Model originally uploaded to Thingiverse at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5359987.
One of the few personal designs that care to model. I used to do digital painting but haven't finished anything since 2016 so this has been sitting in my sketchbook for a while.
This was inspired by hearing that Black Dragonfish are one of the few deep sea fish that can see red and is capable of red bioluminescence. That and the name. But that gave me the idea of adventures from the surface visiting a deep ocean merfolk village when they see a red glow approaching from the depths. The locals don't know what they are talking about then they see this approach from the depths and only they are able to effectively fight it.
The lure at the end of the tendril glows white and the red spots glow bright red like a massive searchlight. They have full control of when they glow and how brightly they glow. The lure is used when attracting easy prey or dazzling its foes with a short bright flash in combat. The red lights are typically on whenever they are awake as most creatures that live as deep as they do, cannot see red.
I called them Abyssopelagic Dragons because they primarily live in the Abyssal Zone also known as the Abyssopelagic zone and since Abyssal Dragon would give the impression that they are demonic dragons instead of deep sea dragons. Outside of the Material plane they live in the darker parts of the Elemental Plane of Water and the seas of the Abyss. In the homebrew world I have written scattered notes for is a hollow earth and there are a few connections between the inner and outer seas and those passageways are often guarded by one of these guys.
Of course the only part of my homebrew setting is a high level monster that lives in a place no party will ever go.
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