Cave fisher

A cave fisher is a lobster-like monster which inhabits subterranean locations and ambushed its prey using a sticky filament similar to a strand of giant spider silk.

Description
Cave fishers grow to about seven feet (2.1 meters) long and have a hard, chitinous shell arranged in overlapping plates for an exoskeleton. It has eight legs and two forelimbs which end in large pincers. Living underground, cave fishers are sightless creatures that use multiple auditory sensor organs to detect their prey. These organs are located on the head and could be mistaken for multiple eyes. The creature has a large proboscis from which it shoots a long (up to 60 ft. or 18 meters) sticky filament.

Behavior
The cave fisher hides on ledges above passageways and hunts by emitting a long strand of sticky filament, either dangling it to catch passing creatures such as bats, or shooting it at a creature as it wanders by. They can also secrete the adhesive onto their feet and anchor themselves to a ledge, wall, or ceiling once they found a good hunting spot. To release themselves, they secreted a substance from their proboscis that contain their blood which dissolves the adhesive.

Cave fishers will attack any creature up to man-sized, but are intelligent enough to avoid large groups, preferring to pick off scouts, loners, and stragglers. Normally, cave fishers work alone in a area within 300 feet (91 meters) of its lair, but sometimes they could be found in small groups of less than five, and these pods are known to coordinate ambushes of small parties. This cooperation usually ends when there was food to be fought over. Extra food, alive or dead, is wrapped in filament and stuck to a surface in their lair for later consumption.

Cave fishers have no use for clothing, armor, or weapons, so their lairs are usually strewn with the possessions of former victims.

Combat
On a successful attack, the victim is stuck to the cave fisher's filament and slowly drawn up to the cave fisher's level where it attacks with the two front pincers. Cave fishers could reel in victims weighing up to 200 or possibly 400 lbs (91 to 182 kg). Their filaments are very difficult to cut, perhaps even requiring a magically enhanced blade, and any failure to do so results in the blade being stuck fast.

Cave fishers have flammable blood and therefore are very adverse to fire. Casting silence on a cave fisher makes it freeze in place as it listened intently, attacking only (and much less effectively) if it was attacked first.

The filament is almost invisible in a dark cave, even at close range. A detect snares and pits spell will reveal them, however.

Ecology
A cave fisher's diet is primarily bats,   and they never attacked anything that they detected was bigger than themselves. But, they're always cautiously looking for larger prey they could surprise, like a lone goblin, orc, or foolish adventurer.

Cave fishers can live over one hundred years and females mate about every twenty years. They sent out a ultrasonic keening above the hearing range of humans and demihumans which attracts all males within miles of her lair. The first male to approach the female is allowed to mate with her and then becomes her victim. Any latecomers are forcefully rejected. After a three-day gestation period, the female lays a clutch of five to nine fertilized eggs in the body of the male and then departed to establish a new lair away from her previous nest. Within a month, the eggs hatch, the young lived off the carcass until it was depleted, and then they scattered to establish their own lairs. It take a little over two days for the young to reach half their adult size, and then their growth slowed, reaching full size in a year.

Almost every part of a cave fisher is usable after the creature has been killed. The meat is edible and tastes similar to crab sauteed in stout wine. Their blood is used for concocting several dwarven spirits, although some hearty dwarves drink the alcoholic blood straight. Extruded cave fisher filaments can be harvested and treated to dilute the adhesive. The filaments are weaved into ropes which can be incredibly strong for being so thin and nearly invisible in appearance. The diluted adhesive can even be applied to gloves and boots to improve their grip when climbing. The chitinous shell is very tough and can be used to craft armor, tools, and even jewelry.

Cave fisher eggs that were a ten-day old or less are highly valued for their alcoholic content plus psychedelic properties. A sip from one of these eggs can cause an average human to become quickly intoxicated for hours while experiencing hallucinations. Consuming the full contents of one of these potent eggs is usually fatal. Fresh cave fisher eggs sell for 50 to 100 gold pieces in most large cities.