Shark

Sharks are big, finned, ravenous carnivores found in every ocean and sea, among the most aggressive hunters of the deep. Their giant prehistoric kin, the megalodons, dwarf even these.

Sharks feel pressure changes in the water, usually the noise of other creatures. Splashing and struggling always draws them, since it usually means an injured fish, and they can detect it a mile off; once one shark finds prey, others soon follow. Blood in the water sets them off just as surely, also from a mile or more away.

When several circle a bleeding victim, the blood and excitement whip them into a feeding frenzy in which they eat anything alive, one another included, and nothing gets away, not even some of the sharks. Because they dart in, bite and retreat so fast, as many as ten ordinary sharks can get at one man-sized swimmer each round.

Megalodons almost never frenzy, because they swallow most prey whole on an attack roll 4 or more above what they need to hit. A 15 HD megalodon hits AC 0 on an 8 or better and swallows that target on a 12 or better. A swallowed creature takes 20 damage per round and can fight from inside, though its damage suffers a penalty that grows by 1 each round (-1 the first round, -2 the second, and so on), and must bring the shark to 0 hit points or less before digestion finishes the job. With so little blood spilled, frenzies are rare around them, though whalers who wound their quarry have watched a swarm of megalodons strip it to the bone in seconds.

Sharks are pure predators that perfected their design long ago and have not changed in millions of years. They are mostly scavengers, picking off the sick and hurt, but will take healthy prey when tempted. They are solitary and fiercely territorial.

Their only friends are the sahuagin, who admire their ruthless efficiency and use them as guards, mounts, sacrifices and pets. The sahuagin king is said to keep a megalodon of the largest size and feed it often, and sahuagin priestesses offer every sacrifice to huge pure-white great whites wearing collars of gold and silver. Only the sahuagin have learned to train sharks as mounts, by a secret method; rider and shark can attack the same foe with terrifying agility, and the harness is made from a special seaweed unknown on the surface.

Sharks have two weaknesses. Their organs are guarded only by thick, flexible gristle instead of hard bone, which dolphins exploit by ramming them in the side. Intelligent dolphins are the sharks' only real enemies, the one species known to hunt and kill them on purpose. Sharks also must keep swimming to push enough oxygen-rich water through their gills, so one held motionless for 2-5 hours suffocates. Useful spells include hold monster, paralyzation and poison effects, and ordinary damaging spells, within the usual limits of casting underwater.