Taster (by Ben Harris)

Aeshar Aasimon, Arthurea Aasimon, Twilight Aasimon, Soul Child Ash Child Ash Witch Butterfly, Spire Cogspawn Concordanach Dimensional Dragon, Limaxian Ember Hulk Ethereal Swimmer Faery, Stair Forgetful Snapper Guardinal, Ardeidal Golem, Gear Halato Ispi Ixnae Koylith L'Zoir Malakin Mephit, Shadow Minion of Chaos Mock Moigno, Imaginary Moigno, Rational Phileet Pyroead Scarling Scurpyon Slaad, Rogue Stithid Stygian Memory Symmetrian Tanar'gre Tanar'ri, Dracor'ri Tanar'ri, Kah'Lesar Taster Tem'mat Termite, Jewel Valkarthi Wasp, Bytopian Waurac Worm, Pentranomeker [an error occurred while processing this directive]		CLIMATE/TERRAIN:	Jungle, the River Styx
		FREQUENCY:	Uncommon
		ORGANISATION:	Solitary
		ACTIVITY CYCLE:	Any
		DIET:	Carnivore
		INTELLIGENCE:	Animal (1)
		TREASURE:	None
		ALIGNMENT:	Neutral
		NO. APPEARING:	1-2
		ARMOUR CLASS:	10
		MOVEMENT:	2
		HIT DICE:	1 hp
		THAC0:	Nil
		NO. OF ATTACKS:	Nil
		DAMAGE/ATTACK:	Nil
		SPECIAL ATTACKS:	Psionics
		SPECIAL DEFENCES:	Psionics
		MAGIC RESISTANCE:	Nil
		SIZE:	T (2" long)
		MORALE:	Unsteady (5-7)
		XP VALUE:	35
		Tasters are small slug-like creatures that inhabit the jungle and banks of the River Styx. Strong in the Will, they use their psionic abilities in their natural habitat for feeding and self protection. In recent times, however, their psionic abilities have made them popular in Sigil. Many members of the population, more often Sensates than not, can be seen with a taster nestled behind their ear, rather incoherently extolling their "mind expanding" virtues and the wonder of the world "through a slugs eyes". The Guvners are currently debating whether they should be outlawed in Sigil. COMBAT: Tasters are totally unwilling to engage in combat. If they feel threatened they will attempt to engage their attacker psionically. Once they have established contact with their attacker they will then use their false sensory input and daydream devotions to daze their attacker long enough for the taster to slither into physical contact with them. Once that is done they will feed on their attackers in the normal manner (see below). HABITAT/SOCIETY: Tasters are solitary creatures, tending to avoid each other even for purposes of procreation. Tasters gain sustenance from feeding on the health of other creatures. When attempting to feed, the taster comes into physical contact (described above) with a creature with intelligence of 3 or more. The taster uses its psionic ability to alter the creature's visual and aural perception in a pleasurable, though disorienting, manner. At this stage the creature being fed from becomes largely unaware of the taster's presence and save versus magic to remove it. In the course of feeding the taster reduces the creature's constitution by one every day (or half a hit dice), fattening in the process. When the creature's constitution reduces to zero it dies and the taster splits in two, producing an almost identical offspring. ECOLOGY: Tasters are relatively common along the banks of the River Styx. For centuries they were known but avoided by denizens of that area. It was only when some clueless berk brought some back to Sigil that their psychotropic properties became widely known. Now several cutters have taken to breeding them. A taster costs between 4 and 12 sp depending on supply. Some enterprising individuals have been taking advantage of the craze on tasters by selling normal slugs to unwary customers. Copyright 1999 by Ben Harris