| Class: | Symbiont |
| Hab: | In any corporeal host; plant, beast, Folk, etc. |
| Fre: | Somewhat rare |
| Num: | As many as host can support |
| Lair: | 100% (in host) |
| Size: | Depends on host; 1" to 6' |
| Move: | By host |
| Def: | Inaccessible; imbedded in host |
| Att: | As penknife, dagger, sword, or lance, by size |
| Int: | Non |
| Spec: | Occasionally become focus of host's special abilities |
| Posns: | Nope |
Stilettos grow in the flesh of their hosts, their sheaths buried in the flesh (meat or vegetable.) The stilettos act to improve their host's attack (or defense). Impact causes the stiletto to slice out; after the incident is over, the blades withdraw to rest.
The size and number, and, therefore, the damage (singly and collectively) done by the stilettos is determined by the host.
Not everything sliced by a stiletto dies. This is a good thing, as the stiletto's puncture is also its method of dispersal; the puncturing imbeds innumerable wee gametes in the wound, which then disperse through the body. These can wait undetected for years, until an encounter with another stiletto-enhanced plant or creature introduces gametes from a different stiletto blade. Then, fertilization occurs. During the intervening time, the gametes will have moved to where they will be most useful. They grow, and soon a new host is augmented by stiletto blades.
Pongee giant flatworms (aquatic, terrestrial, subterranean, and arboreal versions)
Huggy Bears and Owl-Bears may have stilettos on their chests and inner arms
Carnivorous flying squirrels, flying lemurs, flying opossum, etc.; one example would be the nightglider in Dougal Dixon's After Man: A Zoology of the Future, which SEE.
Among Folk, tribes may become well adapted to hosting stilettos. Purposeful infection with stiletto gametes, by being punctured by the elders, may developed into a coming-of-age ceremony, where mystic values are spurred on by the pain of the ritual stabbings; this would be similar to a tattooing ceremony.
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