Syring

Description

A Syring is a 9-foot tall, four-legged insect-like creature with a striking resemblance to a spider. Its dozen shining white eyes contrast with its shimmering black chitin, and both its legs and pedipalps end in extremely sharpened points. Syrings are extremely aggressive but will fight intelligently, using their swarm number and preferring opponents with little to no armor.

A syring attacks by piercing with its pedipalps; if it rolls a 20 on a d20 for a pedipalp attack it will impale the opponent, then the syring can bite for 1d6+1 points of damage with its poisonous chelicerae. A bitten individual must make a saving throw against poison at - 3 or die. A wound will reveal the syring's soft and spongy inside that rapidly will sublimate into the air. Creatures near the wounded syring, other than syrings, must make a saving throw against poison or suffer a -2 to their rolls for 2d4 rounds.

The syring is a nocturnal predator that lives primarily on underground hives consisting of several caves connected by perfectly circular passages 15-20 feet across. These passages and caves are carved and mined by the syrings with their limbs from solid rock and covered by a hard black resin that helps with the hive's structural integrity secreted by their spinnerets- like organs.

While similar to its syring counterparts, a Juggernaut Syring has several differences, like standing around 24 feet tall, having 3 thoraxes with each one sprouting two pairs of sharp-ended legs, and a scorpion-like tail at the end of its abdomen. A juggernaut syring's entire body is filled with white eyes of different sizes, making them impossible to surprise.

A juggernaut syring attacks by piercing with six of its legs; thanks to its vision it can divide its attack against any surrounding opponent. Once every 1d6 rounds the juggernaut syring can shoot a black resin from its tail against 1 target. This resin quickly solidifies so the target must make a saving throw or be encased in a hard shell, immobilizing them.

A wound will reveal the juggernaut syring's soft and spongy insides that rapidly sublimate into the air. Creatures near the wounded creature, other than syrings and the juggernaut syring itself, must make a saving throw against poison at -2 or suffer a -3 penalty to their rolls. This poisonous cloud remains for 1d3 rounds after appearing. A character can accumulate several doses of this poison in their bodies, with each extra dose increasing the penalties by 1 point up to a -5 penalty. After 1d4 turns one dose will lose its effect on the poisoned body.

A juggernaut syring will be found in the lair's main chamber where it’s believed it can create or birth syrings, but no method have been proved yet. How a juggernaut syring is able to reach such place is another unanswered question.

Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.

Back to Monster Index