Kingdom of Ansteorra Forums

[Dissident]

Mountain Slugs

Native mostly to the mountains of Launcia, and only elsewhere in the deepest regions of caves, these pony-sized versions of slugs were only recently discovered some time during the Third Age, while they were climbing up the side of a mountain. What sets them apart from their normally salt-fearing kin is a thin layer of what feels like some form of rubbery skin, yet it looks just like rough granite, allowing them to blend in easily with their surroundings. Were it not for the two eyes that raised up and out of their bodies, the things that only allowed them to be spotted in the first place.

Those who stumble across the Mountain Slugs can find them either a blessing or a curse, depending on how friendly they are to their environment. As the slugs are very capable of channeling the druidic magic’s, one might either find that their wounds would be gradually disappearing, or that they have been bound to a cave wall with dozens of vines. Unless their nest is attacked, they won't attempt to actually harm trespassers.

The nest of the slugs are usually located right in the center of the areas they claim, at least one hundred football sized eggs in the pile at any given time, each one of varied colors, though almost always looking exactly like a rock. As long as they aren't cracked, the slugs don't really care what becomes of them, having so many and as they lay dozens per year.

Surrounding the nest, and the entire of their dwelling, are herbs, flowers and plants of all sorts that wouldn't normally be able to grow there without the use of sunlight, but are easily helped along with the sludge the slugs leave behind as they crawl through the cave, the sludge being a quite potent fertilizer. Coupled with their magic, one would be lucky to find a single place to rest their feet, aside from the sludge pathways.

Mountain Slugs move at a speed of one mile per hour, on a good day, but they are still able to be rode and sometimes preferred that way by the few who have actually managed to retrieve an egg from their nest. For, though they move at a snails pace anywhere else, as soon as they hit grass they seem to accelerate quite a bit with its help - sometimes reaching speeds of twenty miles per hour, perhaps explaining why one so rarely sees them as they travel between homes.

Though they are at quite a disadvantage in combat due to their speed and lack of being able to defend themselves from physical attacks, their rubber-like nature counteracts this. Nothing short of a giants fist smashing downwards will even be able to phase them in the slightest - and even then it might fail to squish them and only semi-flatten them against the floor. Even piercing weapons may have some trouble getting through their thin, protecting layer of skin.
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Dalin Kayde, Veudir X'Tare, Cerris T'Kel, Paran Narel, etc.
"Ansteorra is as high as what I get for being a pelican."

[Dissident]

Gooziferrus

The Gooziferrus Spider (named after the type of webbing it secretes) is a dark, evil looking thing - mostly identified easily by the red rings along its sharp, well built legs and along its body. But things aren't always as they appear, as they don't target furres and the like to devour unless they come too close to their pits.

Usually the pits of the Gooziferrus aren't noticed until it's too late, when you're falling down into a deep hole in the ground, grasping at the area around you and only catching onto oozing walls, which only seem to help drag you downwards, providing no assistance in aiding one to get even an inch higher to freedom. The pits are never less than twenty feet deep, and always have a small crawl space at the bottom. Dug by the spider, with its walls lined with the oozing coating, the crawl space leads to its nest. Most trapped animals, finding that the only way to go, make the spiders usual meals easy to acquire.

While hunting, that's a different story altogether, as they lurk at the bottoms of their pits waiting for chirping to start up or for the skittering of a squirrel above ground. That's when they spring up out of the ground - being excellent jumpers - and fire a coating of the gooze at the target, instantly binding it. For larger targets, or opponents, after an attempt at oozing the spiders second weapon is put into play - its paralyzation venom. Unlike most spiders’ venom eating away at their victims insides, this simply makes the victim feel paralyzed from the neck down, as if having had their spine snapped.

The nests of Gooziferrus' are filled with roughly twenty spider eggs coated in a thick layer of the gooze, sometimes more if the male stays around the female for longer than a week or so - but the only thing that prompts this is a well designed nesting ground. The male isn't eaten, as some spiders would do with their mates, but for a week after the eggs are laid a disgusting odor fills the area around them, driving away the majority of mates. For reference, each egg is smooth and hard like gigantic pearls and each as large as a basketball. The only substitute that can be given in place of the mothers webbing is, oddly enough, mud, and a thick layer of it too.

When the baby spiders are born, their first instinct is to latch onto whatever is nearest, be it bigger spider or otherwise. From there, their own webbing is applied - which is the only time a Gooziferrus' web will have actually sticky properties, as when they mature it turns gradually into an oozy substance - keeping them connected to their mothers backs until such time as they are capable of leaving the mother and going off to dig pits of their own.
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Dalin Kayde, Veudir X'Tare, Cerris T'Kel, Paran Narel, etc.
"Ansteorra is as high as what I get for being a pelican."

[Dissident]

Original Topic
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Dalin Kayde, Veudir X'Tare, Cerris T'Kel, Paran Narel, etc.
"Ansteorra is as high as what I get for being a pelican."