Sea Serpents

Sea serpents, also known as sea drakes, were a type of aquatic dragons that swam in the seas across the Realms. They were known for being especially enigmatic and dangerous creatures.

“When a sea serpent drives itself through the hull of a ship, it's simply trying to accelerate the molting process. Sure, the ship might sink, but that’s hardly the serpent’s fault.”
— Fizban

Basic Information

Anatomy

Sea serpents were characterized by long serpentine bodies with strong, webbed fins propelled them through the waters of the seas and oceans at impressive speed. Sea serpents were amphibious.

Ecology and Habitats

Sea serpents could be found in the waters off The Sword Coast, predominantly referred to as the Sea of Swords. They were among the most fearsome creatures of the deep sea, alongside dragon turtles.

Behaviour

Sea serpents were solitary creatures, and aggressively territorial just as any other dragons. They did not take kindly to ships traveling in their territory, especially if the ships were going over their domains without permission.
Some sea serpents could be appeased by offerings of treasure, but most demanded that a ship's crew should sacrifice one or more of their own. Living amidst the wreckage of sunken ships or within deep-sea caves, sea serpents collected the cargo of the craft they sunk, amassing great collections of trade goods, sailors' trinkets, and pirates' stolen treasure.

Combat

At any age, a sea serpent would be capable of attacking with its bite, its tail, and a constricting grip. Young sea serpents were nimble and agile hunters; they use reefs and natural camouflage to hide before they assaulted their prey, individually striking members of the crew of a ship. Ancient sea serpents grew large enough to demolish whole ships with almost absolute ease, then fed at their own leisure on helpless sailors in the water.
They had a breath weapon described as a breath of rime, a cone-like stream of cold so frigid that it could leave sailors' corpses floating frozen amid the wreckage of their ships.
It was believed that some sea serpents were capable of releasing a cloud of ink within water, in order to escape if they felt truly threatened.

Geographic Distribution

• Sea of Fallen Stars