Morphjaw

It's all fun and games until the furniture bites back,,,

— Adventurer's axiom

There are predators of all shapes and sizes across the worlds. Lethal creatures with a vast array of abilities and skills at hunting down prey. But these pale when compared to the clever, if not insidious, morphjaw.

The mighty morphjaw is a cunning and elusive predator. Famous for its shapeshifting abilities and powerful jaws, this creature strikes terror in the hearts of adventurers of any world.

Physical Appearance

Morphjaws are shapeshifting creatures that are considered the deadliest of all ambush predators. They are rarely found in their native resting form. Their natural shape looks like a speckled green-gray blob with flexible chitinous plates that shift freely below their skin.

In its resting form, the morphjaw is bag-like and resembles a dingy water balloon. The creature will adjust to its surroundings and fill, if possible, an available container it believes is safe. The volume a morphjaw can take depends on its age.

Young morphjaws, called ‘spuds’, can fill a container no larger than a basic glass jar or other container only thirty-two ounces in size. But adults are much larger. Adult morphjaws can extend their shape up to six feet in height. When resting, they fill a container that is twenty cubic feet in volume, or the amount of four beer barrels.

But most encounters with a morphjaw happen while the creature is hunting. When looking for prey, a morphjaw rearranges its body. The creature repositions its inner plates, changes their skin tone, and shifts to a new shape that suits the environment. This allows the creature to change their skin coloration and texture to match any basic material.

Shapeshifting allows them to take on the appearance of more complex shapes with rigid or semi-rigid parts. The most common are chests, stuffed chairs, or barrels. Once in that form, they lie in wait until a potential meal happens along. The moment the victim opens the ‘chest’ or sits in the ‘chair’, they realize their mistake. Buy at that point, the morphjaw has latched on with a purplish prehensile tongue and chitinous teeth strong enough to grind bones.

Adult Morphjaw by JJ Kirby

Type

Aberration

Environment

Temperate, arboreal, or swampy regions

Lifespan

Average of 400 years but some rumors suggest 600

Average Height

Adults can stretch up to six feet in height. When in resting form adults take up 20 cubit feet volume. Youths only take up 32 ounces until they have their major growth sput to adulthood.

Geographic Distribution

Any, but found most often on Netherwarren and Sow Terra

Morphjaw Spud by JJ Kirby

Morphjaws have all the basic senses, like any other creature, even if they may not appear that way. Touch and taste are obvious given their blob-like shape and enormous mouths with teeth and tongues. As for hearing, a morphjaw’s ears are internal. This allows them to hear normally as any other creature but also ‘hear’ through vibrations in the ground or walls they touch. Thought this manner, a morphjaw is said to hear up to 100 feet away.

They only naturally have two eyes, but can make more if needed. A morphjaw’s actual eyes are like the small, black eyes of an octopus. But because of their shapeshifting nature and preference for poorly lit environments, these eyes are light sensitive. Bright lights can overwhelm them, rendering them blind temporarily.

Morphjaws can, and do, shift the position of their eyes as needed. Often this happens when they change shape to imitate an object. They position their eyes to resemble bolts on a chest or rivets on a chair.

Then there is their sense of smell. A morphjaw ‘smells’ by letting air move over its tongue. In this way, it ‘tastes’ the scent on the air in the same way other creatures use their nose. Their sense of smell is as accurate, if not more so, than a bloodhound from Earth.

Behavior

It’s thought that morphjaws are abominations driven by the basic needs of survival. Eating machines that lack a moral code, or any social behaviors. But nothing could be further from the truth.

Morphjaws are actually an extremely intelligent, long-lived species with a complex culture. They speak their own language, and often the languages of those they eat. The reason for their brutal and predatory behavior is simple. In the morphjaw culture, all other species are cattle. Intelligent and clever, but still cattle.

Their society is divided into clans, with each one led by a ‘Sire’ who is the eldest morphjaw. The youngest Sire is often 200 years while the oldest known morphjaw sire reached 600 years before it passed on.

A morphjaw clan claims and manages a territory, often several hundred miles. There, they live in harmony with the local species that the clan considers their ‘flock’ or ‘cattle stock’. The clan tends to their ‘pets’, keeping them in good health and content. This includes ensuring they have enough resources, devouring the weak and infirm, or eating intruders. Adventurers and bandits are considered the most hostile, invasive pests to a morphjaw’s flock. All morphjaws identify members of their flock by their unique scent, which also allows them to identify adventurers quickly that have mingled with the flock.

Hunting and Combat

Morphjaws are patient hunters. Disguised as ordinary chairs, chests, or doors, they lie in wait for unsuspecting creatures to come into contact with them before they strike. A morphjaw’s first attack is always with their prehensile tongue. Their saliva is a mild adhesive which helps them maintain their anaconda-like grip. If a victim is caught by that tongue, they can cut it off, but there is another way.

That adhesive saliva is vulnerable to the pollen rich oils of floral imps. The most potent of these come from the floral imps found in the swamps of Netherwarren, where the morphjaw species is rumored to have originated.

Once a morphjaw latches on with their tongue, they form several pseudopods that they then use to flail the victim into submission. If close enough, they try to latch on with their massive, chitinous teeth. In either case, once caught, a victim has only seconds to get free before they being devoured.

Ecology

A single meal for an adult morphjaw will sustain it for four weeks before they need to eat again. Young spuds need to eat more often but also in smaller quantities. They are fed small animals such as raccoons, squirrels, and similar sized creatures once a week. Morphjaw spuds are produced by budding from any healthy morphjaw adult once a year.

Between feedings, morphjaws secretly watch over their territory and flock, pruning and caring for their needs. This often takes the form of watching their pets by becoming just another piece of extra furniture, such as a table, chair, bed, or a chest.

If intruders threaten their flock or territory, the clan takes a more active stance. They place themselves in convenient locations along the path of the adventurers, bandits, or similar threats. This can be tempting ‘unlocked’ treasure chests, ‘unguarded’ gateposts, or ‘holy relics’ in a temple just waiting to be looted.

After they have disposed of the bandits or adventurers, they place the remains in a food larder in isolated ruins or caves for later feeding of their spuds. Useful bandit equipment and other items are conveniently left for their flock to use.

Uses

Morphjaw parts are considered valuable to mages and others across the Voidrealms. The creature’s skin is a critical component that is mixed with powdered wildstones to create shape change potions. Meanwhile, their adhesive saliva can be refined into a tar-like substance used for glue or waterproofing ship hulls. Morphjaw tongues are considered an exotic, spicy delicacy to the natives of Sow Terra and Netherwarren.