Blood Dragon.

General Description: native to the planet Baruch, also known as Mirikast in ancient history, blood dragons could be said to be among the most dangerous of the non-sapient lifeforms there. The head is heavy and triangular of build, spikes extending from the lower jaw and chin-- lenghtening into three pairs of full horns up towards the top of the head. Older dragons will also have spikes extending down both the top and underside of the neck. The eyes are always a matte black, often describled as soulless by the natives of Baruch. Relatively small compared to the rest of the body, the head is set on top of a thick, musclar neck. Cords of muscle are quite visible, a swelling of these being a sure sign of that one is dealing with an angry dragon. Also the body is massive, body and limbs having a resemblance to the build of a human body, though clearly designed for moving about on all fours. The tail is long and heavy, though covered with smooth scales of a lighter design than the ridged scales covering the rest of the body. Blood dragons have rather large wings, designed to be able to lift their rather heavy bodies, even if the adults rarely fly except when hunting or for mating purposes.

Originally Created by: Something Evil.

Special Abilities: none.

Oddities: the reproductive cycle of blood dragons is rather unique, though some would call it repugnant. The cycle begins as a female places her eggs in the carcass of some animal, though an injured living one will do just as well if the opportunity presents itself. Little larger than a little finger, as many as five eggs are inserted into the body, the female can do so as many as a hundred times during a breeding cycle. After a few days, the heat generated by the rotting(or live) body, will cause the eggs to hatch-- each releasing the maggot-like larva that is the first stage of the blood dragon's life cycle. The larva will then feed until it reaches a lenght of 20-30 centimeters, this usually taking about a week-- upon which it will eat its way out. Some reports suggest that this has been used as a method of torture or murder in some not particulary moral circles. Once emerging, the larva will find a secure location where it will spin a pupae around itself, slowly developing during the winter to hatch again as a dragonet in early spring.
Dragonets lead a rather unsafe existence, and no more than 1/15 survive to adulthood, having to fend for themselves. And of those, only half survive the fights for territory and mates, or in conflict with other creatures, to mate and reproduce. One unique characteristic of the blood dragons however, is something than can only occur within a day or two after the dragonet has hatched-- while its body still is in morphing mode. If a dragonet should ingest the genetic material of another animal during that time, parts of its physiology would take on properties of the other animal-- particulary in the area of the brain. For example, a dragonet biting a human and swallowing some of the blood, would be very likely to develop human-level intelligence.


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Homeworld: the arctic planet Baruch.

Climate/Terrain: arctic mountains.

Specific Physical Statistics
Size at birth: 3 cm at first hatching, 20-30 cm long at pupae-stage, around 40 cm at last hatching.
Size at maturity: 15-20 meters.
Time to maturity: 2-3 years.

Mental Abilities: not very smart at all, roughly at the level of a crocodile, if with a tendency to be extremely vicious.

Breeding
How often can the creature get pregnant?: once a year, in summer.
How long between pregnancies?: depends on the female.
How long is it pregnant?: