Phlog-Crawler

This entity is essentially a living scrap of the flame-sea, the shimmering medium between crystal shells, and it moves freely through both the flame-sea and the void between worlds. Seen from afar it resembles a little cloud trailing eight writhing limbs, which gives it a vaguely spidery shape. Closer up, the swirl of rainbow colors gives away its true nature. It seems to move by desire alone. Lacking both fixed shape and measurable mass, it can slip through the tiniest crack, and inside the flame-sea it is all but invisible beyond arm's reach.

Endless hunger is its only motive, so spotting one usually means being attacked by it. It feeds by touching its prey, and armor gives no protection. Every round of contact, the victim saves vs. breath weapon or loses 1 point of Strength, and death comes at 0. Survivors who break away or destroy it recover 1 point per turn.

Hurting a crawler is hard. Being little more than mist, it ignores nonmagical weapons, and a magical one inflicts only 1 point per point of bonus (2 for a +2 sword). Spells and fire are the other options. Any flame, magical or mundane, can destroy it, but the creature bursts like a 5-die fireball, catching everyone within a radius equal to twice its length. Spells are safer, with a catch: anyone the crawler is touching shares the effect, so a magic missile aimed at a crawler draining a companion strikes the companion too.

It senses open flames and avoids them. Lighting one mid-fight gives a 75% chance it flees at top speed. It also seldom goes after large groups unless it has gone hungry a long while. Any object under one ton that it touches has its air envelope go stale and turn poisonous twice as fast as normal.

Lone travelers and small parties are its preferred prey, and those are scarce in the flame-sea, so most crawlers are met in the void. Ranged attacks and fire threaten them, so they lurk among asteroids and derelict hulks and strike from ambush. One can last up to 24 hours inside an atmosphere but rarely enters one.

Crawlers live on nothing but the life energy of living things, which they can feel from several miles away. They go straight for small groups unless an open flame is burning. After several weeks without a meal, a starving crawler attacks anything, heedless of danger.

Nothing is known to prey on them, and their life cycle is a mystery. Some sages of a prime world believe they never die naturally. In a few crystal shells, captured crawlers, which are exceedingly rare, are used to brew potent potions of longevity.