Lesser Silt Drake [Dark Sun]

The silt drake is a long serpent the color of sand, with a blunt, two-horned head and a vast mouth. It can unhinge its lower jaw to gape wider still for very large meals. The horns are sense organs that help it track prey.

It locates victims psionically, swims through the silt beneath them and bursts upward at speed, imposing a -4 penalty on their surprise roll. Rising from deep silt, it can hit targets as high as 30 feet off the ground.

If it stays in the silt and fights from there, it attacks only once every 2 rounds, but its foes suffer -4 on their attack rolls. Enemies who hold off until it surfaces can strike only if they beat it on initiative. When attacking from the silt like this, it takes only half the usual initiative penalty for large creatures.

Its bite deals 5-50 points of damage, and if the roll beats its THAC0 by 4 or more, it swallows any foe smaller than large size. A swallowed foe is limited to psionics, and digestive damage begins on the third round. The crushing tail does 2-16, and on a roll 4 or more over THAC0 it wraps the victim and constricts for 2d8 each round. A Strength check lets the victim break loose, and the tail is severed once it has taken a fifth of the drake's total hit points in damage.

Psionic sciences: death field and mind link. Devotions: chameleon power, contact, ego whip, id insinuation, life detection, psionic drain and suspend animation. Unlike other lesser drakes, it has no innate devotions.

A silt drake wanders alone and claims neither lair nor territory. Once a year a male sends a call through the dust; if a female answers, they mate briefly and part. She leaves a clutch of 3-6 eggs in the deepest reaches of the silt sea, where they hatch after four weeks. The hatchlings set off hunting immediately, and their nearest meal is often their own siblings.

It attacks anything that moves, silt horrors included. Its natural enemies are few, aarakocra, people and silt horrors, and silt horrors are the only things that eat it. It keeps no treasure, though an uncut gem sometimes turns up in its stomach. Its digestive juices are so strong that metal, leather and other animal products, wood and cloth all dissolve within a few days. Aarakocra prize its teeth as tokens of bravery, and a skilled hand can make one into a keen knife.