Monster Monday: Zahhak - Snake-Filled Three-Headed Dragon

"When the Hero burst into the throne room, the wicked King Dahag was feeding the snakes sprouting from his shoulders - the snakes it was forbidden on pain of death to speak of or even look at. Dahag's guards rushed forward, shamshirs flashing silver, four-mirrored armor blazing with reflected flames. The Hero kicked over a brazier, scattering hot coals toward the guards, then leapt over the fire and met them blade-to-blade. His sword crackled with magic as he swept it through the servants of the divs, parting mail rings and biting into cursed flesh. 

   "Sword dripping with black blood, the Hero advanced on the throne, there to smite the wicked king. As he raised his gleaming sword, the king exploded. In his place towered a massive black serpent, bloated and venomous, with three swaying dragon heads. The creature that was the king struck. The Hero dodged the first head and parried the second, but the third struck true. Long fangs bit through his armor and acrid poison spread through his body. He rolled forward to avoid the next attack and slashed at the underbelly of the monster, opening up a huge gash in the creature's flesh. Instead of hot blood, dozens of venomous snakes poured out of the wound, swarming around the Hero. 

   "This fight would not be easy. But this was the Hero's last chance to slay the wicked king and forestall a thousand years of unholy terror."

Today's Monster Monday is the zahhak, a three-headed dragon from ancient Persian mythology whose body is filled with venomous snakes. Not only does this beast bleed snakes (metal af), but it can shapeshift into a humanoid form, the better to further its plans of conquest and domination.

Aži Dahāka, also known as Dahāg, appears in the ancient Zoroastrian text Avesta as a three-headed beast who rules the land for one thousand years until the hero Fereydun defeated him and, finding that his wounds unleashed poisonous creatures into the world, bound him within a mountain instead of killing him outright. Aži Dahāka's name, or some variation of it, became the word for dragon in many Persian-influenced Middle Eastern languages.

In the Shahnameh, the thousand-year-old Islamic Persian epic poem, the figure appears as Zahhāk, an evil king cursed with two serpents emerging from his shoulders. The epic tells how Zahhāk overthrew and sawed in half the hero-king Jamshid, took his beautiful daughters captive, and ruled for centuries until he was overthrown by the hero Fereydun.

via Wikimedia

Zahhak enthroned with the daughters of Jamshid, from a 1615 copy of the Shahnameh

The following text in gold is available as Open Game Content under the OGL. Open Game Content is ©2018 Jonah Bomgaars.

Snake Attack! Snake Venoms Revisited

Raiders of the Lost Ark - Paramount Pictures

"Snakes.  Why'd it have to be snakes?"

"Asps.  Very dangerous... You go first!"

I was researching snake venom recently (as part of my ongoing effort to make my search history as incriminating as possible) and decided snake venom in Pathfinder needed to be revised.  Venomous snake bites in Pathfinder all have the same effect - Constitution damage.  In reality, venomous snakes bear neurotoxins that slowly paralyze their prey, hemotoxins that cause tissue decay and uncontrollable bleeding, and mixes of the two, with dendrotoxins and cytotoxins and other heinous crap thrown in for good measure.

Dexterity damage seems like a good choice to simulate neurotoxic paralysis, and Strength damage and Bleed work well for Hemotoxins.  A few choice status effects like 'sickened' and 'nauseated' serve to simulate the wide range of other symptoms snake bites can induce, including rashes, dizziness, tunnel vision, soreness, and, of course, nausea.

Snake venom is slower-acting and longer-lasting than what the viper stat block would have you believe.  I made the frequency for most snake venoms "1/minute" instead of "1/round", but where many snake venoms may last "for six rounds", my venoms are endless.  You gotta make those saves or you will die ...eventually.  That means a fight against snakes at the dungeon entrance might still be affecting you deeper in the dungeon.

There are two main types of venomous snake: vipers, which include rattlesnakes, adders, and pit vipers; and elapids, which include cobras, coral snakes, mambas, kraits, and sea snakes.  Elapids tend to have neurotoxins, with the more dangerous ones (black mambas, for example) having a sprinkling of other toxins.  Water snakes are neurotoxic, but because you are most likely to encounter them while swimming (a Strength-based skill), I made their venom deal Strength damage to heighten the danger.  Vipers, on the other hand, usually have hemotoxins.  Hemotoxins are slower-acting than neurotoxins (I gave them a frequency of 1/hour instead of 1/minute), so vipers tend to strike and fall back, tracking down their victim later, after they have succumbed to the poison.  Fun fact: vipers can track their prey by the smell of the chemicals in their bites.  Scarier vipers, like the mojave rattlesnake, also have neurotoxins in their bite.

I've also added a new mechanic to add variable degrees of failure to saves against venom.  Now, if you fail your save, you take the venom's effects, but if you fail your save by 5 or more, you take a worse set of effects.  For instance, a coral snake's venom deals 1d2 Dex damage, but a failure by 5 or more leaves you paralyzed until your next save.

Enough discussion.  Like cardiotoxin, let's get right to the heart of the matter.

The following rules and poisons in gold are available as Open Game Content under the OGL.  Open Game Content is ©2015 Jonah Bomgaars and d20 Despot.