Mortasheen - Clampire

Bivalve Vampire

CLASS: Vampire

This oddly agile floating parasite is armed with a fang-ringed sucker and potent stinging tentacle in each half of its shell, giving paralyzed prey an agonizing double-sided bite as it clamps down and drains blood.

A clampire's shell is incredibly strong yet surprisingly flexible and leathery, allowing the wicked beak to bend and clasp as the shell closes. "Flocks" of these creatures can often be found hanging in bat-like clusters from the framework of sunken vessels, lying in wait for potential prey.

Sometimes, a grain of sand or even a fragment of bone from recent prey becomes trapped in a hibernating Clampire. Over time, it coats this foreign body with mucus and produces a sparkling blood-red pearl. As it contains some of its genetic material, a predator swallowing this pearl may contract the vampirism mutation itself.

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Art Stuff:

Another recent one I wasn't really happy with, and am now finally satisfied. The idea of it having two faces in its shell was a last-minute idea to cover up how badly I screwed the perspective; I intended to draw a single mouth in the back of the cavity, connected to both halves of the shell. This mistake has now made me like the design 10x more. I love the idea of it opening up wide with two opposing maws, like a horrible living book.

A book about BITING YOU.