FREQUENCY: Rare
NO. APPEARING: 1-10
ARMOR CLASS: 3 (top) / 6 (underside)
MOVE: 11"//18" (6")
HIT DICE: 6 + 6
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 claws and 1 bite
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4/1-4/3-12
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Spell use
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to will-force spells, cold, electricity; reflects psionic attacksw; surprised only on a 1
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Animal
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (up to 25' long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil/see below
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: VI/650 + 8/hp

    These armored predators roam coastal
waters and beaches, feeding on mollusks,
worms, plants, carrion, and anything else
they can catch. The giant horseshoe crab
looks formidable, with its dark brown segmented
carapace, fearsome looking tail, and
large compound eyes. The tail, in fact, is
never used for fighting and can be safely
grasped. It is powerful and highly mobile
and is used as a prow when burrowing
thought sand and to right an overturned crab.

    On its underside the crab has a sucking
mouth flanked by two crablike claws. Behind
this are the bony, grinding ridges that
crush food; all that a crab seizes is passed
here by its claws and then transferred forward
into the mouth, which will regurgitate
undigestible material. (The crushing noise
the crab makes while eating has earned it
the nickname "chont.") Behind these are
five pairs of legs. The first four can be used
as pincers and have spurlike spikes to grip
and break up food; the last pair sport leaflike
"wings" which aid in swimming and
clear away mud when the crab is burrowing.
If a crab loses its claws, the foremost
pair of legs will serve as weapons instead
(same damage figures).

    Behind these, under the second segment
of the carapace, are five pairs of gills with
long flaps that keep water moving over the
gill membranes and aid in swimming.

    Horseshoe crabs have three pairs of eyes:
one set on the underside of its front rim, a
large pair on the carapace, and a small
hidden pair atop the abdomen. Thus, they
can see the approach of creatures out to a
9" range (or the limit of sight in the surrounding
waters, if less), and are rarely
surprised. These eyes can distinguish movement
and masses of color but not images.

    Huge numbers of horseshoe crabs come
ashore on certain beaches at certain times to
mate. The eggs they lay then hatch into
marine larvae that slowly grow to full size
(treat larvae as having 1-4 HD, with attacks
of 1-2/1-2/1-6).

    Giant horseshoe crabs differ from their
smaller cousins in having magical powers.
Chonts are immune to all mind-control
spells and all cold and electrical attacks, and
are able to reflect back all psionic attacks
upon the attacker (but otherwise exhibit no
psionic powers). They have the ability to
cast one shocking grasp spell at will by
touch every 10 turns, and the power to cast
one 4d6 lightning bolt every 25 turns (range
and other statistics as per the spell).

    Chonts will always defend their smaller
brethren if the latter are attacked nearby.
Sailors report that these normally placid
creatures occasionally attack and smash
small craft, attacking in a group by ramming
the boat with their armored snouts
and then seizing creatures in the water.

    An undamaged horseshoe crab brain is
an ingredient in the magical inks for writing
shocking grasp and lightning bolt spells.
 

    by Ed Greenwood