Giant Turtle

Apart from scale, a giant turtle looks exactly like its everyday cousin. The bony shell has two parts, the domed carapace on top and the flat plastron underneath, and the animal pulls its head and legs inside when menaced. Species that cannot fully retract instead press their limbs tight against the shell.

These turtles are slow and would much rather hunker down than flee or fight. Pester or wound one, though, and its fast, powerful bite turns lethal. They live a long time, anywhere from 30 to 150 years by species, and eat whatever their surroundings offer: plants, insects, small mammals and fish. Fresh greens and live worms are favorites. They dislike carrion and rotting plants but will eat them if starving.

Many peoples treat giant turtle as a delicacy, and the meat is wholesome and tasty. The carapace is just as useful, serving as a small hut, a sturdy roof or even a boat hull. Tropical sea turtles have the best flavor and the handsomest shells of all.

Placid by nature, a sea turtle still fights hard when bothered. Its ripping bite deals 4d4 damage. One that rises under a small boat may overturn it: the chance is 90% for a rowboat and only 10% for a longship, with other craft judged by size and stability. The head and flippers are AC 5 and the shell AC 2. When the turtle draws in its extremities, to defend itself or to rest, every attack lands on the shell.

These aggressive, ever-hungry turtles haunt large lakes and rivers, and many a tale of a lake monster began with a glimpse of one. They are poor swimmers and instead wait without moving in the shallows or on the bottom, which gives opponents a -3 penalty to surprise rolls. Prey is seized by a neck that strikes out up to ten feet.

The bite deals 6d4 damage and always locks on. A trapped victim cannot cast spells or use weapons, takes bite damage automatically every round, and can break free only with a successful bend bars/lift gates roll. When the victim passes out, the turtle flips its head back, tosses the body a few feet up and catches it in its open throat. Extended head and limbs are AC 5, while the shell gives AC 0 to the body and to any limbs pulled inside.

Reports describe other types too, such as a desert-dwelling relative of the snapper suited to dry country, and old legends speak of an ocean turtle so vast that sailors took it for a little island.