Giant Leech

A bloated, slug-like worm of wet places, its slimy hide mottled brown and tan with the odd gray patch, two short antennae waving from the head, and an underside ringed with grip-folds around a sucking mouth. Giant kinds run from two to five feet long; lesser cousins lurk as twig-thin throat-leeches in still water or gather as vast drifting swarms. All wait half-buried in mud and slime for warm-blooded prey, then attach and siphon blood. Their bite carries a numbing slime, so a wading victim rarely notices the theft until weakness sets in. Some bites fester into a lingering sickness, though a healer's care or the right remedy sees it off. Salt or flame drives them off. They are quiet, patient hazards of swamp, marsh, and stagnant pool.