Changeling Brood Primate

The Changeling Brood Primate is the adult form of a biomechanical creature living after the collapse of the last civilizations. As a brood parasite, its young are spawned near human settlements, appearing nearly human in their nymph stage. The adoptive parents are compelled to raise the young via powerful neurological-altering transmissions from the adult Changelings, who roam the nearby wastelands.

The nymphs undergo rapid growth within a couple years, mostly in the head and lower abdomen/legs, consuming large amounts of minerals as their bodies desiccate and become plated with metal-infused bones. Upon adulthood they leave the settlement but often return to cull the human populace, consuming them for their blood and body salts. Most Changeling-infested settlements perish within one or two generations of depopulation.