Tirawen

A loathsome, worm-like crawler armoured in overlapping chitin plates, its long ribbon of a body rippling forward on dozens of tiny legs. Colour shifts to match its haunt: ashen grey on stone, sooty black underground, rust-brown among leaves. Common kinds run a hand's length to a forearm; the rare megalo-strain swells past a tall man's height and turns true predator.

It hunts by ambush, lurking unseen until it drops from a ledge or bursts from cover to bite. Lesser kinds inject a feeble paralytic that merely cramps a victim; the giant megalo-strain's bite injects an acid venom that scalds flesh and can prove lethal if untreated. They roam without territory, swarming over carrion and sometimes turning on one another.

Behavior

Scuttles with rippling speed across walls, ceilings, and broken ground.
Uses camouflage colouring to wait motionless, then drops or lunges onto passing prey.
Bites and pumps in venom rather than crushing or constricting.
Travels in loose, quarrelsome groups that fight independently, even over the same kill.
Must feed daily; starving specimens attack anything that moves and may eat their own kind.
The oversized megalo-strain hunts cunningly, taking deer-sized game and lone travellers.

Abilities

Venomous Bite. A bite injects toxin; weak in lesser kinds (brief cramping paralysis), lethal and acid-burning in the giant megalo-strain.
Drop Ambush. Clings overhead and falls on victims, striking before they sense it.
Shifting Camouflage. Carapace colour matches local terrain, granting near-invisibility while still.

Drops & Crafting

Chitin plates for lightweight scale-armour trim
Venom glands rendered into paralytic coatings or stinging acid
Segmented carapace shells for tool casings and beads
Spindly legs used as fish-hooks or trap bait
Antennae and ichor for alchemical reagents