The Stoneback Rat isn't really a rat. Rather, these armoured slugs wander the streets of forgotten cities like vermin, preying on small animals unfortunate enough to seek shelter in the ruins. Their sizzling mucus trails carry a pungent smell familiar to the seasoned explorer. The mucus can remain chemically active for hours; it's rumoured that solutions of certain plant oils can protect gear from the slime. Fire can "cure" exposed equipment, though hides and cloth may not survive the treatment. Some Stoneback Rats can spit slime, while others dash around on a multitude of legs, laying a thin, slick trail. Stoneback Rats have been known to blend into walls and pounce on prey, and even to lay slime traps on ceilings that drop at the slightest tremble underneath. The one characteristic universal to all Stoneback Rats is their puzzling propensity for hoarding. Their burrows are invariably full of some array of items, meticulously ordered by some unknown instinct. Stoneback Rats may themselves be artifacts of some ancient civilization - but of course, speculation is best reserved for academia. Instinct: To organize

• Snuffle through refuse
• Hide from large creatures
• Ambush small creatures
• Guard burrow at mortal cost

Each individual shadow is actually a swarm of tiny, dust-sized demons. No one is quite sure where they come from, or how to kill them, but it is known that children of every species on every plane of existence know to fear the darkness . . . Instinct: To spread

• Devour flesh
• Impersonate voices
• Absorb knowledge from those it kills