Burbur

A burbur resembles a worm with big, shiny black eyes and a mosquito-like sucking tube for a mouth. Right behind the head sits a pair of tiny, very dexterous forelegs it uses to climb, grip, and handle objects. Its soft, damp skin is ivory or yellow, and it gives off a spicy odor often compared to cinnamon. A burbur that has just eaten is swollen and slow.

To humanoids burburs are completely harmless; they cannot damage any living thing except the slimes, molds, and mosses they eat, many of which would otherwise be dangerous. To feed, a burbur crawls onto its meal, extends its tube, and starts drinking, inflicting 2d4 damage per round. One successful hit is enough; no further rolls are needed until it takes a break. It stops when it has drained hit points equal to three times its own starting total; a 4 hp burbur is full after 12 points.

It is completely immune to green and olive slime, russet, yellow, and brown molds, and obliviax moss, all of which it considers the finest delicacies. Violet fungi, zygoms, and yellow musk creepers cannot harm it either, though it finds them inedible. Oozes, jellies, toxic vapors, other creatures, and spells affect it normally.

Burburs roam endlessly in search of food, usually alone, though up to four may share one slime or mold. They keep small lairs in out-of-the-way spots for rest and healing, often guarded by something they are immune to; hiding amid a yellow musk creeper's coils is common. Each year, usually in spring, a burbur swells, grows a lump at its tail that becomes a second head, sprouts a second pair of forelegs, and soon splits into two creatures.

One might expect such a small, defenseless creature to be easy prey, but most animals learned long ago that eating one hurts. A predator that swallows a recently fed burbur suffers as though it had touched whatever the burbur last ate, so the reckless and the hungry were bred out ages ago.

Adventurers seek burburs as allies against slimes and similar menaces. They are very docile and neither turn on their keepers nor wander off unless underfed, but must be allowed to eat at least once a day to stay content. A captive burbur can sell for up to 1,000 gp.