Unusual materials for items

[hcobb]

Dungeonous Crabs

Many pray that whichever wizard created these giant crabs that act like ants had been eaten by them. A typical colony might have one queen crab, a half dozen workers, and a dozen juveniles, but this depends on environment and food sources. The colony will have a half dozen hex long corridor that goes from the bottom of a nearby source of water (an ocean, lake, or river) up to knee high water in the main tunnels. This then opens into the main chamber around the size of a Melee map which then has three to eight narrow tunnels extending out under the ground. At the end of each of these tunnels the crabs will have created an opening and then covered this up with dirt and vegetation over a latticework of sticks. These traps are 5/IQ to spot (Naturalist and Expert Naturalist reduce this by one die each), and if stepped on a 4/DX save is required to jump aside and not fall a dozen feet into knee high water. The fall itself is unlikely to cause any damage, but the vibrations will alert the worker crabs to come collect lunch.
Juvenile Crab ST 8, DX 11, IQ 4, MA 6/12 (Knee high water is navigated as if clear hexes)
Claw 1d-1, Shell stops 1 hit, and deflects physical attacks for a -3 to be hit.
Worker Crab, as above but ST 14, Claw 2d-1, Shell stops 2 hits.
Queen Crab, as above but a 3-hex figure with ST 30, Claw 2d+2, Shell stops 3 hits.
Alchemists can take the back shells of these crabs and turn them into small, large, or tower shields (depending on the size of the crab), which are twice as durable, weigh half as much, and deliver double the benefit for users with Shield Expertise as physical blows are deflected off them, if properly angled.