Bvanen

A bvanen looks fiercer than it is: swiveling eye turrets, a spine-ridged shell, chitin belly plates, heavy claws, and a toothy mouth with a three-pronged tongue. Bvanen have their own language.

They fight with claws and bite only, and not well. Their real asset is a glue-like ooze that seeps from the skin and sets almost instantly, forming a light crust of armor. On any claw hit a bvanen may gum the target up instead of wounding it, and from the next round the stuck part is useless. Roll 1d8: a leg on 6-8, the left arm on 4-5, the right arm on 2-3, the head on 1. Freeing it takes a bend bars roll by the victim or a helper; monsters with no Strength score save vs. paralysis instead, taking a -2 penalty unless bigger than a man. A glued head can smother a creature no larger than the bvanen as if drowning. A few bvanen together can pin a foe fast.

The ooze also seals wounds the instant they open, so bvanen ignore swords of wounding and similar bleeding magic and reduce every hit they take by 1 point.

One in six is psionic. Psychometabolism: science animal affinity; devotions flesh armor, immovability, displacement. Telepathy: sciences mind link, domination; devotions mind thrust, ego whip, phobia amplification, id insinuation, contact, attraction.

Tribes live in half-flooded caves or temporary camps, gluing nests together from wood and plants. Hunter-warriors protect the tribe while caretakers tend it and its tame giant fish, frogs, and insects, kept as mounts, meat, and guards. Patterned scars show each bvanen's exact rank in a strict hierarchy, growing more intricate as it rises. Gentle but secretive, they would rather drive off a stranger than trust one, which drags them into fights they would gladly avoid.

Whether bvanen are natural or the work of some forgotten wizard meddling with the swamp is unknown. They are extremely rare, perhaps found in one region of the desert world. They hunt and herd for food but never knowingly eat a thinking creature.