A crisp-gangrenous portion of the slug-like inner body of a tree parasite, and part of its bark exoskeleton.
Who brought these to me, a spearfisher, has a name for it…
Hermit Tree Slug
The meat inside the bark looks slug-like, but if cut it is firmer, as a mollusk, and according to the spearfisher, if well cooked, it is a delicious meal.
The exterior is damaged, as if burned, perhaps a necrotic reaction to the creature’s death. A healthier portion of it, protected by the bark, has a gelatinous texture that seems to glue the bark to the parasitic body.
The bark has a fragment of a branch, on it, the creature has extended a portion of itself, as a thin tentacle that goes trough it.
Inside the soft flesh of the mollusk are branching tubes, like veins, of brown color, they seem to move some kind of blood or other sort of liquid around.
Rumors, tales and testimonies
The spearfisher and a large group of villagers have hunted this creature after an elder of the village was attacked and eaten by it. The spearfisher says the creature moved like a snail, carrying the tree on its back as its shell, and moving forward thanks to the pull of its slug-like body peeking out from under the bark.
They also say that, from a distance, the tree looks as if it has been blackened by death, but that light green leaves still seem to sprout from its branches. However they assure that these leaves were actually thin, sheet-like extensions coming from the creature, peeking out from the ends of the branches. "These seemed to move in sync, following our footsteps, as ears or eyes", says the spearfisher.
But the spearfihser says that the danger of this creature comes from the top of the tree's bark, from where emerge a collection of thin tentacles, resembling a phosphorescent yellowish-green mane. These tentacles can extend very far, almost three times the height of the tree. On contact with them, the skin burns and they have enough strength to lift a large person.
Alchemical uses:
The gelatinous substance of the creature's skin becomes stickier with temperature.
If heated, just below the temperature of boiling water, it behaves as a strong glue, but when cooled it returns to its normal state.
When combined with sulfur and freshwater pearls, in a slow fermentation process, the substance behaves like an extremely strong glue, at hot and cold temperatures, which can hold together two pieces of polished silver against the pulling force of five oxen.
The thin-sheet tentacles, which emerge from the branches, endure after the creature's death, and continue to be active, following movement and light. If two of these tentacles are dissected and connected at the base, when one of them is exposed to a creature, animal or image, the other will react to the presence of any creature or animal of the same species, or any copy of the image, moving and following them like a spy eye.
Hermit Tree Slug
Agility 3 (speed 60 feet / 4 actions per turn)
Actions:
- Tentacle's Grapple (Save STR)
- Tentacle’s Whiplash (1d10)
- Tentacle’s Burn (1d8, absorbs 1HP)
- Blinding leaves’ light (Save DEX, blind for 1 turn)
- Decompose and heal (absorbs 1d6 HP, requires grapple)
Into the Odd / Weird North / Cairn:
STR 15 – DEX 12 – WILL 8 – 15 HP – Armour 3
Critical damage: Grasped and consumed. Inside the slug, creatures are digested, 1d6 extra damage per turn. The slug heal as many HP as damage done by digesting a creature.
DnD:
AC 17 – 50 HP (20+6d10) – Save DC 15
To hit: Melee +6, Range +5 Damage: Melee +2, Range +1
STR 15 – DEX 12 – CON 15 – INT 8 – WIS 15 – CHA 10
Immunity to being charm.
Resistance to psychic, fire and poison.
Damage Types: Tentacle’s Whiplash (bludgeoning),
Tentacle’s Burn (fire), Decompose and Heal (necrotic).