Skuhlzecki (hot-headed ice borer)

A unique race of arctic worm, the skuhlzecki, or hot-headed ice borer, lives only on the cold plains and steppes of Vosgaard. Living within the thick permafrost of northern Cecilia, the ice borer spends its life hunting for food.

Reaching a maximum length of 2 feet at adulthood, the skuhlzecki remain among Vosgaard's most dangerous predators. The round, segmented worm has a bony, flat plate on the top of its head and a round, tooth-filled mouth. It has no visible eyes, ears, or nose. The creature's skin is as tough as cowhide but is entirely hairless.

Ice borers move by burrowing in snow or permafrost. They cannot burrow through solid ice. Because of a concentration of blood vessels beneath the bony plate in its bead, a skuhlzecki can cause the plate to grow exceedingly hot (any creature touching this plate sustains 1d4 pojnts of damage from a scalding bum). The heated plate turns the snow ahead of the ice borer to slush, allowing it to push or burrow through the snow. Jn the ke 's frigid habitat, this narrow tunnel o freezes behind it almost immediately, off the worm's path.

Combat: Ice borers are believed to be blind but have a superior ability to sense vibrations. When a pack of ice borers senses a disturbance in the snow nearby, the group burrows to within about a foot of the surface to investigate. If they discover prey overhead, they swarm beneath the victim from below and move in like sharks. Working together, a nwnber of the creatures can quickly melt the snow below a victim, creating a trap much like quic~and. The skuhlzecki then wait until the creature begins foundering in the musb before attacking (a saving throw vs. petrification is allowed to determine whether a character or creature can jump aside).

Ice borers attack with their powerful teeth and jaws. They bite victims from below, dragging the creatures further into the snow. Characters and creatures foundering in a skuhlzedci trap must make swimming nonweapon proficiency checks to move out of an ice borer's reach; these checks suffer a -2 penalty for each skuhlzeck.i involved in the attack.

As a skuhlzecki chews away at a victim, its incredible metabolism processes the meal quickly. Meat and fat are digested in a matter of minutes and moved directly into the bloodstream or stored in the form of fat reserves. As soon as the creature stops feeding, all digested food is converted to fat stores. The Cl'eatures are believed to have several stomachs which can bold food stores for later digestion. One of these appears to be a blood sac that swells after the creature feeds; whether the blood stored here is the creature's own or that of its victim remains the subject of argument.

Battling an ice borer pack is a difficult proposition. Because they attack from .below, they cannot be detected by normal means. When they strike, they gain a +4 bonus to their chance to surprise a foe. Shields are virtually useless against an ice borer, resulting in an AC deduction when applicable. Slashing and most piercing melee weapons can be used to effectively fight sl..-uh~ecki, but as long as the creatures remaln hidden in he snow, characters must attack as if the ice borer were invisible (-4 to hit: magical methods of seeing invisible creatures will not help, though x-ray vision does). Bludgeoning weapons cause only halt damage to skuhlzecki since snow and slush weaken most blows.

Should an ice borer tunnel to the surface, it will be much easier to flgbt. The creature is AC 10 while exposed on the ground and can be harmed by any weapon. If a blow kills an ice borer that. has already fed (has caused more than 3 points of damage to any victims), its heated blood sac explodes in a 5-foot radius, burning all characters for 2d4 points of damage (a saving throw versus paralyzation is allowed to avoid damage). An ice borer lying on the surface of the snow will cease attacks and spend one round flipping over and the next using its hot head to dive back into the snow. If unable to do this for some reason, the creature crawls, inchworm-like. toward ice and snow at its above-ground movement rate.

Habitat/Society: Skuhlzecki live in small packs below the snow of Vosgaard's permafrost. They spend most of their time hunting. Attacks are more common in winter months and less frequent in warmer months; some speculate that the skuhlzecki undergo a form of hibernation if the weather grows too warm.

Skuhlzecki lairs have never been discovered, but scholars assume that the creatures breed by laying eggs, much like other wonns. Encounters with young ice-borers have never been reported: it is believed that because of their high metabolisms, the creatures grow to adulthood within a very short time (one month or less).

Ecology: Ice borers will attack anything that attracts their attention. They will eat any warm-blooded ueature but seldom attack creatures smaller than a halfling or dwarf. They do not collect treasure, though their victims' goods and gear tend to fall into the snow along with the small bits of remains the creatures leave behind.

Skuhlzecki are unique to Vosgaard. No related creatures are known to exist on Cerilia.