Crocomanders By Imperator-Zor Watch

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Crocomanders are large amphibians native to the swamplands around the Icemountain Sea and as the the name implies fill the same ecological niche as crocodiles as aquatic ambush predators. Unlike crocodilians, crocomanders are capable of handling winters by burring themselves in mud and hibernating through the winter months. Crocomanders have a greyish brown complexion, knobby leathery skin (which they can breathe through) and a mouth with powerful jaws full of razor sharp teeth. An typical adult crocomander is between 2.25 to 3 meters long, though some individuals as large as 3.4 meters long and weighing in at over 300 kilograms have been found and larger one still have been reported. Adult Crocomanders are capable of moving on land, but are rather sluggish out of water and can only stay out of water for a few days at most. While they can be found elsewhere to the west as far as the Allergonian Empire, they are praticularly prolific in the Great Bog



Adult Crocomanders have a low metabolism and are as a rule quite lethargic creatures and a substantial meal can satiate them for months. Most of their diet is fish, birds and freshwater crabs, but they are far more famous for the fact that adult crocomanders will take prey as large as elk. Their have also have been plenty of instances in which Crocomanders have killed and eaten humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and wildspawn. Crocomanders have little compunction against cannibalism and will eat smaller crocomanders.



Crocomanders breed in the springtime, letting out deep gurgling rumbles to attract mates and congegating in calm pools to lay and fertilize their eggs. An fully grown female crocomander can lay as many as 500,000 eggs at a time which she will brood in her mouth until hatching. In about six to ten days the eggs hatch into tadpoles about one to two centimeters long which will leave the mother. For the first few months of their lives crocomander tadpoles are herbivorous feeling on algae and detritus as they grow in size to about 10-15 centimeters in length, then they become predatory as they develop teeth and begin to hunt small animals and searching for carrion for food as over a period of a month they develop legs, loose their gills and become juveniles. Juveniles measure between 20 to 45 centimeters long and will remain at this phase through winter hibernation and for the next year. In is in the juvenile stage of their lives that crocomanders are most comfortable on land and spend most of their time out of water and even have been known to climb trees. After the Juvenile phase they become adolescents, sexually mature and primarily aquatic if still fairly small in the area of 40 to 60 centimeters long. Most Crocomanders reach full size at four or five years and can live up to 120 years. Crocomanders do not have a fixed sex, a crocomander can be male one year and female the next depending on the availability of mates.



Crocomanders are sometimes hunted for sport and for their meat, which is a foodstuff for locals and is in some circles reckoned a delicacy. Crocomander roe can be used in a variety of magical potions. Some success has been achieved with raising them in captivity though the market is not particularly profitable. Attempts at exterminating them are rarely successful due to the fact that they breed quite prolifically and the ease at which they can reestablish themselves. Juvenile crocomanders are often considered pests and chicken eaters. A common tale in the Allergonian Empire, eastern principalities and similar is that of the Crocomander's Quartermaster. According to said story during the fall of the Third Empire a traveling merchant who as the son of a bog fisherman was taken by a southern Drow lord as a guide, promising to let him go if he complies and to torture him to death if he does not. As such he led them into a swamp where the army got bogged down, was eaten by the crocomanders while the guide takes advantage of the chaos and slinks off. Fine details differ from legend to legend such as which swamp the drow were led into and the profession and gender of the guide. In some accounts the army was eaten to the last being while in others some escape but were picked off by the Imperial Legions. In any case this does highlight the danger that adult crocomanders can present to the incautious.

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