Manic Monsterdays! (nee Frightful Fridays!) Scaly-Foot Snail

Hello, and welcome to the official Frightful Friday entry! I hope the other five monsters held you over until today. This week's monster is courtesy of my friend Drejk, Wojciech Drejk Gruchała, and I thought this real-world creature had quite a bit of potential in a fantasy setting. So, it's kind of a scavenger that follows a rust monster around, eating leftover metal the rust monster might have missed, as well as adventurers who suddenly can't as effectively fight the snail thanks to said rust monster.

I hope to be back to my regular Friday posts this week, and I certainly hope you enjoy the scaly-foot snail. Thanks for reading!

You can read more about the snail here (maybe with some help from Google Translate)

This dark-shelled snail makes a scraping sound when it moves. Bits of metal protect its fleshy foot.
Scaly-Foot Snail CR 2
XP 600
N Small vermin
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7

Defense
AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+1 Dex, +4 natural, +1 size)
hp 19 (3d8+6)
Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +0
Immune acid, mind-affecting effects, rusting effects; Resist fire 5

Offense
Speed 20 ft., climb 10 ft.
Melee slam +4 (2d6+1 plus disease)

Statistics
Str 13, Dex 12, Con 15, Int —, Wis 9, Cha 4
Base Atk +2; CMB +2; CMD 13 (can't be tripped)
Skills Climb +9, Perception +7, Stealth +1; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception, –4 Stealth

Ecology
Environment any underground
Organization solitary, pair, or rout (3–12)
Treasure incidental

Special Abilities
Disease (Ex) Tetanus: Slam—injury; save Fort DC 13; onset 1 day; frequency 1/day; effect 1d4 Dex damage and 50% of loss of speech for 24 hours; cure 2 consecutive saves. The save DC is Constitution-based.

Scaly-foot snails are common dungeon inhabitants, but very few reports of them reach the outside world because they usually accompany rust monsters, who receive all the attention. The snails have a pseudo-symbiotic relationship with rust monsters, in which the snails clean up scraps of metal left behind by the aberrations. Since they eat flesh in addition to metal, they also attack creatures rendered defenseless by the lack of armor and weapons. These bits of metal incorporate into the snails, giving their typical weak spot—the fleshy part they extend from their shell for locomotion—as much protection as their shells. Due to the strange enzymes that allow them to incorporate metal, they also gain protection from the rust monster's rust attack. Unfortunately for the snails, the metal scrapes against most other surfaces, negating the creatures' chances to sneak up on prey. The pieces of rusted metal attract a host of anaerobic bacteria, thus providing scaly-foot snails with the ability to inflict tetanus on their victims.

Alternate versions of scaly-foot snails exist, particularly those that feast on exotic metals. For example, adamantine scaly-foot snails have DR 20/adamantine and can bypass DR and hardness as if they wielded adamantine weapons.

 

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