Zombie Dragon

"I thought there were few pleasures left in the world that I had not already experienced, certainly none that were worth expending any effort towards. I must confess, though, to the great thrill I felt when I first bound Agorak the Silent to my will. As delicious as it was, it paled in comparison to the joy I felt when I finally had the opportunity to unleash him on my enemies. Nothing quite like a Dragon to put fear into the hearts of Men. So much better if he's Undead!"

—Constatin von Carstein, Vampire Lord.

 

Zombie Dragons are the reanimated corpses of long-dead Dragons that were raised from their resting place within the Plain of Bones by the use of powerful Dark Magic.

he Plain of Bones is a harsh and lifeless landscape of multicoloured sand and tainted rock located to the east of the Worlds Edge Mountains, from which protrude huge rib cages of ancient primeval Dragons. This is the place where Dragons of ancient times once came to die, to rest their bones amongst those of their ancestors as they had done for millions of years, before any other sentient beings walked the world.

Here lies the bones of the great ancestral Dragons: skulls the size of castle towers lie mingled with leg bones larger than the mast of an Imperial warship. These bones date from the ancients days of the draconic race. Though today's Dragons are of a lesser breed, they are still incomparably mightier than other races of the world. However, following the arrival of Chaos, the Plain of Bones has since become saturated with large amounts of Dark Magic. This magic eventually contaminated the remains of these Dragons, forcing them to rise once more as the first Zombie Dragons.

Ever since then, Vampires and powerful Necromancers of all kinds have been known to take a pilgrimage to this ancient landscape where they pick through one amongst many Dragon remains. Once he finds a suitable corpse, the Vampire or Necromancer who use the excess Dark Magic that contaminates the land to resurrect the Dragon back to life as his eternal combat mount. These once majestic creatures stagger upright once more with a great despairing roar before stooping to allow their new master to ride atop their powerful shoulders.

 

Animated by Dark Magic, a Zombie Dragon is borne aloft by great tattered wings, its body covered with thick, withered hide. Though in life it once breathed fire capable of melting steel, a Zombie Dragon can only belch forth a cloud of pestilent gas which strips flesh from bones and corrodes armour. A Zombie Dragon's claws and sword-like teeth remain as deadly as they ever were, and is still capable of ripping an armoured knight in half and swallowing his warhorse in one motion. When such a monster is used as a steed by a powerful Vampire Lord, even the greatest heroes quail before the raw might of undeath, for the combined might of Vampire and his Undead Dragon is enough to break the back of any army sent against them. Wreathed in a fog of rot and surrounded by swarms of blood-hungry flies, a Zombie Dragon can turn the tide of a battle purely by dint of its horrific presence.

Terrorgheist

    "I have seen them, at night, flapping their mighty wings across the moon. They call to me, tell me I will join them soon. Herr Doktor Leberknoedel says that I am crazy, but I know that its not true... They will carry me off to my new home, and we will dance round the moon together... Oh yes."

        —Rudi, Great Altdorf Asylum Inmate.

Terrorgheist are the largest and most ferocious bat species to have ever existed, so large and terrifying that they've grown to the size of Dragons.

In the hidden reaches of Sylvania, these titanic bats soar out from their caves to hunt horses, caravans and pegasi under the sickly skies. It is the ambush tactic of the creatures that give them their truly terrifying reputation. A Terrorgheist's vision is poor, so the swooping monstrosity ensures that its prey is rendered motionless by emitting a piercing shriek so loud and unexpected it can stun even a Bretonnian warhorse into paralysis. At that precise moment, the Terrorgheist will dive down, gather up rider and mount in its talons, and return to its lair to glut itself on the warm blood of its victims.

It is the mortal remains of these troglodytic beasts that the Ghoul Kings of the caverns bind to their service. The binding process comes easily to these reclusive Vampires, for Strigoi Ghoul Kings and Terrorgheists have much in common. As Dark Magic swirls around the monstrous cave-creature, a bond of blood is formed between master and beast. Much like any other creature that drinks from a Ghoul King's veins, Terrorgheists have necromantic power running in their blood that can heal even the most severe of wounds.

In death, a Terrorgheist becomes a nightmare made real. Guided by its master's will, the monstrosity creaks through the clouds above the battlefield on blotch-skinned pinions, its rotten flesh and withered organs open to the night air. It is the deathly shriek of an unliving Terrorgheist that is perhaps its most fearsome aspect. As the magics of undeath are worked upon the beast, its cry is transformed from a simple but shockingly loud noise into a barrage of eldritch power. Some say the Terrorgheist's shriek is nothing less than the screams of the damned, channelled directly from the Realm of Chaos. It matters little to the Terrorgheist's prey, for so devastating is its sonic attack that it can cause a man to die of fright in an instant. By venting this noise as it dives down upon its prey, a Terrorgheist can cripple an enemy regiment moments before it slams into the reeling survivors, slaughtering the rest with disease ridden tooth and claw. Even when the Terrorgheist is slain, these creatures have a violent tendency to explode upon their deaths. Due to their ferocity, Terrorgheist are a highly favourable mount amongst many Undead factions.

The Tarrasque

The legendary tarrasque is possibly the most dreaded monster of the Material Plane. It is widely believed that only one of these creatures exists, though no one can predict where and when it will strike. 

A scaly biped, the tarrasque is fifty feet tall and seventy feet long, weighing hundreds of tons. It carries itself like a bird of prey, leaning forward and using its powerful lashing tail for balance. Its cavernous maw yawns wide enough to swallow all but the largest creatures, and so great is its hunger that it can devour the populations of whole towns.

Legendary Destruction.

The destructive potential of the tarrasque is so vast that some cultures incorporate the monster into religious doctrine, weaving its sporadic appearance into stories of divine judgment and wrath. Legends tell how the tarrasque slumbers in its secret lair beneath the earth, remaining in a dormant state for decades or centuries. When it awakens in answer to some inscrutable cosmic call, it rises from the depths to obliterate everything in its path.

Damage Immunities fire, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and

slashing from non magical weapons 

Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned

Magical Resistance

Legendary Resistance. If the tarrasque fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead. Magic Resistance. The tarrasque has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. 

Reflective Carapace. 

Any time the tarrasque is targeted by a magic missile spell, a line spell, or a spell that requires a ranged attack. Sometimes the tarrasque is unaffected. On a 6, the tarrasque is unaffected, and the effect is reflected back at the caster as though it originated from the tarrasque, turning the caster into the target.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: one target. Hit: slashing damage. Horns. Melee Weapon Attack: reach 10ft., one target. Hit: piercing damage. Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: reach 20ft., one target. Hit: bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must keep its balance or be knocked prone.

Multiattack.

The tarrasque can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes five attacks: one with its bite, two with its claws, one with its horns, and one with its tail. It can use its Swallow instead of its bite.

Bite.

Melee Weapon Attack: one target. Hit piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it is grappled. Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the tarrasque can't bite another target.

Siege Monster.

The tarrasque deals huge damage to objects and structures.

Frightful Presence.

Each creature of the tarrasque's choice within 120 feet of it and aware of it must succeed in resisting its presence or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can try to resist, with disadvantage if the tarrasque is within line of sight, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the tarrasque's Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours. 

Swallow.

The tarrasque makes one bite attack against a Large or smaller creature it is grappling. If the attack hits, the target takes the bite's damage, the target is swallowed, and the grapple ends. While swallowed, the creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the tarrasque, and it takes acid damage. If the tarrasque takes a large strike or more from a creature inside it, the tarrasque must try to hold it in or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the tarrasque. If the tarrasque dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 30 feet of movement, exiting prone.

LEGENDARY ACTIONS

The tarrasque can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time. The tarrasque regains spent legendary actions after some time. Attack. The tarrasque makes one claw attack or tail attack. Move. The tarrasque moves up to half its speed. Chomp (Costs 2 Actions). The tarrasque makes one bite attack or uses its Swallow.

Huge dinosaurs evolved different cooling strategies to prevent their brains overheating

It must be hard keeping cool when you're the size of a semitrailer – imagine finding some shade or a hat big enough.

So how did sauropod dinosaurs prevent heat stroke back in the late Jurassic, and keep their brains from overheating?

New research, published today in the journal The Anatomical Record, suggests that gigantic dinosaurs, including the Tyrannosaurus rex, evolved systems to cool their blood on its way to their brains.

But, in what was a surprise to the researchers, many of these dinosaur groups came up with slightly different ways to do so.

It's getting hot in here

There's long been a debate about whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded like reptiles (ectotherms) or warm-blooded like bird and mammals (endotherms), said study co-author and palaeontologist Larry Witmer of Ohio University.

But if you're gigantic, this becomes a bit of a moot point when it comes to overheating.

"One thing that became obvious to us was that regardless of their physiology, huge dinosaurs were going to be hot, they couldn't help it," Professor Witmer said.

"They had really enormous volumes but relatively low surface areas, which means once they heated up, it would be hard for them to cool down in the absence of special mechanisms."

That posed a problem, because their brains (like ours), eyes and other sense organs were very sensitive to temperature.

If they got too hot, basic functions the brainstem controls, such as blood pressure and heart rate, would become compromised, Professor Witmer said.

A bad case of heat stroke could potentially be fatal.

The kicker was hot blood heated up in their body's core was being pumped to their brain.

For sauropods it wasn't only the warm climate in which they lived that was to blame.

"Not only were they baking in the sun, but the huge fermentation vat of their gastrointestinal tract was also generating significant heat," Professor Witmer said.

The solutions that these huge dinosaurs evolved were all based on the principle of evaporative cooling, which is the way we keep ourselves cool.

"Sweat emerges as a liquid onto the hot surface of our skin, and the heat causes the liquid to turn into a vapour (that is, the sweat evaporates)," Professor Witmer said.

The evaporating sweat takes the heat energy with it, leaving the surface cooler.

"This same process works in the nose and mouth of a person or a dog or a dinosaur – wherever there's moisture," he said.

"When the surface you're cooling happens to be richly supplied with blood, that blood will also be cooled.

"What we were able to show was that a lot of that cooled blood went back to the region of the brain."

By first looking at modern-day birds and reptiles, the researchers were able to trace patterns of blood flow from these cooling sites to the brain.

"The handy thing about blood vessels is that they basically write their presence into the bones," said palaeontologist and lead author of the study Ruger Porter of Ohio University.

"The bony canals and grooves that we see in modern-day birds and reptiles are our link to the dinosaur fossils," Dr Porter said.

By looking for similar canals and grooves in dinosaur skulls the scientists were able to reconstruct their blood flow patterns.

The idea behind the paper is a good one, said Roger Seymour, Emeritus Professor of Physiology at the University of Adelaide, who was not involved in the study.

Professor Seymour said as far as he knows, he was the first person to look at skeletal material to see if they showed anything about the circulatory system.

"For animals that have gone extinct all we have to guide us in the circulatory system are bones," he said.

"You can judge the size of the openings in the skull as they've done and make inferences about how much blood went through."

Infographic of a diplodocus head showing blood vessels in the nose and mouth that it used to cool its brain

Sauropods may have walked around with their mouths open to help keep their brains cool.

What the research team found was multiple ways the huge dinosaurs had evolved of keeping a cool head.

Ankylosaurs had increased blood flow to their nose, beyond what was needed to provide nutrition to their tissues, turning this into a cooling region.

Whereas sauropods had increased blood flow to both their nose and mouth.

"Sauropods almost certainly didn't pant like dogs," Professor Witmer said.

"But we're suggesting our evidence shows that they may have routinely walked around with their mouths open when they were overheated."

Computer generation graphic illustrating the different sinuses of therapod dinosaurs and how that contributed to cooling

Theropod like T-rex used their jaw like an old-fashioned bellows pump to cool their blood on its way to their brain.

Theropods, like T-rex, were different again.

Instead of increasing the blood flow to their nose or mouth or eyes, they increased the blood supply to an enlarged air sinus off to the side of their nasal cavity in their snouts.

We have similar air sinuses, Professor Witmer said, that get clogged when we have a cold.

"What makes theropods – including living theropods (birds) – different from us is that the air was pumped in and out of the sinus, like an old-fashioned bellows pump, by jaw movements," he said.

And that airflow set up a good evaporative cooling system.
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The research is interesting because it's finally given us quite a bit of quantitative data on how huge dinosaurs deal with overheating and the risks it poses to their brains, said palaeobiology PhD student Douglass Rovinsky who was not involved in the study.

"At a certain point you get so big that mathematically you shouldn't be alive," Mr Rovinsky of Monash University said.

"This shows that they changed the arrangement of their blood vessels to keep from cooking alive."

Mr Rovinsky said it would be interesting to see if this study prompts bird researchers to understand how they cope with heat better too.

The researchers are now keen to expand their analysis to other groups of dinosaurs, including one closer to home, Muttaburrasaurus.

Exploring Mythology: Dragons

Famous prototypical dragons include the mušḫuššu of ancient Mesopotamia, Apep in Egyptian mythology, Vṛtra in the Rigveda, the Leviathan in the Hebrew Bible, Python, Ladon, Wyvern, and the Lernaean Hydra in Greek mythology, Jörmungandr, Níðhöggr, and Fafnir in Norse mythology, and the dragon from Beowulf.

They traditionally symbolize potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, typhoons, and floods. The dragon is also a symbol of power, strength, and good luck for people who are worthy of it in East Asian culture.

Ancient people may have discovered dinosaur fossils and understandably misinterpreted them as the remains of dragons. Chang Qu, a Chinese historian from the 4th century B.C., mislabeled such a fossil in what is now Sichuan Province.