Persephone Comb
Most souls would never expect a snail to be a deadly predator. The Sirens seldom do... until it is too late for them.
Named after its loose resemblance to a comb, this gigantic snail is one of the most dangerous predators that lives in the River Styx.
Morphology
Persephone Combs are extremely large gastropod molluscs. They possess a club shaped shell, the main body of which is roughly conical and can measure up to 2 metres long by 1.5 metres in overall diameter. This is combined with a long, slender siphonal canal that can measure up to 3 metres long, giving a total length up up to 5 metres. The shell has a right-handed spiral, and is asymmetrically covered in long spines that are longest on the left side of the siphonal canal. These longest spines curve over the snail's large muscular foot in a protective manner akin to a rib cage, while the other, spines are fairly short and very sharply pointed, bristling defensively along the length of the shell up to roughly half way down the siphonal canal.
A fully grown Persephone Comb can weigh over 150 kg, with much of their mass taken up by its dense, armoured, and spined shell.
Siren Hunter
Many souls are surprised to learn that the Persephone Comb is in fact a predatory species. Its main prey is the Siren, who gather around the edges of the Styx and lure their prey towards them. Sirens usually focus their attentions away from the Styx, and rarely notice when a Persephone Comb silently crawls out of the oily black water towards them until it is too late. Persephone Combs strike from the water, forcing water through their extremely long siphonal canal at high pressure to hydraulically launch a large "javelin" at their prey. This javelin is tipped with a substance known as Porphura, a rich, vivid purple coloured poison that sedates their victim long enough for the snail to reach its prey, envelop it beneath its heavy, muscular foot, and begin slowly consuming the prey while it still lives.
Porphura is a valuable substance, useful as a dye as well as a sedative and poison, but is extremely difficult to extract. Persephone Combs are very difficult to kill, with their thick, spiny shells and their preference to retreat back into the Styx if they miss with their javelin rather than fight. Any killing blow is likely to rupture the Porphura gland, leaving the substance very difficult to obtain.
Geographic Distribution
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