Ice Sheet Fish [Forgotten Realms]

The icy rivers and coastal seas of a vast polar ice sheet support several fish found nowhere else. None grows longer than 2 feet, and the crystal nipper is barely a quarter inch. All of them flee danger at top speed; even the deadly spiny sleeper and crystal nipper are passive and threaten only the careless or unlucky. They swim in schools of assorted sizes, roam freely without holding territory, and spawn thousands of tiny eggs. They live on plankton, waste and whatever organic scraps they find, and every one is edible and quite tasty, though some need careful handling.

Bloatfish: A white, ray-shaped fish with a balloon-like sac hanging from its belly, about as wide as the fish is long. Its odd body chemistry keeps the sac full of fresh water, so lucky fishers often carry a frozen bloatfish along, poke a hole in its side and sip from it. Once the sac runs dry, the fish itself makes a fine meal.

Black burner: Despite the name, this is a tiny marine mammal that looks just like a miniature whale, plump and black with a puckered blowhole and a broad mouth. It has skin rather than scales, and oil seeping from its pores coats it completely so it does not freeze out of the water. Light a dead one and it gives off a steady flame lasting 3d4 (3-12) hours, giving the light and warmth of a small campfire; alternatively, about a cup of oil can be drained from it for later use as fuel.

Spiny sleeper: A plump fish with a white belly, catfish-like whiskers and a coat of fine silver spines. Anyone who handles it carelessly, such as a bare-handed character who fails a Dexterity check, may be pricked and must save vs. poison or freeze in place as if by temporal stasis, a frosty glaze spreading over the body. Neutralize poison or similar magic ends the effect, and some healers among the human tribes of the ice know herbal remedies that also work.

Icetail: At a glance it seems to be a bare fish skeleton trailing a few bluish shreds, but closer study shows a whole body, fins, head and tail, all clear as glass. A living icetail is so cold that touching it with bare skin deals 1 point of damage; once dead it takes on the surrounding temperature. It can be eaten raw, though it tastes very bitter, or cooked, but anything less than six full hours over the fire means the diner must pass a Constitution check or suffer cramps for 24 hours, with -2 to attack rolls and ability checks and movement cut in half.

Crystal nipper: A minute blue crystal eel, distantly related to the rot grub. It seeks out warmth and tries to bore into bare skin, and is just as lethal as a rot grub: the host dies in 1-3 turns unless someone casts cure disease or sears the wound with fire, which deals 1-6 damage. Worse, it can leave the water for up to an hour. At night nippers sometimes wriggle ashore at movement rate 1 toward anything warm, sleeping campers included, and their numbing secretions mean a sleeper may not notice until too late. Camping well away from suspect water is usually enough to stay safe, and tiny dead blue worms along a riverbank or lakeshore are a sure sign nippers are about.