Rust Monster

the rust monster is the bane to the existence of adventures turning a well armed and supplied party into a bunch of naked idiots in minutes. if you think the rust monster looks like an enormous mite with an odd tail...then youd be right. thats exactly what it is. the name rust monster comes from it being able to eat and digest corroded metal and it's carapace being rust colored

Culture

the rust monster is a amusing creature due to it actually being quite friendly. should a nudist walk up to one and give it a hug it would even make a pleased chittering noise. the important part however is the naked part. for should you walk within 100ft of the creature with any metal you will find it to be your enemy. the rust monster 'attacks' by rubbing its antenna against metal, regardless of whether that metal be your weapons or your armor when faced against magical metal the antenna of a rust monster counts as a +2 weapon. on touch the metal rapidly corrodes. for most metals this results in rust hence the name

while entirely capable of digesting rust its main focus is corroded metals and doesnt care if the metal in question doesnt rust

the tail of a rust monster is more then it seems. inside are organs specialized at making a metallic paste for its young to drink from the appendages near the end and on the farthest end it has 2 small legs used to adjust or move its young. once the young grow enough they leave to find their own dungeon

hermit wizards or even monks will somtimes keep a pet rust monster or 2 to weaken any would-be raiders. if you have no intention of feeding a rust monster but want it to protect somthing an effective method is to strap a tiny piece of mythril to the wall. mythril is not corroded by the antenna of the rust monster and it cant eat somthing thats not corroded so it will just sit there and lick it until it gets hungry and wanders off, only for to eventually return and lick it again

History

the rust monster is a result of the passive influence of melkor. before they were rust monsters they were tiny mites that lived near the mouth of carrion crawlers eating the metal from any creatures the carrion crawler devoured