Original life-form threads
• Cephalopoda — blue-ringed octopus
• Insecta — praying mantis
• Amphibia — axolotl
• Asteroidea — sunflower sea star
Appearance
A supple, axolotl-length torso (one and a third strides nose to tail) bears mottled jade and rust papillae that pulse with chromatophore flashes. Five broad, webbed fins radiate from just behind the gills like a sunflower star’s arms, granting burst propulsion in water or a skittering wheel-crawl across slick stone. The head carries a mantis-style cervical hood whose chitin splays into two scythe fore-limbs; each limb ends in triple‐jointed raptorial sickles capable of shearing rope or flesh. Eight shorter octopus tentilla fringe the lower jaw, their suckers banded in venom-blue rings. External gill fronds feather along the neck, rippling when the creature draws air. Eyes: compound emerald mosaics flecked with bioluminescent pinpoints for low-light hunting.
General size
• Length nose to fin-tips — 1.3 m
• Disc width when fins fully spread — 1 m
• Mass — 18 kg hydrated, 14 kg drought-lean
Speed
• Wheel-crawl burst on level stone — up to a running horse for three heartbeats
• Subsurface jet-propulsion through flooded tunnels — brisk dolphin pace for half a league
• Normal ambulation (fin-shuffle / limb hop) equal to jogging humanoid
Stat modifiers (gearless baseline for tracking)
• Dexterity +2 (rapid limb strikes)
• Strength −1 (light frame)
• Constitution +1 (regenerative tissues)
• Intuition +1 (electroreceptive papillae)
• Social-Will −2 (alien mannerisms)
Trained or instinctive skills
Ambush, Camouflage Pulse, Tunnel Navigation, Jet-Kick Lunge, Venom Micro-injection, Rapid Molt Regrowth.
Behaviour
Crepuscular drift-stalker that rests adhering to cavern ceilings in daylight. When prey’s heartbeat hum thrums through rock, the creature wheel-drops, snaps shut its scythes, then enfolds the victim in tentilla. If threatened, it curls into a spinning disc, flashing rings and ejecting a slick mucus cloud laced with paralytic alkaloids.
Diet
Primarily molluscoid shell-things, cavefish, and careless tool-collectors; supplements minerals by rasping stalagmites. Cannibalistic at molt season if rivals appear weakened.
Emotions
Moment-bright curiosity, abrupt territorial fury, long dormant spells of quasi-hibernation marked by soft humming as if dreaming underwater storms.
Environment where found
Flood-linked fracture caverns beneath Clactonian’s Knife-Edge Uplands, brine channels of the Glassfall coast, and abandoned steam-shaft cisterns where warm condensate pools.
Potential positives & negatives of anatomy
Positives: rapid limb regrowth, electro-sensory mapping, amphibious respiration, wheel-crawl escape. Negatives: desiccation vulnerability in arid wind, fin tears slow to mend without mineral-rich water, bright warning rings betray stealth if light is strong.
Tags
Amphibious, Venomous, Regenerative, Radial-Fin, Raptorial, Chromatophore, Electroreceptive, Wheel-Crawl, Cavern-Dweller, Ambush-Predator, Molt-Season, Spiral-Spin, Tunnel-Navigator, Bioluminescent-Eyes, Mineral-Forager, Territorial, Hydro-Jet
Life Cycle
Ambystaroct Mantisun 241 begins as a clutch of gelatinous nodules secreted into mineral-rich cave pools. After ten nights each nodule splits into five finger-sized starlets that drift apart and settle on shaded rock. During the “limb-weaving” larval year they absorb trace metals, sprout the first radial fins, and molt skin weekly. At roughly fourteen months the body fuses into its adult torpedo form and the cervical hood hardens. Growth continues by seasonal molts: every midsummer the creature sheds its entire outer sheath, consuming the cast skin for calcium and pigment. Average mature span reaches twenty-three Dun cycles; elders eventually calcify fin joints and adopt a benthic ambush lifestyle until systems shut down and the body crumbles into nutrient wafers that feed a new brood.
Mating
Breeding peaks at the close of Furnace Season when cave humidity spikes. Two adults circle in synchronized wheel-spins, flashing blue venom rings in alternating spirals that entrain heartbeats. Once resonance aligns, dorsal fins interlock, forming a floating disc that drifts for several hours. Gamete exchange occurs through twin siphon ducts beneath the gill arches. Both partners store received cells until the next full-hydro tide, at which time each deposits a separate clutch, ensuring cross-fertilization while maintaining solitary hunting ranges. Post-laying protection lasts four days: the parent secretes a mucous curtain across the pool mouth, hardening into a translucent anemone-like gate that deters filter feeders.
Tactics
Ambystaroct prefers stealth over direct conflict. Its vibration sensors map heartbeat echoes through stone and water, allowing perfect timing for drop strikes. In water the creature coils its arms against the torso and ejects a jet through siphon valves, becoming a spinning disc that slams prey with scythe-limbs first. On land it hugs shadows, using chromatophore surges to mimic stalagmite strata before lashing out. If cornered, it transitions to intimidation: radial fins flare, bioluminescent eye-spots bloom, and tentilla undulate in a mesmeric ring intended to stall attackers long enough for a jet-propelled retreat.
Actions
Wheel-Drop: detach from ceiling, roll mid-air, scythes primed for twin slashes.
Jet-Burst: rapid backward propulsion leaving a paralytic mucus trail.
Scythe-Shear: double sickle strike aimed at tendons or armor seams.
Venom Micro-Injection: tentilla sucker bite delivers neurotoxin that numbs limbs within thirty heartbeats.
Chromatic Pulse: strobing skin pattern that disorients vision and can trigger vertigo in cavern dwellers.
Regrow Limb: after losing a fin or tentacle, concentrate minerals for accelerated regrowth over three dusk cycles.
Other Interesting Information
• The creature’s discarded molt-skins, once dried, shatter into mirror-bright flakes valued by Breaker-priests for ritual shrapnel.
• Sunflower fin cartilage remains flexible after desiccation; artisans weave it into spring-steel prosthetics that rebound when struck.
• A hungry Ambystaroct will rasp speleothem tips for trace selenium, leaving spiral grooves misread by surface scholars as ancient glyphs.
• Its paralytic venom loses potency in direct sunlight but retains mild analgesic properties, making it a sought-after component in cliff-herbal salves.
• Elders unable to hunt adopt “echo-gardening,” arranging stalagmite fragments around nursery pools to amplify prey vibrations for the next generation.
Ambystaroct Mantisun 241 draws adventuring parties for many motives, each rooted in the island’s practical needs, mercantile desires, or sudden crises.
• Quarry-sealers on royal contract frequently discover that a single Ambystaroct colony has infiltrated unfinished steam conduits, skating through the half-flooded shafts and carving grooves that compromise load-bearing stone. Tasked to restart production, a party must remove, relocate, or pacify the offenders before molten slag can be poured.
• Breaker-priests bargain richly for intact mid-molt sheath-skins. When a creature sheds, the transparent cartilage crackles into mirror fragments ideal for sacrificial shrapnel, and priests pay in coin, shrine-blessing, or quarry deeds. Recovering an unbroken sheath often means tracking a fresh molt scent through maze-like fracture caverns while another adult circles overhead waiting to feed on the cast skin.
• Apothecary guilds import its paralytic mucus as a base for cliff-herbal numbing salves. Demand spikes during militia levy season, when conscripts face daily thorn-blade drills. Harvesting fluid from live specimens without killing them preserves potency and fetches double price, driving expeditions to corner, restrain, and milk the tentilla rather than slaughter outright.
• Sunflower fin cartilage retains a spring tension coveted by prosthetics-smiths who craft rebound leg struts for injury-scarred stone-runners. A single mature fin yields enough lattice to fashion two high-tier knee-braces. Smiths sponsor ventures into brine channels beneath Glassfall cliffs, providing resonance compasses that lead hunters toward echo-gardening elders guarding fin-rich kin.
• Royal archivists pursue the lost tablets of Khi-Sar. Legend claims an elder Ambystaroct tends the tomb-pool where the sixth tablet sank. Scholars cannot lower dredge nets without provoking the guardian. Securing the relics may require luring the elder away with seismic decoys or negotiating through ritual vibration patterns mimicking brood-feeding songs.
• Flood-season rockslides sometimes trap miners in lower galleries. Rescue teams must cross sump chambers patrolled by Ambystarocts, whose electroreceptive papillae misinterpret frantic heartbeats as prey thrum. Parties enter first as decoys, wearing resonance-dead cloaks reeking of selenium dust, drawing the creatures into holding pens so engineers can blast ventilation shafts.
• Artisan families sponsor hunts to retrieve bioluminescent eye cores used as gemstone substitutes in crown-bloom diadems. The cores lose brilliance within three days unless preserved in specialized alkali gel—forcing swift extraction and return. Skilled trackers split into relay squads, handing the gel-packed cores up-tunnel while rear teams fend off enraged siblings seeking the scent of spilled vitreous fluid.
• Rumors circulate of water-seeking rituals that exploit the creature’s mineral sense. Rural settlements facing drought hire adventurers to capture a living adult, tether it with fin-suspend harnesses, and follow its electro-guided wheel crawl toward hidden aquifers. Success grants new wellsprings; failure often ends with torn harness ropes and panicked settlers scattered through stalagtite forests.
• A melody-crafter guild records the bell-like rib shards of deceased Stillex beasts. Only Ambystarocts leave such shards arranged in echo gardens. Parties accompanying sound-mages must navigate mucus curtains and territorial spirals to recover enough resonant slivers for a grand cavern concert commissioned by the Crownstone court.
• Merchant houses insure shipments of obsidian rods that traverse cistern canals. When containers vanish mid-route, speculation immediately falls on Ambystaroct ambushes. Investigators dive the canal, trailing spilled selenium grooves, discovering whether theft is creature instinct or cover for quarry-thief smugglers who plant lure meat to blame the predators.
• Youth academies occasionally lose reckless apprentices who descend into fracture marshes seeking quick prestige tokens. Rescue contracts require seasoned teams able to subdue not only the marsh’s submerged Ambystarocts but also flowering adhesive algae that entangle limbs just before a wheel-drop strike.
• Forge-masters refine a new steam piston alloy that demands the trace iridium found in stalagmites rasped by the species. Parties chart feeding routes, follow the spiral grooves, and mine behind the creature’s rasp path—yet must ensure hunting pressure does not drive the population deeper, breaking the supply chain.
• During every sixth eclipse cycle, Ambystarocts convene in tide-locked echo halls for mass molting. Observers claim the simultaneous chromatic pulse reveals ley-current knots useful for high-tier enchantment alignment. Adventurers escort arcanists to obtain ley readings, maintaining silent watch while the cavern strobes with disorienting pattern bursts.
• The monarchy issues standing bounties on rogue elders that collapse transport tunnels with seismic fin slaps. Capturing rather than killing yields higher reward; live elders become research specimens for resonance turbine engineers. Diplomats sometimes accompany the capture squad, seeking to learn wheel-song principles that could stabilize crown stone bridges.
• Bards covet firsthand chronicles of echo-gardening behavior to enhance ballads about the Fraxari hero Khi-Sar. Parties escort scribes into the nurseries, keeping them safe while they draft reed-parchment diagrams of stalagmite amplifier rings—valuable cultural currency during Clactonian festival debates.
• Explorers driven purely by curiosity tread the flooded fissures searching for uncharted grottoes. Ambystaroct territory often marks the threshold of deeper voids where molten veins meet brine. Mapping such realms expands civic waterworks and earns a cartographer’s crest—assuming the explorers survive the spinning disc rush and return with notes intact.
The entire carcass of an Ambystaroct Mantisun 241 is a moving workshop of rare reagents, each sought by different guilds, temples, and artisans across the shard-coasts.
• Chromatophore Mantle – the flexible skin sections along the torso peel away in sheets that still respond faintly to electrical pulses. Gearwrights embed narrow strips into stealth cloaks; a mild current from a copper thread lets the wearer blur into surrounding rock strata for several breaths before recharge.
• Sunflower Fin Cartilage – once boiled in mineral brine and tempered over steam jets, these radial plates harden into springy, memory-retentive struts used in rebound boots, prosthetic knee joints, and compact torsion engines that snap breaker-hammers open at triple speed.
• Bioluminescent Eye Cores – the gel-filled orbs dry into glassy nodules that emit a cold teal glow for three lunar cycles before fading. Jewelers seat them in helm-lamps and navigation rods for spelunkers who need hands-free light that cannot ignite pocket vapors.
• Vitreous Papillae Crowns – the small electro-receptive bumps lining the creature’s flanks, when cut with obsidian and mounted on silver mesh, form a resonance net able to buzz faintly whenever buried metal or high-salinity water lies within ten paces. Quarry surveyors wear the nets as belts.
• Tentilla Venom Sacs – once separated from the sucker rings, each sac yields a thimble of clear neurotoxin. Apothecaries dilute it into two divergent brews: a minute dose for surgical numb-salve; a thicker tincture for blow-dart antifugue traps along prison ledges.
• Scythe-Limb Chitin – the triple-jointed sickles are light yet hold the edge of flint. Smiths laminate them onto fracture-staff tips, creating disposable blades that snap apart into micro-shards on impact—the favored one-use scalpel for surgical Stone-Born medics.
• Gill-Frond Threads – dried fronds stay porous, wicking moisture and salts. Alchemists powder them into desiccant sachets that preserve scroll vellum or keep ley-charge crystals free of corrosion inside steam-gauged vaults.
• Pelvic Bone Resonance Fork – a wishbone-shaped lattice inside the hollow torso hums at a precise frequency when tapped. Instrument-makers carve it into tuning forks calibrated for cavern acoustics; Breaker choirs strike these forks before ritual shatterings to identify the stone’s weakest seam.
• Sap-Infused Reservoir Membrane – this thin inner lining holds mineral-rich fluid even after death. Distillers simmer the membrane into a concentrated syrup that, when painted on fresh quarry walls, deters lichen bloom and keeps tool grooves sharp for months.
• Spin-Wheel Tendon Rings – circular ligaments around the siphon valves maintain elasticity after curing. Engineers braid five rings into a pulley that stores torsion for emergency gate releases on flood-locks.
• Molt-Sheath Glassflakes – fragments from the translucent post-molt husk clink like thin bells. Powdered, they mix into glaze producing iridescent ceramic tiles; whole shards glued to spearheads fold sunlight into dazzling, disorienting flashes.
• Paralytic Mucus Residue – even dried pools around corpse sites retain trace alkaloids. Apiarists collect and smear them inside hive frames to quiet aggressive hive-mantises during comb harvest.
• Spiral Groove Stalagmite Dust – rasped mineral shavings left in the stomach form compact pellets. When ground and fused with copper filings they create a slow-burn welding paste that bonds basalt blocks without leaving brittle seams.
• Heart-Valve Quartz – tiny silicon shards accumulate inside the creature’s circulatory nodes. Lapidaries arrange them into micro-mosaics for illuminated codices; each shard refracts lantern light into a shifting halo that aids silent reading during night patrols.
• Hydro-Jet Siphon Plates – the bony shutters at the siphon mouth resist heat and pressure. Furnace-builders recast them into directional flame nozzles that split a bellows stream into concentric rings, ensuring even forge temperature for glassfall-grade obsidian smelting.
• Laryngeal Vibration Membrane – stretched across a resonator frame, a single strip produces an eerie, sustained drone when air passes over it. Sound-mages embed the membrane inside cliff horns to signal quarry crews through miles of winding tunnels without echo loss.
• Mineral-Taste Tongues – minute barbed tongues line the ventral mouth. Dried and rehydrated, they still cling to ferrous flecks; prospectors carry two in vials of distilled water, dipping them into slurry samples—if the tongue grips the pan’s sidewall, ore content is deemed profitable.
Every part of an Ambystaroct Mantisun 241 answers some Clactonian craft—whether subtle, surgical, or loudly destructive—and thus even a single carcass rarely lies unharvested for long in the fracture caverns.
Wheel-Shadow Who Drinks the Echo
Hear then the cracked record, etched on salt-eaten shale and repeated by drifting throat-voices of the flood halls. It begins once, twice, and thrice, for the counting was uncertain:
“In the tide-behind-stone, a soft light walked upon many fins, and its name was No-Name-Yet-Hollow.”
So reads the first shard.
No-Name-Yet-Hollow was born from the quarrel of Water and Stone. Water desired a mirror for starlight; Stone desired a knife for darkness. Neither yielded, so they wed in anger, and the child slid screaming from the seam between them. One fin for Water, one limb for Stone, one eye for seeing, one for hiding, and a hollow drum where a heart should sleep. When it breathed, the stalactites trembled; when it starved, the moon flecked black dust into the well.
The hollow child crept across echo-pools, harvesting whispers. It sliced the hush with sickle arms, tasted the iron fear in fish-blood, and tucked silence into its cavity. After thirty-one drips of the ceiling clepsydra, it met the Still Singer, a jelly of sound given bones. The Singer asked, or perhaps sang:
“Why carry emptiness as treasure?”
The hollow one spoke with three tongues at once — a warble, a click, and a rushing hush — yet each sentence broke mid-root. Listeners later carved a guess on bone:
“Because absence can be worn like color, and color may cut like teeth.”
The Singer, pleased or pierced, gifted a chord of unstruck bells. No-Name hung the chord inside its hollow and rolled onward, now ringing whenever hunger struck stone.
Seasons snarled. Furnace Wind scoured the caves, boiling the shallow lakes until fish learned to walk on rumor alone. The hollow one’s fins blistered; its sap leaked cobalt flame; its tentilla coiled into thirsty knots. At the edge of melting glass it faced the Dust-Keeper, a creature shaped entirely of unspoken agreements. The Keeper offered a trade:
“Give me the chord, take my patience; give me your hollow, take my certainty.”
But the chord had rooted in the ribs, and the hollow was throne to echo-fire. The creature refused, not with words but with a peel of blinding rings. Stone cracked, revealing a secret water vein. The Keeper turned to powder, singing farewell in a language of silent coughing.
Thus refreshed, the hollow one learned spinning. It folded fins and limbs into a star wheel, jetting through tunnels faster than the quarrel of thought. With each spin the chord chimed, calling lost spawn of light. Moths of bleeding sapphire emerged, drinking the chime, fattening on it, and finally exploding in soft mirage. Their ashes clung to the creature’s eyes, granting it sight of moments still unborn.
By this sight it found the Union Pool, where every rivulet meets once each thousand stone-heartbeats. Here waited the Unpaired Twin, a mirror whose reflection never matched. The Twin greeted:
“I am you after the next forgetting. To live forward, we must dine on ourselves.”
They fought politely for seven echoes. Sickle met mirror, tentacle met suggestion, wheel met whirl. In the final clash, the chord cracked, and music bled into water like melting glass. The Twin drank the spill and was undone, leaving only a shimmer that tasted of promise. No-Name’s hollow, now chordless, filled with hush-water that hardened into transparent bone. Inside the bone swam unborn songs, tapping to escape.
The creature returned to lesser tunnels where miners hunted ore-tongues and spirit crabs. It spun above their heads, shedding flecks of hush-glass. Some shards cured fevers; others birthed nightmares shaped like drowning bells. Witnesses etched the sight on stalagmite skins, each carving poorer than the last, until only the refrain remained:
“Wheel-Shadow drinks echo; leave it thirst or you drink sorrow.”
Whether the creature still roams is argued by torchlight. Some claim it sleeps beneath Glassfall, wrapped around the first bell that ever forgot its name. Others say it split once more — hollow for hush, hush for stone, stone for water — and the pieces chase one another forever, never meeting, always hungering.
Moral
A vessel that prizes its own emptiness will shatter every gift to keep the echo pure.
Suggested conversions to other systems:
Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition – Echo-Limbed Ambystaroct
Characteristics STR 90, CON 80, SIZ 60, DEX 90, POW 60, INT 55, APP ―
Derived Hit Points 14, Damage Bonus +1d4, Build 1, Move 10 m land / 14 m swim
Combat Scythe Slash 70% (1d6 + db, deep bleeding) • Tentacle Bite 60% (1d4, plus venom: CON roll or total limb paralysis 1d6 × 10 min) • Wheel-Drop 65% (immediate slam on 1–3 adjacent targets, 1d8 + db; victims must dodge or be knocked prone)
Armor 3-point scaled hide; regenerates 2 HP/round while submerged.
Skills Stealth 80, Swim 85, Camouflage 70, Listen 60, Climb 45.
Powers Chromatic Pulse: once per encounter the skin flashes; anyone within 10 m rolls POW vs POT 12 or suffers vertigo (−20 % to actions for 2 rounds).
Sanity Seeing one costs 0/1d6 SAN.
Habitat Flooded tunnels, fracture caverns, Glassfall coast.
Blades in the Dark – Cavern-Wheel Shadow
Tier III • Scale huge wheel-burst • Threat Great
Edges Amphibious, Bioluminescent lure, Regenerative flesh (clock: 6-segment “Stanch Blood” must fill before harm sticks).
Moves Wheel-Burst: roll forward with raptorial scythes; fills a 6-segment “Carnage” clock against any unarmoured gang in its path. • Chromatic Dazzle: Force a desperate Wreck/Resolve roll on everyone present; on 1–2 they are stunned; on 3–5 they take level-3 harm “Reeling.” • Venom Kiss: on grapple it inflicts level-2 harm “Numbed,” which resists at +1 stress.
Weaknesses Fire (tier I tools may ignite its hide; fills a 4-segment “Scorch Shell” clock to break regeneration).
Goal Guard hidden water veins; repel intruders who echo too loudly.
Dungeons & Dragons 5e – Ambystaroct, Echo-Wheel Predator
Medium aberration, unaligned
Armor Class 16 (mineral hide) Hit Points 145 (17 d10 + 51) Speed 30 ft, climb 30 ft, swim 60 ft
STR 15 DEX 20 CON 16 INT 8 WIS 14 CHA 6
Saving Throws Dex +11, Con +8 Skills Perception +7, Stealth +11, Survival +7
Damage Resistances slashing, piercing; Damage Vulnerability fire while dry
Condition Immunities frightened, charmed Senses blindsight 60 ft (vibration), darkvision 120 ft, passive Perception 17
Challenge 7 XP 2 900
Traits Amphibious • Regeneration 10 (if the creature took no fire damage since its last turn and is hydrated) • Spider-Climb • Mineral Sense (can pinpoint underground water or metal within 60 ft).
Actions Multiattack: two Scythe and one Tentacle Bite. Scythe +11 to hit, reach 10 ft, 2d8 + 5 slashing. Tentacle Bite +11 to hit, 1d6 + 5 piercing plus DC 16 Con save or be poisoned and paralyzed 1 min (save each turn). Wheel-Drop (Recharge 5–6): if clinging to ceiling, the Ambystaroct drops; each creature in 15-ft radius must DC 17 Dex save or take 6d6 bludgeoning + 6d6 slashing and be knocked prone, half on success.
Chromatic Pulse (Recharge 6): 30-ft radius flash; creatures make DC 16 Con save or be stunned until end of its next turn.
Knave – Wheel-Shadow Lurker 9
Hit Dice 9 Hit Points 45 Armor 16 (natural) Attack +3 Damage 2 × d8 scythes or d6 tentacle (save vs poison or paralyzed) Move 40 ft land / 60 ft swim
Morale 10 Alignment Neutral
Special Regenerate 2 HP/round in water • Blindsight 60 ft • Chromatic Pulse once per combat: all within 20 ft save vs WIL or stunned 1 round • Vulnerable to fire when desiccated • Rapid limb regrowth after one watch.
Loot Bioluminescent eye core, spring-fin cartilage, venom sac (worth 2 silver each).
Fate – Echo-Hollow Wheel Predator
High Concept: Amphibious shard-skinned ambush wheel. Trouble: Fire dries the sap and cracks the fins. Aspect: “The cave walls hum like prey-heartbeats.” Aspect: Bioluminescent flash of disorientation. Aspect: Regenerates what is broken.
Skill Pyramid Superb (+5) Stealth Great (+4) Athletics Good (+3) Fight, Notice Fair (+2) Physique, Crafts Average (+1) Will, Provoke, Survival.
Stunts Wheel-Drop Rush: +2 to Athletics when creating an advantage by dropping from above. Chromatic Pulse: Once per scene, spend 1 Fate Point to impose the Aspect “Vertigo-Stunned” on every target in close range for one exchange. Toxic Tentilla: On a successful Fight attack that inflicts stress, spend a Fate Point to also place the “Paralyzed” Aspect with two invokes.
Stress Physical 3 boxes, Mental 2 boxes.
Consequences Mild (2) torn fins, Moderate (4) cracked carapace, Severe (6) desiccated core.
Extras Regeneration: removes 1 physical stress at the end of each exchange if it took no fire damage that turn.
Numenera / Cypher System – Sunwheel Ambystaroct
Level 6 (difficulty 18) • Health 24 • Damage 6 points (scythe) or 4 points + paralysis (tentacle; target Speed defense or suffer one level of Stunned for 1 minute) • Armor 2 • Movement Short land; Long swim.
Modifications Stealth 9 (as Level 8), Speed defense 7 (as Level 7, due to agility).
Special Abilities Wheel-Drop (once per ten minutes): spring from ceiling; all creatures in Immediate range make Speed defense vs Level 7 or take 10 damage and fall Prone. Chromatic Pulse (once per hour): Intellect defense vs Level 6 or become Dazed for 1 round. Regenerate 2 Health each round while wet. Vulnerability: fire ignores Armor and halts regeneration for one minute.
Loot 1d6 usable synth/organic components, bioluminescent eye gem (level 5 light cipher), 1 dose paralytic toxin.
Pathfinder 2e – Ambystaroct Wheel-Strider
Creature 7 • Unaligned • Medium Aberration • Aquatic, Amphibious
Perception +17; vibration sense 60 ft, darkvision 120 ft
Languages — (understands Deep Speech)
Skills Acrobatics +18, Stealth +19, Survival +15, Athletics +16
Str +4 Dex +6 Con +4 Int –1 Wis +3 Cha –2
AC 25 • Fort +17, Ref +20, Will +15; HP 135; Regeneration 10 (deactivated by fire); Resist physical 5 (except bludgeoning); Weakness fire 10 (only while Dry).
Speed 35 ft, climb 35 ft, swim 70 ft
Melee [one-action] Scythe Limbs +19 (Agile, Reach 10 ft), Damage 2d10+8 slashing
Melee [one-action] Tentacle Bite +19 (Agile), Damage 2d6+8 piercing plus Venom
Venom (Incubation immediate; Stage 1 flat-footed, Stage 2 paralyzed; Stage damage 1 round); DC 24 Fortitude
Wheel-Drop [three-actions] The creature must be clinging to a ceiling 15 ft up. It releases, spins, and slams the ground; creatures in a 15-ft emanation take 4d10 bludgeoning plus 4d10 slashing, DC 26 Reflex for half and no Knockdown.
Chromatic Pulse [two-actions] (Necromancy, Visual) • Frequency once per hour • Creatures in 30 ft burst DC 24 Fortitude; failure dazzled 1 round, critical failure stunned 1 round and dazzled 1 minute.
Spider Climb (Sustained ; innate)
Mineral Sense The ambystaroct automatically detects underground water veins and worked metal within 60 ft.
Savage Worlds Adventure Edition – Wheel-Shadow Ambystaroct
Attributes Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8
Skills Athletics d10, Fighting d12, Notice d8, Stealth d12+1, Swimming d10
Pace 8; Parry 8; Toughness 12 (2)
Special Abilities
• Amphibious: moves at full Pace in water; can breathe air and water.
• Armor +2: shard-skinned hide.
• Extra Actions: makes Two-Fisted Multi-Actions at no off-hand penalty (two scythe attacks).
• Fast Regeneration: heals one Wound every round while Wet; halted for the scene if it takes Fire damage.
• Wheel-Drop: once per combat, if above a target, makes an Athletics roll vs target’s Athletics; on success creature lands in medium blast template, dealing Str+d10 damage and forcing Knockback.
• Chromatic Pulse: once per encounter, creatures in Smarts × 2″ must make Vigor roll or be Stunned.
• Poison Tentacles: Fighting attack Str+d6; target makes Vigor roll at −2 or is Paralyzed for 1d6 rounds.
Attacks Scythe (Str+d10, AP 2, Reach 1) • Tentacle Bite (see Poison)
Edges Level-headed (multiple action card choice).
Weakness Flammable: damage from fire counts as Heavy Weapon and ignores Armor.
Shadowrun Sixth World – Echo-Wheel Predator
• Attributes BOD 6, AGI 8, REA 8, STR 6, WIL 5, LOG 2, INT 6, CHA 2, ESS 6
• Initiative 11 + 1d6 (in water 12 + 3d6) • Edge 2
• Movement 10 m/20 m land, 20 m/40 m swim, Climb 10 m
• Condition Monitor Physical 11, Stun 10 • Armor 4 (natural shard hide)
Skills: Athletics 6, Infiltration 7, Perception 6, Unarmed Combat 8, Palming 4.
Attacks:
– Scythe-Limbs (Reach 1): AGI + Unarmed (16 dice), DV 6P, AP –2.
– Tentacle Bite: same dice, DV 4P + paralytic toxin (Toxin Vector: Contact, Speed Instant, Power 10, Effect –3 Agility, then Paralysis).
– Wheel-Drop (Complex Action, pre-requisite: clinging ≥ 5 m above target): every target in 6 m radius opposes with Gymnastics + REA; on failure takes 10P, Knockdown, and is considered surprised.
Powers: Amphibious, Enhanced Senses (Thermographic, Vibration), Natural Weapon, Regeneration (functions only while Wet; ceases for 10 Combat Turns after Fire damage), Flash Strobe (simple action, Visual flash; targets resist vs Willpower + REA (3) or suffer –2 penalty to dice pools for 2 Combat Turns).
Weaknesses: Environmental (Dry Heat: 1 P damage per minute & Regeneration suppressed), Vulnerability (Fire: +2 DV).
Starfinder – Ambystaroct Wheelstrider CR 7 XP 3,200
N Medium aberration (aquatic, amphibious)
Init +6; Senses blindsense (vibration) 60 ft, darkvision 120 ft; Perception +14
DEFENSE
HP 115; RP 4; EAC 21, KAC 23
Fort +13, Ref +11, Will +10
Immunities paralysis; Resistance 5 slashing; Weaknesses fire 10 (only while dry)
Regeneration 10 (suppressed 1 minute by fire)
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft, climb 40 ft, swim 80 ft
Melee 2 scythes +15 (2d10 + 9 S, wound critical)
Melee tentacle bite +15 (1d8 + 9 P plus paralytic venom, Fort DC 19, 1 min paralysis)
Special Attacks wheel-drop (30-ft fall or greater, scythe damage + 2d10 B to all in 15-ft burst, Ref DC 19 half & no prone), chromatic pulse (SU, 1/round, 30-ft cone, Will DC 19; fail = dazzled 1 rnd, crit fail = stunned 1 rnd).
STATISTICS
STR 19 (+4) DEX 22 (+6) CON 18 (+4) INT 6 (–2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 7 (–2)
Skills Acrobatics +17, Stealth +17, Survival +14, Athletics +17
Ecology Glassfall coast caves; solitary or clutch (2-4).
Gear — (eye cores worth 3,000 cr; fin cartilage 1,500 cr).
Mongoose Traveller 2e – Wheel-Shadow Cavern Strider
Characteristics STR 10 (B), DEX 12 (C), END 9 (9), INT 5 (5), EDU 0, SOC 2 (2)
Uplift Animal (Aberrant) Hits 9 Armor 6 (Silicate Hide) Traits Amphibious, Natural Attacks (Scythe – 2D damage, Armour Piercing 2), Toxic (Tentacles, END DM –2 for 2 minutes), Regeneration (1 hit/round while Wet), Vibration Sense 30 m.
Skills Athletics 2, Stealth 3, Recon 2, Survival 1, Melee (Brawling) 3.
Movement Ground 8 m, Climb 8 m, Swim 12 m; Wheel-Drop charge grants Boon to next Melee attack and forces Difficult END check on targets to avoid Prone.
Instincts Prefers ambush from ceiling; will flee if fire complicates regeneration.
Value Eye gem 10 000 Cr, cartilage 5 000 Cr, toxin 2 000 Cr per dose.
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Ed. – Echo-Wheel Horror
Species Aberration; Size Large
Main Profile WS 55, BS —, S 50 (5), T 47 (4), I 45, Ag 50, Dex 42, Int 20, WP 35, Fel —
Secondary W 42, SB 5, TB 4, M 6 (land), M 8 (swim), IP 0, FP 0
Traits: Amphibious, Armour (2 all), Dark Vision, Night Vision, Rover, Regeneration (5 Wounds/round while Wet), Size (Large), Weapon (Multiple Limbs), Tunnel Dweller.
Special Traits• Scythe Limbs (SB + 1d10 Damage, Penetrating) • Tentacle Venom: Difficult (–10) Endurance test or Paralysed 1d10 Rounds. • Chromatic Flash: once per Scene, Intimidate test vs Cool; failure causes Stunned (1) and Blinded (1 Round). • Wheel-Drop: if above foes, Athletics test; on success deals SB + 2d10 Damage to each target in 6 yd burst and knocks Prone.
Weakness: Vulnerability (Fire) – Damage from Flame Qualities counts as ignoring Armour and halts Regeneration for 5 Rounds.
Skills: Athletics +20, Perception +10, Stealth +20 (Underground).
Trappings None; corpse yields Bioluminescent Eyes (worth 6 GC), Spring Cartilage (rare alchemic).