Saturday, May 30, 2009

Monster: Skitterbone

Skitterbone
Armour Class: 5
Hit Dice: 3+4**
Move: 150' (50')
Attacks: 2 bonewhips
Damage: 1-6/1-6
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: F4
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Nil
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 100

A bane to adventurers who leave heaps of dead monsters and shattered skeletons behind them, a skitterbone is an amorphous, ever-malleable heap of antlers, horns and twisted bone. Held together loosely by necrotic energies -- and, sometimes, tiny scraps of necrotic flesh or sticky black blood -- a skitterbone continuously scrabbles and oozes its way through dark passageways in the hunt for creatures it may shred and add its to its bonemass.

In combat a skitterbone will lash out with two limbs or "tentacles" made up of bits of bone -- often vertebrae -- and sharp horns or toothy jaws, inflicting 1-6 hit points of damage with each strike. If both lashes damage the same target, the skitterbone will dig into the victim and pull its tendrils in opposite directions, rending flesh for an additional 2-8 hit points of damage. The constant movement and randomly-projecting parts of a skitterbone make it difficult to predict its movements in combat; each round any individual in melee with a skitterbone must make a save vs. paralyzation or be knocked prone for that round.

Skitterbones are turned as if possessing six hit dice. They take double damage from silver weapons of all kinds, and no damage from normal piercing weapons.