Creab Walker

The Creab Walker split from its ancestor. They are largely arboreal, spending most of their lives climbing about in the crystal trees and shrubs of Drake. Their mandibles are partially mineralized making them hard enough to gnaw on the leaves and occasionally bark of large crystal flora. This mineralization is especially prominent along the inner surface of the mandible. Like their ancestor they produce chemical signals which moderate the growth of their symbiont.

Unlike related species only the head and cloaca segment have openings in their exoskeleton for symbiont connections. Blood vessels leave the body through these openings to flow through the Creab Shell and the roots of the creab shell enter through the same holes. The opening in the head includes not only blood vessels leaving the body but also the optic nerves. These do not end in eyes of their own but instead sense the signals produced by the creab shell’s eyes. The optic nerves are branched, one branch of each traveling backwards to the rear cluster of eyes. Like in their cousin the inzcrek their sense of sight is purely second-hand.

After mating the hind shell produces a sugary gelatinous coating that covers their eggs. This jelly is similar to the ‘fruit’ of lurspires and many of the same species feed on both. The eggs of the creab walker are tiny and resilient enough to survive trips through the gut of most species that feed on the jelly. As a result theses frugivores actually spread the creab complex via their droppings.

During the winter creab walkers retreat into burrows. They do not dig these themselves but will move into abandoned burrows made by other species such as spineback ketters, marmokerds, or plowskuniks. If no such burrow is available they will bury themselves in the leaf litter instead.