[Bestiary] Dragons, dragons, always with the dragons!

[Celti]

Dragons seem to get all the mythological love! They're in heraldry, they're on flags, they make up a whole half of That Other Game. Even GURPS has an entire book about these overgrown winged snakes!

You know what's cool? The ichneumon. Medieval literature holds that it was the mortal enemy of dragons. Scholars stated that they would cover themselves with several layers of mud and let it harden into armour against their flame, then dart in again and again, dodging the wyrm's blows with alacrity until they saw their opportunity, whence they would feint and, holding their head sideways, tear out the drake's throat.

In real life, the ichneumon myth sprung from the mongoose — what stats would you give a mongoose-like mythical beast that can prey on dragons?

[Christopher R. Rice]

An innate Higher Purpose (Slay Dragons) for a start. High levels of Stealth, Camouflage, and Brawling. Likely some form of DR with Immediate Preparation Required. Detect Dragons with scent-based.

[Flyndaran]

Wow. I had no idea ichneumon was anything but a family of parasitizing wasps.
Interestingly it got its name from Greek for tracker, so maybe that should be one of this critter's powers.

I also feel compelled to suggest they reproduce by laying eggs on or in dragons.

Mongooses have an extreme tolerance to snake venoms, so you need to include resistance to whatever your dragons use to fight.

[Anders]

Apparently they would enter the serpent's mouth, burrow down to the stomach and eat them from inside. I don't even know where to start with that one.

[scc]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

An innate Higher Purpose (Slay Dragons) for a start.

What are dragons classified as in DF? Because as Zombies shows, it's legal to double-dip with Higher Purpose (Kill X) and Higher Purpose (Kill Y)

[Celti]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

An innate Higher Purpose (Slay Dragons) for a start. High levels of Stealth, Camouflage, and Brawling. Likely some form of DR with Immediate Preparation Required. Detect Dragons with scent-based.

All very good points. As a mongoose-oid, it should also probably have a general Enhanced Dodge — or high Basic Speed wouldn't be unreasonable when fighting dragons.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Wow. I had no idea ichneumon was anything but a family of parasitizing wasps.

I love introducing new things to people! This one is pretty obscure, yeah — enough so that it ought to surprise a lot of players, especially if they're expecting the dragon it just slew instead!

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Interestingly it got its name from Greek for tracker, so maybe that should be one of this critter's powers.
[...]
Mongooses have an extreme tolerance to snake venoms, so you need to include resistance to whatever your dragons use to fight.

Ghostdancer suggested Detect with Scent-Based already, so general Discriminatory Smell alongside that is both good for tracking and entirely appropriate. Resistance to Poison is of course a must — especially if fighting venomous swamp drakes!

Originally Posted by Anders

Apparently they would enter the serpent's mouth, burrow down to the stomach and eat them from inside. I don't even know where to start with that one.

I found some sources stating that (also some saying they entered through the nostrils instead!), but others that stated that was likely a confusion of the ichneumon with the hydrus — which did the roll-in-mud and jump-down-the-throat things, but preyed on crocodiles and was itself possibly either bird-like or snake-like. Still, that's an interesting alternative to simply making it big enough to take on a dragon in a melee!

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Celti

likely a confusion of the ichneumon with the hydrus — which did the roll-in-mud and jump-down-the-throat things, but preyed on crocodiles and was itself possibly either bird-like or snake-like.

Pliny the Elder's description of the Hydrus, at least, bears a fair resemblance to the Nile monitor lizard, which is a major predator of crocodile nests and young and has been known from ancient times to be associated with crocodiles (leading to the name monitor lizard - the presence of a Nile monitor indicated crocodiles were around). Also - hydrus is the the Greek word for a male water serpent.

I've heard it claimed that the hydrus was an otter, but the lizard makes more sense to me.

Luke

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by Celti

what stats would you give a mongoose-like mythical beast that can prey on dragons?

On the Edge? Daredevil?

Luke

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Anders

Apparently they would enter the serpent's mouth, burrow down to the stomach and eat them from inside. I don't even know where to start with that one.

Permeation and extra DR against stomach acid and they typical stomach is less armored than the skin so your attacks would do more damage. Plus I would call it a hit to the Vitals.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anders

Apparently they would enter the serpent's mouth, burrow down to the stomach and eat them from inside. I don't even know where to start with that one.

There is an insect, centipede probably, that hunts and eats larger frogs...from the inside if swallowed first. Until that article and accompanying video, I thought that kind of thing horrifically rare if not simply impossible.

Of course I imagine the fact that frogs tend to lack teeth and hard shells help handle the initial blunt force trauma and shock... but still.