User blog:DreamingOfDragons72x2/The Sharkworm's Helven Cousin

I just read How To Speak Dragonese yesterday. A lot of dragons were described in that, but three of them were nanodragons: too small, even for the newly-resized Draconis minimus on Helven (the lightest of those is half a pound, and somehow I think a nanodragon would be lighter than that). The only freshly-described dragon that is not a nanodragon is the Sharkworm. Not like that thing's not interesting in and of itself - the "Pirate Dragon," capable of climbing onto ships and hijacking its prey. The picture was hideous, though. Anyway. Just like for the Skullion, the exact skills sketched out for the Sharkworm cannot exist in a purebred dragon, so I had to experiment with hybrids.

Always do I seem to start with the weaknesses: the Sharkworm can only stay out of the water for ten minutes. This means that they either only breathe water, that they dry out too easily in the air, or both. In order for the Helven Sharkworm to have the same problem, it would have to have stats of 95 Water but only 5 each in Earth and Air; in other words, it can swim, but not tunnel or fly. That is, if I recall properly, a slight deviation from the original (which could fly), but there it is. It can theoretically glide like a flying fish, though. All three of the remaining stats divide the remaining 195 points between them (which is, let's see...65 apiece Fire, Light, and Shadow). This lets it move on land, and move well - and also gives it pretty big eyes, though not necessarily a hammerhead.

Next up, weaponry. This also has 300 points to divide between six stats, but compared to the strength/weakness ratio of its elemental powers (1/2), the weaponry has a 2/1 ratio. In other words, only one weakness. The Sharkworm is described very specifically as having no venom, so that's easy; the only potentially complicated part is that it does breathe fire, and on Helven firebreath and venom are connected. However, the Sharkworm's firebreath is described as like a torpedo - so, it's a burst. The spitting venom that becomes firebreath on Helven doesn't do bursts very well, but the alternate-source breaths (the ones that don't use spitting venom) can make use of bursts. No problem then. As for the two strengths...one of them is easy. The Sharkworm's arsenal is described as having loads of teeth and claws, which would make the Helven Sharkworm a Spiny dragon with long teeth, long claws, long dorsal spikes (which also would go with the shark fin) and launchable tailspikes to boot. The other one's a little bit more complicated, but also easy to reason out. Sharkworms are described as using shark-like hunting strategies; and some sharks (maybe all sharks) can ram small boats with their heads to flip the boaters into the water. That lends itself to the Hackled breed of dragon. The remaining 105 points are divided evenly between Vulkan, Freezing, and Hooded breeds (35 apiece). Cute side note on the Hooded: the fact that the Helven Sharkworm isn't totally deficient in that is what allows it to circle in on prey. Also, because of the combined low Vulkan and Freezing stats, it prefers warm water to cold (which I think the Sharkworm did anyway, considering that they were said to be found in warm currents).

This would be another dragon that might star in the Helven Chronicles (again, just one book since it's a hybrid) as a primary antagonist. It's not UNtrainable, but it's not really all that trainable either.



Every dragon on Helven has a counterpart; this one's counterpart might be more easily encountered, since it would actually live near where the little hero makes his home. Unlike the Helven Sharkworm:

it can fly and tunnel but not swim,

it's a little slower and clumsier on land,

it has basically no blades and no bashing power but is highly poisonous,

and it has a larger hood and more tolerance of harsher temperatures.

It hides in a cloud of smoke when it's on land; since it has the spitting venom to spare. Huh; it's like the Smothering Smokebreath from the show, and that thing had also been described as a "dragon pirate" (by Tuffnut, but at least it's something). It doesn't build metal nests like the Smothering Smokebreath, though, it just ambushes prey from the smoke.