Lindworm

The Wyrmstone Mountains are well named, for near every piece of the hard brown rock that makes them up contains some fragment of fossil of the creatures known as Lindorms. They vary greatly in size, but all of them have the distinctive horned draconic skull, and a long serpentine body, with two clawed arms protruding from below their necks. The fossils depict them in many sizes, between only a few centimetres to closer to close to fifty metres long. Partial fossils suggesting even larger creatures have also been found.
Sightings of the living creatures has not been reported, but there a few tomes referring to their habits, which sight supposed eyewitness accounts. If any still live, they would be ancient indeed, as they are the ancient ancestors of Dragons themselves.

Lindworms go by a variety of regional names that pop up in older texts and folk tales, including Linnorm, Litwurm, and in Dwarvish, Dmadreki or Stadmatri.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Lindworms are varied enough to be classed as a suborder, as the fossil remains suggest a large variety of individual species. However, the typical lindworm has a structure more akin to a serpent than a dragon, with arms tipped in clawed hands emerging from shoulders just below the neck vertebrae. The exact protrusion and structure of the shoulders seems to vary from specie to specie, some well formed enough to appear torso like, others that only protrude as far as the ribs. The arms are pentadactyl, and also varying in form, with some flimsy and other long and large. The hand also varies greatly, from definite claws too fins, too the delicate near hand like claws of modern dragons.
Lindworms, like the snakes the resemble have a variable number of vertebrae depending on their length, but the neck and tail (ribless vertebrae) take up a greater percentage, with the neck usually 15% and the tail 20%.
The skull is typical of members of the order Draconis, with its pockets for potent breath weaponry, enlarged cranium and the parietal gap for the vestigial third eye. he parietal gap is actually more prominent in Lindworms than in other draconids. The general shape is the same as well, but tends to be more rounded, and has with a longer snout. Fewer of the Lindworms teeth are bone or beak like, and tend to a more omnivorous array, with molars and plate-teeth as well as the typical canines. The horns that do appear and small and simple, and particularly well preserved, suggesting that they may have had an enamel coating much like the creatures teeth.
The skin and scales are ill preserved, but from the few samples that do leave an impression suggest that those scales would be relatively small and thin in comparison too to their more armoured True-Dragon cousins. The smaller species often have spines emerging from their backs, but these appear to be closer too modified scales than bone, and were likely shed and regrown as the creature grew and was injured.
There are a few fossil specimens with multiple heads, or with branching tails, but these are some of the rarest (if largest) examples. The most complete multiple headed example is visible on the walls of Zavd'kairn's great hall, a forty foot example with two heads example.

Dietary Needs and Habits

From their living ancestors and from the jaw and teeth on the fossils, it seems most likely that Lindworms would be predators, but capable of chewing and digesting plant matter if necessary. Some fossilised stomach contents suggests this. They likely have a slow digestive system, and sleep after large meals. Like True Dragons, larger specimens would have difficulty finding enough food too support themselves, and have to be territorial and isolated. This creates further questions about the large fossil finds in the Wurmstone mountains.
Cannibalism is one of the dietary habits that there is definite evidence of in the fossil record.

EXTINCT

Scientific Name

Draconis Archaeo