Deep drake
The deep drake is a rare breed of drake that dwells in underground caverns and other deep places of the earth, including the Abyss. Deep drakes skulk through the perpetual darkness of their habitats, and are ambush predators that prefer to attack unsuspecting or isolated prey and will retreat to try their luck again later if they encounter stiff resistance.
Physical Characteristics
Deep drake bones are as light and flexible as a bird’s but as strong as those of a frost drake, and the joints sit loosely in their sockets, allowing the beast to pop them out of place and back in again at will. With this specialised skeletal structure, deep drakes are adept at slipping through tight spaces despite their size. A drake can worm its way through any opening as small as its head.[1]
A deep drake’s body is sinuous but powerfully muscled, and it is covered in dull grey scales that seem to absorb more light than they reflect. Although deep drakes cannot fly, they can scale almost any surface with ease, allowing them to ambush the unwary from cavern ceilings or escape up sheer cliffs. They use this advantage to bypass resistance and to strike from unexpected angles. Perpetual darkness has rendered the deep drake blind, its eyes little more than milky white spheres.[1]
Behaviour
Deep drakes rely on a combination of other senses to navigate their dark habitat. A heightened sense of smell and acute hearing allow the drake to track prey and navigate its surroundings, but its ability to sense the tiniest electrical charge gives it a unique edge. The deep drake can detect even the minute charges flowing through the stones around it. This makes hiding from a deep drake all but impossible and renders many forms of concealment useless.[1]
Not only can deep drakes sense electricity, but they also generate and store it. In addition to making them immune to electrical attacks, this capacity for manipulating currents gives them the ability to either vomit forth a blast of lightning or discharge their stored power as a galvanic field that electrocutes any who enter it.[1]
Despite being formidable predators in their own right, deep drakes are however also preyed upon by other larger predators, like the storm raptors, giant birds of prey native to the Stormlands.[2]
