Tixitog

Tixitog

Tixitogs are a species of bizarre aberrations that make their homes in the dens of giant spiders. Immune to poison and able to traverse sticky webs thanks to the thick slime that covers their bodies, tixitogs steal food cocooned in spider lairs and prey on spiders themselves, but they are careful never to kill so many that their food supply runs out. Their favorite meal, however, is the odd adventurer or spelunker who stumbles into their nest.

These strange creatures have oblong bodies coated in a viscous and transparent slime, three large black eyes, and eight thick, multi-jointed limbs, four of which are inverted and point upward, allowing the monster to easily crawl on either the ceiling or floor of narrow caverns and squeeze through narrow spaces. Their jaws appear small and tubular when closed but peel apart and stretch to terrifying proportions when opened, as their dozens of pointed teeth part to reveal a freakishly long tongue.

A tixitog usually hides from the spiders in the lair it has claimed, not out of fear but to keep the spiders from abandoning the lair and moving elsewhere. When a tixitog emerges from the shadows, most spiders flee from it rather than attack, and the tixitog uses this behavior to direct entire swarms of spiders where it pleases. This is typically bad news for bands of adventurers who find themselves within a tixitog’s lair; in the mass hysteria caused by a skittering swarm of spiders headed straight toward them, spelunkers typically fail to notice the more dangerous threat that follows closely behind.

Talking with Tixitogs

Tixitogs live long lives, and they have cultivated knowledge over the years that may prove useful for adventurers who can coax it from them. A tixitog who has been bested in combat will not mindlessly fight to the death, but will instead try to strike a deal with its attackers, speaking in simple Common to offer information, treasure, or even the aid of its spider-herding abilities under the right circumstances.