Frequency: Low in Sahova only
Threat Level: High
Major Features: incessantly moving tendrils, sounds like goo being dropped onto stone, bioilluminescant, smell like burning hair, highly volatile, holds stores of Capofilm in its "stomach"
Abilities: location specific reproduction, potent slow acting hallucinogenic touch, slow acting poison (curable with immediate attention)
Most Common In: The Mudpools, specifically the Third Mudpool / The Caverns
Summary: Not to be trifled with, the scrimplitch is a peculiar sort of creature. It moves at the pace of an ambling, absentminded youth, and very rarely approaches living creatures. However, many have tried to capture the little creature wanting a shortcut to finding Capofilm and reducing their visit dramatically. While some have indeed returned with a scrimplitch in tow, the majority of those attempting the "easy way out" have met their ends wandering through in the swirling vapors of the mud pool. For the very few scrimplitch that have been captured, only three have ever been trained as pets, able to fetch the Capofilm on request. This is incredibly rare and extremely difficult (as well as smelly). Of the remainder of scrimplitch that have been brought back, most have been set free in the Caverns beneath the city, as to any who has taken the time to capture one, it seems a waste to simply kill it after all that work.
(Please note! The scrimplitch is not your adorable, disgusting play thing. It is extremely dangerous! Only three have ever been successfully trained in 500+ years of existence on an island filled with Mizahar's greatest wizards. If you're including it in a thread as something you're going to capture, you'd better have some Master level skills in hand, otherwise it might end poorly for you.)
History: The scrimplitch is one of Sahova's many discarded experiments. Near the beginning of the ARMED project, a Nuit thought to create a creature potent enough to destroy any enemy with but a touch. Thus, the Nuit gathered hundreds of rats, infusing them with toxins and Djed, in an attempt to create the nimble assassins he had in his mind. The result was a sluggish, tubular creature with grasping tentacles that attached to whatever moving thing it could and quickly injected hallucinogenic suggestions into it. The hallucinations were too weak to be considered any use as well as the creature being incredibly unstable, resulting in explosions in the hands of friend and foe alike at the hint of a spark. Thus, the frustrated Nuit moved on from the project, allowing his apprentice to dispose of the remaining specimens.
The Nuit's apprentice, however, long tired of being nothing more than an errand boy and verbal punching bag, saw a greater potential in the pathetic animal his master cast aside. Many months of experimenting in secret led to the scrimplitch of today: a highly poisonous, extremely dangerous little animal, able to survive in one of the most inhospitable environments on the entire island. The apprentice modified the creature's neurotoxins, infusing it with a hypnotic deviation so it would work on any living (or unliving) creature. To ensure the beast's survival, the apprentice also gave the creature the ability to reproduce under the proper circumstances (to ensure the thing wouldn't over populate). These circumstances being exposure to its one weakness: fire, or upon being slashed, hacked, or otherwise attacked. Shortly after the final touches were finished, a mysterious explosion (and peculiar smell) saw the end of the apprentice's master, and soon after the apprentice replaced him.
The scrimplitch, being the modus operandi, was released into the third mud pit, the one location the apprentice figured would be a safe place to hid the evidence without destroying it. There the creature thrived, feeding off of the sludge and fumes the pit provided it, developing a taste for the precious Capofilm, using its potency to create the spore-like eggs it releases when threatened.
Credits to Meville Brightshade
