Saltsucker 
+3 STR +3 DEX +3 CON DEF 13
This creature is all shaggy white to light grey fur, baggy mottled skin, sunken dead eyes, and an oral annulus of needle-sharp teeth like a Terran lamprey. Long, apelike arms terminate in hands with three digits lined with disc-shaped suckers (similar the tentacles of a cephalopod). This lethal bipedal predator is ruled by its animal cunning, focused only on sating its taste for bodily humors despite its sapient humanoid intellect.
The saltsucker slakes its drive for nutrients through the exsanguination and desiccation of its victims. The creature prefers stealhy ambush tactics and is surprisingly nimble and quiet. However, it is capable of using its psychic ability to camouflage itself, tricking its prey into hallucinations masking the saltsucker as a friendly member of its own species while the creature makes a slow, steady approach with arms oddly extended. Starting with forceful transcutaneous withdrawal of fluids and nutrients through the victim’s skin, a process that leaves gruesome round lesions on the head and neck as it inflicts terrible pain, the creature then follows up with a bite attack, injecting a fast-acting paralytic neurotoxin, and if the victim succumbs and falls silent, the saltsucker will drain its prey to complete lack of consciousness, continuing to drink blood until the victim expires, leaving only a gaunt husk.
The saltsucker only makes its squealing noise when wounded, and its kills are usually ominously silent after the victim’s initial struggle. Saltsuckers only resort to employing bludgeoning melee attacks if they find they have underestimated the fighting capability of their intended prey, They are solitary creatures that usually live and hunt alone, and the two sexes are virtually indistinguishable unless observed in dangerous proximity.
- ATTACK—BE STRUCK OR GET SUCKED: A successful melee attack on a CLOSE opponent allows the saltsucker to deal D6 WEAPON (bludgeoning) damage from the blow as usual or (as long as the creature has an area of bare skin to grasp (usually the face and neck)) force an opposed STR roll versus its victim; if the saltsucker wins, it deals NO immediate damage and grapples the target creature, who will then take D4 BASIC (piercing) damage from fluid extraction every round beginning on its next turn, during which its only available action is to struggle to break free on a HARD STR roll until it succeeds or expires. (Allies of the target creature can attempt opposed STR checks against the saltsucker to free their friend. The saltsucker can only grapple one victim at a time.)
- ATTACK—BITE: While not preferred, a saltsucker can also opt to bite for either damage or grappling/salt extraction if its hands are not free; it works exactly the same as its hand strike above, and although it cannot be used in conjunction to extract salt from a second victim, the bite can be used to deal D6 WEAPON (piercing) damage while the saltsucker remains vulnerable and immobile during its feeding. If the bite is used to grapple a target (or used as a follow-up on a victim already grappled) it delivers paralytic neurotoxin, forcing the victim to make a CON save or become immediately paralyzed, rolling a subsequent CON save each turn to shake off the stun effects; this paralysis stacks on top of the grappled condition—failing both checks puts the victim at extreme disadvantage.
- DEAD EYE MIND TRICK—A saltsucker can use its psychic abilities to camouflage its true form and appear to observers as a non-threatening and appealing member of their same species—possibly quite different in its illusory appearance from one observer to the next! (GMs should be as vague as possible to keep the descriptions congruent.) Observers must make pass HARD WIS roll to see through the creature’s illusion, and if it makes eye contact with someone—its intended victim—the WIS roll succeeds only on a natural 20. The illusion remains in place unless someone witnesses the creature feed, which prompts an EASY WIS roll for a second chance to see the creature for what it really is…
Notes:
- Inspired by and designed as homage to the M-113 salt vampire from the episode entitled “The Man Trap” from Star Trek (The Original Series), in the same spirit as the excellent creature conversion work presented in Xeno Dead Zone.
- This monster is probably spicy enough without the psychic camouflage ability inspired by the “shapeshifting” in the source material that inspired it, so you can reduce the challenge to a more manageable level for your table by omitting it. There is also a middle ground, where you can reduce the WIS roll requirement to see through the creature’s illusion from HARD to normal for observers and from nat 20 to HARD for anyone caught in the saltsucker’s gaze.
- In recent years, bastards on the Internet and within the Star Trek community have tried to retcon the illusory camouflage of the M-113 creature into actual shapeshifting; I resent this attack on science fiction lore from my childhood, and I implore you not to go this route at your table, instead opting to keep this creature’s abilities purely psychic and therefore more believable and interesting to roleplay. If it could actually polymorph, it would probably find an easier way to get something to eat. Apparently there were no potato chips on Planet M-113…
- Explore the other exhibits in Munyb’s Menagerie.
