[h2]Scolopendra[/h2]

It was the middle of the night, when a frigate crossed the northern waves of the Middle Sea. Captain Jebediah knew about the disappearing ships in these waters, but he was convinced that he was suited to steer his vessel through the wildest storm, where lesser men may have failed and caused wild and nonsensical rumors to spread. There was a decent wind going, the sea was relatively calm and a myriad of stars blessed his passage. The only thing missing was the moon, locked away behind a prison of clouds at the edge of the horizon. And though the circumstances seemed perfectly peaceful, the captain insisted on staying awake, steering his old lady through the brine.

As if to announce the following events, the wind grew weaker. A man's voice commented on this with a few shouts from the front of the ship, but Jebediah already knew. Stroking his unkempt beard, he pondered if it was enough to carry her onward. At least there was no current they had to struggle against. "[i]Keep 'er going, slow and steady wins the race.[/i]" He shouted at the few uncertain faces of one third of his crew, the rest below deck and sleeping or gambling, most likely. Something threatening was in the air, a sour smell of sorts. The seafahrer didn't believe in stories of man-eating monsters dwelling in the oceans, nor did he believe in dragons, had he never seen one with his own eyes in thirty years of his career at sea. His subordinates however...

It started with a splash of water. The unmistakable sound of a man falling into the cold waves, never to surface again. "[i]What in damnation was that![/i]" Jebediah growled, as his men raced to both sides of the ship to look for the man overboard. "[i]'es gone...[/i]" someone proclaimed somewhere. "[i]There's something in the water![/i]" another cried out, scared. "[i]Sharks no doubt, and they'll get a nice snack if ye don't man up, Richards.[/i]" was the dry answer of the man at the wheel. "[i]Every man back on their posts![/i]" They scuttered away again, unwillingly. In the dark of the night, nobody noticed the towering black serpent emerging from the brine, right-hand in front of the ship. It wasn't until the monster opened its maw and bathed half of the deck in the light of its purple glowing mucus-like saliva that people became aware of its presence, and panic-like shouting was the answer. The beast looked at the men trying to flee from this side of the ship for a few seconds, before spitting a load of sizzling, glowing liquid on top of the deck, and closed its mouth to disappear in the blackness again, the only proof of its existance being the acidic goo and two eyes in the dark glowing in the same eerie tone. The captain didn't have line of sight on the creature, thus the only thing he was able to perceive was his panicking crew. He left his post at the wheel to step down on their level and notice the oddly glowing ooze. Just in time to witness how it began to eat its way through the planks, corroding the wooden floor and dropping down into the cargo deck. "[i]What in the world is [b]that[/b].[/i]" "[i]It's a monster, cap'n![/i]" the frightened men all gathered around the purple mass that was about to eat through some barrels with unknown content. "[i]That shite is going to burn a hole into the damn ship. Do something already![/i]" the captain pulled the nearest man closer to the hole in the upper deck, easily big enough to have two people fit through at once. "[i]Get a broom and stop the damned goo![/i]" As irrational as the command was, both the man in his clutches and several others complied, jumping down the new entrance to the cargo deck to look for tools to wipe away the sizzling liquid. Everybody froze in place when a tremor went through the whole ship. Something had collided with them. From [b]below[/b]. "[i]What in the cursed seas is going on here![/i]" the captain demanded to know. As if to answer him, two more quakes shook the ship in rapid succession. More and more men appeared on the deck as they woke up from the sound of breaking wood. A rupture went through the frigate as it received another hit, this time from the side opposite of the first serpent's head appearing. Purple glowing, oversized maws opened on both sides of the ship and lunged at the crew at the same time, biting one member of the crew each and violently flinging them high up in the sky, far higher than the mast of their ship. Now everyone on deck began screaming as the beast finally revealed itself. What little weapons they had with them seemed futile against the enormous size of the monster alone - the crew realized this was the end of their journey. The only one still in denial of the situation was captain Jebediah. He stumbled back into the captains cabin, to emerge moments later with an old flintlock pistol in his clutches. At this point, more than half of his crew was already either bitten in half or covered in acidic mucus, while two more heads of the creature had appeared to decimate his men. The wood below his feet moaned painfully as the ship slowly broke in two, a clean separation right in the middle. Neither that nor the carnage all around him seemed to phase the captain, he made his way back up to the wheel where another head of Scolopendra greeted him, stared at him with its menacing purple eyes, its mouth forming an eternally mocking grin of purple outline. The head was slightly more massive than the others, and the captain knew that it was [i]'the'[/i] head of the monster. "[i]Get. Off. My. Ship.[/i]" he growled, threatening the creature while pointing the flintlock right at the center of the head. The captain pulled the trigger, felt the recoil rocking through his arm, but the creature didn't flinch. It didn't even blink. It opened its jaws slightly, a thundering roar sounding from the depth of the purple glowing abyss. It sounded like an unholy language to the captain, not meant for human ears. Still staring at it angrily, he simply stood there and waited for the beast to retaliate. Which it did. It flicked its head against the body of the captain, catapulting his body off the ship and into the see, but not quite as hard as it could have since he didn't feel his bones break. The next thing he felt was being dragged down below the waves by something he couldn't see. He opened his eyes to see the full size of the monster that just ripped his boat apart, but the salty assault on his eyes and the infinite darkness of the night denied him his last request. "[i]Damned beast.[/i]" was his last train of thought, before his lungs gave in and tried to breathe water.

Captain Jebediah drowned, while his crew was being torn to shreds by Scolopendra. The beast systematically cracked the ship with precise collisions that broke it in two, separating the cargo area from the crew cabins like countless times before. It then made sure not a single soul of the crew survived the night to bear witness of the attack and carefully preserved the body of the captain for later use as a necromantic puppet. It waited for the two halves of the ship to fully submerge in the brine before it shoved the majority of bodies into the cargo loaded part and grabbed it with its two appendages to slowly push it towards familiar shores, dragging the lifeless body of Jebediah along. 
Scol had prepared a submerged access to its sub-terranean cave system for occasions like these. It pushed its broken prey into the hidden caverns and up something similar to a roomy bay, so that the shipwreck and its cargo would lie dry. None of all this was even the slightest bit visible from above the waters surface.
As per usual on these occasions, the monster fell into a channeling trance, as it let part of its conscience slip into the lifeless body of the captain. 

The appearance of a hooded, hobbling stranger in the temple of the serpent was no unusual occurance. Most of the cultists knew what it meant, though only for few it had decisive consequences. Something was different this time, however. Usually, the appearance of the emissary would have caused for the circle to gather and confer, but this time a cultist - seemingly insignificant, hooded and masked alike the others - stepped up to the undead and addressed him directly. There was only one with the authority to do so without repercussions: the oracle. The woman whispered a single inaudible word to the dead seafarer. Whatever it was, it caused the emissary to turn around on his heels and return to the underground caves urgently. This turn of events was unusual and lead most regular cultists to exchange worried looks. Minutes later, they all witnessed the rise of Scolopendra from the waves and the begin of its journey into the jungles. Neither of the beasts heads honored the humans with attention while the morning sun mirrored in its wet, black scales.

And so Scolopendra traversed the Witchlight Jungle, an event of a certain rarity that was hard to miss, and though the earth was shaking slightly as the monster traveled the land, it made a lot less noise than one would expect from a being of this size. The fastest hunters of several small settlements it came by attempted to follow the beast to behold the object of their religious worship, but only few had the required endurance and speed to even barely keep up the pace. With Graguths arrival foretold by its oracle, the serpent and its followers broke through the thicket shortly after the dragon reached the borders of Scols jungles. All six of its heads regarded the dragon with suspicion, waiting for the intruder to state his intentions. A handful of humans hiding between the trees to observe the unearthly exchange.