CLASS: VAMPIRIC

   One of the most common marine vampires, this small, squeaking piscoid is an adept flier, swimmer and climber armed with dozens of powerful suckers and a rasping oral disc. Roosting en masse in submerged caverns, flooded architecture or the wreckage of marine vessels, they come ashore to feast on sleeping hosts and have made themselves a bane of coastal civilization.

BIOLOGY:

Derived from ancient, agnathan chordates, the Vamprey's simple, cartilaginous skeleton and soft, sheetlike body allow it to slip through small gaps as it hunts for a source of blood. Anesthetizing salivary compounds allow the monster to rasp through flesh without awakening its host, and the suction it generates can even slurp a victim's viscera through the relatively small wound. Bloated on blood, flesh and entrails, the monster becomes too heavy for flight and must slither its way back to the water.

Vamprey lay their eggs in fresh-water rivers and streams, constructing stone nesting mounds and guarding fiercely over their young until they can fend for themselves.

BEHAVIOR:

Vamprey are not as intellectual or as calculating as most vampiric monsters, but nor are they as territorial and antisocial. They may congregate in massive numbers for their mutual benefit, slumbering together in a dense cluster suspended from the ceiling of their lair. Food is distributed evenly throughout the congregation each night, the less successful hunters guaranteed an equal share.

Vamprey are highly attracted to lights at night, but abhor fire.

APPLICATION:

While most vampiric monsters prefer to avoid one another, Vamprey roosts are often tolerated or even openly invited in a vampire's stronghold, both for the security and additional food source they provide, sharing collected blood with the resident count or countess as readily as with their own kind.