Jekti
Armour Class: 5
Hit Dice: 1-1
Move: 6' (2')
climb 6' (2')
Attacks: 1 spit
Damage: 1-4
No. Appearing: 4-40
Save As: Normal Man
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Special
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 6
Commonly called cave clams and dungeon oysters, jekti have slippery grey-green bodies and a row of beady red eyes encased in thick, ruffly bivalved shells the size of an ogre's head. On rare occasions a jekti may be seen slowly migrating along nearly any stony surface found in a cavern – or dungeon – but the cave clams are most commonly found clustered in colonies on walls, choking off passageways, and generally being a nuisance. Some dungeon inhabitants cultivate the clams for that very purpose.
If approached, and especially if disturbed, a jekti will gape its shell and spit a hissing stream of orange-yellow acid at the interloper, inflicting 1-4 hit points of damage with a range of 10'. The acid will inflict a further hit point of damage the following round, then go inert.
The bitter, caustic flesh of a jekti is not considered palatable by humans or most demihumans, but goblinoids of all stripes consider cave clams a prized treat. The molluscs collect no treasure per se; however, each jekti has a 15% chance to carry an amber-tinted “acid pearl” within its slippery mantle.
1 comment:
Another great one! Being pretty Silver Age in sensibility, these dungeon ecology critters are among my favorites.
The implication there is that these things are cultivated to block dungeon passages. Is this done to completely close off such passages with the simple physical mass of the jekti, or is it more of a watchdog sort of thing, with the muscles spitting acid at intruders they don't recognize?
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