Crypt Spawn
| Statistic | Value |
|---|---|
| Climate / Terrain | Lower Planes |
| Frequency | Common |
| Organisation | Swarm |
| Activity Cycle | Night |
| Diet | Omnivore |
| Intelligence | Semi (2) |
| Treasure | Nil |
| Alignment | Chaotic Neutral |
| No. Appearing | 5-100 |
| Armour Class | 6 |
| Movement | Fl 36 (D) |
| Hit Dice | 2 |
| THAC0 | 19 |
| No. Of Attacks | 2 |
| Damage / Attack | 1/1-4 + disease |
| Special Attacks | None |
| Special Defences | Immune to Fire |
| Magic Resistance | 15% |
| Size | S (4’) |
| Morale | Unsteady (7) |
| XP Value | 75 |
Description
Appearance
These hideous creatures look like winged, brain-like bats with no bodies. They flap around madly and chaotically, but attack in huge numbers despoiling livestock and crops with their disease-causing tendrils...
Combat
Crypt Spawn have only one, very weak attack. They fly at fast speeds towards a target and whip it with their tendrils and biting quickly with a small, beak like mouth as they pass by. It is not the damage most people are concerned about, however. Anyone hit for full damage must save or be inflicted by a disease not unlike mummy rot. This plague is known as The Silver Rot, and causes the afflicted’s skin to go a silvery colour (this is actually just destroyed blood vessels). Any plant, or animal touched by this either wither away (in the case of plants), or go sick and die (with livestock and animals).
When a Crypt Spawn is slain, they dissolve into a puddle of foul smelling, sticky brown goo. This goo causes ground to grow sterile, and even works on animals. Those within 3 feet of the goo risk sterility, and must save vs spells each round to avoid it, or until they move out of the area.
Habitat/Society
These creatures can be easily summoned by fiends and necromancers from the lower planes of Carceri and Acheron and Gehenna. On the lower planes, they fly around in flocks, occasionally picking off Larvae and attracting the hatred of the Night Hags who rely on the grubs to make a profit. They are often summoned en masse to flood and overwhelm an enemy, or set upon a kingdom as a plague to despoil livestock and crops or just cause mayhem, making them easy pickings when the demons come to claim the land.
Ecology
There is little a Crypt Spawn can do on the lower planes to affect the Ecology. They can’t despoil that which isn’t there. Creatures and plants native to the lower planes like razorvine and the Stench Kow are immune to the effects of thier despoiling. In the lower planes, they regulate the number of larvae and may actually help keep the number of fiends down and prevent the Blood War from spilling out onto the other planes, for Crypt Spawn enjoy nothing more than Larvae. Larvae are thier favourite food, and where swarms of Larva can be found wriggling away frantically, one usually finds a flock of Crypt Spawn circling like seagulls, picking them off- much to the Night Hag’s annoyance. Night Hags destroy flocks of Crypt Spawn wherever they find them nesting.
On the material plane, however it is different. They devour plants and wildlife and despoil everything they touch. They are not very efficient, often leaving many animals still alive and missing them. They rarely ever linger long enough to fully devour a body, and soon the area becomes the domain of flies and worms. Once the area is clear, they will head off in a random direction. One can always track the flock by the path of destruction and barrenness they leave behind.