Dragon, Skinbones

 

Took about an hour to do.

A terrible dragon that stalks the halls of the floating black castle.

HD: 10 (80 HP)
Armor: plate
Move: normal.  
Attack: 3 bites or 2 bites and 1 breath weapon, 2 claws, 1 tail.
Special: age acceleration breath weapon (max 3 times per day). Breaths out a cloud of white dust, characters save against it if they're caught in it. On fail they age d100 years, on success they only age 1d10 years.

They are also able to easily squeeze into entrances and areas meant for humans.

Appearance: a pale rubbery, almost translucent, three headed dragon. The lower jaw of it's heads split into two long toothy tentacles. Two front claws, and a long tail capped with a spiked ball of bone.
Voice: throaty exhalations, leather dragging against stone, bones popping.
Smell: musty, stale, rotten eggs.
Perception: excellent eye sight, very sensitive to tremors, poor hearing, multiple heads allow for 360 degree vision.

Wants: kill anyone they find.
Personality: predatory.
Intellect: extremely cunning.
Social: individualistic.

 

Reason for Fighting: same as wants.

Tactics: It'll attempt to block exits using it's body forcibly cornering it's prey. Will focus down on a character that they know can easily harm them (magic-users, warriors with dragon slaying weapons). It'll save it's breath weapon for when it's fighting multiple enemies at once or if there's a dangerous enemy that needs to be taken out. Will attempt to reposition itself if it finds itself surrounded regardless of how powerful the enemies are.

Morale: unflinching until it's close to death or it finds itself in a disadvantageous situation. Then it'll run away deep in the depths of the black castle.

 

Reason for Speaking: unable to, they are a beast through and through.

Environment: only found in the floating black castle, sometimes called the house of the dead. They don't have a specific lair in the castle as they constantly roam around, even falling asleep in the middle of hallways.

Valuable Parts: their skin can be made into armor (same properties). Organs and fluids are highly prized alchemical ingredients. Claws, bones, teeth, and mace whiptail can be used to make weapons on par with magic weapons.

 

Author's Note.
Been meaning to come up with some unique monsters (demons & dragons) for a bit, but reading "Dragon at the Opera" by A knight at the opera gave a gush of inspiration. Specifically when they talked about white dragons. More inspiration for this design is the Covetous Demon from Dark Souls 2, Belial from Odin Sphere (that poor dragon), the hydra, the zmei, as well as wanting to emulate a heraldic beast feel with the posing.

Looking at it now probably ended up putting some Dead Hand from Ocarina of Time as well.

The weird tentacle lower mouth is a motif I just really like. Think I probably got inspired by it from Shin Godzilla and how his lower jaw separates to breath his atomic breath. Used a similar motif for my Scylla I did back in 2019 or so.

Did this long before I started signing my work.

 

I probably overtuned their breath but ah well I think it's funny. Hell the stats are aren't that important, I mainly care about the other stuff.

 

Also I have since finished Odin Sphere. A very wonderful game, lovely style, great combat, and nice stories (good amount of sharp breath through teeth bad endings too jeez). Favorite to play probably being Oswald and Cornelius.

Right now going further into the Vanillaware hole and replaying 13 sentinels. A game I wish I could forget about so I can re-experience it all over again. Seriously tho if you haven't played it don't look anything up and give it a shot.