Shadowdrake

Even fiends keep clear of the shadowdrake, a dragon cousin also known as the death drake, Styx dragon or darkwyrm. Its long serpentine body is coated in slick scales of muddy brown to rust red, its eyes burn a wild yellow, and crooked fangs crowd its jaws. Its wings are stunted and cannot lift it; instead they work with the tail to drive it through water. The legs are too small to bear its weight, so on land it slithers like a snake. Its mark is a tail that splits in two halfway along, each branch tipped with long, razor-edged blades of bone that it uses to slash and grapple the way other dragons use claws.

Shadowdrakes are vicious, territorial and overconfident, ready to tackle anything short of a balor or pit fiend in size that wanders near their hunting grounds. A drake bites and lashes with both tail forks each round, and its tail is flexible enough to strike foes in front of it. Its favorite opening is a lunge out of a murky burrow or the foul river, giving enemies -2 on surprise checks.

Every wound from bite or tail carries a 50% chance of a gangrenous disease. Within 3 to 24 hours the victim is laid helpless by fever and delirium, and without treatment the rot reaches the organs and kills in 12 to 48 (d4x12) hours after it sets in. Magic that cures disease clears it, and so does neutralize poison, whether from a spell or an item. Healers using the healing proficiency take -4 on their checks, and while the infection is active, cure wounds spells restore only half their usual amount.

The drake dislikes using its breath, since it tends to spoil the meal. It spits a sticky, corrosive stream, a line 3 feet across that reaches 30 feet, usually catching two or three targets at most, and only if they are bunched together. Damage grows with age, from 2d3+1 for a hatchling to 14d4+12 for a great wyrm. A successful save halves it; on a failure the victim takes full damage the first round, half the next, and a quarter the third. The goo eats leather, bone or wood armor in one round, chain or scale in two, and plate in three; magical gear gets an item save vs. acid. Drakes do not cast spells but gain spell-like powers that build up as they age, and their magic resistance climbs from 10% as hatchlings to 70% as great wyrms.

Shadowdrakes haunt riverbanks, swamps and bogs across the Lower Planes, and are among the few creatures that can bear the Styx's polluted touch, wherever that river winds. Their lairs are networks of slimy tunnels, some chambers reachable only by a long, dark swim through a flooded passage. They sleep by day and hunt at night, sometimes ranging far. They avoid one another except for a rare mating season, and even then the pair splits quickly and neither defends the young.

Unlike many true dragons, they have no taste for talk, servants or schemes; everyone is just food. Weaker beings cannot get a hearing, and stronger ones are avoided. Still, they are not stupid. If force clearly will fail, a drake will try trickery or bargaining, delighting in twisted words and broken promises.

Most of a shadowdrake's diet is the lowest of fiends: lemures, dretches, mindless devils and manes. Powerful drakes take water fiends or ferryman fiends, and any lone traveler is likely to draw one's interest.