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Description
Along the centuries many of the strange creatures of Goitia, from the owlbear to the rust monster, have been explained as a mad experiment of pre-Ruin mages. While in most cases this hasn't turned out to have been true, Carrion Crawler (Narkaoskolex) is thought to be an exception. This giant invertebrate was originally described as a crossbreed of a giant caterpillar and a centipede, or a squid if you believe some sources, but was much later recognized as an extremely anomalous onychophoran, a member of a clade that otherwise includes velvet worms. Indeed the Carrion Crawler is believed to have descended from velvet worms used in experiments to induce goetiogenic mutations for increased size in various invertebrates.

Despite its apparent similarity with velvet worms, the Carrion Crawler has a host of anatomical novelties including advanced muscular spiracles, a diffuse tracheal lung apparatus, complex crustacean-like circulatory system and most importantly an endoskeleton comprised of reinforced chitin, which enables it to grow into enormous sizes. Its mouth is also surrounded by muscular appendages terminating in a small claw. The eyes are large pigment-cup ocelli that resemble the eyes of spiders, and seem to provide a fairly keen vision.

It is common lore among Goitian prospectors that the Carrion Crawler is a scavenger that paralyses its victims to lay its eggs inside them. Though it will feed on carcasses that it comes across, in reality the Carrion Crawler is an active predator much like an ordinary velvet worm: being a slow-moving animal it captures its prey by spraying jets of slime from its hose-like oral papillae located just below its eyes. The slime quickly solidifies into a sticky silk-like substance that hinders the movement of its prey. Unlike velvet worm slime however, the slime of the Carrion Crawler contains a coctail of chemicals that cause loss of sensation and local paralysis upon contact. An unprotected target can be completely incapacitated by this attack. In addition to the oral papillae, the Carrion Crawler also extrudes the same paralytic agent without the other componets of the slime from smaller papillae located underneath its antennae and the oral appendages. This presumably helps it maintain a grip from larger prey that may still be strong enough to struggle.

The legs of the Carrion Crawler terminate in two pairs of sharp hooked claws that the animal uses to climb. Carrion Crawlers are known to scale up large trees and even vertical cliff faces thanks to their claws. Because of this they constantly find their way over Apomandrias' wall to Alphorian territories. Juvenile individuals are known to climb in trees to raid bird nests, but such behavior is rare in fully grown individuals that may struggle to haul their heavy bodies up sharp inclines.

Carrion Crawlers can live up to eight years and reach a length of three yards, though such enormous individuals are extremely rare. It is common for Carrion Crawlers to die soon after reproduction, never exceeding the age of two years. The females can store sperm in their bodies, and the ones that do survive laying their first batch of eggs will never mate again, but can keep laying fertilized eggs for as long as they remain alive. As is stated in common lore, Carrion Crawlers do lay their eggs inside a fresh kill. The young that emerge as fully fledged miniature versions of adults soon after laying, and feed on the carcass until it has been picked clean.

Because of the properties of the Carrion Crawler slime, there is a lot of demand for intact slime glands and even live juvenile crawlers. The numbing and paralysing effects have lots of uses, both legimate and illegimate. Alphorian apotecharies often keep live Carrion Crawlers captive for harvesting slime, which is most commonly used for its anaesthetic purposes.

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This time I left the illustration much sketchier as an experiment. The reason for this is that detailed paintings take a lot of time, and I always worry if I'll be able to finish them. This way I can cover much more Magestone creatures in less time, even letting me do ones that I'd otherwise be tempted to skip. (I still intend to do fully finished paintings of some taxa.)

Edit: Forgot to add a link to the 2nd edition AD&D Carrion Crawler (Lomion)

Description
Along the centuries many of the strange creatures of Goitia, from the owlbear to the rust monster, have been explained as a mad experiment of pre-Ruin mages. While in most cases this hasn't turned out to have been true, Carrion Crawler (Narkaoskolex) is thought to be an exception. This giant invertebrate was originally described as a crossbreed of a giant caterpillar and a centipede, or a squid if you believe some sources, but was much later recognized as an extremely anomalous onychophoran, a member of a clade that otherwise includes velvet worms. Indeed the Carrion Crawler is believed to have descended from velvet worms used in experiments to induce goetiogenic mutations for increased size in various invertebrates.

Despite its apparent similarity with velvet worms, the Carrion Crawler has a host of anatomical novelties including advanced muscular spiracles, a diffuse tracheal lung apparatus, complex crustacean-like circulatory system and most importantly an endoskeleton comprised of reinforced chitin, which enables it to grow into enormous sizes. Its mouth is also surrounded by muscular appendages terminating in a small claw. The eyes are large pigment-cup ocelli that resemble the eyes of spiders, and seem to provide a fairly keen vision.

It is common lore among Goitian prospectors that the Carrion Crawler is a scavenger that paralyses its victims to lay its eggs inside them. Though it will feed on carcasses that it comes across, in reality the Carrion Crawler is an active predator much like an ordinary velvet worm: being a slow-moving animal it captures its prey by spraying jets of slime from its hose-like oral papillae located just below its eyes. The slime quickly solidifies into a sticky silk-like substance that hinders the movement of its prey. Unlike velvet worm slime however, the slime of the Carrion Crawler contains a coctail of chemicals that cause loss of sensation and local paralysis upon contact. An unprotected target can be completely incapacitated by this attack. In addition to the oral papillae, the Carrion Crawler also extrudes the same paralytic agent without the other componets of the slime from smaller papillae located underneath its antennae and the oral appendages. This presumably helps it maintain a grip from larger prey that may still be strong enough to struggle.

The legs of the Carrion Crawler terminate in two pairs of sharp hooked claws that the animal uses to climb. Carrion Crawlers are known to scale up large trees and even vertical cliff faces thanks to their claws. Because of this they constantly find their way over Apomandrias' wall to Alphorian territories. Juvenile individuals are known to climb in trees to raid bird nests, but such behavior is rare in fully grown individuals that may struggle to haul their heavy bodies up sharp inclines.

Carrion Crawlers can live up to eight years and reach a length of three yards, though such enormous individuals are extremely rare. It is common for Carrion Crawlers to die soon after reproduction, never exceeding the age of two years. The females can store sperm in their bodies, and the ones that do survive laying their first batch of eggs will never mate again, but can keep laying fertilized eggs for as long as they remain alive. As is stated in common lore, Carrion Crawlers do lay their eggs inside a fresh kill. The young that emerge as fully fledged miniature versions of adults soon after laying, and feed on the carcass until it has been picked clean.

Because of the properties of the Carrion Crawler slime, there is a lot of demand for intact slime glands and even live juvenile crawlers. The numbing and paralysing effects have lots of uses, both legimate and illegimate. Alphorian apotecharies often keep live Carrion Crawlers captive for harvesting slime, which is most commonly used for its anaesthetic purposes.

---
This time I left the illustration much sketchier as an experiment. The reason for this is that detailed paintings take a lot of time, and I always worry if I'll be able to finish them. This way I can cover much more Magestone creatures in less time, even letting me do ones that I'd otherwise be tempted to skip. (I still intend to do fully finished paintings of some taxa.)

Edit: Forgot to add a link to the 2nd edition AD&D Carrion Crawler (Lomion)