New Monster - Scrid

	I'll admit, I fell victim to the influence of Alien and The Thing
with this one, but I think I've created an original monster.  Comments
are always welcome!
	Submitted for your approval,
	--Noah Bonebrake
Scrid

Climate/Terrain: Any/Wildspace
Frequency: Rare
Organization: Colony
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Animal (1)
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 1-6
Armor Class: 9
Movement: 36
Hit Dice: 1
THAC0: 13
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attacks: 1d4 (See below)
Special Attacks: None
Special Defenses: None
Magic Resistance: 20%
Size: S (4' long)
Morale: Fearless (20)
XP Value: 125

	Of all the parasitic organisms that plague starfarers perhaps
none is more horrifying than a scrid infestation.  Scrid appear as a 4
foot long tentacle, 3 inches thick in the middle, and tapered at both
ends.  Ringing its body at 6 inch intervals are a series of suckered,
mouth-like openings which pulsate constantly and exude a greyish mucous
which coats the scrid's rubbery hide, giving it some resistance to magic.
 Scrid are content to make their home within the bodies of most
carbon-based life and are rarely seen outside a host body.

Combat:  
	Scrid attack by erupting out of the host body.  Lightning quick,
scrid anchor one end inside their host and tear through skin or hide
searching for new bodies to inhabit.  If the attack is unsuccessful, the
body falls convulsing to the ground with the anchored scrid lashing about
wildly.  On the next round they detach from the host body and pursue
their prey, quickly overtaking them.  Once a scrid successfully hits it
burrows through flesh and muscle, competely entering their victim in one
round.  A successful Strength check is required at a -4 penalty to
prevent a burrowing scrid from completing its entry.  Once safely inside
a new body, the scrid quickly seals its entry wound and enters its
incubation stage.  Its mucous coating affects the victim as a forget
spell, such that the new host is often unware of the parasite until it is
too late.
	During its incubation a scrid will extend hairlike tendrils
throughout the victim's body, integrating itself fully into the host's
nervous, circulatory, digestive, and other bodily systems.  A cure
disease spell cast on the victim effectively kills the scrid at this
stage in its life cycle.
	After incubating 1d4 days, the scrid is completely linked with
the unsuspecting host and now enters its reproductive phase.  The scrid
uses the host's own tissues to replicate itself, draining the host of 1
Constitution point per hour as it forms up to five identical scrid.  At
this point, only a heal spell can retore the victim.
	Once the host has been drained to 0 Constitution it dies, leaving
the scrid in complete control of the host body.  It is now that the scrid
begins looking for new bodies to implant itself into.  Observers will
notice the victim's movements become erratic and that strange lumps glide
beneath the host's skin as the scrid inside coil to strike.  Only a wish
or limited wish is sufficient to rid the the victim of infestation and
return him to life.

Habitat/Society:
	Scrid seek only to propagate themselves as quickly and completely
as possible.  Relatively unkown until recently, the scrid are spreading
through the spheres at a frightening rate.  They are able to live outside
a host body for a short time, 24 hours at the most.  In addition, they
are able to both delay and accelerate their incubation periods from as
little as a day to as long as ten years, depending on the availability of
host bodies.  It is not uncommon for an entire ship's crew to be wiped
out in as little as a week's time, with the few remaining live hosts
unaware what had befallen the rest of their shipmates.

Ecology:  
	Scrid have a devastating effect when introduced into a
population.  Preying on any animal from as small as a rat on up to large
sized creatures, scrid can spread unchecked through both city and
countryside.  Fortunately, outbreaks have been isolated, with the scrid
being eradicated before they could gain a foothold.  
	Their home planet remains a mystery.  A few sages have theorized
that the scrid are a remnant of the First Unhuman War, created by the
goblinoids to decimate elven populations.  However, no evidence exists
that would support this theory.  The most likely explanation is that some
unfortunate explorer encountered the scrid on their homeworld and
unwittingly brought them into space with him.  This explanation does
present a glimmer of hope for those wishing to rid the spheres of this
threat.  Perhaps on this unknown world there exists a natural predator of
the scrid that could be used to destroy the parasite.  Whether such a
predator exists or not is open for speculation.
	Finally, the mucous secreted by the scrid can be used to create
potions of forgetfulness.  Of course, any mage willing to get close
enough to harvest this mucous may very well fall victim to the very
effect he was trying to create.

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