Monster, the Corpse Jelly

The Corpse Jelly resembles a large blue flower floating under the surface of the waves. As one nears, sharp barbs resembling canine teeth and human eyes skewered on its tentacles can be seen. Their dangling tentacles wag and wiggle as they are approached. The canine teeth wear nasty, knowing grins. These horrors are deadly creatures that steal the sight of its prey. Its colors and semi-transparent body helps it to blend in with the waters (equal to a Prowl of 78%). Beneath its floating bell is a cluster of tentacles that dangle below, used to ensnare, hold and kill its prey. Within their cluster of tentacles are tiny barbs that are inserted into fish or floating cadavers. Once inside their victim, they pump digestive enzymes into the prey. As the internal organs and tissue of the prey liquefy, it is sucked out via the tentacle to feed the giant jellyfish, turning its bell from blue to red, and eventually leaving behind an empty husk. The eyes are preserved for a little bit. In fact, that's how it got its name, because the creature is often seen clutching the dead husk or skeletal remains of its prey in its tentacles. Any thing coming within range of a Corpse Jelly's venomous tentacles risks envenomation. Because the Corpse Jelly can launch half a dozen tentacles at a single opponent, they are considered by some sailors to be as dangerous as any other inhabitant.

A Corpse Jelly's body is made up of 92-96% water. It senses movement (vibrations) with special sensory cells located in its skin. It also has light-sensitive organs that do not form images but are used to determine up from down, responding to sunlight shining on its skin surface. It does not have complicated internal organs or systems, digesting food using the gastro-dermal lining of its body cavity, which manufactures powerful digestive enzymes. It does not need a respiratory system since its skin is thin enough to take oxygen right from the ocean. It has limited control over movement and mostly free-floats in the water, but it can use its tentacles like a lasso to wrap around a heavy object and pull itself in that direction. Corpse Jellies are extremely sensitive to high and low temperatures, and the animals cannot cope with warm waters. They can only survive in cold water, and outside of water, their fleshy bodies dry up and they die in a matter of 4D4 minutes; half that time in the hot sun.

Corpse Jellies live their entire lives near the surface at a depth of no more than 70 feet (21 m), using slow pulsations to drive it forward. The giant jellyfish depends on ocean currents to travel great distances and is a predator of opportunity, snagging mammals, and people as it happens upon them. They primarily feed on fish, sea animals, sailors lost at sea, and corpses floating in the water are all just as good.

Corpse Jellies have low intelligence and are not social creatures, but will congregate to feed on a single large corpse. Such gatherings are used as a time to mate, but how the process occurs remains a mystery. Corpses Jellies are valued for their poisonous tentacles, but only the deseperate seek them out, for even a lone tentacle can still poison anything that it touches for an hour after being removed from the body and kept in cold water.

Attributes of Note: I.Q. 1D4 (low), P.S. 1D6+8, P.P. 1D6+8, P.E. 1D6, P.B. 1D6+8, Spd 1D4 or by water current; typically floats on the current at or near the surface.