Bone Crab

Family: Insects Rodents & Vermin

Small beast, unaligned

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 33 (6d6 + 12)
Speed 20 ft., swim 10 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
10 (+0) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 3 (-4) 12 (+1) 4 (-3)

Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4
Damage Resistances bludgeoning
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2

SPECIAL TRAITS

  • Amphibious. The bone crab can breathe air and water.
  • Bone Camouflage. The bone crab has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks made to hide among bones.
  • Limited Telepathy. The bone crab can magically communicate simple ideas, emotions, and images telepathically with other bone crabs in its pack within 100 feet of it. While within 30 feet of another bone crab, the bone crab can’t be surprised and has advantage on initiative rolls.
  • Pack Tactics. The bone crab has advantage on attack rolls against a creature if at least one of the crab’s allies is within 5 feet of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
  • Standing Leap. The bone crab’s long jump is up to 20 feet and its high jump is up to 10 feet, with or without a running start.
  • White Ghost Shivers. A creature that eats the meat of the bone crab or that is bitten by a creature infected with the white ghost shivers disease must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or become infected with the disease. An infected creature develops the first symptoms after 24 hours. Symptoms include a mild chill that escalates to a fever and frightful hallucinations that give the disease its name. At the end of each long rest, the infected creature must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or suffer one level of exhaustion. The exhaustion lasts until the creature finishes a long rest after the disease is cured. A creature that succeeds on two saving throws against the disease recovers from it. Alternatively, the disease can be removed by the lesser restoration spell or similar magic.

ACTIONS

  • Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage.

ABOUT

The cracked skull scurries forward on bone-white legs, crab claws raised.

Skull Shells. Much like an enormous hermit crab, bone crabs inhabit the remains of large fish, humanoids, and other creatures. A bone crab’s spiny, ivory-white legs blend in perfectly with bones and pale driftwood. When lacking bones, these crabs gnaw cavities into chunks of driftwood or coral to make a shelter, cementing bits of shell and debris to their portable homes. They drag aquatic prey above the high tide line and leave it to fester in the hot sun.

The crabs can pick corpses clean in a few hours, and their hunting grounds are littered with cracked and sun-bleached bones—the perfect hiding place for these littoral predators.

Scavengers of Memory. Bone crabs are voracious scavengers. They live in seaside crags and coves, where they use their specialized chelae to crack open skulls and feast on the brains. Some crabs retain fragments of memory from those they devour, and these crabs recognize friends or attack the foes of those whose skulls they wear.

Pack Hunters. Bone crabs hunt in packs, preying on seabirds and creatures stranded in tidal pools. Centuries of feeding on brains has left the crabs with a rudimentary intelligence and a psychic connection with fellow packmates. They use this to alert each other to danger, potential prey, or a threat to their territory.

Although bone crabs cannot be domesticated, they can be convinced to nest in particular areas, attacking intruders while ignoring the area’s regulars.

White Ghost Shivers. Because they eat carrion, bone crabs carry a dangerous disease known as white ghost shivers. This disease wracks victims with fever and delirium. Sailors and others who eat a bone crab’s unwholesome, diseased flesh rarely survive it.

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Tome of Beasts 1 ©2023 Open Design LLC; Authors: Daniel Kahn, Jeff Lee, and Mike Welham.

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