Bog Wader

From far off a bog wader might pass for a dwarf. Up close it is a hunched mass of overlapping, deeply creased gray skin, pierced everywhere by thin yellow-and-black bones that jut out through the soft hide. Its small, flattened head has a breathing hole it can seal instead of a nose, and skin flaps in place of ears that close over the ear openings when it dives. Two dorsal ridges run down its back, with vertical gill ridges between them and the spine; tufts of hair or cilia on the gills strain the mud so it can breathe underwater. Its crooked legs are built for jumping, its webbed hands and feet end in three sharp claws, and its mouth holds a row of small tearing teeth.

It speaks no language. Bog waders exchange basic grunting tones about food and mating, and though magic or psionics can open a channel, the creature's dull mind leaves little to discuss. Its whole world is its bog and whatever it can catch.

In a straight fight it claws four times a round for 1d3 each and bites for 1d4. Its real weapon is its trap. The bog wader digs a hollow in mud flats where water gathers, then chews mud with its saliva. A buoyant substance in the spit makes the mixture float, forming a crust that hides the pool as ordinary muddy ground. Anyone stepping on it plunges through.

The bog wader then throws itself onto the victim to skewer it on its protruding bones, dealing 2d4 on a hit and locking the two together. Escape requires a bend bars roll by the victim or a helper. The creature wraps its limbs around the victim's to stop him swimming up: each claw that hits pins one limb, and each pinned limb needs its own bend bars roll, attempted separately every round alongside the roll to break the impalement. After any claw hits, it tries to bite as well, all while beating its dorsal ridges to force its prey downward. Reaching the bottom, it digs in its feet and holds the victim until he drowns.

An impaled character is trapped under mud and cannot breathe. If he was surprised that round he gets no proper breath and can hold out for one-third of his Constitution in rounds, rounded up; otherwise he lasts half his Constitution in rounds. Creatures lacking a Constitution score last 1d6 rounds either way. Past that limit, each round calls for a Constitution check (or save vs. poison for creatures), the first unmodified and each later one at a cumulative -2. The first failure forces a breath, and a character who cannot breathe drowns.

Mated pairs sometimes join their wallows with a short tunnel, letting them strike together or split up so one attacks a trapped group from behind through the passage.

Every bog wader lives alone in its own wet pit and in constant agony, since the bones piercing its skin never stop hurting, which helps explain its savagery. Its hide must stay damp and cracks fast in direct sun, so on the flats it keeps smearing itself with fresh mud.

When a drought dries its hole, it burrows to the bottom and goes dormant while the sun bakes the mud into clay around it. It can wait this way for up to 20 years. Once moisture returns, recovering takes from a day to a week, so a newly filled water hole may hold a sluggish bog wader that will not attack for several days.

In mating season females bellow, and males cannot or will not ignore the call; rival males usually fight to the death. A female bears one young a year, rarely twins, and the father raises it until it can fend for itself.

Their holes collect fresh water, but drinking from one is a gamble. Many animals come to drink, and for reasons of its own the bog wader lets certain creatures do so in peace. Otherwise they offer little of use on the desert world.

Some smarter peoples put them to work. Certain slave tribes trap bog waders and resettle them in artificial water holes around villages and strongholds, feeding them live prey and keeping the mud wet so they stay. The bog waders understand they are guards and mostly accept the arrangement. Mantis warriors use subtle psionics to find dormant bog waders, dig them up and keep them dry so they stay asleep, then slip several into an enemy's ponds and wells; within a week the casualties start.