Kluzd

A snake-like creature with a great frill of scales flaring around its throat, this reptilian beast bursts from beneath shallow mudflats to drag its prey to their doom.

Combat
The kluzd spends much of its time slumbering in the cool darkness of its mud patch, but when it detects movement in the mire, it swims swiftly towards the disturbance, striking if it believes it can best its prey. The striking kluzd invariably flares its neck scales out in an attempt to intimidate its prey.

The kluzd bites with its needle-sharp teeth and immediately grapples in an attempt to pull its prey beneath the surface and into the deeper mire. The kluzd both attempts to crush its prey to death as well as hold it beneath the surface in the hope that the target drowns.

When the prey is dead (or at least stops struggling) the kluzd will swallow it and retreat to the bottom of its muddy lair to digest its meal. A kluzd will only swallow prey as a form of attack when severely threatened, as the fully gorged kluzd is hardly a mobile adversary.

Description
The kluzd is a reptilian predator related to the constrictor snake that inhabits the mudflats of the Tablelands. Biting and throttling its prey, the kluzd is only a danger within the mudflats themselves, as it cannot burrow through sand and rapidly dries out under the Athasian sun.

The males of the species have distinctive turquoise and white coloration around their head and neck frills, but the females lack these markings, instead having a sandy brown body flecked with black along its length.

Growing up to ten feet in length, an adult kluzd is able to swallow a man whole, although this distorts its shape somewhat. A kluzd weighs as much as 500 lbs.