Sea Dragon

I should have mentioned that it’s Sea Week here on The Daily Bestiary.  (Like Shark Week, but with less chum.)  It’s five solid days of sea creatures!

The imperial sea dragons are perhaps best played like irascible sea captains—full of bluster and brass.  Chaotic good in nature, they cannot be relied upon for any length of time (their lack of focus is why they have made so little impact compared to the many weaker but more organized malevolent aquatic races), but they make excellent allies for brief periods (and make perfectly reasonable deus ex machinas for GMs when parties get into trouble at sea).  Like any good-natured dockside drunk, they will fight with PCs at the slightest excuse, but if the PCs give as good as they get without retaliating lethally, they might find their former adversary proposing they team up to go devilfish hunting only minutes later…

Sea dragon Llanfairdyfedgogerywyverthelm lives in the many lochs and isolated harbors of Heathershire, casually sea striding between them, even far up into the freshwater mountain lakes.  His habit of stealing sheep to devour and chasing selkies drive both the local villagers and fey to distraction, and he tends to average a duel per season with the county cavaliers.  But he is also what keeps Heathershire free of sahuagin and gargoyles, so driving him off or offending him could turn out to be a mistake.

A samurai skips a duel with a sea dragon, sacrificing his honor to save his life.  The outraged jiaolung threatens to flood his home with a tidal wave if the now-honorless and masterless warrior refuses to fight him.

The red dragon Carneliastrix reigns supreme over the skies of Staern—even the mighty simurghs are forced to pay her homage.  She has become so accustomed to her mastery that she rarely even needs to rage anymore—setting just a single nation aflame every 30 years or so does the trick.  But the discovery that there is an entire species of dragon she was not aware of offers her first surprise in more than a century.  And the revelation that these benevolent sea dragons rule an undersea empire (really an exceedingly loose confederation, but such distinctions are lost on Carneliastrix) that dwarfs hers drives her absolutely insane.  Her mad plan is to literally boil the seas away.  But first she wants a captured jiaolung to experiment on—and retrieving one is where blackmailed adventurers come in handy.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 3 96–97

I am really enjoying the new Pathfinder Campaign Setting book Dragons Unleashed.  That is all. 

Wait, that’s not all.  Yes, I am paying (necessarily abbreviated) homage to the town of  Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch above.

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