Wiwaxia
A yard-long, armor-plated seabed crawler bristling with fourteen bladed spines, wiwaxia is a scavenger that happily snaps at living prey and punishes anyone who fights it hand to hand.
Appearance
This bottom-dwelling creature measures about a yard from end to end. Overlapping hard scales cover its back, and seven long, sword-edged spines rise along each side, fourteen in all. Its jaws are lined with teeth that angle slightly backward, framing a bulging, toothless center.
Combat
Wiwaxia feeds mostly on scraps but will not pass up a live meal. It crawls up to its target and presses its bulge against it, which triggers the jaws to snap outward and clamp shut for 1d8 damage. Its plates make it tough to hurt, and anyone who keeps fighting it at close range is cut for 1d10 damage by the spines. Under the companion science-fiction rules, its armor subtracts 6 from the damage and 2 from the lethality of every attack.
Alert characters in open ground have little to fear from one, but clearing out an area crawling with them is a hazardous, tedious chore.
More: Monsters starting with W · Dragon Magazine monsters · All monsters A-Z
Statistics
| Climate/Terrain | Shallow sea floor |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Common |
| Organization | Solitary |
| Activity Cycle | Day |
| Diet | Carnivore/Scavenger |
| Intelligence | Animal(1) |
| Treasure | Nil |
| Alignment | Neutral |
| No. Appearing | 1-8 |
| Armor Class | 2 |
| Movement | 2 |
| Hit Dice | 2 |
| THAC0 | 19 |
| No. of Attacks | 1 |
| Damage/Attack | 1d8 |
| Special Attacks | Nil |
| Special Defenses | Spines |
| Magic Resistance | Nil |
| Size | S (3' long) |
| Morale | Steady (11) |
| XP Value | 65 |