Warm Ocean

Often found buried in mud, sand, or sea grass, this normally passive creature raises its tail above its body like a scorpion when cornered or injured. Its stinger is a barbed spine with two grooves allowing the toxin to enter the wound. While often found in bays and estuaries, some breeds of stingray can make their home in rivers far upstream from salt water. Stingrays, like their larger manta ray cousins, use a form of electrolocation to find prey in the silt-laden waters. The stingray presented here is a relatively large member of the species; for smaller stingrays, apply the young creature template.

Often seen skimming the ocean's surface or cruising the depths, this majestic creature showcases the ballet of the sea with its expansive, wing-like fins. The manta ray's size is striking, dwarfing many other marine species, yet it feeds primarily on the smallest of ocean dwellers, scooping up plankton and tiny fish with its cavernous mouth. Unlike the more defensive stingray, the manta ray possesses no stinging spine, relying instead on its agility and size to deter potential predators. Found in tropical and subtropical waters, manta rays often venture close to coral reefs and open ocean areas. Like the stingray, manta rays possess an electrolocation capability, allowing them to detect even the most minute electric fields produced by potential prey, making them exceptionally efficient hunters in their tranquil manner.

The bane of fishermen and divers, ningyos lurk in tropical waters, gorging themselves on fish and attacking anything they can sink their tiny fangs into. Primitive, miniature mer-monsters, ningyos are frightening bogeymen of the sea, often attacking seagoers, ships, and fishing tackle out of blind hunger. These terrors swarm by night and can easily drag opponents down to drown amid a swarm of claws and needling teeth. A slain ningyo always returns to life by night, adopting old habits or searching for its killer, and reverting to a corpse at dawn. Sometimes its corpse washes up on shore as a gruesome and fascinating curiosity, animating the next night to attack its would-be collector. A ningyo measures approximately 2 to 2-1/2 feet long from head to tail, and weighs 6 to 9 pounds.

Malevolent denizens of the waters, adaros are among the fiercest sentient hunters of the tropical seas. They are known and feared by sailors on many exotic shores, as well as by common folk who just happen to live near the ocean. Many have witnessed a fellow sailor or fisher suddenly go rigid, a poisoned spear jutting from his guts, only to fall into the water and be taken by the vicious adaro responsible for the assault. Strictly carnivorous, adaros feed upon their victims almost immediately after slaying them. Their brutally sharp teeth cut through bone almost as easily as through flesh, and their powerful digestive systems are capable of handling most organic matter. Adaros usually eat once every couple of days, gorging on meals half their weight. Adaros’ strange relationship with storms has intrigued scholars for centuries. These sea-dwellers have a special connection to the deadly creatures of the water and the wildness of foul weather, and it is no coincidence that they attack humanoids more often during rough seas. Adaros are seminomadic by nature; a tribe travels until it finds a suitable hunting ground, and leaves either when its presence becomes too well known or when its game runs low. An adaro is 7-1/2 feet long and weighs 250 pounds.

Spear sea urchins are uniquely evolved marine predators, recognized instantly by their disproportionately large and blade-like spines. Unlike their hunter sea urchin relatives, spear sea urchins don't simply rely on the tide to bring meals within their grasp. Their imposing spines, sharper and more dangerous than those of many other urchin species, allow them to be more aggressive in their feeding habits. By wielding these deadly appendages, they can deter potential threats and capture larger, more mobile prey, making them one of the ocean floor's stealthy and formidable ambush predators.

Cecaelias are intelligent humanoctopus hybrids that hunt coastlines and ocean reefs. A cecaelia’s humanoid upper body varies individually but generally ref lects the features of the inhabitants of the nearest humanoid settlements. Sages think this is an adaptive trait, akin to an octopus’s natural camouflage, allowing cecaelias to mutate within one to two generations to blend in with humanoids sharing their territory. Cecaelia stand 6 feet tall on land, and weigh just over 200 pounds. They generally live to be 60 years old. Cecaelias don’t normally wear clothes, but often carry woven seaweed backpacks. They prefer not to wear armor, though when they do, they prefer light, flexible varieties. Tattoos are a common form of decoration as well. Cecaelias are inquisitive creatures, but wary of strangers, and are quickly frustrated by wordy attempts at diplomacy—which they nearly always view as attempts at deception. As allies, they can be valuable to coastal communities since they often dig up treasures from the seabed that they then trade for fragments of polished glass or bits of “land fare,” as they refer to food not taken from the sea.

The moray eel is a ferocious predator, capable of holding prey in its primary jaws while a smaller set of jaws inside its throat chews away bite-sized portions.

The sleek elasmosaurus is a long-necked, aquatic reptile. Although not technically a dinosaur, they and their kind are often found hunting in oceans and lakes in areas where dinosaurs are more common. You can create statistics for smaller, similar aquatic reptiles (such as the pleisosaurus) by applying the young simple template to the statistics presented above. An elasmosaurus is 45 feet long and weighs 4,000 pounds.

This predatory marine lizard swims with four flippered limbs and a powerful, fluke-like tail. Its extended snout is filled with sharp teeth, and it feeds on both aquatic and surface prey. They are known to attack ships, mistaking them for basking whales or other creatures. A tylosaurus grows up to 50 feet in length and weighs 30,000 pounds.

The spiny eurypterid is a voracious predator that swims in deep tropical waters.

Luscas are among the most feared predators in the open ocean—their snapping shark heads and writhing tentacles spell the end for many crews. A lusca’s presence can first be felt in the air, as its body naturally conducts electricity. Sailors who have encountered the being and survived claim that thunderclouds seem to roll in alongside the creature and strange electrical fires dance in the air before it attacks, lending an eerie aura of foreboding to the oncoming assault. Ravenous and unpredictable, a lusca claims wide swaths of territory in order to maximize the number of ships it can sink and crews it can feast upon; luscas brook no other large predators in their claimed territory, and battle even mighty krakens for control. They are equally territorial with their own kind, and an encounter between two luscas, except to mate, almost always ends with one dead or driven off. While luscas prefer to make quick meals of the sailors onboard a ship, they will eat just about any aquatic creature, and even giant octopuses and whales know to steer clear of a hungry lusca’s vicinity.  The average lusca is 90 feet from tentacle to snout and weighs 3,800 pounds. Legends tell of even larger luscas that can sink Colossal ships.