Aquatic Lernaean Hydra

A bizarre hybrid between a lernaean hydra and a great sea serpent, the Lake Radruundar Monster and its lesser spawn combine the worst aspects of both creatures. The Lake Radruundar Monster sports eighteen flat, oval serpent heads, each with cruel, black eyes like spheres of onyx. The creature's necks are about a hundred feet long and ass thick as tree trunks; these join a serpentine booy almost 10 feet thick and also a hundred feet long. The heads are ultramarine blue, which gives way to alternating bands of greenish gray and ultramarine on the necks and body. The colors give the creature excellent camouflage when gliding over a lake's choppy surface.

The creature's lesser spawn have the same general body structure. They are blue, sea green, or black, with bands or spots of a lighter color, usually gray, ochre, or olive.

Combat: Aquatic lernaean hydras prefer to lie in shallow areas and snatch creatures passing by on land or the surface

Like land-based hydras, these creatures have 1 Hit Die with 8 hit points per head. Each time the creature suffers 8 points of damage, one head is slain and two new lines grow back in 1d4 rounds unless fire is promptly applied to the stump. The creature can never have more than eighteen heads.

To prevent a head from growing back into two, a flame of at least torch size must be applied to the stump before the new head appears. This requires a successful called shot (-1 penalty to initiative, -4 attack penalty) Directional fire-based attacks, such as burning hands, can scorch the stump automatically. A flame tongue sword can scorch a stump, but the wielder must attempt a separate called shot attack to do so.

The creature instinctively keeps to the water to avoid fire. It submerges any stump until new heads appear. Unless the monster ventures onto land or opponents can use fire underwater, a stump must be scorched on the same round the head was severed. Otherwise, it submerges.

Area-effect spells slay one head per 8 points of damage inflicted. If the damage is not evenly divisible by 8, leftover damage is divided evenly among the surviving heads. Heads killed by fire do not form two new heads. The creature rolls only a single saving throw against an area spell. Spells such as finger of death, slay living and disintegrate slay the creature outright if they succeed, and prevent any regeneration.

Attacks on the creature's body have no effect. After a battle, the number of heads gradually returns to normal. Extra heads fall off and burned heads grow back at the rate of one per day.

Aquatic lernaean hydras are u.naffected by nonmagical cold.

An aquatic lernaean hydra has a number of attacks, THAC0, damage, and XP value that vary with its initial number of heads, as on the following table.

Habitat/Society: These creatures spend most of their time floating on the surface, waiting for prey to happen by. They sleep on the lake bottom. They are fiercely territonal, driving out other large predators.

All aquatic lernaean hydra trace their lineage back to the Lake Radruundar Monster, and at present their range is limited to those bodies of water that connect to the lake in some fashion. Considering their ability to travel overland, however, they could live almost anywhere.

Ecology: These creatures eat only freshly killed meat. They can go months without a meal, but eat voraciously when the get the opportunity. They breathe in both air and water with equal ease. The creatures mate once in their lives and bear 6-8 live young a year afterward. They live about 300 years.

The Lake Radruundar Monster: This creature is the progenitor of its race. It can have up to twenty-four heads.