There's a snake on the western wave And his crest is red. He is long as a city street, And he eats the dead. There's a hole in the bottom of the sea Where the snake goes down. And he waits in the bottom of the sea For the men that drown. Chorus: — This is the voice of the sand (The sailors understand) "There is far more sea than sand, There is far more sea than land. Yo . . . ho, yo . . . ho. " -Vachel Lindsay
an oil spill, or an algal bloom, a reeking
greenish-black churning the water into poison, surrounded by bloated,
bobbing dead things.
2
a dire albatross cresting a wave, its flared hood wide as any wingspan.
3
a deeper, darker blue than is seen in the sea - the colour of the darkness between the stars.
4
a stream of petals torn from floating lotuses.
5
a river of bright, thick blood, undiluted, unclotting.
6
the horrific slithering of some parasitic worm through translucent layers of flesh.
D6
People who sail the sea which this serpent inhabits view it
1
as a demanding and territorial god.
2
as the devil incarnate - countless would-be heroes have disappeared down its gullet and in its crushing coils.
3
as more of a natural disaster than a mortal creature.
4
as their wrathful guardian spirit.
5
as the soul of that sea, vital and fickle as its watery body.
6
as the ultimate proof and prize of a true fisherman's mettle.
D6
This sea serpent lairs
1
among the seaweed-wrapped wreckage of a sunken fleet.
2
in the baroque, opaline shell of some titanic mollusc.
3
in the crack of an abyssal rift.
4
in the evacuated palace of some Atlantean race.
5
in a sea-glass cathedral built for it by its sahuagin worshipers.
6
in a grotto in a hidden cove.
D6
This sea serpent can
1
exhale a poisonous mist.
2
call up storms by waving its spiny tail-rattle.
3
rebirth those it's swallowed as serpentine, amphibious servitors.
4
create a whirlpool by swimming in circles.
5
reanimate its own shed skins as fragile phantoms.
6
dive right down into hell itself.
D6
This sea serpent is
1
prone to attacking ships that fly red flags or sails.
2
the child of a divine being - harming it will provoke its parent's wrath.
3
as present in the collective unconscious as it is in
waking reality - if it eats you in a dream you'll become obsessed with
it, whether to hunt it or revere it.
4
looking for a mate, and thus easily lured by pheromones or scale models.
5
vulnerable to attacks to its underside, which it tends to keep submerged.
6
possessed by the ghost of a brine hag, which drives it to rampage more than is natural for it.
D6
From the body of this sea serpent you might take
1
its fangs, which could be worked into magically-venomous weapons.
2
its scales, which a master could shape into a magical suit of armour.
3
its eyes, which could be preserved and enchanted as orbs that can scry on anything upon the sea.
4
its blood, in which one could bathe to precipitate a pseudo-draconic ascension.
5
its tongue, which could be rendered into a potion that would allow its drinker to speak with water itself.
6
its ribs, which could be made into musical instruments which command sea-life with their tunes.
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