Giant Sea Horse

This is a huge species of ordinary sea horse, with the familiar horse-like head and curling, tapered tail.

Wild animals only ram with the head. Mounts trained by locathah or sea elves will, when a rider commands it and an attack roll succeeds, coil the tail around a foe, either the one being butted or the rider's opponent, at no penalty. A man-sized or smaller victim is bound so completely that spellcasting and melee are impossible. The coil deals no damage, though the mount may keep butting its helpless prey, and escape takes an open doors roll at -1.

Sea horses instinctively use three-dimensional movement against swimmers out of their element, and riders train that edge; treat them as Maneuverability Class A flyers in water. They have 120-foot infravision and keen senses, and riders ignore their warnings at their peril.

Shy schools follow leaders along the currents, grazing plankton and seaweed in every sea but the coldest depths, ideally tropical or subtropical. They are dim enough to be baited into traps, and locathah and sea elves capture all the mounts they need, valuing them for defense and status.

Sharks, giant squid and krakens hunt them, but their worst enemy is the sahuagin, who consider the meat a delicacy. Sea horse flesh is the prime commodity of every sahuagin market guild, and noble houses specialize in hunting and herding wild schools, refusing to farm them because free-ranging animals taste better. Rapid breeding keeps the species safe. Reports of a freshwater kind remain unproven, and tales of 60-foot giants are dismissed by most scholars.