Hydrurga Schlegeli

This Animalian creature is a mixture of a Leopard Seal(main animal) and a Royal penguin (sub animal). The name it is known by in the Animalian world is Hydrurga Schlegeli, although some will use a shorthand name of the Hydrurga Aves. They are compact creatures, and as juveniles, they are around 3'00" tall (from nose to tail) and 200-300 LBS, but once they reach adulthood, they balloon to 6'10" and 400 LBS in size. They have a small crown of feathers on their brow that they can fan out quickly to momentarily startle others. The back of their body is covered in thick, coarse fur that bleeds a bit onto the two flippers. The bottom of their body is coated in a slick, thin fur, making it easy for them to slide on their bellies or in the water. They have a set of clawed, pink back feet that they use to push themselves forward when they are above water. Their mouths are generally small, but their jaw is filled with sharp teeth and a biting force that can crack bones. A speckling of darker colors is often found on their light-colored bellies.

Hydrurga Schelgeli tend to live in extremely cold areas that are constantly covered with snow. Their thick layer of blubber helps them to keep warm in these fridged areas. They often spend mornings sitting ontop of the ice absorbing as much heat from the sun as they can before they head out for the day to hunt for food. Although often found in herds of up to 10 seals in the morning, they commonly separate before regrouping upon nightfall when they go out to hunt. At nightfall, they will pile up together to keep warm. They can sometimes be found in large stacks at night, drifting out to sea on chunks of ice that broke off of the mainland due to the group's heavyweight.

The main source of food for Hydrurga Schegeli are eggs and any unsuspecting creature they can sneak up on. When it comes to eggs they will often lay in wait for whatever is guarding the nest to leave before they quickly scoot up to the undefended nest and consume as many eggs as possible before they are cased out by the nest owner or others nearby. However, they will resort to their more deadly hunting technique if there are no eggs around. They will find any creatures who have wandered onto large ice shelves that sit over bodies of water, be it a lake that has frozen over or the almost solid ground ice that reaches into the vast oceans. They will then quickly rush the creature and, using their large body mass, will jump into the air and slam down on the ice in front of the creature causing their prey to fall into the fridge waters below.  As their prey tries to panic and get out of the water, the Hydrurga Schelgeli will slip into the depths and attempt to pull them under and drown them, the water often turning red as the target does their best to escape the Hydrurga Schelgeli's grasp. It is wise to be careful when traveling over ice once the breeding season has ended, as these creatures are not afraid to drag even Animalian into the cold depths.

in the world of Animalia there are special traits and abilities that creatures and animalian alike posses. Upon death, these talents disappear. However, a particularly skilled hunter can preserve a creature's abilities past death, passing these talents onto any item that the creature is then used for, such as to be made into an article of clothing or used in a meal. Any Animalian who then consumes or uses these items will then gain the creature's abilities. Some of these items for this creature can be found here.

The creature sheet with full information on combat with a Hydrurga Schegeli can be found here. Although a weak creature, if it catches you unaware, it can quickly drown you.

 This creature also has cards in the Monsterous Creatures card game. More info, as well as art for these cards, can be found here.