The Rotspitter
“It began as a convulsion, the corpse doubled over, chest heaving like bellows. Then its jaw snapped open, and that burning, foul liquid came out.”
A Rotspitter is a ranged Blightborn whose throat and upper torso have become reservoirs for corrosive fluid. Unlike Shamblers, Rotspitters tend to remain behind other Blighted or seek positions from which they can attack without being reached easily.
Appearance
Rotspitters are hunched and top-heavy. Their throats, chests, and upper abdomens are swollen beneath thin, blistered skin. The lower body is often comparatively wasted, giving the impression that the corpse is being consumed from inside by whatever fills it.
Their mouths rarely close fully. Green-black fluid leaks between the teeth and burns small marks into wood, stone, cloth, and metal beneath them.
Many also have elongated arms, spread ribs, or hardened growths around the hands and forearms. At close range these structures can catch clothing or limbs and hold prey in place.
Caustic Discharge
A Rotspitter attacks by convulsing the torso and forcing a compact mass of corrosive slime from the mouth with surprising range and accuracy. The discharge is thicker than water and can cling to a target after impact.
The result is a creature that makes open ground dangerous in a new way. A doorway or alley that protects travelers from a mass of Shamblers may simply give a Rotspitter a clear lane to fire through.
This makes cover important. Rotspitters are especially dangerous in streets, courtyards, docks, ruined battlements, and other places where they can remain partially concealed while firing into exposed ground.
Some appear unusually sensitive to strong daylight and favor shade, interiors, overhangs, and fog-heavy conditions.
Close Range
Despite their preference for distance, Rotspitters are not helpless when approached. The same warped limbs that brace the body during a discharge can hook and restrain an attacker.
Witnesses have also described the creature drawing its swollen torso inward beneath a slick or hardened layer immediately before blows strike, as though some reflex briefly protects the organs most vulnerable to rupture.
Field Knowledge
Travelers who identify a Rotspitter generally seek cover before trying to close the distance. Fighting one in an open lane while other Blightborn occupy the foreground is considered particularly dangerous.
Their acidic fluid is one of the easiest signs to recognize after the creature has moved on: scorched boards, pitted masonry, black-green residue, and a sharp chemical stink around elevated hiding places.