[Unlike the other drakes, where I wasn’t quite happy with the art, this is pretty much exactly what I had in mind. I hope that rider has electricity resistance, though…]
Drake, Savanna In the blink of an eye, a yellow-flecked bipedal
reptile appears on muscular legs.
Its neck is long, and its head is mostly mouth, with two rows of long teeth.
The creature has wings, but they have atrophied into little more than stumps. The
air around it crackles palpably with electricity
Savanna drakes are fast and
voracious predators of the plains, capable of devastating ecosystems with
surprising speed. Although they are skilled at ambush, they often rely on their
incredible speed to run down fleeing prey. Their stubby, flightless wings are
used as stabilizers and balancers, adding lift to their jumps and keeping them
from falling over on rapid turns. Although
a savanna drake will kill and eat just about anything larger than a rat, they
prefer big game. This often puts them in conflict with humanoids, as both
livestock and humanoids themselves fall into this range. Druids consider savanna
drakes a hazard to balanced ecosystems, as a pair of savanna drakes can easily
decimate huge herds of wildlife in a matter of weeks. If hunting is especially
good, savanna drakes will travel in groups, but communities larger than a pair
are rare. Savanna drakes are born ready to run, and often die of exhaustion
before reaching 10 years of age.
Savanna drakes hunt using
hit-and-run tactics, striking with incredible speed to stun a single target and
tear them apart. Their agility and speed mean that few prey items escape them. Savanna
drakes are too stupid for a complex society—they tend to think like an animal
predator, albeit an especially cunning and dangerous one. The closest they come
to culture is a vague veneration of the kill as a concept, and they are known
to say a quick prayer before eating. Their faith is enough to make them
occasional allies of evil cults, but savanna drakes are too voracious and
flighty to make long-term alliances.
The Lightning Heart
The heart of a savanna drake
crackles with electricity, and it can invest one that eats it with a temporary
echo of the savanna drake’s power. If the heart of a living savanna drake is
torn from the creature (on a successful coup de grace) and consumed within one
round, it grants the one that eats it the benefits of a haste spell for the next 24 hours. During this period, the user of
the lightning heart has the rapid metabolism quality of the savanna drake, and
when the duration elapses, must make a DC 16 Fortitude save or be exhausted,
regardless of how much sleep she has received. A lightning heart can be
preserved with a gentle repose spell
and will sell for 3,000 gp on the open market.
Shores of Swords 