Spitting Crawler

This slim, quick lizard of the deep underworld looks like a surface skink fitted with the fat, splayed, bulbous toe pads of a tree frog. It is gray-green above and paler, mottled gray beneath, and under watch it freezes for long stretches to pass as part of the rock.

Its sticky toes let it scamper silently across walls and ceilings at movement 12. Its little bite does only 1d2, but three times a day it can spit acid up to 20 feet with deadly aim (+5 to hit). The green, reeking spit deals 2d4 and scars the skin, leaving a burning itch for 3d12 turns that imposes -1 to attack, a 1-point AC penalty and an inability to rest or study. Diluting it with wine or water inside 4 rounds cuts that to 2d8 turns.

On metal the hole keeps widening until, say, a shield is powder, and it creeps into any touching metal, mail to gauntlets. Wine or water halts it instantly; shedding the struck piece with a Dexterity check stops the spread. Armor loses at least 1 AC point, more if badly eaten.

They leap 10 + 1d4 feet up or 18 feet across, and their rubbery bodies ignore the first 30 feet of any fall, taking 1d4 per 10 feet beyond. Stunning, sleep, hold and charm fail on them, and no known insect or spider venom affects them, nor do any slimes, oozes, jellies or mold spores, however monstrous.

Shy of big creatures, crawlers hide in cracks and are usually met only as familiars, among the ones dark elf wizards prize most besides the cleverest spiders. A familiar crawler uses its master's morale if it is higher, grows devoted, and dies before letting him come to harm or go unavenged. Hardy in heat or cold, they still love riding against a master's skin, curled at his nape or inside his shirt. An angry one hisses loudly, and clever ones mimic human coughs or mutters to lure people astray or into traps.

They relish sleeping bats but mostly eat centipedes and other bugs, small rodents, lichens and slimes (green slime and gray ooze included), and can fast for long periods. A well-fed crawler with plenty of water and the odd treat (it loves smelly cheese) will not be distracted by food while working. Its toes go into spell inks and can replace the material component of spider climb, and acid distilled from its glands and mixed with water fills one glass acid flask grenade.