Bestiary/Sea Serpent

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Sea Serpent

General
Type	Sea monster
Category	Sea creatures
Alignment	Evil
Karma	−6,000
Fame	6,000
Behavior	Attacks on sight
Speed	Medium
Stats
Strength	168–225
Dexterity	58–85
Intelligence	53–95
Hit points	110–127
Stamina	58–85
Mana	53–95
Damage	7–13
Armor	30
Resources
Carving	10 horned hides, 8 blue scales

The Sea Serpent is the most common sea monster. It lives only in the water, breathes fire, and comes up when fishers pull treasure out of the deep or cast special fishing nets.

Overview

• In-game name: a sea serpent
• Corpse: a sea serpents corpse
• Behavior: it attacks the nearest target it sees and fights like a spellcaster (mage AI), mixing spells with melee.
• Water only: it swims and can't leave the water.

Stats

Stat	Value
Strength	168–225
Dexterity	58–85
Intelligence	53–95
Hit points	110–127
Stamina	58–85 (same as its Dexterity)
Mana	53–95 (same as its Intelligence)
Melee damage	7–13
Armor rating	30
Fame / Karma	6,000 / −6,000

Skills

Skill	Range
Magic Resistance	60.1–75.0
Tactics	60.1–70.0
Wrestling	60.1–70.0

Its Magery and Evaluating Intelligence are never set (0), so although it uses the spellcaster AI its spells usually fizzle; the fire breath is its real ranged attack.

Abilities

Fire breath

The sea serpent breathes fire at its target.

• Chance: 50% each time it gets a chance to act in combat, then it waits 30–45 seconds before it can breathe again.
• Damage: 5% of its current hit points, at most 200 (a full-health sea serpent deals about 5–6). It does less damage as it gets hurt. (100% fire damage; the type doesn't matter under New Bradford's combat rules.)
• Range: the target has to be within its sight range and in line of sight.
• It stops for about a second to breathe, so you can see it coming.
• A peacemade (calmed) or summoned sea serpent can't use it.

Magic

It fights with the mage AI: it closes to melee range but casts between swings. Its Magery is 0.0 and its Evaluating Intelligence 0.0.

• Damage spells: Magic Arrow.
• Other spells: about 1 cast in 8 is Poison (only if you aren't poisoned already). It may also Bless itself, curse you (Weaken, Clumsy or Feeblemind) or drain your mana (Mana Drain).
• Healing: it cures itself when poisoned, and sometimes heals itself (Greater Heal when badly hurt), more often the higher its Magery.
• Dispel: with up to 95 Intelligence it can cast Dispel on your summoned creatures (more reliably the higher its Magery).

Special fishing nets

Special fishing nets come from deep-water fishing (80 Fishing or more), from krakens' packs and from sunken SOS treasure chests (an ancient SOS gives a fabled net instead).

• Double-click the net in your backpack and target water within 6 tiles that you can see.
• A normal net needs deep water with open sea around it: the target tile and the tiles out to 25 steps away along both diagonals must all be open water.
• The net sinks over about 17 seconds, then the monsters surface within 2 tiles of it and attack you.
• Special net: 1–3 monsters (2–5 for the rare coloured nets). Fabled net: 4 more than that, plus a leviathan.
• Each monster is one of: sea serpent, deep sea serpent, water elemental or kraken (equal odds). A kraken raised this way has an extra 20% chance to carry a message in a bottle.

Loot

Every sea serpent carries:

• Gold: about 30–75 in total (from its "Meager" loot)
• 4 sulfurous ash or 4 black pearls (even chance)
• a raw fish steak

It may also carry:

• A magic weapon, armor piece or shield (up to 2 chances, from about 1% down to 0.2% each)
• A musical instrument (about 0.1% or less)
• A level 2 treasure map (1% chance)

Carving

Use a blade on the corpse to get:

• 10 horned hides
• 8 blue scales

Location

• Fishing in deep water: when a fisher in deep water pulls up a special fishing net (needs 80 Fishing), a treasure map (90) or a message in a bottle (100), a serpent comes up with it instead: a deep sea serpent 1 time in 4, otherwise a sea serpent. It appears within 10 tiles on deep water with the fished item in its pack, and the fisher sees "Uh oh! That doesn't look like a fish!"
• Special fishing nets: casting a special fishing net in deep water raises 1–3 sea monsters (2–5 if the net is one of the rare 1-in-100 coloured ones). Each is picked at random with equal odds: sea serpent, deep sea serpent, water elemental or kraken. A fabled fishing net raises 4 more than that, plus a leviathan. Every monster raised by a net goes straight for the person who cast it.

Tips

• You can only fight it from a boat or the shore: it can't leave the water.
• Its fire breath gets weaker as it gets hurt, so open with your strongest attacks.
• Its corpse gives 10 horned hides and 8 blue scales, so bring a blade.
• If it came up with your treasure map or bottle, the item is in its pack: kill it and loot it to get the item back.