The Bone Fish

The DeadLands are home to very few creatures, but one of the most tenacious is what is commonly referred to as the bone fish. Not actually a fish, this creature is a kind of carniverous worm that lives off bone. Digesting the mineral with an acidic stomach-wash and burrowing into the bone itself, it is extremely dangerous. Most Bone Fish live their lives buried in the rock of the DeadLands, but anyone who is thinking of camping there overnight must.... Originally these creatures were known as fish because of their spawning habbits. The stone fish boil from cracks and fissures in the ground in writhing mats. From a distance, this appears similar to fish leaping from the water.

1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive
6,7,8,9,10 then I let it go again
Why did you let it go?
Because it was a bone fish so....
That's the story of how it bit my finger and I became a ghost
— Nameless Wraith

Basic Information

Anatomy

Given the danger of working with the bone fish, neither the anatomy nor the morphology of the creature has been studied closely.

Genetics and Reproduction

Once a year the Bone Worms will erupt out of the ground in a mating frenzy, before disappearing back into the stone and bone that make up the Deadlands. Every year a mass of birds arrive to join the feast. And while many of the birds survive, but around a tenth of them succumb to the worms, and plummet to the ground. These birds are thought to become food for the following year and are quickly dragged into rabbit-hole sized burrows and never seen again.

Watch your step in the Deadlands, or you will become worm food
— unknown explorer

Biological Cycle

Almost nothing is known of the eggs or the lifecycle of the bone fish. It's assumed that like all worms their eggs are resistant to dry conditions, and require abbout 15 days in moist conditions before the juvenile emerges. But this event could be seasonal or occur throughout the year, or indeed occur in the middle of the Southern sea. The entire life-cycle of the bone fish at his point is unknown, and because of the dangers of working with bone fish, we recommend extreme care to be taken with anyone studying this creature as it excretes a slime that destroys most containers and safety equipment within minutes.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Like all worms these creatures respond to vibrations and taste.

Deadly Dinner by photo Gerhard, modifed by A.J. Ponder

Please Do Not

Touch or interfere with the bone fish in any way, the toxin it excretes is illegal and anyone consuming, using or having it in your keeping will create problems in most worlds.
Of course, management says this, knowing that if you've seen the bone fish you've already ignored our advisory to avoid the DeadLands. We hope, for the sake of your friends and family that your affairs are in order and that none of them are silly enough to follow you in. Once bone fish start swarming a corpse, the best thing that can happen is to leave them to it.
If you have ignored this advisory—