Hull-Crawler Horror

Saves: Agility +7

Proficiencies: Stealth +8 (inside ship structure)

Senses: Sees normally in total darkness, Feels vibration through the ship's frame within 60 feet

Lives in the Walls. The hull-crawler moves through crawlspaces, vents, and cable trunking at full speed. The ship's maintenance layout is its map, and it has had years to learn it.

Terror of the Dark. When the hull-crawler attacks from concealment, each creature that sees the attack makes a Willpower Save DC 13 or is Frightened until the end of its next turn. Crews break to superstition long before they run out of ammunition.

Snatch From Above. The hull-crawler attacks from a ceiling, vent, or shaft mouth. Melee Attack: +6 to hit with Advantage, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 2d8 + 3 rending damage, and the target makes a Strength Save DC 13 or is dragged 10 feet toward the opening.

Limb-Pin. Melee Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1d8 + 3 bludgeoning damage and the target is Grappled and pinned against a bulkhead (escape Strength check DC 13), unable to call out until it escapes.

Scuttle-Vanish. The hull-crawler withdraws into the ship's structure without provoking Reactive Fire and is hidden. Pursuit means entering the crawlspaces on its terms.

Morale: Cowardly-cunning: never fights the group, abandons prey under real resistance, and always tries again further along the route.

Tactics: Build the dread before the contact: scraped vents, blood trails ending at grilles, a missing sentry's lamp still lit. It attacks the last in line, the separated, and the sleeping, and it drags rather than kills on the spot — leaving rescue windows that pull the party into its tunnels.

Loot / Evidence / Hooks: Its larder-nest in the trunking holds the remains and belongings of the crew it has taken — including, often, the very thing the salvage contract was for.

A Hull-Crawler Horror is the resident nightmare of dead ships: a many-limbed thing living in maintenance shafts and cable runs, taking crew one at a time in perfect silence. Every derelict has stories; this is the shape most of them have.

Use this enemy to give a derelict-crawl its horror spine — vent-scrapes, missing rearguards, and encounters framed by narrow beams of lamplight.

Moderate durability, ambush lethality from confined spaces, ceiling and shaft mobility, fear pressure, snatch-and-drag attacks, avoids open engagement.

Lives in the Walls. Moves through crawlspaces, vents, and cable trunking at full speed; the ship's maintenance layout is its map, and it has had years to learn it.

Terror of the Dark. Its attacks from concealment force fear checks; crews break to superstition long before they run out of ammunition.

Snatch From Above. Attacks from a ceiling, vent, or shaft mouth with Advantage; on a strong hit, drags the victim toward its opening.

Limb-Pin. Grabs and pins a victim against a bulkhead, silencing and holding for the drag.

Scuttle-Vanish. Withdraws into the ship's structure; pursuit means entering the crawlspaces on its terms.

Morale: Cowardly-cunning: never fights the group, abandons prey under real resistance, and always tries again further along the route.

Tactics: Build the dread before the contact: scraped vents, blood trails ending at grilles, a missing sentry's lamp still lit. It attacks the last in line, the separated, and the sleeping, and it drags rather than kills on the spot — leaving rescue windows that pull the party into its tunnels. Open combat should feel like the party finally cornering a coward with too many arms.

Full Stat Block Priority: Medium