Drake, Skull

What at first appears to be a dead creature of some sort reveals itself to be a gray-skinned, winged serpent whose body is covered in a bony exoskeleton. Slender and snakelike, its leathery wings cling to its body tightly as it slithers out from hiding.

Fierce in appearance and a formidable opponent, the skull drake is a scavenger and carrion eater. Though it enjoys chasing smaller scavengers away from a prize meal, it will flee at the first sign of a more powerful creature.

Wandering Scavenger. When left to its own devices, the skull drake travels many miles between places of death, regularly revisiting sites where it feasted previously. Poisoned pools, places of execution, cemeteries, and – with caution and speed – the lairs of creatures who drag their meals home with them. Circling vultures and crows draw a skull drake’s attention, and a sizeable battlefield may become a temporary home for a skull drake until opportunity or threat drives it elsewhere. A skull drake prefers to sleep in piles of bones and corpses, using its bony protrusions to blend in. It spits a cloud of deadly gas at any creature coming too close or uses its long neck to strike like a snake.

Associate of Death. Skull drakes consider themselves natural companions to practitioners of the necromantic arts, viewing such partnerships as mutually beneficial. It provides both parties with a degree of protection, and it assures the drake regular feeding since it has no qualms about eating the rotten remains of failed projects.