Alguduir

The alguduir has a plump, streamlined body under tough scales slick with oil, gray or greenish gray to blend with marsh reeds, and yellow or green eyes. Its forefeet carry five black talons, its hind feet four. Feathered, eagle-like wings mottled white, brown and gray shed water so fast it can burst from the surface and take off in one motion. The oil does not burn, and fire deals it no extra damage. Gills sit in the throat behind and below its bill. Its scales fool people into calling it the swamp dragon, though it has no tie to true dragons.

It breathes underwater, swims well, and dives on submerged targets from the air at +2 to hit. It snarls, grunts and shrieks freely but hunts in total silence. A repeating marsh-bird call is often one mate marking its position so the pair can trap prey between them; one attacks, herding the victim into the other for flank and rear strikes. They cannot talk but may pick up words or phrases of local languages.

They often snatch water creatures in their hind claws and lift them out to suffocate, or pull fliers and land animals under for several turns to drown them. Hind claws are used only while gripping or wrapped around a foe, and young never use them.

Its strangest gift is involuntary spell reflection, which still works in a carcass for 4-16 turns. Any spell cast on it has a 65% chance to rebound fully on the caster, who gets normal saves; subtract 2% for each caster level beyond 10th and 5% for each spell level beyond 6th. A caster fully protected from reflection sends it instead to a random unprotected creature within 10 feet, and with none in range the spell fizzles. If reflection fails, its 40% magic resistance is then checked.

Pairs lair on weedy islands of firm ground deep in a big marsh and defend them to the death. At any alarm the young hide while parents stalk the intruders. Foes too strong to beat are led away, the adults escaping by air or water once the nest is safe; easy prey is ambushed and fed to the chicks, with the remains dumped far from home to keep the lair hidden.

This rare carnivore lives only in large fresh or salt marshes, eating fish, frogs, snakes, giant versions of these where available, and mussels cracked on rocks. It usually hunts by gliding low over the reeds, stabbing with bill and claws into the boggy ground.