day 25: darkmantle

get this as a sticker!

The humble darkmantle is well adapted to its preferred feeding grounds - inky caverns, either in the Underdark or slightly above.   When Drow-connected coastal smugglers tried to use darkmantles to protect their hideouts, however, their method of hunting was less successful.  A few generations of magical-enhanced selective breeding later, and the first fogmantle was born.  

Better-suited to living in tidal caves than their brethren, these creatures take on the appearance of slimy, algae-coated rocks - at least until it’s time to hunt.  Once their echolocation finds sufficiently delectable prey, they unleash the moisture they’re built up in internal vapour pockets - creating a 20-foot fog cloud, after which they attack in the confusion.

The fogmantles have bred at fast rates, and by now have spread far beyond the handful of lairs they were designed to “guard”.  Not that their creator minds this much.  

Sometimes, where and when these creatures are used as “guardians”, they’re joined by their forebears - darkmantles and fogmantles working together can form a unpredictable ambush!  (In the wild, however, the two species can get a tad territorial with each other.)