Flying Cargo

Researcher: Dīca Dux
 
 
Research: New floating Hirudinea/Serpentes species
 
 
Report: The floating leeches, "Flying Snakes" are an aggressive species that consume the new mineral Skylerite voraciously. Through an encounter I had a chance to study their territory and invasion response. The territory being the Runetongue mine which had deposits of the mineral. On inspection there were no holes in the walls that one would expect of a burrowing species, but rather they seemed to partialize through the rock. I found the juveniles (cuttlefish class) and the adults (dolphin class) of the species are prone to such behavior when struck with weapons that miss vitals. The 12ft long, 2ft diameter, 10lb elders (shark class) only used such a technique when attempting to restrain for capture. The smaller, assumedly youth are prone to latching and detonating quickly where as the adults stand their ground longer before similar behavior. The elders were not observed to detonate, but would likely if given the chance. They seemed to be able to generate more bio-electrical current than the smaller ones as evident of an electrical breath attack. They also are able to use said attack to target and charge others of their species. All the creatures were observed to have venomous bites with and sodium residue after detonation. The size difference between elders and juvenile is quite striking as well as the elders becoming translucent in coloration to the point of being able to see skeletal structure. This leads me to believe that they are closer to snakes than that of leeches. Other observed behavior is latching onto the mineral once exposed and not releasing. They only showed up and aggressively once the mineral was exposed.
 
 
Journal: We arrived at the cave in which Ravash's minerals were. An-Core created a fire to be used for torches as it seems that they do not posses darkvision. On our walk into the cave there were remnants of shed skin on the ground of which I procured. Their was also remains of animal bones likely to supplement the nutritional intake of the creatures. We came into a cavern with a hole in the top to the outside and a waterfall with a pool on one end. Inside there was an abandoned cart with half a load of the material weighed down by a metal net as well as a large chunk bitten out Likely from an elder. Across a small bridge spanning a ravine was a small structure with stairs into a pit. Ravash had built some of these structures unharassed before. Leading me to believe that the snakes are only after the mineral. He pointed out a 2-2.5ft hole on the far side as his first encounter with the snakes detonation tendencies.
On the other far end of the room was a crater that held the meteor that Ravash was interested in. An-Core summoned some shark class bats to keep watch for us. Kar'El flew to the top opening of the cave and layered his net to catch wayward pieces and I looked around the room for the snake holes that weren't there. There were some ancient ruins strewn on another end of the cavern and I peered into the water to see if the "snakes" were aquatic in nature like other Hirudinea. The water was iridescent and I noted no life within the water that turned out to be more of a puddle that I walked across. A semi concerning feature was that my reflection hadn't moved from when I first looked into the water and when I knocked on the surface, my reflection knocked back. I filled a vial and noted that the waterfall was making no noise and not actively flowing. When a 35' eyeball appeared to look an An-Core and I, I started getting suspicious but was curious as to where this would lead. It seemed to possess some level of intelligence, so I gave it the simple one blink for yes, and two for no instructions. I had a few just test questions and it responded fairly appropriately. I now assume that it was some fey illusion due to the intelligent responses and understanding of common. Intelligent species are far easier to study with their consent and it wasn't my clade so I lost interest rather quickly. I did find that it was not malicious or so it claimed.
At that point the others managed to crack open one of the debris rocks from the meteor to expose the minerals we were after. Kar'El launched a flare to light the cave saying he saw snakes after some sort of purple dragon flew out the cave and threw his net while leaving the net intact. In the encounter I had 3 juveniles and 1 adult show up around me with an elder pair coming by a little later. Other also had snakes around them. The three youths all bit me and injected some venom I was able to resist. I used one of the sedative dart I made to quickly sleep the adult for collection and stunned the juveniles to dart later. Then the translucent alphas appeared. I quickly started to render it unconscious, but when I make contact I could hear a ringing start from within the snake. I kept trying to wear it down and captured it in my newly evolved limbs only for it to de and rematerialize outside my grasp. I realize that it was reckless for me to show the guardian trait without knowing Ravash's crew's alignments, but a catch like this was needed. On rematerialization the ringing came to a head as it used a lightning breath on me and An-Core directed toward the other elder. The over charge also managed to detonate the three juveniles that were after me that led to an short lived electrical cloud. An-Core got the brunt and went down, but Guffy came to his aid with a health bomb. I proceeded to catch the alpha just right to stun it real well. Enough so that Ravash was able to explode it with a flame spell. Luckily, the other alpha was still alive unlike all the other snakes that the others dealt with. Ravash managed to confine it's movement via levitation spell and I would not return with out a live specimen. I took a running leap off of one of the fallen pillars and stuck it with some of the remaining darts I had. I managed to catch it, thank goodness and I found that I would have fallen down a deep pit if I had missed, and get it tranqed for a few hours.
The snake was well within shark class being 12ft long and 2ft in diameter, but semi-surprisingly only weighed 10 lbs. I muzzeled it with rope and over heard the others talk of a gem dragon as I made a few more sedatives. I gathered the corpses of the smaller ones and left them all near the cart when I took off to gather more material to keep the elder knocked out for the return trip. About an hour and a half later I returned with the material and asked Kar'el to help again since he seemed to have good tool and knowhow. I had enough for a day an a half for the return. Ravash even sounded interested in the snakes of which I would happily share after I know myself. Hopefully I can get these into the chapter without rousing suspicion.