Catoblepas

Height:  15 feet at the shoulder

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Weight:

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Habitat: Swamps of the Ugarite Valley

Diet:  Omnivores, prefering swamp vegetation and small fish or amphibians

Nearest Relation:  Elephants

Catoblepas is a monstorusly ugly animal that dwells in foetid swamps.  The Catoblepas is a among the most feared animals in the world. It resembles a large elephant covered in shaggy red hair. This "hair" is actually a series of thin tendrils of flesh rich in blood which it uses to cool itself in the enormous heat of the Da'athi marshes. Its neck is long and slender and cannot support the weight fully of its tusked head, so it walks with its face down, sifting through the mud with an overdeveloped lower jaw containing a pair of broad, flat, molars that dredge the swamp as it walks. Its tusks are truly immense, also full of blood, and involved in cooling its significant girth. It has a long, reddish orange trunk which it can use both to gingerly pick up vegetation and small creatures, as well as to breathe, as it drags its open mouth through the mud. Shaggy fur covers its eyes for the most part, rendering it nearly blind. They stand almost fifteen feet tall at the shoulder, and have specialized grips on their feet for moving through the swamps shifting terrain.

They are ominvores but prefer to eat swamp vegetation and small fish and amphibians which wander too close to their massive jaws. If aroused however, Catoblepas are truly terrifying creatures. Their faces, normally hidden in the mud contain millions of photophores which, when activated, induce seizures and psychotic episodes. As if that weren't enough, the vegeation the Catoblepas subsists on includes the deadly leontophontes plant. It stores the gasses from digesting this herbiage in a specialized bladder and can release them through its mouth or trunk, effectively poisoning most other creatures unlucky enough to inhale when it releases the bladder of gasses.

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