacks with its bite while in the water. First the sea drake must hold the creature in its mouth with a successful grapple check (grapple bonus +36). A second successful grapple check on the following round means the creature is swallowed whole. Once inside the sea drake, the creature must make Swim checks (DC 15) every round as if it was in turbulent water. Success means it takes 1d3 points of nonlethal damage but can attack the sea drake’s insides; failure means it takes 1d6 points of nonlethal damage and it must make another Swim check immediately to avoid drowning. (The creature cannot attack when avoiding drowning.) A successful grapple check allows the swallowed creature to climb out of the stomach and return to the sea drake’s maw, where another successful grapple check is needed to get free. Alternatively, a swallowed creature can try to damage the stomach with either claws or a light piercing or slashing weapon. Dealing a total of at least 35 points of damage to the stomach (AC 20) in this way causes the sea drake to disgorge the entire contents of its stomach. A sea drake’s stomach can hold 1 Huge, 2 Large, 4 Medium-size, or 16 Small or smaller opponents.

Ink Cloud (Ex): If the sea drake feels it needs to escape, it can cloud the water around it with ink. This acts just like a darkness spell under water with a 50-foot radius and a duration of 5 minutes.

Regeneration (Ex): A sea drake takes normal damage while out of water. If a sea drake loses a limb or body part, the lost portion regrows in 3d6 minutes. The creature can reattach the severed member instantly by holding it to the stump. Severed parts that are not reattached wither and die normally. See Regeneration.

Skills: Sea drakes have a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform some special action or avoid a hazard and can always choose to take 10 on Swim checks, even if distracted or endangered.

Source: Fiend Folio, page 147. Changes applied as per the D&D^® v.3.5 Accessory Update. Added the serpentine special quality. Adjusted tail smash damage based on whether it is a primary (×1 Str mod added) or secondary (×½ Str mod added) attack. Added 1 Huge creature to the last sentence of the Swallow Whole entry to account for the first sentence.