Gunpowder Grubs (Wermspittle)

Gunpowder Grubs
No. Enc.: 2d8 (3d12)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 10' (3')
Armor Class: 10
Hit Dice: 1d4 hit points each
Attacks: 1
Damage: 3d4 per grub exploded
Save: zero-level human
Morale: n/a

Blind, wriggly and pretty-much helpless, Gunpowder Grubs are raised in tubs, pits and pails by those who value them for their singular ability to process the raw components of sulfur, niter and charcoal into various grades of gunpowder. These components need to be carefully ground-up for the fat little grubs to fed upon--they have delicate digestions, all things considered

But Gunpowder Grubs don't just simply formulate or mix-up a batch of gunpowder on demand, they gorge themselves on the raw materials and super-saturate themselves with the final product, dying in the process. Once carefully dried their limbs and head-structure fall off, leaving behind a waterproof, evenly packed cartridge usable in many different makes and models of gonnes.

Musketeers, arquebusiers, bombard & mortar-crews, Gonne-slingers, and others of their sort often carry special packets tooled from a single sheet of heavy Bruthem-hide in which to carry a few of these Grubs so that they can always produce more ammunition, if they have the raw components available.

Touching a living Gunpowder Grub with an open flame, such as a torch, has a base chance of 60% to explode the Grub, inflicting 3d4 damage in a 10' radius and producing a rather loud noise. A third of all Gunpowder Grubs produce a smokeless powder, but none of them produce a silent-acting explosive. For that one would need to resort to clever mechanical or sorcerous means such as the Quiet Shot spell.

Not being satisfied with things as they are, certain military scholars have been attempting to breed a mutant strain of Gunpowder Grub that they hope to infect with a form of gigantism, so as to be better able to produce loads for cannon, bombards and the like that are not expensively bound together layers of smaller Grubs. So far they have not been very successful, but their efforts continue, and have set off something of an arms race among the more forward-thinking states and principalities.

Welcome To Wermspittle