Lucas Books. Accessed at “The Wildlife of Star Wars” here
[We’re nearing the end of the monsters I have! I figured I’d finish things off with a bang by posting a bunch of dragons. These drakes are some of the oldest creatures in this project, originally being written for 3.5 D&D and converted to Pathfinder. The inspiration for the bog drake was drawn from the concept art for The Empire Strikes Back, early outdated depictions of marine reptiles and the desire to make a low-level linnorm]
Drake, Bog This creature resembles an enormous snake with the
head of a dragon and piercing yellow eyes. Its body is sleek and smooth, like
the skin of a dolphin, and its tail ends in a long, low fin. Its two short arms
bear webbed claws.
Among the most intelligent
and cunning of drakes, bog drakes are petty tyrants that take over primitive
tribes of humanoids in order to collect tribute and attention. The preferred
society of a bog drake is as the leader of a tribe of savage humanoids. Due to
their habitat, they prefer boggards and lizardfolk, but orc, goblin and human
tribes are all worthy of their attentions. A bog drake will generally
infiltrate a tribe with charm and tact rather than brute force, carving out a
niche as a tribe’s advisor, ruler or even god. Once it has a tribe under its
control, the bog drake will use them to fatten its belly and coffers, rewarding
the people who serve it just enough to avoid rebellion.
Carnivores, bog drakes will
eat anything that creeps, crawls or swims in the muddy waters they call home.
They prefer not to do their own hunting, either relying on bullied servitors to
do all the hard work, or stealing kills from other swamp predators such as
manticores, hydras and trolls. Bog drakes are amphibious, and prefer to lair
beneath the water’s surface, where they know many of their enemies are at a
disadvantage. Their dens tend to be labyrinthine complexes of muddy tunnels,
which the serpentine drakes can navigate with ease. From their hiding places,
bog drakes use their prodigious oracular powers to learn all they can about
their enemies and environment.
Bog drakes prefer to avoid
combat unless they have start from a position of power—from hiding, with
minions and after having gathered intelligence about their enemies using their
spell-like abilities. Bog drakes do not fight fair, and enjoy tactics such as
using suggestion spells to encourage
heavily armored characters to go swimming, or for spellcasters to engage them
in melee. Bog drakes will gladly flee if combat turns against them, and only
fight to the death under extraordinary circumstances.
Bog drakes inhabit the deepest swamps of Gladia, frequently allying with letiche hunting groups. They may also ally with aikelar tribes, though the latter are equally likely to worship or fight them. They are noted on Zinnzar, where the lack of suitable subjects leads them to assemble into grudges; these groups are chaotic and frequently fall apart violently.
Shores of Swords 