Carrion Stalker

D&D 2024 monster: Carrion Stalker. Source: Ravenloft: The Horrors Within. challenge rating 3, creature type Aberration, Tiny size, speed 30 ft., burrow 30 ft. Gut-Bursting Corpse Eater Carrion stalkers are parasites that feed on corpses, infesting bodies with their maggot-like young. While stalkers can survive off corpses, they're attracted to movement and ambush any who disturb them. The foul parasites attach to their prey, using their stingers to implant their larvae into living victims. If a carrion stalker doesn't slay and consume its foe, its larvae grow rapidly within that creature. After a day of gestation, a larva bursts from its host as a mature carrion stalker in an eruption as horrifying as it is lethal. Carrion stalkers have symbiotic relationships with carrion crawlers. Carrion crawlers won't devour bodies infested by carrion stalkers, but they might pick up stalker larvae as they root among filth. The crawlers then spread these young, infecting sewers or graveyards with carrion stalkers. In return, carrion stalkers avoid preying on carrion crawlers. Battlefields, mass graves, and similar sites make natural homes for carrion stalkers. While corpses left by plagues or wars might coax carrion stalkers into streets or alleys, these vile parasites rarely creep onto the surface unless they become an overwhelming infestation. Aberration Tiny 30 ft., burrow 30 ft.