Snail shepherd

A snail shepherd is a mortal that tends, herds, feeds, and guards escargatoires of flail snails. Snail shepherds are instrumental in the mass production of shimmerglass, a rare material that makes up the flail snails' shells and mucus trails. Snail husbandry is a relatively new practice, particularly in surface-dwelling communities.

Perception

Purpose

Like many other terrestrial molluscs, flail snails secrete a mucus to hydrate their skin, lubricate their muscular foot, and form their protective shells. Flail snail mucus is called shimmersoap. Overtime, shimmersoap can harden into shimmerglass, a prized material used in alchemy and arcane enchantment. Flail snails produce two kinds of shimmerglass, one which forms their protective shells and one which is mixed with the animals' waste and left as a thin, glass-like trail. Snail shepherds tend, herd, feed, and guard flail snails to facilitate the continued production of shimmerglass. Common shimmerglass, produced by a flail snail's hardened mucus trail, can be cut and harvested continually as the snail moves through its environment, allowing for a steady stream of raw material. Mature flail snails are bred and then killed a few years into their adult life. This allows their shimmerglass shells to be removed, which due to their higher grade, unique properties, and lower supply, sell for much higher on the alchemical market. All flail snail husbandry occurs underground in large tunnel systems called crofts. This is because flail snails cannot tolerate UV radiation and flail snails need to be herded moving in a single direction. This allows the snails to continually scouring the surface of the cavern floor for their food, loose silica-substrate. Shimmerglass itself is inedible to the flail snails that produce it, meaning that the shimmerglass trails left by an escargatoire must be cut and harvested before the animals can return to that section of tunnel.

Social Status

In most communities, snail shepherds lie in the lowest castes of society. The cramped quarters and miserable working conditions leave snail shepherds exhausted and reeking of sweat, rotting fungi, and damp animal mucus. Few folk find such work desirable and many refuse to cater to snail shepherds because of their association with disgusting creatures and filthy, subterranean work.

Demographics

Due to its unclean reputation, many of those who work as snail shepherds come from monstrous or marginalized mortal ancestries. For example, the snail shepherds working at the Grotto Crofts of Tyria are primarily kobolds, kenku, and Qartagonian dragonborn. Many within the guilds that employ the snail shepherds use their status as monstrous persons to justify the profession's poor working conditions and low pay.

Operations

Tools

Snail shepherds, like other herdsfolk, are most well known for their crook, or staff. However, unlike many terrestrial shepherds, snail shepherd crooks typically have a removable head piece with a spearhead affixed inside. This is because while moving through a tunnel, threats usually come from one of two directions. Swinging a staff like a club risks hitting the weapon on the tunnel walls. However, thrusting a spear allows for greater coverage of the tunnel, particularly when warding off predators. In addition to their crook, most snail shepherds also carry a small satchel or pack with other tools. These include a mask to help filter out the foul smells and harmful gases that can permeate the crofts, a knife, several feet of rope, a map of their tunnel system. Some shepherds that work in highly industrialized crofts may be given a death token or similar item which can be activated when the shepherd is in distress or if they are suddenly killed. Due to working in large tunnel systems, snail shepherds cannot employ whistles or musical instruments as other herdsfolk might. Any sound used to communicate between escargatoires is distorted by the echoing of the caverns. Some shepherds will play music as a group, using the acoustics of the caverns to carry the sound and harmonize with other shepherds in the croft. Should the sound become discordant, the shepherds in the croft can recognize who is in trouble and send for aid. However, this requires a great deal of multitasking on the part of all the shepherds and can easily fall apart in larger crofts.

Workplace

While each croft is different, most snail shepherd workplaces share a similar layout and environment. Crofts are typically made up of three parts: the nursery, the track, and the processing center. Flail snails thrive best in damp, near-total darkness. Most crofts have access to water, either as tidal caves or fully underground reservoirs, which helps oxygenate the cave system and provide a constant source of moisture. The nursery comprises the rooms and facilities that incubate and raise young flail snails. These are similar to common escargatoires; facilities that breed and raise mundane snails for food or dye production. In this infant state, the flail snails are unable to produce substantive shimmerglass and are fed a diet of sand or crushed gravel mixed with rotting plant matter to accelerate their growth. The track refers to the main structure of the croft. This is where mature flail snails are herded in a set path by the snail shepherds to produce their shimmerglass. While the pathway the snails take is always the same, many crofts employ a system of side tunnels to rotate workers and move supplies throughout the track. This is also the most dangerous part of the croft because the large number of moving flail snails can attract predators and snail rustlers. The processing center refers to the hub by which cut shimmerglass, harvested shells, workers, and other supplies enter the croft. Often the center includes storage rooms, supply closets, and a dumbwaiter pulley system to transport the heavy goods and workers between the croft and the surface level. The processing center also serves as the final resting place for the flail snails, as it houses a killing room where the snails are put down to harvest their shells and body parts.. As subterranean creatures, flail snails can't tolerate UV radiation and are easily startled by bright light. In most crofts, snail shepherds don't carry artificial light sources. Instead, the crofts illuminate the tunnels using candlecaps or other species of bioluminescent fungi. This suffuses the entire system in dim, eerie blue light. Due to the moisture and the large amount of flail snails and other creatures, snail shepherd crofts are famed for their pervasive and unavoidable stench. The moisture accelerates the rot of mosses, fungi, and lichens inside the caverns. All of this forces shepherds to sweat, adding to the potent cocktail of odors and causing the smells to embed themselves in a shepherd's tattered clothing.

Dangers & Hazards

While far safer than hunting flail snails, snail shepherding does still have a great deal of challenges. Flail snails require a large cave system to navigate, as they cannot retread over a passageway covered in their own inedible shimmerglass. Flail snails are easily panicked by flashes of light, requiring shepherding to take place in near total darkness. And though the ideal environment for shepherding is a single-entry cave system, many burrowing or tunneling predators can make there way in from the darker reaches of the Underdark to wreak havoc upon the escargatoire. Moreover, the extremely lucrative nature of shimmerglass means that many criminal elements or rival guilds have a vested interest in snail rustling, requiring shepherds to be on alert and armed at all times.

Environmental conditions for snail shepherding are not always ideal for workers either. Shepherds must work long shifts on their feet and in near total darkness. Flail snails require a damp and humid environment, which encourages the growth of hazardous bacteria and fungi as well as poor airflow. That moisture accelerates the rot of subterranean foliage and adds to a host of awful odors, including the smell of the snails themselves. This, along with the physical dangers of stampedes, predators, rustlers, floods, and cave-ins makes snail shepherding one of the most difficult jobs in all of Holos.

Tyrian human snail shepherd