Monster: Spiky Slugs

In the private workspace of Hirgon the Shapeshifter sits a large stone chest which cannot be moved. It came from Somewhere Else, and is held in our universe by forces beyond anyone's understanding. The contents of the chest hunger, but are thankfully sealed by the stone tablet on top. If it were removed or broken they would be free...



There are 407 Spiky Slugs in the chest. Each is six inches long and about as wide as a thumb. In moving they seem to flow like a black slime, little muscular bodies with a faint green light radiating from thirteen spikes on their back.

Spiky slugs are not intelligent. They flock and swarm on instinct, and they move quickly on their slime-trails. If an opponent is armoured they will try to flow over them. Their slime does 1 point of damage per round to metal armour 50% of the time. The slime dissolves regular clothes or leather armour after three rounds of contact. It is merely just a bit horrible to skin, icky and horrid but not harsh. The slugs are carnivorous, even cannibalistic. They have an extendable chow-hole that inverts 13 key-like teeth on to living things to cause wounds.

For every ten slugs (rounded down) swarming a target, the slugs get +1 to hit (up to a max of +5). A hit means that the person has been unlucky and a slug has found a patch of skin to bite into, dealing d3 points of damage. PC makes a CON save or the slug is latched on, automatically dealing 1HP of damage every round for three rounds. They then fall off sated. Care must be taken if trying to remove them to avoid greater injury.

The slugs shrivel in contact with fire. They eat their dead leaving only the spikes. One of the spikes on the back of a slug is a dull but valuable shard of jade. It will be worth 25+5d10sp (depending on the size). If taken from a slug that has fed recently it will be worth three times as much.

Spiky Slugs have armour as bare skin, 1HP each, and a successful hit on a swarm kills twice as many as damage dealt with weapon.