Cypher Creatures: Junker Snail
Happy Thursday, Folks!
Those of you who have been following us since the 5e days know how much we love snails here in The Underground, and for August's member bonus, we're converting one of my personal favorites from 5e to Cypher.
The junker snail!
They eat garbage, steal things, make a lot of noise, and shoot slime when threatened. Apex creatures in my book.
Enjoy and happy gaming!
~ Jess
Junker Snail 1 (3)
“Oh, they’re gross. There’s no arguing that. But if you can get past the smell, watching them eat garbage, and just the general oozing around, they’re sort of cute.”
- Scarlett Natham, Adventurer
Humming softly to themselves as they scoot slowly through the muck and debris that other creatures leave behind, junker snails lead a fairly humble and peaceful existence searching for the perfect piece of rubbish to complete their strange collections.
Small, nocturnal creatures that stand roughly 4 feet at their shelled backs, junker snails get their names from their proclivity for using the fingerlike tentacles on their backs to gather any sort of items that strike their fancy and sealing them to their shells with a viscous, glue-like ooze that they naturally secrete. When encountered in the wild, they may be covered in rocks, shells, bones, or other natural materials that might catch their eye. But more often than not, junker snails are encountered in the sewers under cities or among landfills on the outskirts of towns, where they pile themselves high with the discarded items that civilization leaves behind while dining on the edible organic materials that they happily scavenge from the trash.
Although their penchant for eating and gathering refuse can be fairly off-putting to some, having a colony of these happy little creatures roving through junkyards and sewage systems is a boon to any city with more people than viable ways of cleaning up after them. Junker snails are nonviolent, so having them near a populace is completely safe, and some more enterprising metropolises have even designated snail wranglers to lead them through the empty streets late at night, cleaning up the remains of the day while their lilting songs float into the quiet night air. In fact, beyond the surface layer of disgust that junker snails might inspire, there are only two real downsides that a colony of these creatures might bring to a city.
The first is the noise pollution that junker snails can cause. Junker snails are incredibly vocal creatures, and although a single junker snail might softly hum to itself or loose a squawk when surprised, that can quickly get out of hand when a large group of the creatures are squabbling over a choice piece of garbage, being startled by something blowing on the wind, or each independently singing their little songs at different pitches and speeds. Another duty of the wranglers assigned to lead junker snails through the streets during evening cleanings is to act as a simple conductor, getting the creatures to each begin humming the same melody before taking them through the city.
The other issue that junker snails can cause is the elaborate tunnels they build when left to their own devices. Mixing natural materials with the ooze they secrete, junker snail tunnels are stable and cement-like structures. Within a junkyard or landfill, these tunnels are hardly a grave concern, but inside a sewage system, they can cause obvious problems with precious infrastructure. Cities using junker snails to clean out their sewers will often designate a single area where they allow the junker snails to tunnel away to their heart's content without realizing that they’re being focused away from any of the critical areas of the undercity.
Motive: Eat trash, collect garbage, and sing
Environment: Landfills, sewers, and other urban deposits of refuse
Health: 5
Armor: 3
Damage inflicted: 1
Movement: Immediate
Modifications: Pilfering tasks as level 2; Immune to damage and effects from poison or disease
Combat: Junker snails are nearly useless in a physical altercation and if they cannot simply retreat into their shells to avoid a threat, they’ll lash out with one of their many tentacles to strike at a creature.
When a junker snail is within immediate distance of a creature, it may use its action to attempt to pilfer a small item from the creature. If the target fails an Intellect defense roll, the junker snail successfully takes the item and sticks it to its shell among whatever other detritus it is covered in. A creature attempting to pull an item from the junker snail’s body must succeed on a difficulty level 3 Might task.
Once per turn, when a creature comes within immediate distance of the junker snail, it can expel a propelling burst of slime and move a short distance away from the triggering creature, leaving a trail of junker ooze in its wake. For the next ten minutes, creatures that step onto the trail of junker ooze are stuck until they use an action to succeed on a difficulty level 3 Might task to free themselves.
Interaction: Junker snails are simple creatures, but seem to be as intelligent as a cat or dog. Their attention is very easily captured by an item or bit of refuse that they find interesting.
Use: A local merchant has lost a valuable bauble that he believes the local junker snails may have picked up the night before.
Loot: Junker snails cover their bodies in anything that catches their fancy, which means cyphers or other valuables may be hidden among their other “treasures”.
GM Intrusion: The junker snail shoots a tentacle from their shell and snatches a weapon or item from a character’s hand.
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