Buy me a coffeeAlpluachra — The Whispering Parasite
“The Alpluachra: the insidious fairy newt that sneaks into your mouth as you sleep and devours your strength from within!”
At first glance, the Alpluachra resembles an ordinary slimy newt or small amphibian, no longer than a man’s finger. Its moist, glistening skin is a deep moss-green streaked with silver veins, and its bulbous eyes shimmer with a faint fey glow—too intelligent for a mundane creature. When it opens its mouth, rows of minuscule needle-like teeth glint unnaturally. In its natural form, it is deceptively unassuming, but under moonlight or through true sight, its fairy heritage becomes apparent, revealing semi-transparent wings folded flat against its back and faintly glowing runes etched along its limbs.
Behaviour
The Alpluachra is a parasitic trickster, equal parts patient and malevolent. Rarely aggressive in a direct sense, it prefers subtlety and deceit, targeting travelers or drunkards who fall asleep near freshwater sources. It feeds by stealth, draining life essence and nourishment without killing the host—at least not quickly. It is a solitary creature, rarely found in numbers, and driven by a perverse joy in watching its victims waste away, confused and helpless.
Despite its size, it is intelligent and cunning, capable of understanding speech and even mimicking soft whispers to lull its prey into deeper sleep.
Habitat
Alpluachra dwell in the liminal spaces between worlds: quiet forest streams, shaded springs, bogs, and faerie-haunted rivers. These watery haunts are often near ancient standing stones or places of thin veil between the mortal realm and the Feywild. The creature prefers secluded, undisturbed locations, but can be found anywhere wild water flows if the fey presence is strong.
Modus Operandi
- Infiltration: The Alpluachra waits until a lone creature falls asleep near water. It slips into their mouth in amphibian form, becoming ethereal as it enters.
- Possession: Once inside, it anchors itself in the stomach, drawing nourishment from every meal the host eats.
- Drainage: The host gradually becomes weakened, emaciated, and fatigued, suffering exhaustion and consuming food without benefit.
- Sustainment: The Alpluachra will stay for weeks or months, carefully regulating its drain so as not to kill the host too quickly.
- Ejection: If disturbed (or the host undergoes the traditional salted-meat-and-stream remedy), the Alpluachra will violently eject itself and flee back to water.
Motivation
The Alpluachra’s goal is sustenance without risk—but beyond that, it seems to derive perverse delight in torment, embodying the crueler side of faerie nature. It doesn’t seek treasure or conquest, only the slow degradation of mortals. Some scholars suggest it feeds not just on food, but on suffering and confusion, savoring the emotional decay of its hosts as much as their physical decline.
“Beware the stream’s edge, lad. Not all that slinks in water walks on fins. Some crawl in through your lips while you dream.”
—Old Cathan, hermit of Dunmall Fen
Alpluachra 5e
Alpluachra, Pathfinder
Alpluachra
Tiny Fey (Shapechanger), Neutral Evil
A cruel and cunning parasite from the depths of the Feywild, the Alpluachra appears as a harmless amphibian but harbors a dark hunger. Slipping unnoticed into the mouths of sleeping mortals, it feeds from within—draining vitality, consuming nourishment, and slowly hollowing out its victims from the inside.
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 27 (6d4 + 12)
Speed 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 (–3) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 13 (+1) | 16 (+3) |
Saving Throws Dex +6, Cha +5
Skills Stealth +8, Insight +3, Deception +5
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Condition Immunities charmed, grappled, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Sylvan; understands Common but cannot speak
Challenge 2 (450 XP)
Proficiency Bonus +2
Amphibious.
The Alpluachra can breathe both air and water.
Fey Nature.
The Alpluachra has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic cannot put it to sleep.
Innate Spellcasting.
The Alpluachra’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
- At will: druidcraft, minor illusion, prestidigitation
- 1/day each: invisibility, sleep (cast as if using a 2nd-level spell slot)
Unnoticeable Parasite (1/Day).
When the Alpluachra enters a creature’s mouth using its Infiltrate action, any observers must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice. A creature using detect magic, see invisibility, or true seeing automatically perceives the intrusion.
Actions
Bite (Newt Form).
Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage.
Infiltrate (Recharge 5–6).
The Alpluachra targets an unconscious, incapacitated, paralyzed, or sleeping creature within 5 feet. The target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or become infected. The Alpluachra crawls into the target’s mouth and becomes ethereal and undetectable while inside.
While infested:
- The host’s hit point maximum is reduced by 2d4 every 24 hours.
- The host gains one level of exhaustion every 48 hours.
- The host cannot benefit from magical healing or complete a long rest.
- The Alpluachra cannot be harmed, targeted, or detected by normal means while inside the host.
Only specific magical effects or folkloric remedies can remove it (see Salted Meat Remedy).
Ethereal Withdrawal (Bonus Action).
The Alpluachra exits its host, returning to the Material Plane in an adjacent unoccupied space. It is invisible until the start of its next turn.
Optional Rule: Salted Meat Remedy
A creature infested by an Alpluachra can expel it using a rare folk cure. To do so, the host must:
- Consume at least 1 pound of salted meat without drinking any liquid for 1 hour,
- Then drink deeply from a natural, flowing stream.
If both conditions are met, the Alpluachra is immediately expelled, appearing in an adjacent space. It is stunned until the end of its next turn and becomes visible even if previously ethereal or invisible.
Discovering the Remedy
Characters can uncover the cure through investigation or folklore:
- DC 18 Intelligence (Arcana, History, or Nature) check during research.
- DC 15 Wisdom (Medicine or Survival) check when examining symptoms.
- Consultation with a fey scholar, village elder, or druid may reveal the remedy through roleplay.
- Legend lore or commune will confirm the method definitively.
Failure may result in misleading or ineffective treatments.
Identifying the Parasite
A host may suspect an Alpluachra infestation based on the following:
- Persistent exhaustion, despite long rests.
- Severe hunger that no amount of food satisfies.
- Strange dreams involving water or whispered voices.
- A DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check after a rest reveals the symptoms are unnatural.
- A DC 13 Intelligence (Medicine) check can confirm a parasitic effect with time and study.
- Detect poison and disease or detect magic reveals a fey presence within the body.
Tactics and Behavior
The Alpluachra is a patient and insidious predator. It avoids open combat, relying on stealth and illusion to secure a host. It uses sleep and minor illusion to lure travelers to rest near natural water sources. If discovered, it escapes using invisibility and its swim speed, fleeing to the nearest stream or spring.
While inside a host, it may subtly torment them—whispering in dreams, distorting perception, and feeding on their growing desperation.
Adventure Hook
In a remote village by a forest stream, villagers begin to waste away, plagued by hunger and exhaustion. They claim to hear voices in their dreams and feel something writhing in their bellies. All of them fell asleep near the water.
Alpluachra
This minuscule creature resembles a newt with three tails. It’s covered in a transparent slime, and looks hungry.
Source Bestiary 4 pg. 9
These strange and insatiable fey prowl bubbling brooks, sauntering streams, and slow-moving rivers in a constant pursuit of food, but the extremely lazy creatures often tire of hunting. Alpluachras find it much easier to slip down a sleeping creature’s throat, fall asleep, and dream of fantastic feasts and warm bubbling pools while its host does the eating for it. Because of this, they always keep an eye on riverbanks, looking for creatures napping near waterways. Once they find potential hosts, they stealthily slither up and slide down their snoring gullets.
Once inside, they rest along the walls of the esophagus and devour all the food that comes down the host’s throat. The host often starves to death in the process, as the parasite becomes more ravenous over time.
Despite their propensity to slowly kill their hosts, alpluachras are slothful rather than cruel. They have no concept of the harm they are doing, lazily enjoying the benefits while the host is still alive.
| Alpluachra CR 1/2 |
| XP 200 CN Diminutive fey (aquatic) Init +1; Senses Low-Light Vision; Perception +4 |
| Defense |
| AC 15, touch 15, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dexterity, +4 size) hp 5 (1d6+2) Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +2 Defensive Abilities numbing slime Weaknesses vulnerable to salt |
| Offense |
| Speed 10 ft., Swim 10 ft. Melee bite +1 (1d2-3) Space 1 ft., Reach 0 ft. Special Attacks implant |
| Statistics |
| Strength 4, Dexterity 13, Constitution 14, Intelligence 4, Wisdom 11, Charisma 11 Base Atk +0; CMB – 3; CMD 4 (8 vs. trip) Feats Skill Focus (Stealth) Skills Escape Artist +5, Perception +4, Stealth +20, Swim +5 Languages Aklo SQ amphibious |
| Special Abilities |
| Implant (Ex) As a full-round action, they can crawl into the mouth of a helpless creature (no more than three size categories larger than itself) and implant itself into the creature’s throat. Once implanted, anything that the creature ingests is instead consumed by the alpluachra, including such substances as elixirs and potions or ingested alchemical items, diseases, drugs, or poisons. Once the alpluachra is implanted, the host creature begins suffering the effects of starvation and thirst (Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook 444). Due in part to its numbing slime, an implanted creature is difficult to detect. Each time the host creature ingests anything, it gains an automatic Perception check against the alpluachra’s Stealth. After the newtlike fey is detected, it can be removed either by consuming at least half a pound of salt or a gallon of salt water, by a remove disease spell cast on the host creature, or by treating the host with a successful DC 15 Heal check. When a Heal check made for this purpose fails by 5 or more, the host creature takes 1d6 points of damage. If the host attempts to remove the creature by eating salt or drinking salt water, it must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude save or become sickened for 1d8 hours from the reaction with the alpluachra. If the alpluachra dies or becomes unconscious, it is immediately detected by the host creature, and can be removed safely as a full-round action. While implanted, an alpluachra is considered helpless. Numbing Slime (Ex) Any creature that deals damage to an alpluachra with a natural attack or an unarmed strike, comes into contact with an alpluachra, or is host to the creature must succeed at a DC 12 Fortitude save or take a -4 penalty on all tactile Perception checks, as well as other skill checks requiring tactile senses (such as Disable Device and Sleight of Hand) for 24 hours. A host creature that fails this saving throw takes the penalty to detect the alpluachra implanted inside it. If the host creature succeeds at the saving throw, it can’t be affected by the same alpluachra’s numbing slime for another 24 hours. Vulnerable to Salt (Ex) Half a pound of salt or a gallon of salt water poured over an alpluachra or consumed by a creature it has implanted itself in deals 1d3 points of damage to the alpluachra. |
| Ecology |
| Environment temperate forests or fresh water Organization solitary Treasure none |