Savage Menagerie: Trawler

No. Enc.: 0 (2d8)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 180' (60')
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 5
Attacks: 2 (barbed tongue, bite)
Damage: 1d8/1d10
Save: L3
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: None

The Trawler is a carnivorous fish that lives in large bodies of fresh water, like rivers and lakes. It is a large a large (4-foot-long) silver-scaled fish with a gar-like pointed head and a mouth filled with sharp pointed teeth. The Trawler is also know as a Man-Fisher due to its special barbed tongue that it uses to ensnare and drag victims into the water where it can feed.

A Trawler's tongue is normally retracted in its mouth while underwater. When it senses prey on the shoreline, it launches itself out of the water to a height of around 20 feet. It then uses its large pectoral fins to glide down, slowing its descent while it homes in on the victim. When targeted, the Twarler fires out its tongue to its maximum length of approximately 30 feet. The end of the tongue is barbed, and on a successful hit, the barb will do 1d8 ht points of damage when it imbeds itself in the victim's flesh. The Trawler will then close its "wings", plummeting back into the water while retracting its tongue. Unless a successful save is made versus STR, the victim will be yanked violently into the water where the Trawler (and any others in its school) will attack, biting for 1d10 hit points of damage. The Trawler's tongue is very fibrous, but it can be severed if 15 points of damage is done to it, freeing a victim.

It is not unusual for multiple Trawlers to explode out of the water, "fishing" for multiple targets seen on the shore. Even more dangerous is when multiple Man-Fishers all target the same victim.

Mutations: complete wing development, aberrant form (natural weapon)