Monster: Marrowlight

Marrowlight
Armour Class: 8
Hit Dice: 2+4*
Move: 90' (30')
Attacks: 2 vines + 1 bite
Damage: 1-3/1-3/1-6
No. Appearing: 2-12
Save As: F3
Morale: 11
Treasure Type: Nil (special)
Alignment: Chaotic
XP Value: 25

Sometimes even the unlikliest of things can be a threat. The marrowlight is a predatory gourd, a pumpkin the size of one's torso with an outer skin of whitish green or patchy slate-blue and a mass of dense and coiling vines. Perfectly harmless -- until potential prey wanders too close: then the marrowlight's ragged maw opens wide, revealing a gullet lined with irises of sharp seed teeth, and the pits of its "eyes" and lashing vines erupt in ghostly fire.

A marrowlight is quick in combat despite its inefficient means of movement, gaining a +2 to initiative checks. It attacks with two sharp fiery coils of vine and its jagged bite, inflicting 1-3 and 1-6 hit points of damage respectively; the ghostly flames cling to the victim, inflicting a further 1-3 hit points of damage per round for three rounds or until the flames are extinguished.

The flesh of a marrowlight is a deep red and -- surprisingly -- edible; 1-4 meals may be obtained from a single marrowlight, and each meal consumed offers a +2 to saving throws for an hour.