Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Savage Menagerie: Snot Otter

No. Enc.: 1d4 (1d6)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: Swim: 150' (80')
Armor Class: 8
Hit Dice: 3
Attacks: 1 (bite)
Damage: 1d6
Save: L2
Morale: 7
Hoard Class: None

Although it looks like a large aquatic lizard or salamander, the Snot Otter is actually a hairless air-breathing mammal that lives in and near shallow fresh water areas, such as lakes, ponds, and streams. The Snot Otter prefers to dwell underwater, only surfacing to breathe only every 4 hours. The Snot Otter averages 2 feet in length and is covered in grey-green skin to better camouflage itself in the murky waters. But even if a predator discovers a Snot Otter, it would be safer avoiding it altogether.

The Snot Otter gets its name from the thin sheen of slick mucus that coats its skin -- in actuality, the creature is coated with a thin layer of Green Slime (MF rules, page 75). Somehow, the Snot Otter's skin has developed an immunity to the flesh-dissolving nature of Green Slime over the years and a symbiotic relationship has formed. However, the Green Slime covering a Snot Otter is still lethal to everyone else. Contact with a Snot Otter's slime-covered skin will spread a small patch of Green Slime onto a victim. This small patch takes 10 rounds to fully grow and engulf a victim, who will be dead and dissolved another 1d4 rounds later. Fire can burn off a patch of Green Slime, although the victim will also take fire damage. A Snot Otter can also bite for 1d6 hit points of damage (though this attack seems tame in comparison).

If a Snot Otter is safely caught and the Green Slime coating is (somehow) removed, the Otter's skin can be harvested and used to created a Green-Slime-proof leather. Some wasteland survivors have made moccasins and gloves out of Snot Otter skin for use in Green Slime-infested areas to avoid a hideous death.

Mutations: dermal poison slime (green slime coating)

NOTE: In case anyone was curious, this creature is loosely based on a real animal (the hellbender salamander) and it IS nicknamed "the snot otter"!

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