Rock Slug

Written by Vii ==Family== Aberration ==Biology== Commonly thought to be the creation of a mad sorceror due to it's body seemingly being composed of the parts from various animals. A fully grown member of the species grows to be around three times as long and twice as wide as a large horse, though in height only reaching to that same horse's belly. It's mouth stretches the entire width of the creature and can swallow a man whole. It's overall body shape is that of a Slug, hence the one part of it's name. It has the ears, eyes, nose, of a toad. The skin of an octopus, including the ability to alter it's colouration. The "whiskers" of a catfish which start as wide as a man's forearm before dwindling to the width of a man's wrist and stretch for about half and reach for about half of the creature's length. Prehensile and tipped with a stinger with a paralysing poison which is strong enough to completely immobilize small prey, while only strong enough to numb a grown man, those whiskers are the creature's prime mode of hunting and fighting. It moves around legs styled similar to that of a caterpillars, though smaller in proportion to body size then a caterpillars, they also number quite more then a caterpillar's. While the latter part of the Rock Slug's name comes from it's body shape the first part comes from the "armour" of rocks and debris that cover it's shell. The debris and rocks are attached to the creature via a quite remarkable glue produced by glands on the creature's back, this glue is often considered the strongest glue on the world, only dissolved via the rock slug's equally potent digestive fluids. Normally the Rock Slug wears the same "Armour" through out it's life, adding more to it as it grows in size. The make-up of the Rock Slug's armour is often used to determine where the rock slug came from and can include weapons and armour, bones, or even precious gems. (for a rock slug that lived near a battlefield, wasteland, and ruins respectively.) Internally much of a rock slug's body is taken up by a large number of stomach like sacks. Those sacks contain a diggestive fluid powerful enough to diggest solid stone, can be "deflated" enough that it's body will shrink closing the chinks between it's armor, or "inflated" enough that it can float on water. Finally Rock Slugs are hermaphrodites, being neither male or female any two that come together can reproduce. ==Life Cycle & Habit== Every five years or so each Rock Slug in a herd except for the Bull Rock Slug lays a single egg about the size of an ostrich's with a shell somewhere between that of a turtle's and a bird's. These eggs are glued to the back of the parent Rock Slug with the same glue that attaches the rest of their armour. After around 6 months the eggs hatch into a baby rock slug about the size of a large cat or dog. The young Rock Slugs are unarmoured, being unable to produce the necessary glue before the age of five, otherwise, though, they behave much the same as an adult Rock Slug except are protected by the adults in event of attack. At the age of 10 they reach maturity though, generally, they don't begin to reproduce until the age of 15. They continue to grow throughout their life but their growth slows dramatically at maturity. At the age of 50 they stop laying reproducing and become Bull Rock Slugs, taking enough young rock slugs to form a herd they migrate to a new habitat. Bull Rock Slugs are technically the same as normal Rock Slugs, but due to their age and size they are much more threatening then normal rock slugs. Rock Slugs can easily live up to 200 hears and the oldest recorded Rock Slug is 756 years old and shows no signs of dying of old age. They live in herds number around 6-11, including 1 Bull Rock Slug, 5 normal Rock Slugs, & 5 young Rock Slugs. Behaviour wise they are about as intelligent as a good horse and are mild in temperament as there is very little to threaten them. However if threatened they will defend their herd and their young with their life. ==Habitat== Rock Slugs can live and thrive in almost any habitat, from the ocean, to ancient ruins, to deep underground, to the tallest mountains. That said they prefer to live in secluded places that are hard to get to or inhospitable for the sentient races while providing enough food for them. They are most common in the eastern swamps as it features plenty of food and is suitably inhospitable. Due to the isolation of their habitats most people haven't seen them and they are virtually unheard of in the western fiefdoms. ==Domestication== Rock Slugs can be trained in a process that is halfway between breaking a horse and training a dog. The most important thing in training a Rock Slug is proving your dominance over them without acting as an enemy, and a good way to gain the loyalty of a Rock Slug is to save it from some threat it can not handle on it's own. Domesticated Rock Slugs often have Caravan style Wagons attached to their back using the same glue that attaches their armour and it's often a sign of prestige among elves to have such a rock slug wagon. ==Diet== Extreme omnivorous, they eat anything from plants to insects to small animals to even dead bodies, in habit though they mostly just graze on grass, insects, or krill near constantly, catching small prey when they have the catch but not hunting larger prey unless attacked or they find it already dead.