Snapdragon

It's a dragon ... technically ... right?

Rooted In Mystery

There is a place in The Dolomites where, at the base of the jagged rocky peaks, flowers grow. Through the cracks and devices beneath the soil, flows a trickling little leyline that jsut circles round and round the Dolomites. This little leyline does not connect to with the rest of lines that flow about the world.

At The Roots

At the root of the rocky peaks of The Dolomites a strange little line of ley threads about it. This tiny line is an endless loop that does not connect to any other leyline in the world. For unknown centuries it has done so unnoticed until Wizard Franz von Wulfen from Klagenfurt, who lived as a Jesuit priest, climbed two of the peaks in the 1790s. Franz discovered the little leyline but spent little time studying them as he and his expeditions were fascinated with a very strange creature they discovered.

The Creature

At first they thought them green bats that flew about in the day instead of the night until they caught one in a net. Tragically, the creature was harmed by the net and died, bleeding green plant juice instead of blood. Its bat-like wings were very sturdy leaf material framed by strong stems instead of bones. From tip of snout to tip of tail it measured a mere half a foot and looked like a seahorse with bat-wings. Its head was more akin to a dragon's as the long jaws were lined with sharp teeth.
Further study of the creatures, led Franz to discover they grew from a variety of flower know as a snapdragon. Each flower grew one to three long stems that thinkened into a leaf pod. When the pod opened, the head and wings of a juvenile creature came, the rest of it body still attacked to the flower's stem. The juveniles grew for another week or so before chewing off their flower's stem and flying off on their own. Not knowing what else to call the fascinating creatures, he called them snapdragons.
There were no other writings from Franz after his first two expeditions to the Dolomite peaks. His third expedition had just begun to set up when something happened. No one knows what happened but when supplies were delivered three weeks later, they place was shredded and every one was dead. A strange acidic juice was sprayed everywhere.

Junevile Snapdragons

by GDJ

Johan heard of the terrible end to the Von Wulfen expeditions and went to investigate. What he found was that the little snapdragons were verp sapient creatures with their own language. Johan talked to them.
Their very existence depends on staying close to their leyline. None of them want to dare leaving the Dolomites to look for another leyline and certainly not as specimens the expedition had come to collect. For their very survival, they destroyed the expedition. Johan deemed this a case of self-defence and left the snapdragons in peace. He did, however, warn the Shadow Network to beware of the snapdragons and to stay away from the odd leyline there as it was a deadly place. It is a warning all the dragonflies have thus far heeded.