Kalopern

Appearance
Kalopern is a small Elder Dragon with dark scales and tenacious hide all over the body and yellow spots on legs, tail and belly. The tail appears short and thick but can be stretched with some loose scales and ends in a large cone-shaped scale. The legs are stout and muscular and the Elder Dragon has four long toes with hooked, solid claws. Kalopern's torso is quite flat and broad with few scales growing up from the spine building a loose ridge. There are numerous black spikes with yellow tip growing on the neck and upper wings. The wings are donned most of the time and they aren't very large only covering the upper back. The membranes are almost completely gone and the texture is quite rough. Kalopern's wing muscles are almost rudimentary and it can move the wings sidewards but hardly up or down. The small, eyeless head possesses four jaws which can be opened separately and have a cubic shape when closed, perpendicular to each adjacent one and aslant. Two rows of sharp and tainted teeth, which point slightly inwards, grow on each jaw.

Habitat and Ecology
Kalopern inhabits dark caves with as few light as possible While it isn't bound to nocturnal activity, the monster prefers moving about at night and rarely leaves the cave when no moonlight is present. Caves fitting the requirements of the monster are the caves of the Dark Hain, Frigid Mere, Moor, Thunderstorm Valley, Unyielding Desert and the Taiga.

The Elder Dragon is completely blind as its eyes have completely disappeared, its hearing isn't very distinct either even though it is still functional. Kalopern orientates through its sense of smell and sense of vibration. The monster perceives vibrations through the hollow, cone-shaped scale at the end of the tail which it keeps in contact with the solid surface of the cave ground, walls and ceiling. Both senses occupy most of the dragon's brain and it can differentiate and recognize all kinds of smells and vibrations after smelling or feeling them once. Kalopern is very prone to follow unknown smells or vibrations.

Apart from this kind of this curiousity the Elder Dragon is mainly driven by instinct. The monster attacks undiscriminately everything that has a body or body parts which fit in its mouth. Kalopern can perceive the size and shape of its prey by the vibrations caused by the movements of the victim and those caused by its tail hitting against the surface of the cave. When it does that, the loose scales on its tail start the rub at each other producing the characteristic rattling which reminds some people of the rattling noise of chains. Prey that is too big to swallow whole is gruesomely torn apart by its jaws and claws and devoured in pieces. If this doesn't work the dragon dissolves tissue with its necrosis-infused bite. After the meal not even bones are left. Younger members of this species may be attacked as well, but usually are let go because they're immune to the necrosis and paralysis of their kind and due to their tenacious hide.

Kalopern is unable to fly as its wings are too small to lift its body. As it lives all of its life in caves this doesn't inhibit the Elder Dragon in the slightest. The wings have now a different function. On the underside of the pinions are scales drenched in a body fluid with an intense, unpleasant stench which can be scattered by movement of the wings. The Elder Dragon then attaches them to a prey, monster or hunter to track it with its smell right when it first encounters them and gets close enough. Kalopern is able to follow the smell through the whole cave system and only exiting it will make the dragon give up. As it is used to the smell it isn't bothered by it. The stench takes some days to several weeks to get rid of depending on how long scales were stuck and cleansers only work temporarily.

A very unusual occurrence caused by the emergence of this Elder Dragon is the disappearance of any brightmoss in the vicinity of its activity radius. In the corpse of a slayed individual brightmoss was actually found in the stomach of the Kalopern. Different theories arised to explain this phenomenon like brightmoss being a complementary food source or parts of the moss having substances necessary to the production of its venoms. Further research actually led to the conclusion that the dragon eliminates all kinds of light sources in its living and hunting space before it inhabits the area and regularly gets rid off the regrown moss and other life forms that produce their own light.

The mating habits of this Elder Dragon are still a mystery but it gets assumed that the act is quite rough. Because of their instinctive aggressiveness two Kaloperns that encounter each other probably attack each other first. As they are immune to each other's attacks the injuries aren't too serious. Through releasing pheromones from its body and certain vibration frequences produced by the tail rattle the dragons recognize each other and are able to determine the sex of the other. If both are of the same sex they will separate, otherwise the mating gets performed. The female lays an uncertain amount of eggs or a singular egg in a difficult to access crevisse in a cave and leaves it to survive by itself. The youngs are already selfsufficient and hunt by instinct.

Interactions with other Monsters

 * Predators:
 * Kalopern has no known predators.
 * Prey:
 * The Elder Dragon will eat anything it gets inside its jaws. Bigger prey will be sliced to pieces to feed on.
 * Turf Wars:
 * WIP

Abilities
Kalopern is able to inflict necrosis with its bites and dark green breath attacks which are its main means of attack. The Elder Dragon can also release spikes from its back or wings which are able to cause paralysis. The scales it scatters with its wings inflict the soiled status if a hunter comes in contact with them. They also stay on the ground for a short period of time but the soiled ailment is weaker than a direct hit this way and dissipates quicker.

Physically apart from its bite attacks Kalopern uses its claws to tear opponents or utilizes its whole body to tackle or crush them. With its tail it can cause vibrations by striking it against the ground or wall able to stun an opponent like a roar, or the dragon stabs it into the ground and uses its scales to cause a small tremor, disbalancing nearby hunters or monsters. The monster is quite agile and uses the cave surfaces to its advantage by changing position in three dimensions quickly. The first thing Kalopern does when encountering a moving object is to scatter its scales to mark it. Most of its attacks can be used from a position on the ground, wall or ceiling.

Attacks

 * 1) Bite: The Elder Dragon opens its jaws and snaps them together into the target. May inflict necrosis.
 * 2) Claw strike: The monster lifts one of its forelimbs to then strike it down towards the opponent.
 * 3) Claw side strike: Similar to other Elder Dragons a short strike sideways to change the direction it faces.
 * 4) Claw and tail strike combo: Kalopern lifts its upper body up, lets out a small roar without the roar effect, strikes one of its claw down diagonally to the other side and uses the momentum to turn 180° and swipe its tail on the ground while turning. After that it strikes its tail into the ground at a target producing a roar-like sound stunning close-by opponents.
 * 5) Tail whip: Identical to other Elder Dragons
 * 6) Tail strike: Kalopern lifts up its tail and strikes it down somewhere behind it in a radius of 90° on both side directly behind it. Causes a rattle sound that has the same effect as a roar.
 * 7) Tail rattle: The dragon slides its tail on the ground a little bit faster behind it causing a rattle effect which stund opponents like a roar. Other attacks may be chained to this.
 * 8) Tail rattle breath combo: Has the same effect as the tail rattle but instead of dragging the tail behind, it bends its body to strike the tail forward then charges a breath attack. The breath gets released when the effect of the rattling is over and leaves little time to escape.
 * 9) Necrosis breath: Kalopern lifts its head for a bit and releases a necrosis-infused breath which it scatters to the side by swinging the head while slowly moving backwards.
 * 10) Pinpoint breath: When a stronger vibration is sent out closeby to the Elder Dragon it may turn its body or only its head to blast a short breath attack at the source of the vibration. The vibrations causing the attack range from rocks thrown, heavier weapons hitting the ground, a hunter jumping or falling from a certain height and similar impulses.
 * 11) Breath attack from ceiling: While on the ceiling Kalopern strikes its tail into it and lifts its upper body closer to the ground to release a breath attack in two lines crosswise to each other.
 * 12) Spike thrust: The monster lowers its head and thrusts its body forward to hit the target with the spikes on its upper back. May inflict paralysis.
 * 13) Spike impact: Kalopern shakes its body to prepare to jump from the ceiling in order to hit an opponent with its back spikes, inflicting paralysis.
 * 14) Scale scattering: The Elder Dragon opens its wings to release scales from beneath scattering either in front of it, sideways or behind it. This may inflict the soiled status.
 * 15) Scale release: When on the ceiling, like its breath attack, the monster rams its tail into the ceiling to lift its upper body into the air and spreads its wings to release a large cloud of scales which inflict soiled when come into contact.
 * 16) Necrosis nova: On the ceiling Kalopern releases a lot of necrosis-infused gas beneath it evenly spreading to each side. Then it charges its breath attack and lets itself fall into the middle of the cloud releasing an explosion of necrosis gas.

Materials
Kalopern Scale, Kalopern Shell, Kalopern Spike (when broken), Stinking Scale, Kalopern Cone (only when tail damaged), Kalopern Wing, Kalopern Claw (when damaged), Kalopern Fang (when head damaged), Kalopern Topaz