Vurgens [Fish]

The vurgens, or giant gulper eel, has a long, snaking body and tail, an outsized head and an unhinging jaw with a six-foot bite radius. Mouth and stomach stretch to hold prey as big as the eel itself. Rows of spines run down both flanks from head to tail tip, and the tail is a tapered, pointed bundle of spines that makes it a strong swimmer. Its tiny eyes are flat black but sharp. The usual color is a mottled brown, but sightings of purple, white, russet and olive individuals exist.

A vurgens likes to strike fast, swallow its victim whole and move on. Its jaws are toothless bony ridges meant to grip, not chew, so the bite itself deals only 2d6, but they let it gulp even huge prey. Inside, corrosive saliva washes over the victim, who must save vs. poison or be paralyzed. Saliva and digestive acid together deal 4d4 per round, paralyzed or not. A healthy, active victim can fairly easily cut or chew its way out, provided it is small enough to squeeze past the bony jaw and ribs.

Touching its razor-sharp spines costs 1d4, and its tail lashes for 3d4.

Little is known of the vurgens, mostly because meetings with one tend to end with the death of either the eel or the observer. These loners cruise the deep without rest, swallowing whatever edible thing crosses their path. Each claims a huge stretch of ocean and fights titanic battles with rivals over it. They keep no lair, though they may shelter in seabed caves while healing or giving birth, and they return again and again to waters that once fed them well.

Every two years a female bears 20 to 40 young, carrying the eggs and then the hatchlings inside her until they are a foot long (1 HD, dealing 1 point of damage). They gain 1 HD a year and mature at six years, if they survive.

Locathah and other deep-sea peoples dread the vurgens. It sees any creature its own size as a rival, so it attacks even whales and kraken. Luckily for surface folk, it keeps to the depths and rises toward the surface only when driven up by disturbances nobody understands.