Emerald Tortoises

Emerald Tortoise Artwork.jpg|Official Creature Artwork

In a hostile environment like Gnomprona even the usually docile lifeforms adapted to a more aggressive demeanour towards their environment. Whereas the emerald tortoise relies on a diet of minerals, like stones and crystals, it developed an aggressive form of defence to ensure its survival. Aside from the fact that the eggshells of the emerald tortoise are one of the hardest crystalline substances that even the Gnomes encountered yet, this tortoise processes the devoured minerals in a way that stows electricity in its body. Like some eels encountered in tropical waters they can discharge this energy seemingly at will, to scare away or even kill any predator. The emerald tortoise seems to have so much excess energy, that it tends to use this energy rather indiscriminately at even the slightest threat, which is often just the proximity of another creature or the sight of an unknown creature. As common in Gnomprona, the creature seems not satisfied with driving attackers away with such shocks but rather tries to actively kill its target, once acquired. The massive emerald tortoise is still able to swim, though the relatively calm water around gnomprona might favour this in some way. In water their discharges are far wider reaching and more lethal. Therefore it would be ill advised to try ones luck in taking a dip into the gnompronean sea. Though that could make them the unchallenged rulers of subterranean seas, they rarely leave the land. At best they slowly drift towards some stone formation in the sea to harvest them for minerals and crystals. The more docile giant sea turtles seem to be distant relatives of the emerald tortoises and are the only creatures known that don't trigger their defensive impulses. In fact there ae instances in which emerald tortoises were observed to seek refuge on top of their distant cousins and float around on them for a while. In turn it has been seen that they came to aid the giant sea turtles in the rare occasions some desperate cave shark tries to attack them. While there is little evidence yet, such rare occurrences seem to hint at the sea turtles being immune to the emerald tortoises energy shocks which would strongly hint at some form of relation of the creatures.