Leech Toad

Leech toads have jet-black skin, little horns on their heads and large, bright red eyes with sideways pupils. In darkness, when they are usually met, they are very hard to spot. Locals also call them bloodeyes, stirgetoads or shadow toads.

Packs creep around a target quietly, then one toad hops in front and fixes it with a gaze that glows a wicked red. Anyone meeting those eyes must save vs. paralyzation or stand frozen for one round for each point the roll missed by; needing 14 and rolling 12 means two rounds. Whether the save succeeds or the paralysis wears off, the victim is immune to further gazes for 12 hours.

While the target is helpless the others pile on, each biting at +4 for 1-3 damage. A toad that bites hangs on and automatically drinks 1-3 more hit points each round until it has taken 6 in all, then drops off satisfied. If the victim recovers while toads are still attached, they all let go and flee at once, however much they have drunk. These cowards attack only prey that cannot fight back.

A lone leech toad is almost never seen, and they rarely stir by day, preferring night and the shadows under trees. They feed only on warm-blooded animals and prefer big ones: one gaze on a wolf-sized beast can feed many toads, while a mouse would barely satisfy one.

While stalking, pack members trade high chirps that are not true speech but reveal each toad's position. Every voice differs a little in pitch, length or loudness, so they can tell each other apart. By day they hide in hollow stumps, under leaf litter or, most often, in burrows dug by moles, rabbits or ground squirrels. Too lazy to dig, they take these by hypnotizing and killing the owners.

Neighbors loathe and fear them. They taste good cooked, but hunting them is risky. Wizards and alchemists value them highly. Dried blood mixed with eye fluid makes ink for scribing hypnotism, hypnotic pattern and hold person. A heart can replace the material component of a fear spell at full strength, and one recipe for a wand of fear requires soaking the wooden wand for a week or more in blood drawn from thirteen leech toads before enchant an item is cast.