Bestiary/Deep Sea Serpent

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Deep 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	251–425
Dexterity	87–135
Intelligence	87–155
Hit points	151–255
Stamina	87–135
Mana	87–155
Damage	6–14
Armor	60
Resources
Carving	1 raw ribs, 8 blue scales

The Deep Sea Serpent is a bigger, tougher relative of the sea serpent with a bluish hide. It breathes fire, and it's the rarer of the two serpents that come up when fishers pull treasure out of the deep.

Overview

• In-game name: a deep sea serpent
• Corpse: a deep 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	251–425
Dexterity	87–135
Intelligence	87–155
Hit points	151–255
Stamina	87–135 (same as its Dexterity)
Mana	87–155 (same as its Intelligence)
Melee damage	6–14
Armor rating	60
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 deep 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 deep sea serpent deals about 7–12). 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 deep 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 155 Intelligence it can cast Dispel on your summoned creatures (more reliably the higher its Magery).

Loot

Every deep sea serpent carries:

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

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)

Carving

Use a blade on the corpse to get:

• 1 raw ribs
• 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

• Like the sea serpent it can't leave the water, so fight it from a boat or the shore.
• It carries no treasure map, unlike the smaller sea serpent.
• Carve it for 8 blue scales and a piece of meat.
• If it came up with your fished item, the item is in its pack.