Hókígyó

Description

The ground rumbles, the snow stirs, the battle quiets as everyone stops for a brief moment to avoid accidentally wounding the beast and angering it. Then it passes, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, and the battle continues.
Some creatures are prey, some are predators, most are both. But some, some are nothing short of natural disasters. The hókígyó, the great snow serpent, belongs to the last category. Many have speculated as to what caused any creature to grow to such gargantuan sizes. Perhaps they were created by a powerful divinity who has since lost its following to the beasts, perhaps it was an effect of the káoszmag, or maybe they were just always this way?
In many ways it looks like a gargantuan crossing between a worm, a snake and something else. Its body is covered in rock-solid chitinous plates, adorned with a series of serrated spikes. It possesses a monstrous maw with several rows of deadly teeth, and several larger mandibles surrounding it to grab hold of objects, or simply burrow through.
Its body is only 2-3 meters wide, but can reach anywhere from 15 to nearly 30 meters in length. It moves by contracting and extending its body in bursts, which allows it to move at surprising speeds and make sharp turns. It obtains most of its food from the soil, products of decaying plant and animal matter and the like. Occasionally when it is very hungry or if it is angered, it will come up to feed on other creatures. Without provocation however, it is rather docile and will rarely bother to hunt as long as its needs are satisfied.

Intelligence and Behavior

They are solitary creatures who spend most of their time underground and possess only a very basic animal intelligence. They cannot be communicated, reasoned or bartered with in the slightest. It simply follows its instincts. That makes them all the more terrifying.
They are actually capable swimmers and they can be found near the coast, but food tends to be more present in the ground so that is where they usually are. The one exception is that they seem strangely drawn to Lake Rejtiga and the structures below it.
They lay their eggs in specific areas, often in the homes of other creatures with which they form a symbiotic relationship. These eggs look like light bluish spheres that are often suspended from cavern ceilings or walls, stuck there by the worms saliva.

Statistics

[5th Edition D&D]
The Frost Worm statblock with the addition of a 30 feet swim speed sufficiently represents the basic traits of a hókígyó. Its Freezing Body could be a product of káoszmag mutation.

Geographic Distribution

• Jégoria

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Biological Quirks

Interestingly enough, the snow serpent leaves behind a trail of ground that would be surprisingly fertile, if it weren't packed between several layers of snow. They process all the waste they take in while scouring the land, and compost it into a mixture called vermicompost.
But moving through the soil also requires a tremendous amount of energy, even with a body as large as that of the hókígyó. They rely on a certain amount of inertia, and will usually move at a slow but constant pace. They only bother to stop or accelerate if the pay-off is large, or they are hungry beyond reason. Its skeleton is also made from carbon fiber, far lighter than bone, which saves significantly on the energy it needs to expend to keep itself moving.
Most interesting though is the fact that they possess an altered ATP that allows it to produce ATP at a higher rate. In addition, it has evolved to be able to produce ATP at lower temperatures. Together these adaptations mean that it has a much higher cellular concentration of ATP, which allows it to maintain its energy level even at freezing temperatures. Of course, society has nowhere near the scientific knowledge to know this, and thus the hókígyó are often thought of as 'ice demons' or similar.