Adurciam [Monster]

[Aksia Carataqua]

Frequency: Common in The Northern Reaches Rare in Mura Uncommon in Sultros, Kalinor and Windreach Extremely rare in other parts of Mizahar Threat Level: High Major Features: Icy Dorsal Fin and Sapphire in the middle of their two dark light spots. Sapphires made from Adurciam's can sell for quite a bit. Abilities: Can freeze sources of water, change genders according to depth of they hunt in, grow in fresh water, then come out of water. They can still survive in water though. Most Common: Sultros and the Northern Reaches Adurciam are medium sized Valterric animals resembling fish that move through ice, they dig through the ice like moles and have the potential to completely freeze water sources. They are exceedingly hard to find and even harder to catch, unless an Adurciam is hunting, or coming up to breathe. They can sometimes be found in other parts of Mizahar because of their unique reproducing system. Appearance: Adurciam's range from sizes of 4 feet-6 feet, they have huge flowing tails that help slip through the ice, slick, and extremely thin bodies that are surrounded by frost covered scales to help them to slide through the ice they cut open. Small air sacks are located on the tip of each scale, each and everyone of these sacks are connected to the long air tube that it keeps tucked under its head, these air sacks are basically external lungs, when its cells go through the small veins on these air sacks they all absorb small amounts of air, these help the Adurciam because as they tunnel deeper into the ice, the pressure builds, making it hard to breathe with their conventional air tubes, so the air tubes are linked to these small sacks. Not only that, but the sacks are made of an extremely hard, but extremely stretchy organic membrane. They can use a single sack of air for almost 2 hours, and considering that they have air sacks on all of their scales and there are hundreds of scales on a single Adurciam they can indeed hold their breathes for long, long time, this not only helps them when going deep underground, but also help them when swimming in actual water. Adurciam also have a strange habit of collecting shiny gems, metals and other objects that reflect light, they suck them up with the air breathing tube and it will get sucked into one of the air sacks, after they return to their dens underground, they regurgitate them and use them either to charm potential mates, or just collect them. Adurciam also have 3 different hollow tubes, one that rotates furiously, tipped with a bunch of spikes, this tube resembles a drill, and it also uses it like a drill as the Adurciam has no arms, the drill clears the way for it in the ice, it breaks off pieces of the ice and the Adurciam squirms through it, this explains why they can't survive in places with dirt and soil instead of ice, because the soft dirt or soil could easily collapse on it, and instead of breaking apart like ice it would just be pushed aside, aside from that, the Adurciam wouldn't be able to slide through the ice like it normally does if it were to be put on land. The third tube is also hollow, but it is much sharper than the breathing tube, it uses this tube to feed, it siphons blood and all bodily fluids at an alarming rate with this tube and can easily drain 1-2 liters of blood in a matter of minutes, it hunts by using the two light spots on its head, near the colored sapphire, these two black light spots act as eyes and watch as something covers up the light, when something does, the Adurciam waits a few more seconds, if the object moves, the Adurciam gives chase, and when it is near enough, the Adurciam surges after it, leaping out of the ground and then impaling it with its sharp mouth, the blood is then used to maintain the drill-mouth, which is constantly rotating at high speeds. Adurciam also have a delightful habit of bludgeoning the said prey with their drill mouths, which leads to a painful and messy death for the prey. The Adurciam alternates between mouths with a movable jaw, think of it like a human jaw but with only three teeth, the teeth being the 3 tubes, it can change them easily by a slight movement of the jaw. History And Overview: Adurciam are Valterrics that were created when the Valterrian Djed storms changed fish that were frozen, trapped in ice, into Adurciam. The Djed storms elongated their dorsal fins, changed their scales, and increased their tolerance for ice. People found these freezing amphibious animals killing their flocks and sometimes even people through the ice and tried hunting them, they were mainly unsuccessful because even the most experienced hunters catch fish or game on the land and water, not ice, people then found out they could lure the fish out by dangling something over the ice, the animals would then rush up to the surface, only to be speared by these people, the humans then quickly became aware that these Valterrics weren't edible because when caught, and touched these fish would rapidly melt into a pool of water, leaving only their dorsal fins, where the organ that could freeze water was in (The dorsal fins are in a state of permafrost) and their sapphires, which could be sold at hefty prices. Soon after, people that found these Valterric monsters were soon catching them only for the valuable loot that they drop, and not for food, seeing as they melt into puddles of water soon after they are caught. Adurciam are extremely cold to the touch, being -35 Celsius whereas their eggs are extremely warm, almost 20 Celsius, the female has a lining in her ovaries to protect herself from this heat, temperatures of 5 Celsius or over will instantly reduce Adurciam to puddles. Diet: The Acurdiam enjoy jumping out of the ice, startling their prey and impaling it, before sucking them dry with their sharp needle-like mouths, they live on a healthy diet of blood. Reproduction and Social Structure: Adurciam reproduction is very unique, because Adurciam can change their genders according to the other Adurciam's who's homes are at the same depth in the ice as them, because weaker Adurciam breed with weaker ones, and stronger ones breed with the strongest ones, the tolerance for pressure differs in the strength of the Adurciam, but their reproduction habits are truly unique because Adurciam have neutral genders, they change their genders according to the amount of Adurciam in the same depth in the first square km they're in, if only two are present, and if both are fertile, they change, one into a female and one into a male, the males having red sapphires and the females having yellow ones, neutral gendered ones have blue sapphires. After mating, Adurciam keep their new genders. When 2 males contest for a female (Normally this doesn't happen because Adurciam change their genders equally, but in the case that the number of Adurciam is odd, the extra will be a male for sure) they offer gifts of gems to the female, the more gems that can be given, the higher the chance of the female choosing the male. The females lay about 20 eggs that look like sapphires, on the surface, they are always warm and rock hard, animals that mistakenly take them for berries and eat them will have about 20 small Adurciam feeding upon them in their stomachs, baby Adurciam are about 20 centimeters in length, and they look like adult ones, except that the rock hard egg case still coats them and they can roll up if harmed, because Adurciam at this stage are warm, they are immune to animals heat, whereas an adult Adurciam would instantly dissolve into a puddle, after 2 months the baby Adurciam is mature and must leave by the fourth month, lest they risk dissolving in the animals heat.

[Nyahna Sasin]

Well, I don't think that this is copying from anything.

[Aksia Carataqua]

Neither do I, I thought of it when I went on the bus.. XD

[Siiri]

Oh, you meant they freeze the surface of the body of water they are in. I've never seen fish that can swim thru solid ice. O.o

[Aksia Carataqua]

not really, they freeze the whole body of water and swim through the ice like a fish swims through water if it's unclear you have to tell me! , i'm still thinking about how the fish swims through it XD

[Siiri]

Oh okay. I can't imagine anything "swimming" through ice, so it probably moves by osmosis or something. *shrugs* I'm not really a since guy so I wouldn't know.

[Colombina]

A unique idea. With some tuning, this could be a cool creature.

On the swimming note, maybe use the spines in their mouths like drills. So they could chip through ice and build tunnels like ants and moles do. They'd be pseudo amphibious. Just a thought.

Also, why do the fish melt and leave a dorsal fin made of ice, that seems like it could melt too, upon being caught?

[Alistair deGrey]

Im pretty sure osmosis doesn't apply to solids

Also, what form is this oxygen in (The oxygen it pushes out of its pores)? By frozen oxygen, I'm assuming you mean its a solid right? Actually, I'm not entirely sure fish have pores. I may be wrong through >>

Idunno, thats pretty cold for one. Also, How big is each individual frozen oxygen droplet(?)?

Oxygen's boiling point is at about 90 K, and its melting point is at 50.5 K. So what I'm getting at is, maybe you should tone down the temperature a bit. If the oxygen is frozen, it'd probably make the pond so cold even the eggs might get damaged. Also, pushing out solid oxygen through your pores doesn't sound very pleasant (xD). However, even if you lowered the temp to something nearer the egg's temperature, it'd freeze the pond solid and seem a bit more plausible given other temperatures.

Also, you might want to mention the similarities between the fish's spikes on its face and a mosquito's needle or even just a needle. Its vague until you describe the function. Also, I'm still a bit sketchy as to where the needle appendage is. Is it on the face, in the mouth, or is it the mouth itself. Because if it consumes its food through this straw thing, then why would it need a mouth.

One last thing (sorry). What is this fish's body temperature? Since it deals so much with temp, that part is pretty important. Secondarily because if the fish's body temp is too cold, it'd probably freeze the blood either in the straw or in its stomach. That makes digestion pretty tough ^^

Also, maybe an idea for the fish. What if the fish had a metabolic reaction when it is awake that melts a thin layer of the surrounding ice? This way the fish could move through water more plausibly. Then, when it sleeps, the reaction could die down for the most part (leaving an area near the head/gills warm because the reaction doesn't fully stop) and that is when it releases the cold oxygen that keeps the lake frozen. However, the water would refreeze which would make pushing out the oxygen relatively difficult. So maybe it'd be better if the reaction occurred in the upper body mainly. So the heat would emanate from point A on the fish's upper half, and then it'd only occur enough in the lower half so as to allow the fish to slide itself out of its current position. Then the cold oxygen would trail behind it, emitted from some gland in its tail. This would be how the fish refreezes the water behind it. So it wouldn't technically be swimming through ice, but it would sure look like it is. The metabolic reaction would also keep the blood from freezing. Idunno, I may have misread the article ^^. If this is vague just let me know.

Anyway, yeah. Not much, just a few things here and there. Pretty good overall!

Regards,
Morse

[Nyahna Sasin]

Wow. You got good reactions. I'll buy you a cookie for lunch. I agree with alistair though. It seems better if it has a little "bubble" of water that "moves " with it.

[Aksia Carataqua]

OKAY I CHANGED IT Thanks Morse, I hope it';s a bit better, if it isn't then tell me again! lol i made them more like ice moles that look like fish now!