Broods

Short worms with long tentacles reaching out from around its mouth, usually in four or five pairs. They are pale in color, not purely white but never darker than golden sand, and usually lack any additional spots or other marks.

They inhabit pools of still water, but make their homes within the confines of a living body, turning it into a nest. The body, which may be any kind of mammal including human, becomes both bloated and starved as the creatures prosper.

The smallest contact with such a parasite nest, whether the host remains alive or has passed away, risks spreading the creatures into a new body. Thus, in most cultures burning of the body is used as an alternative to burial when the presence of parasties is suspected.