Carrion Stalker

STR d4+2 INT 1 (animal d4)

DEX d6+8 WIL d4+6

CON d4+4 PER 1 (animal d3)

Durability as CON Action Check 9+/8/4/2

Movement walk 6 # of actions 2

Reaction Score M/1

Mutations: Poison attack, dermal armor, thermal vision

Defects: Diminished senses, slight

Attacks

Tentacles 12/6/3 d2s/d4s/d4+1s (LI/O)

Larvae 7/3/1 1s/phase/ 1w/phase/ 1m/phase

Defenses armor d6+1/d4+1/d4

+2 vs melee

+1 vs ranged

Skills

Athletics- climb 8; Stealth- hide 6, sneak 4; Stamina; Awareness- perception 3

Description

Carrion stalkers are thought to be an experiment in creating an organism from 2 unlike phylia, in this case arthropoda (in the form of a horseshoe crab) and cnidaria (in the from of a jellyfish). The main body is that of the 'crab with the fleshy tentacles extending from just in front of the tail base and beneath the shell. It is unknown how they became terrestrial and predators.

Encounter

Carrion stalkers are always found around rotting carcasses. They can not see visible light, but can detect heat and will attack any warm creature that comes within 3 meters of it (this includes "cold-blooded" animals but not plants). They use their tentacles, up to 8, to paralyze the animals (paralysis poison with a +1 step penalty per 2 tentacles). When the animal has stopped moving, the stalker then scuttles on to the body and emits d4+3 larvae. Each must make a separate attack roll, and if successful, begins burrowing into the body. As they tend to kill each other for food, only 1 or 2 adults emerge from one man sided corpse after 3 months.

Habitat

Carrion stalkers are found in damp areas- wetlands, deep forests, coasts. If moved to a dry area, they slowly, over several days, die of water loss.

Society

Carrion stalkers are parthenogenetic females (ie they reproduce without mating and produce only females). If one is lucky and finds itself a huge body, all the larvae may survive and their young might feed on the corpse. This is quite rare, but up to 20 or so may be found near such a body.

Biome : Damp areas

Encounter chance : Slim

Group size : 1-2 to 2d12

Organization : none

Niche : Carnivore/scavenger

IQ : Low order animal

Converted from Ravenloft MC II