Jun 25, 2012

Air Sharks - encounter from Cult of the White Shadow

One of the creatures encountered in the Cult of the White Shadow adventure are the dangerous Air Sharks.  These are creatures that exist in and around Khomaes, also north into the Aghanz Hills and the southern ranges of the Destriel Mountains.  Occasionally found in the western reaches of the Harp Woods.

The Air Shark is a strange beast, that looks like a sinuous wyrm, perhaps 15 to 18 feet long (for a reasonably large adult), with feathery fins along its body at different intervals.  There doesn't seem to be a set number of fins, more pairs growing with the increasing length of the creature.  The head of the shark has a feroucious mane of spines and feathers (the feathers are always dark, from blue to purple or even black, while the scaly body is almost always a lighter shade - either blue or purple but sometimes paler colors like tan or light green - than the features).   The front end of the shark opens up to a fearsome gaping maw of teeth, reminiscent of an aquatic shark (this is where the name comes from).

They will float even when inactive, and some believe that they now, or in the past, fed on the great blue snails that are responsible for air-floating the amberstone down out of the mountains.  Air Sharks dwell somewhere that offers some top cover to them, so appreciate inactive buildings and caves, where they will school near the top of a tall, shadowy building.  Sometimes, when encountered outdoors, they will nest in or around the top cover of tall trees.  They are almost always hungry, even more so when a mother is tending to a clutch of new hatchlings.  They lay eggs, secured to some high surface, by a gooey sticky coating on the eggs. A typical hatching event gives birth to maybe 3 or 4 dozen babies (each with 1hd, doing 1d2 damage from a bite, increasing steadily to full size).  About half of those will survive to adulthood, which takes maybe 6 months.  The young will get along peacefully until they reach adulthood, and then one day the nest frenzy takes place, and they will disgorge from their nesting area, attacking anything and everything, spreading out to cover the nearby terrain, looking for new nests.

The hide of the Air Shark can be treated to form a very attractive, but otherwise typical, set of leather armor.


Air Shark
Num Appearing: 2d6 (always at least 2); 8d6 during a nest frenzy event
Alignment: neutral
Movement: Fly 120'
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4d (25 h.p.)
Attacks: 1 bite, 1 tail lash
Damage: 2d6+2 (bite, see below)/1d6+2 (tail lash)
Save:F4
Morale:9
Treasure: Dead shark will have 1d100 gp in it's belly; nest will have 2d6 gems, worth 100gp each
Special: If a shark makes a successful bite, it can hang on, doing half damage each successive turn (1d6+1) until it is killed.  In the meantime, it can continue to tail lash other victims.  If a tail lash strikes, the poisonous quill in it can be damaging - make a save vs. poison, or take 1d8+2 damage the first round, and 1d4+1 for the next two rounds.  -1 to hit and -1 saves from the poison will inflict the victim for 24 hours.



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