Here's a fictional dinosaur...
Many jokingly call the mythical lake monster "Esmelda." Many stories describe the monster in similar ways, though inconsistencies creep in: "Body longer than two boats"; "long neck like a snake, but a head with jaws like I hear dragons have"; "it had a ridge of plates or spines running full-length along its neck and back"; "its flukes and flippers were the size of our pleasure craft"; "its entire body was like a sea snake, and it could've wrapped the whole boat up and crushed it"; "its eyes were intelligent and it cast a paralysis beam on us that froze us right there"; "it seemed playful, coming up just beneath the boat, popping its head out of the water to eat the net with my day's catch in it." A few folk around the lake swear to have seen this creature, claiming it must be a dragon given its reptilian features and massive size.
"Esmelda" is all too real--but she is not just one monster. The depths of the lake support over a dozen cold/loving waterbreathing reptiles called pythosaurs, which come to the surface only if provoked or hungry. A pythosaur will attack boats as well as sailors.
Pythosaurus (1; 13): AC 4; MV 30; HD 18; hp 72 (ave.); THAC0 15; #AT 1; Dmg 5-30; SA swallow; SD none; SW none; MR none; SZ G (body 120 feet, neck 70 feet); ML Elite (13); Int Animal (1); AL N; XP 7,000, Notes: SA--When attacking any creature under 10 feet tall (L-size), this creature swallows the victim whole on a THAC0 of 19 or 20. Swallowed victims suffer 2hit points damage per round until dead.
Originally appeared in Lands of Intrigue (1997).