Illustration of a dark leech with glowing edges that is curled into a crescent shape. Both of its suckers are attached to a dark surface with many specs of blue light shining inside it.
Appearance: Arcane Leeches are six-inch-long, shiny, dark worms with flattened, segmented bodies that are thick in the back and narrow in the front. They have suckers on both ends and are brownish-black, with an oily, rainbow shimmer. In areas that are particularly rich in magic they can grow larger, a foot long or more.
Movement: Typically, Arcane Leeches move by inching along like an ordinary leech. They start by attaching their rear sucker to something, stretching out their front end as far as it can go, and attaching their front sucker. Then they release their rear sucker, contract their body up into an arch, and reattach their hind sucker. Next they release their front sucker and start the process over again by stretching out and waving their front sucker around as they search for something to latch onto.
Main Traits: Originally from the Warped Magic Zones of the Singing Jungle, Arcane Leeches are now a pest that drains, damages, and destroys magic items and plants. Any magic cast on them is likely to go awry. Killing one is guaranteed to make magic go awry. Because of this, they have to be handled with great care using non-magical means, which makes them challenging to deal with.
Habitat: The natural habitat of Arcane Leeches is the Singing Jungle, especially in its Warped Magic Zones. Anywhere outside of the Singing Jungle, Arcane Leeches are considered an invasive species and a pest. Unfortunately, their past use in the Virtue Wars as a tool of sabotage, and then as a dangerous projectile, spread them throughout Crossroads. The current attempts to control them have achieved only moderate success and they are an ongoing problem in many areas.
Senses: Touch and smell are important senses for Arcane Leeches and they are able to feel temperature and vibrations through their skin. They can’t hear, but they have simple eyes that can pick up on light, dark, and moving shadows. Arcane Leeches can also detect magic and are drawn to nearby magic, especially anything powerful.
Diet: Arcane Leeches feed on the magic in objects and stationary magical plants. When an Arcane Leech drains magic it is quite noticeable, unlike the stealthy way that ordinary leeches feed on blood. A flickering glow and whining sound are common side effects of an Arcane Leech feeding. To protect themselves, Arcane Leeches only feed on things that can’t move.
Predators: Several magic animals from the Warped Magic Zones of the Singing Jungle feed on Arcane Leeches. To them, Arcane Leeches are simply a nutritious part of their diet. However, Arcane Leeches are so rich in magic that non-magical animals experience magic side effect from eating them. In fact, Arcane Leeches are so potent that magic animals not adapted to eating them experience side effects from eating more than three.
Reproduction: Arcane Leeches wrap their eggs in a cocoon, creating a bundle one inch long. They bury this cocoon in damp soil near a powerful source of magic, such as a powerful magic object or plant.
Interactions with Sapient Peoples: For generations the peoples of the Singing Jungle have used Arcane Leeches to deactivate and destroy dangerous, damaged, or cursed magic items. This use continues to this day. However, in the Virtue Wars people started to use Arcane Leeches as weapons, either to sabotage their enemies’ magic items or as projectiles that cause magic to go awry upon impact. One of the side effects of this use was that Arcane Leeches were spread to many areas where their magical predators didn’t exist, causing them to become a pest.
Inspiration: Originally I was thinking slug, but I wanted something grosser and creepier, so I went with a terrestrial leech.
- Overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech
- Reproduction: https://sciencing.com/life-cycle-leeches-6739035.html
- Removing leeches: https://momgoescamping.com/how-to-remove-leech/
Arcane Leech Mechanics
Defending Magic Items: When in an area with multiple Arcane Leeches in various hiding places, characters need to protect themselves against leeches going after their magic items. Most often this will happen one at a time when they are distracted doing other things.
- Roll Perception for the character the leech is trying to climb on.
- A failure means that the Arcane Leech climbs on them, attaches to their magic item, and starts draining it before they notice it. Once the draining starts (see below), the character and everyone close by will notice what is happening.
- A partial success means that the leech is on the character and reaching for the magic item when it is noticed, but it hasn’t attached yet.
- A full success means that the character detects the leech reaching for them and can avoid it.
Draining an Ordinary Magic Item: Arcane Leeches damage magic items by draining their magic. As the magic is drained, the item shows increasing signs of distress, such as a flickering glow and a whining sound, that grow in intensity. If the leech is removed before the item is destroyed, it is possible to repair and recharge the item.
- As soon as the leech starts draining, the item is inactive for 1 hr
- Still attached after 1 round = inactive for 1 day
- Still attached after 2 rounds = inactive for 1 week
- Still attached after 3 rounds = inactive for 1 month
- Still attached after 4 rounds = damaged and inactive until repaired
- Still attached after 5 rounds = the item is destroyed
Draining a Special Magic Item: Special magic items, such as items with personalities and items that are bonded to specific people, are too tough to be destroyed by an Arcane Leech. For them the draining process stops at the end of four rounds when they are damaged and inactive until repaired.
Draining a Powerful Magic Item: Powerful magic items take longer to drain than ordinary items. How long depends on the specifics of the item and the number of leeches attached to it.
Removing an Arcane Leech from Something it Is Draining:
- Removing a leech is a Manual Dexterity roll.
- The best technique for removing a leech is to use a thin, flat object, like a piece of cardstock, to come in from the side and break the leech’s suction. A character with this knowledge and a thin, flat object is prepared on all rolls to remove a leech.
- A full success means the removal goes smoothly.
- A partial success means the leech is removed, but the removal process irritated it and it spit up a bit of magic. For the next 24 hours, a magical side effect afflicts the thing the leech was draining.
- A failure means that magic goes awry. Depending on the situation, the leech may still be attached, get crushed, or escape.
Casting Magic on Arcane Leeches: Because they absorb magic, any magic cast on an Arcane Leech rarely does anything to the leech and the magic has a tendency to go awry.
- Take a one die penalty to dice rolls for casting magic that directly affects an Arcane Leech.
- Magic only affects an Arcane Leech on a full success or an outstanding success.
Squishing Leeches: If an Arcane Leech is squished, crushed, splatted, or otherwise killed, then a random magical effect occurs.
- If the Arcane Leeches are in the path, it is a Perception roll to avoid squishing one of them.
- A success means that the leech is avoided.
- A partial success means the leech is partially squished and the nearest magical object or plant gains a strange side effect for 24 hours.
- A failure means that the leech is squished and magic goes awry, causing a random magical event.
Animals that Eat Arcane Leeches: Arcane Leeches are so rich in magic that most animals, even magical ones, can’t handle eating them.
- Animals from the Singing Jungle that are adapted to eating Arcane Leeches don’t experience harmful effects from eating them—to them Arcane Leeches are just food.
- Magical animals that aren’t adapted to eating Arcane Leeches can eat three Arcane Leeches before they start having problems. For each Arcane Leech that they eat after that, the magical animal experiences a strange magic effect to themselves or the people and objects around them. Many of these magic effects will be based on the magical animal’s own magic and magical affinities.
- Non-magical animals that eat Arcane Leeches experience a strange magical effect to themselves, or the people and objects around them, for each Arcane Leech that they eat.
Arcane Leeches are part of the Crossroads Setting for the tabletop role-playing game, Magic Goes Awry. Click here to go to a list of the other strange and wonderful magical creatures from the Land of Crossroads.
