Huge
Dragon
CR 13
Neutral
Sulvarak
Volcanic Leviathan
Sulvarak is an ancient, torpid dragon-turtle whose shell is a crusted island of cooled slag and basalt that steams and sighs as it breathes. It lies half-submerged in the heart of a volcanic lake, its eyes like molten coins watching the sky; when it wakes the lake boils and rivers of red run like veins through the hardened shell. Sulvarak is as patient as a mountain but petulant and territorial—the very water that feeds it will turn to burning magma when it rouses, and small coastal hamlets tell of entire fishing fleets swallowed by the ripple of its tail.
Armour
18
natural armor (basalt shell)
Hit points
230
20d12+100
Speed
20ft
20 ft., swim 40 ft.
Challenge
13
10,000 XP
STR
19
+4
DEX
10
+0
CON
20
+5
INT
10
+0
WIS
12
+1
CHA
14
+2
Saving throws
STR +9, CON +10
Skills
Perception +6, Survival +6
Resistances
bludgeoning from nonmagical attacks
Damage immunities
fire
Senses
darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16
Languages
Draconic, understands Common but can't speak
Multiattack. The creature makes one Bite attack and two Claw attacks.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (2d10+4) piercing damage.
Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6+4) slashing damage.
Magma Breath (Recharge 5-6). The dragon-turtle exhales molten magma in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 18 Dexterity saving throw, taking 54 (12d8) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The lava that splashes remains for 1 minute in a 10-foot-radius area chosen within the cone; any creature that ends its turn in that area takes 10 (3d6) fire damage, and creatures that can walk on lava (or otherwise withstand it) leave a scorched path.
Shell Guard. When hit by a melee attack, Sulvarak can withdraw its head and tighten its posture, reducing the damage taken from that attack by 18.
Legends tell that Sulvarak hatched from an egg laid in the furnace of a dead mountain god; scholars of the Veskar Cartography Guild call the volcanic fen where it sleeps the Silted Caldron. The Caldron's basalt islands and steaming fumaroles have been mapped and remapped by daring surveyors who mark ringed scorch-lines where Sulvarak shifted in its sleep. Mariners avoid the lake's surface at dawn and dusk—times when the dragon-turtle is said to stir and reshape the shoreline. Sulvarak plays a quiet role in the lake's ecosystem. It feeds on the chitinous crustaceans and sulfur-bloom fish that thrive in the superheated waters, and its molted plates become mineral-rich isles where hardy lichens and fire-tolerant ferns take root. A small cult, the Emberwardens of Korr, worships Sulvarak as an altar to change and purification; they offer salted fish and carved obsidian at the water's edge in exchange for safe passage. Scholars such as Master-Mapper Nyrel Oth have debated whether Sulvarak is a guardian left by the mountain god or a parasite that consumed the god's last warmth—either theory shapes how nearby settlements act toward it.
Sulvarak is the size of a small hill: its body length from beak to tailtip is roughly twice the height of a doorway, and its dome-like shell rises like an islet some 12–15 feet high at the ridge. The shell is layered plates of basalt and cooled magma, laced with veins of glassy obsidian and rivulets of semi-solid slag that glow faintly orange in cracks. Barnacle-like sulfur formations rim the edges where steam perpetually fissures. Its head is broad and turtle-like but draconic in proportion, with a tapered beak ringed by scorched, serrated keratin and small coppery eyes that glow like embers. Thick, scaled flippers bristled with spines propel it through the hot lake; the tail is clubbed and plated, capable of collapsing a boat with a single sweep. Patches of mineralized algae and iron-stained barnacles cling to the underbelly; when the creature exhales its maw emits a roar of steam and molten droplets.
Made with the free LoreKeeper Monster Generator · D&D 5e-compatible stat block · Free to use at your table · Licence
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