DCC Bestiary - Cave Fisher

After some missed sessions over the Christmas holidays, our intrepid adventurers finally encountered something in our DCC campaign I can blog about, without spoiling anything for my players...

This week's session involved an encounter with a large, stone-hued crawfish-like creature that ambushed the party, and one of our younger players proclaimed, 'hey, is that a cave fisher?'.  Why yes, it was, updated for DCC.

The Cave Fisher originally appeared in the AD&D Monster Manual II, and stated "Cave fishers are hard-shelled, many-legged creatures that live by trapping animals in the subterranean world. To trap its prey, a cave fisher employs a super-strong, highly adhesive filament which extends from its proboscis. This filament is 60-feet long, and tipped with a powerful adhesive sucker."

The original AD&D stat block had an AC of 4, 3 Hit Dice, 2 pincer attacks each doing 2d4 damage each, and a 60' filament 'trap line'.  That's a good place to start.  We'll convert the AC to 16, give it 2d20 actions (handy for reeling in a victim and then attacking same round).  3 Hit Dice is fine, let's make them 3d8.  Everything else is pretty easy to work out ...

Cave Fisher

     A subterranean, predatory creature that appears to be a mottled grey crawfish-like creature.  It possesses a thick carapace, six legs, two claws, and a horn like protuberance in the center of its head.  It feeds on unwary creatures by capturing them and then dismembering them with their claws.
     These creatures have a high alcohol content in their blood, and grues have been known to concoct a brew with it known as Kalkiva.
     Cave Fisher lairs are typically elevated ledges, covered in the bones of their victims.

    Cave Fisher: Init +0; Atk claw +3 melee (1d8); AC 16; HD 3d8 (14 hp); MV 20’, Climb 20’; Act 2d20; SP filament attack (+6 to hit, entangle); SV Fort +3, Ref +0, Will -1; AL N.
     A cave fisher can use an action to fire from it’s probiscus a durable filament to ensnare prey up to 60’ away.  If it strikes, the opponent is entangled and can be pulled towards the fisher and then attacked.  The filament is difficult to cut (AC 18, 10 hp), and adhesive (STR check of 20 to escape), but alcohol will dissolve it (treat as holy water, 1d4 damage).  A cave fisher can regrow its filament in 2d4 days.  The filament's adhesive coating can be dissolved wiht alcohol.