Suwyze

A suwyze is a huge snarl of feelers, plumed antennae and fine wisps sprouting from a small central body; nearly all its bulk is sensory appendage. It flows along with a rippling gait and can scale walls, though ceilings defeat it. It is able to learn a bubbling, mangled Common, though owners rarely teach it.

Its feelers detect light, heat, faint smells, drafts, magical auras, strongly good or evil beings, and even the pressure shifts of doors opening elsewhere. It sleeps restlessly with some feelers always alert and snaps awake at any hint of danger, so it is never surprised. Its usual reaction is to alert its master and hide.

Each of these is usable three times a day: wizard eye, detect magic, detect evil, detect good, clairvoyance, clairaudience, invisibility and shout. With them it tracks even slippery intruders across its domain. Its keen perception grants +2 on saves against illusions.

Cornered, it flails with its feeding tendrils, 10-foot lashes of rasping, sandpapery hide, each dealing 1d6. More important is its plea for pity: a foe who fails a save vs. spell sees the fight through the suwyze's eyes, in a somewhat edited version. The disorientation imposes -3 on attack rolls, and its pitiful cries plus magically exaggerated wounds are so unsettling that the foe also takes -1 on damage. If that fails, it shouts for help magically, blasting its attackers as it does.

Curious to a fault, a suwyze is likely smarter than is good for it. It considers guard duty a pastime it happens to be good at, not a serious calling, and sees itself as a philosopher forever pondering perception or simply soaking in sensation. It is also a coward, quick to raise alarms and prone to false ones, and is spooked by odd sounds, strange smells, strangers or anything new.

Over time it develops fixed tastes in scents, colors and textures, and older ones may refuse to live anywhere not built to their liking, which makes them hard to move. A favored suwyze may be given rings and bracers by a generous master, and it can wear them on its tendrils. Some claim faint contact with free colonies of independent suwyze who serve no master, but given their overactive senses these 'contacts' are probably imagined.

Suwyze nearly always live in partnership with other underground creatures, guarding for underground dragons, evil peoples or whoever else will have them, so long as the meals are frequent and generous. All those senses burn energy, so it eats far more than its size would suggest and demands more meat than most cave dwellers.