Decapus

The decapus takes its name from its ten limbs. The land form is a bloated, hairy ball about 4 feet across, with ten 10' tentacles sprouting from all over its body. Its fur is brown or occasionally black over skin that is usually green, though purple and yellow specimens exist. At the center gapes a hideous mouth, very wide, lined with long yellow teeth and reeking of foul breath. Individuals in cold regions are shaggier, tropical ones less so. Decapuses talk to each other with an intricate language of clicks and gestures.

With sharp night vision and 30-foot infravision, a decapus prefers to hunt after dark, though these aggressive beasts have been seen hunting at any hour. Each tentacle ends in a hard, hooked spur of cartilage that the swinging limb whips into prey for 1d6 points of damage. Suckers line one side of each tentacle, letting the creature grip victims and climb walls and ceilings. Its usual tactic is to hang from a branch or ceiling by one tentacle and attack with the other nine.

On the ground it is far less frightening. Its limbs cannot hold it upright for long, so it manages only six attacks at half damage. It swings through trees at movement 9 but crawls along the ground at only 3.

Forests suit it best, since its limbs give it great advantages among the trees, but it also turns up in swamps and wilderness ruins. Decapuses are loners that hunt alone, swinging through the canopy and snatching up whatever they come across.

They meet only briefly to mate. The female bears six to a dozen young, leaves them in a sheltered spot such as a hollow tree or empty cave and abandons them. The savage infants have 1/2 Hit Die and do 1d2 per limb. They grow fast and their first meal is one another: usually a single survivor eats all its siblings, honing its hunting skills along the way, then leaves the nest to prey on birds and small mammals before moving up to large predators.

A decapus hunts plant-eaters and predators alike, and it is so famously savage that even wolves flee it. It eats humans and elves as readily as its usual squirrels, rabbits and deer. Even when sated it guards the leftovers of a kill from scavengers so it can gorge again soon.

The sea form is less hairy and mostly green or blue. It drifts slowly at movement 3 with tentacles fanned in every direction. Because the water carries its weight and it needs no anchor, it can strike with all ten tentacles at once. It is a fierce native predator that contests control of its waters even with sharks.