1E
The 1E version of the dragon turtle, so far as we can tell, has much in common with traditional depictions of the creature. It has a turtle-like shell and a long, thick neck that probably doesn't retract inside (as, indeed, is the case for some real-world turtles). The head is clearly draconic, with a snout and fangs rather than the toothless beak of turtles, and a pair of feelers or decorative tufts on the forehead. Significantly, it also has the prominent dorsal crest seen on many D&D dragons. We can't see the limbs in the illustration, but we're told that they have claws - something true of most real-world turtles although, as it happens, not of the deep sea sort, which have flippers.
In 1E, dragon turtles have the same age and size categories as true dragons do, implying that they grow and become more powerful throughout life. Perhaps surprisingly, despite the presence of the shell, their armour, while impressive, is no better than that of a bronze dragon, and thus less effective than a red, silver, or gold. This may be intended to indicate that the animal is not especially agile, thus making it comparatively easy to hit its weak spots. This is further supported by the creature's slow movement rate and the fact that it clearly has difficulty moving about on land.
In terms of sheer physical resilience, however, the dragon turtle rates a couple of notches up even from the gold dragon. Its claws are more deadly than those of any true dragon, but the bite only matches the dragons of the second-highest rank - the reds and silvers. It is more intelligent than most chromatic dragons, although less so than any of the metallics. They speak a language distinct from, and presumably mutually unintelligible with, that of true dragons. In fact, one of the few ways in which they are obviously inferior is that, unlike true dragons, none of them seem able to cast spells.
2E
The 2E version has a shell that resembles that of a loggerhead sea turtle, but has long-toed and webbed feet (not unusual in turtles, if rather more extreme in this case, but quite unlike a loggerhead's flippers). The head has a short beak rather than a snout, although we can't tell whether it still has teeth or not, and there is a remarkably long, if not especially draconic, tail. Indeed, overall, the creature looks more like a gigantic turtle than it does a dragon, with the only clear sign of the draconic relationship being the rather reduced dorsal crest on the neck.
The statistics of the dragon turtle are the same as in 1E, although there's no indication that the rules on dragon age categories are supposed to apply to it. Significantly, however, it's in this edition that the power of true dragons starts to escalate. Since the dragon turtle doesn't, it goes all the way from being more physically powerful than the strongest of true dragons (the gold) to being on a par with the weakest (the white). The breath weapon actually increases in power, but no longer outclasses those of the more powerful true dragons, as it did before.
3E
In 3E, the shell has changed again, this time to resemble that of a leatherback sea turtle - although it's evidently bony rather than leathery, this is at least good for streamlining. The beak is more prominent here, and clearly does not have the teeth of 1E so that, again it does not look especially draconic or much resemble the mythic depictions that inspired it. The limbs are very powerful, with a reduced number of toes and the tail has a long vertical fin that may allow it to function as a rudder.
This time, the dragon turtle does become more powerful than it was in the previous edition, but this is largely due to changes in the rules and, once again, true dragons have experienced an even larger increase. A dragon turtle is now physically equivalent only to a sub-adult white dragon, rather than a full adult, and its armour is no longer in the upper range. On the other hand, it does have a higher strength rating and its bite is actually a good deal more powerful than that of even particularly large dragons. The breath weapon remains impressive, but less so than it was originally.
And dragon turtles do not gain the additional powers that true dragons do.
5E
We're back to the loggerhead-type shell in this edition, but we otherwise have yet another look for the monster. The limbs are flipper-like, although they do have short and stout claws. The neck is shorter than before, and the dorsal crest has gone altogether. The beak does seem to have teeth this time, and the creature also has long flapping ears reminiscent of those of the blue dragon. It evidently has a muscular tail, but the illustration doesn't show it, so whether or not it also has the fin is unknown (but probably not, given the look of the rest of it).
The dragon turtle does regain some of its relative power in this edition, physically outclassing all the regular adult dragons (as opposed to "ancient" ones) in just about every respect. The breath weapon is about the same, relatively speaking, as in 3E, respectable by draconic standards, but not exceptional. The dragon turtle's intelligence has dropped to that of a regular human and, of course, it now speaks the regular Draconic language along with Aquan - but not Common, as true dragons do.
Dragon turtles are, like wyverns, officially listed as draconic creatures which, especially in 3E, implies some degree of biological similarity. This doesn't necessarily mean that they are full-on synapsids as dragons are said to be, since the relationship could be partial - for example, a draconic brain and head on an otherwise reptilian body. Which is no stranger than a griffin and arguably less so. This seems particularly likely in the 1E version of the monster and broadly matches the original myth as well. However, later editions make the animal closer to a real-world turtle in appearance. Thus, while the high intelligence, breath weapon, and other draconic features make it unlikely that the animal truly is a giant turtle, it seems plausible that most of its internal anatomy mirrors its external form in being chelonian.
However, aside from the obvious modifications to the skeleton, the anatomy of turtles is not radically different from that of other air-breathing vertebrates. All the major organs we would expect, such as the stomach, liver, kidneys, pancreas, thyroid and so on, are present. Admittedly, there are some biological alterations from the usual reptilian norm in, for example, the way the animal breathes. Most reptiles, like mammals and birds, breathe by making the ribcage rise and fall, but this won't work with turtles because the ribcage is a completely rigid structure, forming most of the shell. This requires some anatomical adjustments, as does (in the case of sea turtles) the need to dive and hold breath for prolonged periods, but such features are not the sort of thing that's easily observed externally.
A feature that is, perhaps, more obvious, is the question of reproduction. Turtle eggs, like those of all other reptiles and birds, will drown if submerged - they need air. Which isn't an issue for tortoises (which are, of course, just land-dwelling turtles) or even too much for those turtles living in ponds or other small bodies of water, but obviously is for sea turtles. Famously, they can travel long distances to beaches where they lay and bury their eggs in sand, abandoning them and hoping that, when they eventually hatch, enough of the young can survive the mad dash to the water to survive.
Dragon turtles, despite living in a similar environment to real-world sea turtles, do have the advantage of being intelligent and capable of planning and constructing some kind of lair. Indeed, lairs seem to be important to them, just as is the case for regular dragons. For that matter, the adults are capable of breathing water, so the eggs might not have the same vulnerability as those of real-world reptiles anyway.
Whether the lair needs to be air-filled or not, it's plausible that the dragon turtle can lay its eggs there, and stand guard over them. This means that they will not need to produce such a large number of eggs as true turtles do, and they more likely resemble their fellow dragons in this respect.
Perhaps the main difference is that they are solitary (as turtles are) rather than living, even temporarily, in mated pairs. This may also imply that the wyrmling-turtles leave home not long after hatching, rather than staying with their parents. (Although, if so, they still need to learn the Draconic language somehow...) In this regard it's worth noting that early editions of the game imply that dragon turtles grow throughout life, going through the same life stages as regular dragons, even though this is not specifically mentioned (or, in fairness, denied) in later ones.
The signature attack of the dragon turtle is, of course, its ability to eject a cone of superheated steam, even when underwater. Producing steam, as we've seen with the red dragon, is something that's biologically possible since real-world bombardier beetles do it. They spray the boiling hot water from a chamber in their rear end, not from their mouth, but this is not an insurmountable problem. If the steam is produced in the dragon turtle's stomach then, in reality, it would scald and damage the oesophagus when it was blasted out, but it could be created in some chamber in the mouth (modified salivary glands, perhaps?)... and anyway, dragon turtles are immune to heat damage.
It is possible that the dragon turtle needs to gulp down water to turn into steam, but this is only an issue if they are somehow encountered on dry land.
No comments:
Post a Comment