Royal Peasant 445 Share Posted December 28, 2022 Draconian Crustacean Spoiler Reference Image for the creature below: Bubble Lord, Crustation Ruler, Secret Island, Crab Dragon, these are some of the names the creature goes by when its name is brought up in shanty's and song among the wee-folks of the sea. A massive creature that you are more likely to roam upon the shell or fighting its serpentine tongue than realising the true depth and size of it. Most oftenly discovered on the ocean surface and believed to be an island, ships will shore up to the sandy depths that have gathered onto the head of the crustacean and usually explore the island as if it didn’t lay upon the back of a living organism’s shell. This, only to find a large serpent appearing from the waters themselves, opening its maw and letting out a roar before shooting a highly powered force of compressed acidic water down on the crew. History The history of this creature is one mixed with folklore and sailor song, for those that have encountered it have either been felled by it or awed by the experience. Those words usually turned into song and disbelief, sung or spoken at taverns. Some stories are told of an island that sits upon the edge of the surface and moves through the ocean, never found at the same spot. It is said to be protected by a great serpent, holding secret treasures yet to be claimed. Others speak of an armoured sea beast with a thick shell that even cannon fire had issues dealing with, of sunken ships and molten steel. Some tales even speak of the kraken of the blood land’s tendrils battling with another beast of equal size within the waters, causing the rapid shifting of the tides and the crash of the ocean as the battle of the century would show before them. While many of these tales dance from ear to ear, there are only a few that have encountered these creatures that did in fact discover the truth about them. These creatures do not tend to reveal themselves in their true and full form unless caught by surprise, or enraged by the actions of their would-be prey. The lack of survivors to this beast’s affairs lead to the history and knowledge about this creature being scattered and viewed differently from culture to culture. The seafolk believe the beast to be a kingdom wide threat, while humanity a folk lore and story and dragon-folk a potential fight should the stories be true. It is only once in a many centuries time that rumours or reports of this creature are declared in history. With such a scattered and inconsistent history, only the people themselves may decide how they view this beast of a draconian creature in the current century. What is known, to all that have heard of it, is that this creature is a threat, a danger, and something to be wary of. Physical AppearanceThe draconian Crustacean is a strange creature within the bloodline of dragons, not only by its appearance, but that its form is more closely tied to shellfish with its carapace and shell than that of a dragon. Truly nothing more than a ‘fake dragon’. By size, the creature is usually mistaken as a small island, when it lays upon the surface of the ocean floating in the current. This is the most commonly discovered moment of its existence. It displays a crimson shell hidden underneath sand, earth, and plant life that has likely once been at the bottom of the ocean before it was lifted to the surface. Once the crustacean shakes off that earth and reveals its true form, however, it appears as a dragon with the massive body of a crab connected to it. A long serpentine head that roars with a thundering cry and breathing out a highly condensed pressure of acidic water down upon its foes follows said body. Two eye-like stalks grow from this head that lead down its armoured neck to a large body, where two more stalks grow from the body itself. Massive claws that could easily crush a ship also grow from its body. The body shape and legs take on a form similar to that of a crab but with a much bulkier and thicker carapace that is segmented. Jutting out of the back of the body are wings that hold the same armoured form of the draconian which, when used, allow the creature to launch itself from the water and come crashing down, or move more swiftly within it. Given its massive weight, the wings aid its leaps more than granting it true flight. Finally, there is a long armoured tail that whips behind its shell. The ‘head’ proves itself to be false upon being slain, biting off the neck-like mandible and leaving it to float away. As the massive fanged maw of the creature reveals itself, the body of the crustacean begins to open wide. With the mandible lost, the creature is no longer able to breathe out highly powered acid waters, instead letting out bursts of bubbles that pop with enough force to send all around it rocking back while the acidic waters burn against flesh and armour, melting them within the liquid painfully. Mental Characteristics The creature is an ambush predator, by nature, hiding its treasure and hoard underneath its form and connected to the ocean, buried deep. The Draconian Crustacean either settles under the sand at the bottom of the ocean to hide its form as its ‘mandible’ floats around trying to detect food to latch up and feast upon, or up on the surface of the ocean masquerading itself as an island. Once prey is nearby, the mandible will attack, striking out to bite with a jaw or sending out a condensed beam of water that can damage the body of a ship while melting all it touches with its acidic nature. Should the prey it has attacked prove itself too much a danger and manage to kill its mandible more often than not it will sever the limb, biting through it and retreating to the depths to recover its treasure and flee and leaving the mandible and its own powerful shell and acids as a prize for the prey that turned out to be predators to claim. Should the draconian creature be enraged, however, attacking or attempting to claim its young, threatening its treasure or numerous other ways, it shall not falter even should the illusion of its false head be broken. When in such a state, it uses its size, claws and tail to their full ability, launching themselves up from the water or into the air to come crashing down upon their prey. Their tail whips around with agile yet powerful movements and their claws reach to grab, and crush their prey, should they be able to lock down the movement of their target between their jaws filled with powerful and sharp fangs. While in disadvantage, it usually sends out a burst of bubbles that surround it and pop, sending a powerful burst that knocks most folks flying while coating them in burning acid strong enough to begin melting most types of steel, not to mention flesh. These bubbles seem to be harmless upon their own carapace. Additionally, in those circumstances, it may also send a wave of those bubbles towards foes that are at a distance away. They are not the most accurate methods of attacks, compared to the serpentine limb, but the bubbles are numerous and, even if not directly hitting the prey, the force of them and the drips of acidic waters will more often than not still catch its prey. Lifespan and Development The crustaceans do not appear to have a limit to their life span. Instead, it is their size that determines just how old they are as the older the creature is the larger their shell and form appears to grow. Young versions of the creatures hide within the bottom of the ocean among coral reefs, allowing them to grow on their shells as they slowly become larger and larger under them. These feed upon fish as they continue to grow in size and hide away from predators that would be a danger to them. Once they have reached a large enough size, the reef that they had been growing in will be shattered from their form and they will begin to roam, searching for treasures to claim and a hoard for their own, usually in the form of ship wreckage that glimmers or anything else that shines from the ocean. Once they have amassed enough of a hoard to feel content, they will once again gather up material to cover their shell with and move to the surface of the sea where they begin to ‘nest’, acting as a tiny island with their treasures hidden underneath them on the ocean floor. Senses split between their mandibles and their main bodies, eyes to be constantly watching their hoard and in search of food. They will continue to remain in that position until the area they have nested in becomes barren of food, where they will move their treasure to a new place to feed within the sea. This routine will continue until the creature is forced to sever its mandible and retreat. Unable to ‘disguise’ itself with the loss of the limb it will retreat with its treasure and seek a mate, offering its treasure for protection siring young with the other draconian it had discovered. Once the mandible has regrown it will leave the new found ‘parent’ with the kids and take a portion of its treasure back as it moves back into the ocean to gather more. This cycle will continue again and again until the dragon is enraged into a final fight that ends the dragon's life, or is hunted down even after escaping and forced to fight the prey that had become the predator. Territory and Grouping Their territory is a combination of the ocean floor and the surface, taking up several different areas depending on the size and the age of the draconian. As draconians, they are solitary creatures, preferring to rule over their own territory alone. Yet, on occasion, it is possible to find multiple of their kind together by some range of bad luck: a mandible-less mate, and a scattering of their yet to be hatched mate. In this state, both of them will frenzy if threatened and will not be able to calm down until they have removed any and all threats to their young. Spoiler Redlines: The treasure found should be items considered to be found lost at sea, barrels of rum with golden sealing, golden plated steering wheels, get creative but remember to stick to the theme of the ocean! Acidic Beam/Bubbles: The pressure of the beam should be enough to knock people back, and should they be caught under the pressure fracture bones. But consider it the same strength as a firehose, if not a little stronger. Its not going to be piercing through anyone, or even the hull of a shop. Though it very well could fracture and dent the ship, and constant pressure would pierce the hull eventually. - Similarly, the bubbles have a strength similar to that of a blasting potion, it will knock back, stun, and you have the shrapnel of acidic droplets splashing around. But otherwise they aren't going to do much battle. Have fun using them to spread chaos and knock things around on the battlefield, but be lenient and give the players room to dodge, and evade them. If dice must be rolled a 14-20 should work. Claws/Maw: Generally slow, massive, and cumbersome. Catching someone within the claws and their maw should be very difficult due to their size, unless a player is extremely unlucky or is purposely getting themselves caught. The crushing power of the claws should be able to hold and slowly crumple a ship to break it in two. But it would take time and players should have enough time to knock them off with effort. The same for the maw should it affix itself upon the ship, though with some sizzling from the acidic drool within its maw. Salvia/Shell: The saliva of the creature should be able to be gathered as acid, though while strong and able to melt metal, its the kind of strength that would take a long period of time to melt through metal if gathered. Similarly the shell can be harvested, but due to the heavy weight its only practice use would be to break it down into pieces to form armour, or make-shift weapons. With a strength similar to iron, though perhaps a little easier to keep afloat in water thanks to the nature of it being a shell. The main creature is designed to be used by ST only, but the young, who are only on coral reef size should be able to be used by players run events. Though their strength, treasure, and their ability to fight is going to be much, much weaker for the younger versions of them. Spoiler Tamability: They should be able to be tamed as an egg, but once they have grown to the size of a direwolf they will go berserk and attempt to escape, while stealing every shiny thing they can find as they make their route to the ocean. Not even druids will be able to calm the young in this state. As for the Purpose of this! Its meant to be just a bit of fun, something to face by the sea, or in ships. Or even have a group end up on the 'island' for a little event unaware of what they were on. Some fun! 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HIGH_FIRE 4117 Share Posted December 28, 2022 This is pretty damn cool lore, I would love to see it implement and fight one on the shores of the silver isle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
squakhawk 7867 Share Posted February 12, 2023 This lore has been denied. Did not want dragonkin-related creatures to be implemented with a mundane creature, albeit the idea is cute. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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