The Immortal Naturalist's Guide to Cryptic Creatures: The Dire Salamander

This post is part of the Immortal Naturalist's Guide series. The explanation for that series can be found in this post.

    One of the most mysterious creatures of the bog land of Squee is the Dire Salamander, a salamander roughly the size of an alligator. This creature spends most of its time digging in the mud of the bogs and swamps of Squee for snails and crawfish, almost never being seen by the people of the bogs. Although it may not have much interest in hunting larger prey, the Dire Salamander is well-equipped to defend itself. The spines on its back and sides are razor sharp, and it is able to whip its bladed tail around faster than the eye can follow. A few bog people and swamp merchants actually claim to have seen the Dire Salamander, and I was able to track it down based on their reports of where they saw it. The beast does little to hide its presence, so it was mostly a matter of watching the edges of the water.

    After several weeks of observation, I witnessed several creatures try to pick a fight with the Dire Salamander. Inevitably, these foolish animals were torn to shreds, but they would usually get a few good hits in before their passing. Incredibly, the Dire Salamander seems to be able to heal most wounds in moments, as even the deepest slashes would seal up before blood could spill. It seems like this ability is a response to the razor sharp spines, but it is hard to say. Regardless of its origin, this magical ability makes the Dire Salamander a dangerous opponent. Should one ever be on its bad side, they will need some way to avoid being slashed to pieces, after which it becomes a battle of endurance. I assume that since it is not violent by nature, the Dire Salamander will attempt to flee when it sees its blades are ineffectual.

    While I do not believe it would do so willingly, the healing abilities of the Dire Salamander lead me to believe that one could harvest its spines without doing any long-term damage. Such sharp blades would be useful to most people, and with a near-unlimited supply, many people could have one. I also have reason to believe that the blood of the Dire Salamander can be used to reproduce its healing effect in others, but I was unable to restrain the creature for sample collection. Thinking back on it, restraining such a beast to harvest its spines and blood sounds like a fool's errand, and I would caution anyone foolish enough to try against it.