Non-Dark Sun Creatures in Dark Sun - Beetle

There are many creatures for the various monstrous manuals that have been officially added to Dark Sun. I added some unofficially for my game and I'm sure a lot of other DMs do the same.
There is no inherent problem with this, although the flavor text often doesn't fit with the Dark Sun setting. My goal is to list the various monsters that "don't fit" and rewrite their flavor text to make them fit, or make them more interesting.

Beetle

	Death Watch	Slicer	Stink	Water
Climate/Terrain	Forest Ridge	Forest	Forest	Any Land
Frequency	Very Rare	Rare	Rare	Uncommon
Organization	Solitary	Solitary	Solitary	Colony
Activity Cycle	Any	Any	Any	Day
Diet	Carnivore	Carnivore	Carnivore	Omnivore
Intelligence	Animal (1)	Non (0)	Animal (1)	Non (0)
Treasure	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
Alignment	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral	Neutral
No. Appearing	1	1-3	1-3	1-100
Armor Class	3	3	5	10
Movement	12	6	3	1
Hit Dice	9	6	3+1	1 hp
Thac0	11	15	17	20
No. of Attacks	1	1	1	0
Damage/ Attack	3d4	2d8	1d6	0
Special Attack	Death Rattle	Dismemberment	Stink	Nil
Special Defense	Camouflage	Nil	Nil	Nil
Magic Resistance	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil
Size	M (5' long)	S (3' long)	S (3' long)	T (1" long)
Morale	Elite (13-14)	Elite (13-14)	Steady (11-12)	None
XP Value	2,000	420	120	1

Beetles are insects with hard, horny forewings that cover and protect the membranous flight wings. There are thousands of types of beetles and most are harmless, with no special abilities.

Death Watch

Death watch beetles are jet black in color, except for a single patch of white (on the back of their carapaces) that resembles a human skull.

Combat

The death watch beetle has a cunning ability to disguise itself. When a death watch beetle finds a place to hunt, it gathers items from the area (mainly earth, fallen branches, and the like). As it acquires these things, it uses a natural form of cement created with its saliva and soil to affix them to its back. When it finishes this process, it is well camouflaged and can lie in wait for hours until prey passes near. When the death watch beetle makes its attack, its opponents suffer a -2 penalty to their surprise rolls.
Far more deadly than the death watch beetle’s ability to surprise its foes, however, is its death rattle (a deadly sonic vibration). When the creature is in combat, it vibrates its carapace very rapidly, setting up an unusual clicking sound that resembles a gong. Victims are unlikely (only a 10% chance) to locate the beetle by this sound alone. This noise is very destructive at close range. One round after the beetle begins to make its rattle, anyone within 30 feet must roll a successful saving throw vs. death magic or be instantly slain. Those who succeed suffer 5d4 points of damage, as well as muscle pains and tingling sensations in their limbs for several hours after the battle. The creation of the death rattle is very tiring to the creature, requiring it to rest for 1d4+1 hours before it can produce the horrible noise again.

Habitat/Society
The death watch beetle is a solitary creature that lives in the forest ridge. Overall, the death watch beetle lives a nomadic life. It stops in one location only long enough to hunt and then moves on. In fact, the beetle will abandon a selected hunting location after 4d4 hours if there is no sign of prey in the area.

Ecology
While other beetles fulfill many roles in the natural system, the death watch beetle is first and foremost a powerful hunter. It is high on the food chain, as few animals or monsters are capable of engaging it in combat with any hope of victory.
The wings of the death watch beetle are highly valued by skilled armorers, who can fashion them into very effective shields. If an expert armorer is provided with both of a death watch beetle’s wings, he can manufacture the equivalent of a body shield +1 (although it is not actually enchanted).

Slicer

Slicer beetles are distant relatives of death watch beetles. Over the course of time, they have lost all traces of their wings and now look much like six-legged centipedes. Their bodies have developed a hardened exoskeleton that is more than adequate protection in combat. It is generally black or very dark gray in color. The slicer beetle’s hearing and eyesight are poor, but it will attack anything it identifies as prey, or anything that attacks it.

Combat
The mandibles of the slicer beetle are highly dangerous because of their powerful muscles and keen edges. When in combat, any natural attack roll of 19 or 20 indicates that the slicer beetle has nipped off an adversary’s limb.
If the slicer beetle is engaged in any combat that seems to be going against it, the creature will grab up any limbs it has managed to sever and hurry away, hoping to evade its attackers.

Stink
The stink beetle is a dead ringer for the slicer beetle in appearance and behavior. However, its exoskeleton is not as hard and it has no deadly special attack.

Combat
When slain, the stink beetle discharges a noxious fluid from between its mandibles, soaking anything in front of it within 10 feet. The stench is awful, but harmless, though it doubles the chance of attracting other predatores until it wears off – about 8 hours. This time can be reduced to as little as 1 hour if vigorous cleansing activity, cleansing psionics, or cleansing magic of up to 3rd level is employed.

Habitat/Society
The slicer beetle’s lair contains many bones and 1-6 types of normal weaponry. The lair is 25% likely to have one or more magical weapons and 1% likely to have magical boots. It may also have such sliceable items as gauntlets and rings. Items normally found in pairs, such as gauntlets and boots, are only 5% likely to be an intact set; other apparently matched pairs will test normally but have unpredictable results at awkward times: a gauntlet of dexterity may attempt picking pockets with a 50% success chance, a boot of elvenkind might go up on tip-toe, and so on.
Stink beetle lairs have no such items.

Ecology
Slicer and stink beetles will often raid settled lands. They seek the flesh of livestock, people, and any other creature unfortunate enough to get in their way, except kanks and fordorrans.

Water
The water beetle is a small black beetle that roams the desert collecting water from dew and other minute sources.

Combat
The water beetle is harmless to anything larger than itself.

Habitat/Society
Water beetles join together and mate when Ral is full. The female will lay its eggs among rocks or anywhere out of sight. After a week, up to three dozen offspring will hatch and begin eating any plant or animal matter they find. After a month, they pupate for ten days. The pupa encloses and an adult water beetle emerges. Another six days is required for the beetle to collect its maximum amount of water.

Ecology
Water beetles may be eaten raw and their moisture absorbed by the eater. In addition, the beetles are a good source of protein. An active human would need to consume sixty-four live water beetles to satisfy their daily water and food requirement.