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Geostellatus Electrorex 13

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by

Dale
in

Original Life Forms Referenced:

  • Mammalia: Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata)
  • Arachnida: Trapdoor Spider (Ctenizidae family)
  • Osteichthyes: Electric Eel (Electrophorus electricus)
  • Aves: Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)

Appearance

The Geostellatus is a deeply unsettling subterranean creature. It has a powerful, low-slung, tubular body, much like a scaled-up, elongated mole, covered in slick, scale-less, eel-like skin that is typically a mottled brown or grey. A constant, low-level static charge crackles across its skin, causing dust and small particles of dirt to cling to it. It has no visible eyes. Its face is dominated by a grotesque, fleshy, pinkish-red star-shaped appendage with twenty-two constantly twitching, sensitive tentacles that feel the air and ground. Below this star-nose is a set of vertical, spider-like chelicerae (fangs) that drip a paralytic venom. Its forelimbs are massive, spade-like claws, perfectly adapted for rapid digging, while its hind limbs are smaller and used for bracing. Two small, feathered wings, like those of a kookaburra, sprout from its back; they are useless for flight but are flared during its terrifying territorial display.

Size

The creature is built for its subterranean lifestyle. It is typically 5 to 7 feet long, but stands only 1.5 to 2 feet high at the shoulder. Its dense, muscular body weighs between 180 and 250 pounds.

Speed

On the surface, the Geostellatus is clumsy and slow, moving with an awkward, undulating gait. Underground, however, it is an incredibly fast and efficient burrower, capable of “swimming” through soft soil and loam with surprising speed.

Stat Modifiers

  • Strength: Very High. Possesses immense digging and grappling power.
  • Durability: High. Its slick skin and dense muscle make it tough.
  • Agility: Low (on the surface), High (underground).
  • Perception: Very Low (sight), Very High (touch/vibration/electrical senses). It is blind but can detect the most minute vibrations and bio-electric fields through its star-nose.
  • Intellect: Moderate. It is a cunning trapper and hunter.
  • Social: Very Low. It is an alien and terrifying creature.

Skills

  • Burrowing: A master of subterranean movement and tunnel creation.
  • Stealth: Exceptional when underground or concealed beneath a trapdoor.
  • Trap-Making: It constructs elaborate “trapdoor” pits, covering a shallow burrow with a fragile lid of silk-reinforced soil and debris.
  • Special Attacks:
    • Venomous Bite: Its fangs deliver a potent neurotoxin that paralyzes rather than kills, allowing it to drag prey underground.
    • Bio-electric Discharge: It can release a powerful electrical shock through its skin to any creature in direct contact with it, stunning and incapacitating them.
    • Earthen Eruption: Its primary attack method, bursting from the ground beneath its prey.
    • Maniacal Laugh: It can emit the loud, cackling laugh of a kookaburra, a territorial call that is deeply unnerving when it seems to emanate from the earth itself.

Behavior

The Geostellatus is a patient, solitary ambush predator. It spends almost its entire life underground, creating a complex network of tunnels. Its hunting strategy involves creating numerous trapdoor burrows in its territory. It will wait silently beneath a trapdoor, using its star-shaped nose pressed against the ceiling of its burrow to feel for the footsteps of creatures walking above. When it detects prey, it erupts from the ground in a shower of earth, attempting to bite and paralyze the target before dragging it down into its tunnels to be consumed. Its “laugh” is not a sign of joy, but a territorial broadcast to warn away other creatures, including its own kind.

Diet

Strictly carnivorous. It preys on any creature large enough to be worth the effort that wanders through its territory, from large grazing animals to unsuspecting travelers. It is not a picky eater and will drag anything it can paralyze into its lair.

Emotions

The Geostellatus operates on a cold, alien, and patient predatory instinct. It does not display the “hot” rage of many other predators. Its primary emotional states are a patient, calculating hunger and a deep-seated, instinctual territorialism. Its signature laugh is devoid of any humor, serving only as a chilling, instinctual warning.

Environment Where Found

It is exclusively found in regions with deep, soft, loamy soil, such as grasslands, plains, fertile river valleys, and the earth beneath dense forests. It avoids rocky, mountainous terrain, hard-packed clay, and deserts where it cannot effectively burrow. Its presence is often discovered by farmers finding strange, perfectly circular patches of disturbed earth in their fields, or by travelers hearing a loud, manic laugh that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Tags: Feral, Creature, Carnivore, Predator, Subterranean, Ambusher, Trap-Maker, Venomous, Electrical Attack, Tier 2, Chimeric, Monster, Burrower, Blind, Vibration Sense, Paralyzing, Silk, Auditory

The Geostellatus Electrorex 13 is a uniquely adapted predator, a master of its subterranean domain whose presence is often only known through the terrifying, disembodied laugh that seems to emanate from the earth itself.

Age & Lifecycle

  • Lifespan: The Geostellatus has a surprisingly long lifespan for such an active creature, often living for 25 to 30 years in its vast, self-made tunnel network.
  • Egg Sac: The lifecycle begins deep underground in a specially prepared nesting chamber lined with thick, waterproof silk. The female lays a clutch of 10-15 soft, leathery eggs which are then left to incubate from the ambient warmth of the earth.
  • Grub-larva: The hatchlings emerge as pale, grub-like larvae with soft bodies. They are born blind and deaf, but with a fully functional star-nose and venomous fangs. The larvae are aggressively cannibalistic, and typically only one or two of the strongest from a clutch will survive this stage by consuming their siblings.
  • Juvenile Tunneler: After a period of metamorphosis, the survivor emerges as a smaller, sleeker version of the adult. Its electrical abilities are underdeveloped, delivering a painful but non-lethal shock, and its territorial call sounds more like a high-pitched, manic giggle. Juveniles are often forced to the surface during heavy rains that flood their nascent tunnel systems, which is the time they are most vulnerable and most likely to be seen by surface dwellers.
  • Elder (The Earth-Shaker): A Geostellatus that survives to a great age becomes a true master of its domain. It rarely, if ever, surfaces. Its tunnel networks can span for miles and become ancient geological features in their own right. The territorial laugh of an elder specimen is so deep and powerful that it can be felt as a low, cackling tremor in the ground, leading to local legends of “earth-quakes that laugh.” They become so adept at engineering their domain that they can intentionally create sinkholes to trap very large prey.

Tactics

The creature is a patient and brutally efficient ambush hunter, relying on preparation and environmental control rather than direct pursuit.

  • Elaborate Trapping: The core of its strategy is the creation of a “kill zone,” a wide territory riddled with dozens of concealed trapdoor pits. Each pit is a shallow burrow covered by a carefully constructed lid made of silk, dirt, and debris, which is nearly impossible to distinguish from the surrounding terrain.
  • Vibrational Luring: The Geostellatus can use its powerful digging claws to drum against the walls of its tunnels, creating low-frequency vibrations that travel through the soil. These vibrations can mimic the sound of a small, struggling animal, which can lure curious scavengers or other predators into its network of traps.
  • Erupt & Subdue: The attack is swift and final. Waiting silently beneath a trapdoor, it uses its star-nose to feel the precise location, size, and gait of a target walking above. It then bursts from the ground in an explosion of earth. The primary goal is to immediately deliver a Paralyzing Bite. If the prey struggles, the creature uses its Bio-electric Discharge upon contact to stun it. Once the victim is immobilized, it is quickly and efficiently dragged underground before it can recover or its allies can react. The entire surface-world encounter is often over in less than ten seconds.
  • Territorial Defense: The iconic laugh is its primary defensive tool. By broadcasting this terrifying, disembodied sound from its tunnels, it can frighten away most creatures from its territory without ever having to risk a direct confrontation on the surface. If cornered, its first instinct is always to burrow to safety, collapsing the tunnel behind it.

Actions

  • Earthen Eruption: An attack made from underground against a target on the surface. The target must make an Agility saving throw. On a failure, they are knocked prone, and the Geostellatus gets an immediate, advantaged Paralyzing Bite attack against them.
  • Paralyzing Bite: A melee attack that deals piercing damage. A creature damaged by the bite must succeed on a Durability saving throw or become paralyzed for up to one hour.
  • Bio-electric Discharge: An action or reaction used against a creature in direct physical contact. The target must make a Durability saving throw or take significant electrical damage and be stunned for one round.
  • Terrifying Laugh (Action): The creature emits its cackling, subterranean call. Any creature within a 100-foot radius that can hear the sound must make a Willpower saving throw or become frightened for one minute. Because the sound travels through the ground, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint its source.
  • Burrow: The creature can move through any soft earth, loam, or sand at a high speed. It leaves a permanent, 5-foot-diameter tunnel in its wake.

Other Interesting Information

  • Ecosystem Engineer: The abandoned tunnel networks of a Geostellatus completely alter the local environment. They aerate the soil on a massive scale and can change the flow of groundwater, sometimes creating new springs or causing others to dry up. These tunnels quickly become lairs for countless other subterranean creatures.
  • The Star-Nose: This complex sensory organ is a biological marvel. It does not smell in the traditional sense, but “feels” its environment with incredible acuity. By touching the soil, it can detect the faintest bio-electric fields of living creatures, minute vibrations from footsteps, and even the chemical composition of the earth around it.
  • Harvestable Components: The creature’s venom is highly prized by alchemists as the key ingredient in powerful paralytic poisons and anesthetic agents. The organs that produce its electrical charge can be used by artificers to create magical capacitors or potent, single-use shock-traps. Its silk is exceptionally strong and completely waterproof, making it ideal for crafting durable bags, ropes, or cloaks.
  • Symbiotic Fungi: A specific type of pale, phosphorescent mushroom is found only within the tunnels of a Geostellatus. The mushroom thrives on the creature’s waste and the remains of its prey, and in return, its faint, eerie glow provides the blind creature with a way to navigate the deepest parts of its lair. Finding this unique fungus on the surface is a sure sign that a Geostellatus territory lies beneath.

An encounter with a Geostellatus Electrorex 13 is a uniquely terrifying experience, primarily because the creature is almost never seen before it attacks. Its subterranean nature means that adventurers are far more likely to stumble into its territory unknowingly than to track one on the open plains. The reasons a party might face this creature range from sheer bad luck to highly specific and lucrative quests.

Accidental Encounters: The Unwary Trespassers

These encounters are the most common, as the creature’s domain is hidden directly beneath the surface of seemingly safe and open lands.

  • The Collapsing Trail: A party might be traveling across a wide, grassy plain or a fertile river valley, making good time on their way to a different destination. Suddenly, the ground beneath one of their members or their pack animal gives way, plunging them into a silk-lined pit—a trapdoor created by a Geostellatus. The party must now contend with a separated and possibly injured member, the labyrinthine tunnels below, and the patient, territorial owner who has been alerted to their presence. The quest instantly shifts from a simple journey to a tense, subterranean survival scenario.
  • The Wrong Kind of Shelter: Fleeing from a different threat—a pursuing goblin patrol, a rival adventuring party, or a massive magical storm—the party might find shelter in what appears to be a natural cave system. As they delve deeper, they notice the tunnels are too smooth, too uniform, and lined with a strange, tough silk. They are not in a cave; they have stumbled into the lair of a Geostellatus. The immediate threat may be gone, but they are now deep within the territory of a predator perfectly adapted to its environment.
  • The Unseasonable Flood: After weeks of torrential rain, the deep, loamy soil of a region becomes completely saturated, flooding the tunnel network of a Geostellatus and forcing it to the surface. The displaced, highly agitated creature would be rampaging through the local area, its terrifying laugh no longer muffled by the earth. The adventurers, taking shelter from the storm themselves in a barn or wayside inn, could suddenly find themselves face-to-face with the confused and furious monster.

Problem-Solving: The Hired Exterminators

The creature’s burrowing and hunting habits often bring it into direct conflict with surface-dwelling communities, leading to quests to solve the “monster” problem.

  • The Laughing Fields: A farming village on the plains is being plagued by a “demon.” Livestock vanishes from pastures overnight, leaving behind nothing but a perfectly circular sinkhole. At night, a horrifying, cackling laugh echoes from beneath the ground, driving the villagers mad with fear. They pool their resources to hire the adventurers to exorcise the “haunting.” The party will discover that the demon is a creature of flesh and bone, and its lair lies directly beneath the supposedly haunted fields.
  • The Sinking Road: A major trade guild has established a new caravan route, but it’s become a deathtrap. Carts and pack animals are being lost as sections of the road inexplicably collapse. The guild, fearing they have built on unstable ground, hires the adventurers to investigate the “geological instability” and find a safer path. The party’s investigation will reveal that the vibrations from the heavy carts traveling overhead are attracting a Geostellatus, which is purposefully collapsing the ground beneath them, mistaking the caravans for colossal prey. To save the trade route, the creature must be slain.
  • The Missing Scholar: A geologist or artificer, sent to survey a valley for a new steam-powered mining operation, has vanished along with his team. The party is hired for a search-and-rescue mission. They find the expedition’s abandoned camp, shattered scientific instruments, and a massive, freshly collapsed sinkhole at the center of it all. As they investigate the pit, they hear a faint, manic laugh echoing from deep within the earth, turning their rescue mission into a perilous hunt.

The Deliberate Hunt: The Specialist Harvesters

The unique biology of the Geostellatus makes its body parts highly valuable to a select few, prompting dangerous but lucrative quests to hunt the creature down.

  • The Alchemist’s Anesthetic: A master alchemist or a chirurgeon at a metropolitan hospital posts a bounty for a live, safely-contained Geostellatus, or at the very least, a freshly harvested sample of its venom. The creature’s paralytic neurotoxin, once refined, can be used to create a revolutionary surgical anesthetic that allows for complex procedures. The party must venture into its territory and face it head-on to acquire this priceless medical reagent.
  • The Artificer’s Capacitor: Artificers and engineers who work with lightning magic or advanced steam-tech have learned that the creature’s electro-genic organs are near-perfect biological capacitors, capable of storing and discharging immense amounts of energy. A guild might hire the adventurers to acquire one of these organs—fully intact—as the central component for a new super-weapon or a powerful new type of steam engine.
  • The Unbreakable Silk: The silk the Geostellatus uses to line its tunnels and traps is a marvel of nature—as strong as steel cable but lightweight, flexible, and completely resistant to water and rot. A master shipwright might pay a king’s ransom for enough of it to craft a set of storm-proof sails for a flagship, or a military quartermaster might desire it for creating superior ropes, nets, and armor reinforcements. The party would be hired to venture deep into an active tunnel network to harvest the silk, a task that requires both bravery and stealth.

A Geostellatus Electrorex 13 is a biological marvel, a chaotic fusion of wildly different life forms. As such, its corpse is a treasure trove for skilled harvesters, offering a host of unique ingredients and materials that are highly sought after by various artisans and practitioners across Saṃsāra. Beyond the simple meat and bone, the following specialized components can be gathered:

Paralytic Venom Glands

Located just behind the creature’s spider-like fangs are two small, translucent sacs containing its potent neurotoxin.

  • Use: The clear, viscous venom is not typically lethal; its primary function is to induce rapid and total paralysis. Alchemists pay handsomely for it, as it is the key reagent in creating powerful anesthetic agents for advanced surgery, non-lethal tranquilizer darts for capturing beasts, and sophisticated paralytic poisons favored by spies and assassins who prefer their targets alive but helpless. Harvesting requires a steady hand, as contact with the venom can cause localized numbness for days.

Electro-genic Organs

Running along the creature’s flanks are paired bundles of dense, greyish muscle tissue that are cool to the touch. These are the organs responsible for its defensive electrical discharge.

  • Use: These organs are biological capacitors. A skilled artificer or steam-engineer can carefully extract them and integrate them into magical or technological devices. They can serve as powerful, rechargeable batteries for small automatons, provide the initial ignition spark for massive industrial steam engines, or be fashioned into single-use, high-voltage electrical traps. The organs remain charged for several hours after the creature’s death, making their removal a hazardous task without proper, insulated tools.

Subterranean Silk Glands

Near the creature’s rear are large glands that produce the incredibly durable silk it uses for lining its tunnels and traps.

  • Use: Geostellatus silk is a legendary material. It is as strong as iron wire but as light as conventional silk, and it is naturally immune to water damage and rot. When spun into thread, it can be used to create unparalleled climbing ropes, unbreakable nets, or even woven by a master tailor into a shimmering, silvery fabric that can be used as the base for high-end, magically-enchanted light armor.

The Star-Nose Sensory Cluster

This is the most bizarre and delicate component to harvest. The fleshy, 22-tentacled star at the front of the creature’s face is a complex network of thousands of nerve endings attuned to vibration and bio-electricity.

  • Use: An exceptionally skilled artificer, often one who dabbles in flesh-crafting, can preserve this organ in an alchemical solution. When integrated into a helmet or a handheld diagnostic tool, the Star-Nose can grant the user a form of “tremorsense,” allowing them to “feel” minute vibrations through solid surfaces. This makes it an invaluable tool for miners detecting instabilities, for spies detecting secret mechanisms, or for adventurers detecting hidden creatures.

The Manic Syrinx

The source of the creature’s terrifying, cackling laugh is a unique and complex vocal organ, a bizarre fusion of avian and mammalian structures.

  • Use: This organ is coveted by occultists and bards with a flair for psychological warfare. When carefully preserved and installed within a specially designed soundbox, such as a steam-powered calliope or a pipe organ, it can be used to broadcast the creature’s signature laugh. The sound is deeply unsettling and can be used to inspire fear, break enemy morale, or create a powerful distraction.

Spade-like Digging Claws

The massive claws on the creature’s forelimbs are made of a dense, keratin-like material that is significantly harder and more durable than steel.

  • Use: A master blacksmith with a forge capable of achieving extreme temperatures can break down and re-forge this material. It is most often used to create the heads of pickaxes and shovels of legendary durability, which are highly sought after by mining guilds. Individual claws can also be sharpened and used as the blades for daggers or arrowheads that are exceptionally good at piercing tough armor.

Eel-like Hide

The slick, grey, scale-less skin of the Geostellatus is not particularly tough, but it has unique properties.

  • Use: The hide is naturally resistant to electrical discharges and is incredibly difficult to grip firmly. Tanners can craft it into gloves that provide excellent protection for artificers and engineers who work with electrical or lightning-based magic and machinery. When strips of the hide are used to wrap a shield or armor segments, it makes the wearer much more difficult to successfully grapple or restrain.

Prince with Far-Seeing Eyes

In a time that was, but is no more, there was a prince. His name was Arion. The prince had two things of great pride. The first was his eyes. His eyes were like blue jewels, and they had a magic. He could see farther than any other man’s seeing. He could stand on his high tower and watch a single rabbit twitch its nose a mile away. The second was his voice. His voice was like the sound of many small, silver bells ringing with laughter.

But the prince’s heart-spirit was sick. He was cruel. He used his gifts for a bad purpose. He would use his far-seeing eyes to find a small deer or a fox in the fields. Then he would use his beautiful voice to make a trick. He would make the sound of a lost fawn, and the mother deer would run into a trap he had set. He would make the sound of a rabbit in pain, and the fox would run to the sound and be caught. He did not do this for hunger. He did it for the pleasure of watching the suffering. He loved his traps, and he loved his tricks. The one thing the prince had a fear of was the dark earth, for his magic eyes could not see into the ground.

One day, the prince stood on his high tower. He saw an old woman gathering herbs at the edge of the far woods. The prince decided to make a joke. He used his bell-voice to make the sound of a small child crying, a sound that seemed to come from a deep pit near the old woman.

The old woman’s heart was good. She heard the crying child and she ran to give help. She followed the sound and she fell into one of the prince’s deep traps, and the bone in her leg made a loud crack.

From his high tower, Prince Arion saw this, and he laughed. His beautiful, clear laugh rolled across the fields and down into the pit where the old woman lay in pain.

But the old woman was not just an old woman. She was a spirit of the deep earth, a keeper of the soil. She looked up with her old eyes, which could not see the prince, but she heard his beautiful, cruel laugh. And her own magic was old and strong.

She spoke a curse to the laughing sound. “You use your eyes to see the helpless!” she cried. “You use your voice to laugh at their pain! You love your traps! And you fear the dark earth! So the earth will be your only house, and your face will feel the suffering you once watched!”

The curse flew from the pit and found the prince in his high tower. A great magic took him. His beautiful, far-seeing eyes turned to dust and blew away. He was blind. Where his nose was, his flesh grew into a terrible star of twitching, feeling fingers, so he could only see by touching. His mouth, the one with the bell-voice, was sealed shut with a spider’s magic, and sharp fangs grew beneath the star. His body grew long and slick like an eel. His hands grew into great claws for digging. And his beautiful laugh was trapped in his belly, a sick and frantic sound with no joy.

The curse threw him from his high tower. And when he hit the ground, he did not die. He began to dig. He dug to escape the light he could no longer see and to hide in the dark earth he had always feared.

And so he is there still. He is the Geostellatus Rex. He is forever blind, so he must feel for the footsteps of the living with his star-face. He is forever in the dark earth, so he must make traps to catch his food. And he is forever making his laugh, the beautiful sound that is now a terrifying noise from his belly, not from joy, but because it is the only sound his cursed body remembers how to make.

The Moral of the Story: The man who sits in a high tower and laughs at the suffering of the world will one day be made to live in the dirt and laugh at nothing at all.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu

The Cthonian Laughter

This creature is a terrestrial aberration, a burrowing horror that defies sane biological classification. It is utterly blind, navigating the deep earth through senses unknown to man. Those who have survived encounters speak of a manic, cackling laughter that seems to bubble up from the very soil before the ground erupts in a shower of earth and fangs. It is sometimes worshiped by isolated, degenerate communities as a minor servitor of earth-bound entities.

Statistics: STR 80, CON 75, SIZ 55, DEX 45, INT 40, POW 60 HP: 13

Damage Bonus: +1d4 Build: 1 Move: 5 / 10 (Burrowing)

Attacks

  • Fighting (Bite): 50%, deals 1d8 + DB damage + Paralytic Venom
  • Grapple: 45%, on success, victim is subject to Bio-Shock
  • Dodge: 22%

Armor: 2 points of slick, rubbery hide.

Spells: None.

Skills: Stealth (underground) 80%, Listen (vibrations) 90%.

Sanity Loss: 1/1d6 Sanity points to witness the creature erupt from the ground. 0/1d4 to hear its subterranean laughter.

Special Abilities:

  • Blind: The creature is immune to all visual effects, attacks, and illusions. It is, however, more susceptible to powerful sonic attacks.
  • Tremorsense: The creature automatically detects the location of any creature or object in contact with the ground within 40 yards. It cannot be surprised.
  • Paralytic Venom: Anyone damaged by the creature’s Bite attack must make a CON roll. On a failure, they are paralyzed and cannot take any physical actions for 1d6 rounds, though they remain fully conscious.
  • Bio-Shock: Any Investigator grappling or being grappled by the creature at the start of a round takes an automatic 1d6 electrical damage.
  • Subterranean Laughter: As an action, the creature can emit its terrifying, cackling laugh. It seems to come from all around, muffled by the earth. All Investigators who hear it must make a Sanity roll (0/1d4 SAN loss).

Blades in the Dark

The Sump-Grinner An Aberrant, Subterranean Predator of the Deeps

In the forgotten under-layers of Duskvol, where sewers and catacombs give way to mud and nightmare, the Sump-Grinners make their lairs. They are blind, eel-like things that swim through the earth, drawn to the vibrations of the city above. They create traps of silk and sludge, and their horrible, giggling calls are sometimes mistaken for the laughter of ghosts by unwary Gondoliers. To fall into their domain is to be paralyzed, shocked, and dragged into the silent, suffocating dark.

  • Threat Level: A Tier II creature; a gang of them would be Tier III.
  • Drives: To hunt, to expand its tunnel network, to drag the living world down into the silent dark.
  • Qualities:
    • Aberration: An unnatural fusion of creatures. Its motives are alien and unknowable.
    • Blind & Silent: It cannot see or be affected by visual illusions. It makes no sound when moving. It uses tremorsense to hunt.
    • Trap-Maker: It constructs elaborate, camouflaged pit traps.
    • Bio-Electric Field: Its skin crackles with energy; touching it is dangerous.
  • Actions (Clocks):
    • Erupt from the Earth (4-Clock): It bursts from the ground, a wall, or a sewer floor to ambush its prey.
    • Paralyze and Drag (6-Clock): It bites a victim, paralyzing them and attempting to pull them into its tunnel.
    • Unleash a Stunning Shock (4-Clock): It discharges its electrical energy into a grappled victim (Level 3 Harm: “Paralyzed”).
    • Echoing Maniacal Laughter (4-Clock): Its terrifying laugh causes all who hear it to hesitate and take 1 Stress.

Dungeons & Dragons

Gelectrode Burrower Medium monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 15 (natural armor) Hit Points 85 (10d8 + 40) Speed 20 ft., burrow 30 ft.

Ability Scores: STR 18 (+4), DEX 10 (+0), CON 18 (+4), INT 5 (-3), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 7 (-2)

Damage Resistances lightning Condition Immunities blinded, prone Senses tremorsense 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 12 Languages — Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Earthen Ambush. If the burrower surprises a creature by emerging from the ground, that creature has disadvantage on its saving throw against the burrower’s Paralyzing Bite.

Tunneler. The burrower can burrow through solid earth at its burrowing speed and leaves a 5-foot-diameter tunnel in its wake.

ACTIONS

Paralyzing Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Static Discharge. Each creature grappling or being grappled by the gelectrode burrower takes 7 (2d6) lightning damage at the start of the burrower’s turn.

Maddening Laugh (Recharge 6). The burrower emits a terrifying, cackling laugh that seems to emanate from the ground itself. Each creature within 60 feet that can hear the laugh must succeed on a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A frightened creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Knave

Giggling Mole-Spider A blind, subterranean horror that hunts by feeling footsteps from below.

HD 6; AC 15; Morale 9 Attack: Bite (d8 + paralysis)

  • Blind: The creature is immune to all illusions, gaze attacks, and effects that require sight.
  • Tremorsense: It automatically detects any creature touching the ground within a 60ft radius. It cannot be surprised by such creatures.
  • Burrower: It can move through earth or sand at its normal speed. It cannot be knocked prone.
  • Paralytic Venom: Any character damaged by its bite must make a DC 15 Constitution save or be paralyzed for 1d6 rounds.
  • Electric Skin: Any character who strikes the creature with a metal melee weapon takes 1d4 damage from an electric shock.
  • Subterranean Laugh: Once per combat, it can emit a horrifying, cackling laugh. All characters who hear it must make a DC 14 Willpower save or gain one Anxiety inventory slot.

Fate

The Earth-Laughter

This creature is a significant threat, best modeled as a main antagonist for a conflict. It is a force of nature that actively shapes the battlefield by creating and destroying zones (tunnels). Its primary goal is to isolate and subdue its targets one by one.

  • High Concept: Patient and Cunning Subterranean Trapper
  • Trouble: Alien Senses and Inhuman Instincts
  • Other Aspects: The Ground is My Ocean, A Cackle that Curdles the Blood, Bio-Electric Convulsions

Skills:

  • Great (+4): Physique
  • Good (+3): Fight, Stealth
  • Fair (+2): Notice (Vibrations Only), Athletics
  • Average (+1): Provoke

Stunts:

  • Earthen Eruption: The Earth-Laughter can use its Stealth skill to make a physical Fight attack. If it succeeds, instead of a boost, it can place the Situation Aspect Ambushed from Below! with one free invocation on the scene.
  • Paralytic Venom: When The Earth-Laughter succeeds with style on a Fight attack using its bite, it can inflict a consequence such as Paralyzed Leg or Seized Lungs instead of reducing the target’s stress track.
  • Collapse Tunnel: As an action, the Earth-Laughter can use its Physique skill to Create an Advantage by collapsing the tunnel it is in. This creates the aspect Cave-In! and can be used to separate opponents into different zones.

Numenera & Cypher System

The Geomorphic Jolt-Spider

A bizarre creature of the Ninth World, the Jolt-Spider is a bio-mechanical horror that swims through the earth as if it were water. Its terrifying laugh is believed to be a malfunctioning vocalizer from some long-dead technology, and its electrical field is a potent defense mechanism.

  • Level: 5
  • Health: 25
  • Damage: 4 points (venomous bite); 3 points (electrical jolt).
  • Armor: 1
  • Movement: Immediate (when burrowing); Slow (on the surface).
  • Modifications: Perception for detecting vibrations on the ground as level 8. The creature is blind and immune to all sight-based effects.
  • Combat: The Jolt-Spider’s favored tactic is to erupt from the ground directly beneath a target; this hinders the target’s defense roll by one step. Its bite inflicts 4 points of damage, and the victim must make a Might defense roll or be paralyzed, unable to take physical actions for one round. Any creature that touches the Jolt-Spider (including striking it with a metal melee weapon) must make a Speed defense roll to pull back in time or suffer 3 points of electrical damage.
  • GM Intrusion: The Jolt-Spider’s burrowing causes the ground under the entire party to become unstable, creating a new, hazardous environment or plunging them into a deeper part of its tunnel network. Alternatively, its laugh is a sonic frequency that causes one of a character’s cyphers to activate randomly.

Pathfinder

GEODELETER — CREATURE 4 RARE N MEDIUM ABERRATION EARTH

A blind, subterranean predator, the geodeleter hunts by sensing vibrations through its star-shaped snout. It creates complex networks of trap-laden tunnels and erupts from the ground to ambush its prey with a paralytic bite and a terrifying, cackling laugh.

  • Perception +11; tremorsense (imprecise) 60 feet, no vision
  • Skills Acrobatics +11, Athletics +12 (+14 to Burrow), Stealth +13
  • Str +4, Dex +3, Con +4, Int -4, Wis +3, Cha -2

AC 21; Fort +14, Ref +11, Will +9 HP 68

  • No Vision The geodeleter is immune to visual effects.
  • Earthen Ambush On the first round of combat, creatures that haven’t detected the geodeleter are flat-footed to it.

ACTIONS

Speed 20 feet, burrow 20 feet Melee [one-action] Jaws +14, Damage 2d8+6 piercing plus paralytic venom Melee [one-action] Claw +14 (agile), Damage 1d10+4 slashing

Paralytic Venom (incapacitation, poison, venom); Saving Throw DC 21 Fortitude; Maximum Duration 4 rounds; Stage 1 slowed 1 (1 round); Stage 2 paralyzed (1 round).

Static Pulse [reaction] Trigger A creature touches the geodeleter or hits it with a metal melee weapon; Effect The triggering creature takes 2d10 electricity damage (DC 21 basic Reflex save).

Maddening Laugh [two-actions] (auditory, emotion, fear, mental); The geodeleter emits a terrifying, cackling laugh. Each non-geodeleter creature in a 30-foot emanation must attempt a DC 19 Will save.

  • Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
  • Success The creature is frightened 1.
  • Failure The creature is frightened 2.
  • Critical Failure The creature is frightened 3 and fleeing for 1 round.

Savage Worlds

The Tunnel-Thrasher This blind horror of the deep earth hunts by feel, erupting from the ground to paralyze its prey before dragging it into its labyrinthine tunnels. Its terrifying, cackling laugh is often the only warning travelers have before the ground gives way.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6(A), Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d10 Skills: Athletics d10, Fighting d8, Notice d10 (vibrations), Stealth d10 Pace: 4; Burrow: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 8 (1)

Hindrances: Blind, Territorial (Major) Edges: —

Special Abilities:

  • Armor +1: Tough, rubbery hide.
  • Blind: The Thrasher is immune to sight-based attacks and Tests. Its other senses are highly acute, imposing a -2 penalty on Stealth rolls made by others within its Tremorsense range.
  • Burrow: The Thrasher can move underground at a Pace of 8” and may erupt from the ground as part of its movement, automatically making opponents Vulnerable on its first round of attack.
  • Bite: Str+d6. See Paralysis ability.
  • Electrical Field: Any creature that makes a successful grappling attack against the Thrasher suffers a 2d6 damage roll.
  • Paralysis: A character who is Shaken or Wounded by the Thrasher’s bite must make a Vigor roll or be Paralyzed. A paralyzed character is Stunned and cannot recover from being Shaken until the paralysis ends. At the start of their turn, they may make a Vigor roll at -2 to break free.
  • Tremorsense: The creature can detect any creature touching the ground within 24″.
  • Wild Card: The Tunnel-Thrasher is a unique and formidable specimen.

Shadowrun

Geotechnic Horror

A rare and deeply feared paracritter, the Geotechnic Horror thrives in the polluted earth beneath industrial zones and the forgotten deep sewers of major sprawls. It is a blind, burrowing predator that hunts by sensing vibrations, erupting from the ground, walls, or sewer floors to ambush its prey. Its bizarre, cackling laugh is often mistaken for a malfunctioning industrial machine or the ravings of a ghost in the system, usually moments before an attack.

  • Attributes:
    • Body: 7
    • Agility: 4
    • Reaction: 4
    • Strength: 6
    • Willpower: 4
    • Logic: 2
    • Intuition: 5
    • Charisma: 2
    • Edge: 3
    • Magic: 6
  • Initiative: 9 + 2d6
  • Matrix Initiative: N/A
  • Astral Initiative: 9 + 2d6
  • Condition Monitor (P/S): 12 / 10
  • Skills: Athletics 4, Close Combat 5, Perception (Vibrations) 6, Stealth 6, Unarmed Combat 5.
  • Powers:
    • Burrowing: Can move through soil and other soft materials at half its normal speed.
    • Enhanced Senses (Tremorsense): The creature automatically detects any character in contact with the same surface (ground, wall, floor) within 20 meters. It cannot be surprised by these targets.
    • Natural Weapon (Fangs): The creature’s fangs deal (STR/2 + 2)P damage, AP -1, and deliver its Paralytic Venom.
    • Paralytic Venom: A character damaged by the fangs must make a Body + Willpower (3) test. Failure results in paralysis, where the character cannot take any physical actions for 1d6 combat rounds.
    • Electrical Discharge: Any character grappling the Geotechnic Horror takes 8S(e) damage, AP -5, at the start of each of their turns.
    • Fear: The creature’s subterranean laugh is terrifying. Upon first hearing it, characters must make a Willpower + Charisma (3) test or be struck with fear.

Starfinder

Star-Nosed Stun-Burrower CR 4 XP 1,200 N Large magical beast Init +1; Senses blindsense (vibration) 60 ft., sightless; Perception +10

DEFENSE HP 60 EAC 16; KAC 18 Fort +8; Ref +8; Will +3 Immunities blinded, gaze attacks

OFFENSE Speed 20 ft., burrow 20 ft. Melee bite +12 (1d6+8 P plus paralytic venom) Multiattack bite +6 (1d6+8 P plus paralytic venom), 2 claws +6 (1d4+8 S) Offensive Abilities Maddening Laugh, Static Field

STATISTICS STR +4; DEX +1; CON +3; INT -4; WIS +2; CHA -2 Skills Athletics +15, Stealth +10

ECOLOGY Environment subterranean, plains, temperate forests Organization solitary

SPECIAL ABILITIES

  • Maddening Laugh (Ex) As a standard action, the stun-burrower can emit a terrifying, cackling laugh. All creatures within 60 feet who can hear it must succeed at a DC 13 Will save or be shaken for 1d4 rounds. This is a mind-affecting, fear effect.
  • Paralytic Venom (Ex) A creature hit by the stun-burrower’s bite attack must succeed at a DC 13 Fortitude save or be paralyzed for 1d4 rounds.
  • Static Field (Ex) Any creature that starts its turn grappling the stun-burrower or hits it with a melee attack takes 1d8 electricity damage.
  • Tunneler (Ex) The stun-burrower can burrow through earth, dirt, and sand, but not solid rock. It leaves a 5-foot-diameter tunnel in its wake.

Traveller

Subterrene Shock-Drill

A large, carnivorous burrowing animal found on geologically active worlds with soft soil. The Shock-Drill is a solitary ambush predator that creates complex tunnel networks. Its “star-nose” is an incredibly complex electro-sensory organ that allows it to navigate and hunt in absolute darkness by feeling the vibrations and minute bio-electric fields of other life forms. Its infamous “laugh” is a high-frequency sonic emission used for territorial challenges.

  • UPP: A9A631
  • Skills: Melee(natural)-2, Recon-1, Stealth-2, Survival-1
  • Attacks:
    • Bite: 2d6+4 damage, plus paralytic venom.
    • Claws: 2d6 damage.
  • Armor: 2 (Tough, rubbery hide).
  • Traits:
    • Blind: The creature is immune to all effects requiring sight.
    • Burrower (10m): Can move through earth at a rate of 10 meters per round.
    • Poison (Paralytic): A character hit by the creature’s bite must make a Difficult (10+) Endurance check or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.
    • Shock Field: Any character in melee combat with the creature who makes contact (either through grappling or striking with a conductive weapon) takes 1d6 electrical damage.
    • Tremorsense: The creature cannot be surprised by anything moving on the ground within 20 meters.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

Warren-Gnasher A horrifying beast that lurks beneath the earth, the Warren-Gnasher is a nightmare of Chaos-warped flesh. Some say Clan Moulder created them to dig new tunnels for the Skaven, others that they are simply beasts that laired too close to a warpstone deposit. They erupt from the ground in a shower of soil and spittle, their mad, cackling calls echoing from the tunnels they leave behind.

Main Profile M 6, WS 55, BS 0, S 55, T 50, I 30, Ag 35, Dex 25, Int 10, WP 45, Fel 5 Wounds: 20

Traits: Armour (1), Big, Blind, Corruption (Minor), Fear (1), Natural Weapons (Fangs), Skittish, Territorial, Tunneller, Venom (Paralytic), Weapon (Claws) +8 Talents: Ambusher, Dirty Fighting (2), Frenzy, Sturdy Skills: Athletics 45, Endurance 60, Intimidate 65, Perception 50, Stealth 45

Attacks:

  • Paralytic Fangs: WS 55, Damage S+4, Qualities: Vicious, see Venom.
  • Shredding Claws: WS 55, Damage S+2, Qualities: Fast

Special Rules:

  • Blind: The Warren-Gnasher is immune to all effects based on sight and ignores all darkness penalties.
  • Electrical Field: Any character who strikes the Warren-Gnasher with a metal weapon must make a Challenging (+0) Endurance Test or gain 1 Stunned Condition from the bio-electric shock.
  • Terrifying Cackle: As an Action, the Warren-Gnasher can unleash a manic laugh. All characters who can hear it must make a Challenging (+0) Cool Test or gain 1 Broken Condition.
  • Tunneller: The Warren-Gnasher can move through the ground as if it were open terrain, leaving behind a tunnel large enough for a human to crawl through. It can erupt from the ground as part of a Charge action.