Scorpiomantis Testudo Salmo 109

• Original Life Forms:
  • Class Insecta (Insects): Praying Mantis (Mantodea)
  • Class Arachnida (Arachnids): Emperor Scorpion (Pandinus imperator)
  • Class Reptilia (Reptiles): Galapagos Tortoise (Chelonoidis niger)
  • Class Actinopterygii (Ray-finned fishes): Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)
• Appearance:
  • The creature features a highly dense, dome-shaped dorsal shell derived from tortoise anatomy, but heavily mutated with a thick chitinous layer that transitions from deep muddy brown into brilliant, overlapping iridescent pink and silver fish scales along its lower flanks.
  • Protruding from beneath the front of this massive dome is an elongated, triangular insectoid head capable of swiveling 180 degrees, sporting large compound eyes that shimmer with ultraviolet light and complex chewing mandibles.
  • The forelimbs are highly articulated, spiked raptorial grasping arms identical to those of a praying mantis, which can fold tightly against the front of the shell or snap outward with incredible mechanical velocity.
  • The four supporting walking legs are thick, column-like, and heavily armored like a tortoise’s limbs, but they terminate in broad, fan-like webbing that mimics a fish’s caudal fins to assist in aquatic stability.
  • Extending from the rear of the domed shell is a segmented, muscular arachnid tail that arches forward over the body, terminating in a thick, bulbous venom stinger that naturally secretes a viscous, magic-reactive fluid.
• Size:
  • The domed shell structure stands roughly 4 feet high from the ground to the peak of the apex.
  • The total length of the creature from the front mandibles to the base of the rear tail is approximately 6 feet.
  • The segmented stinger tail adds an additional 4 feet of length when fully extended, and the average adult weight settles around 450 pounds due to the extreme thickness of the shell and chitin.
• Speed:
  • Base land crawling speed is 20 feet per turn due to the heavy armored mass.
  • Aquatic swimming speed is 40 feet per turn, driven by the rhythmic lateral undulating motion of the scaled lower flanks and webbed limbs.
  • Climbing speed is 10 feet per turn, limited strictly to rough rock formations and coarse roots.
• Stat Modifiers:
  • The dense combination of a mutated tortoise shell and heavy arachnid chitin provides a permanent +5 bonus to physical endurance, structural durability, and baseline resilience.
  • The explosive strike mechanics of its raptorial limbs grant a +3 bonus to close-quarters accuracy and sudden physical coordination.
  • The heavy, multi-classed biological structure limits rapid land maneuvering, imposing a -3 penalty to reflex-based dodges and sudden evasion adjustments.
• Skills:
  • Trained camouflage is highly efficient, adding a +4 bonus to stealth checks when the creature retracts its limbs beneath its shell to mimic an algae-covered boulder or river stone.
  • Grappling precision is deeply specialized, yielding a +3 bonus to close combat checks aimed at locking down struggling targets or clamping onto enemy armor plates.
  • Environmental survival within swampy or riverine areas is maximized, granting an automated advantage when navigating mud, deep bogs, or rushing rapids.
• Behavior:
  • This feral species is an ambush predator that relies almost entirely on patience, stillness, and environmental deception to secure meals.
  • It spends hours partially submerged in slow-moving water lines or buried in thick swamp mud, keeping its compound eyes just above the surface to scry for movement.
  • When an target approaches within arm’s reach, its raptorial front limbs snap out to pin the prey against the ground before the segmented tail plunges down to inject its venom.
  • If confronted by an organized party of adventurers, it instinctively withdraws its head and walking limbs into its reinforced shell, utilizing its massive Armor Check to withstand a beating while waiting for the opponents to tire or approach close enough for a counter-grab.
• Diet:
  • The creature operates as a specialized carnivore, consuming mid-sized mammals, waterbirds, giant insects, and large river fish.
  • It uses its heavy mandibles to crush through the bones and external shells of its prey, breaking down materials into small, digestible fragments.
  • Because of its slow tortoise-based metabolism, a single substantial meal can sustain the beast’s energy pool for up to three weeks before it needs to hunt again.
• Emotions:
  • The emotional framework of this beast is incredibly muted, defined primarily by a stubborn, immovable sense of territorial complacency.
  • It rarely displays panic or fear, remaining perfectly calm even when surrounded by loud noises or active steam machinery due to its reliance on its defensive shell.
  • When its territory is actively invaded or its shell is struck repeatedly, this calm transitions into a cold, persistent irritability, causing it to click its mouth mandibles in a slow, rhythmic warning pattern.
• Environment Where Found:
  • This species is natively found within large tropical mangrove bogs, dark inland cave systems that connect to underground water tables, and slow-moving river basins across the 73 island countries.
  • It frequently nests in the muddy banks beneath old, forgotten wooden bridges or near the draining pipes of steam-powered textile factories where warm water runoff accumulates.
  • Small populations have also been spotted inside deep, humid jungle craters where wild magic weather pools and creates thick ambient mist zones.
• Tags:
  • Beast, Feral, Amphibious, Armored, Ambush Predator, Venomous, Solitary Nesting, Insectoid, Arachnid, Reptilian, Aquatic, Carapaced, Grappler, Swamp, Subterranean, Cold-Blooded, Chitinous, Slow-Moving

Life Cycle

• The life cycle originates within underwater mud banks where females deposit clumps of translucent, jelly-coated eggs that harden upon contact with mineral-rich swamp water.
• Upon hatching, the larval young are completely aquatic, lacking the heavy tortoise-derived shell and instead possessing a elongated, flexible fish-like body covered entirely in silver salmon scales.
• During this early riverine phase, which lasts for roughly two years, the juveniles swim in large, highly coordinated schools through rushing rapids to evade larger aquatic predators.
• As they approach puberty, their internal magic virus activates, initiating a rapid physical mutation where thick chitinous plates erupt along their spines to form the beginning of the domed shell.
• Adulthood is achieved when the segmented tail fully develops its venom delivery system and a coin-sized tier 1 magic crystal forms directly beneath the apex of the protective shell.
• The transition to adulthood forces the creature to abandon its schooling behavior, becoming intensely solitary as its metabolism slows to match the tortoise lineage.
• An unpossessed individual can live for up to two centuries, during which its dorsal shell continuously accumulates layers of calcified mud, mineral deposits, and active crystalline cell clusters.

Mating

• Mating occurs exclusively during the week of Darkness within the deepest, most stagnant sectors of tropical mangrove swamps and lowland bogs.
• Solitary adults track each other through the murky water tables by emitting low-frequency, sub-auditory vibrations through the mud using their heavy, column-like legs.
• When a male and female meet, they engage in a prolonged, rhythmic mandible-clicking display that serves to communicate physical size and structural shell durability.
• To prove physical fitness, the male must withstand repeated strikes from the female’s raptorial arms, utilizing his armored dome to deflect the mechanical force without cracking.
• Once a mutual bond is established, the pair wallows together in deep silt trenches, working cooperatively to dig a subterranean nesting chamber beneath interlocking mangrove roots.
• Following a successful fertilization cycle, the female deposits up to fifty eggs into the mud nest before driving the male away with aggressive stinger displays.
• The female patrols the nesting site fiercely until the week of Darkness concludes, at which point her protective urge dissipates and she returns to her solitary ambush lifestyle.

Tactics

• The creature utilizes its dome-shaped carapace to blend seamlessly into the environment, drawing its head and limbs inside to mimic an ordinary, moss-covered boulder.
• It remains perfectly motionless for days at a time along high-traffic river crossings or swamp trails, utilizing its compound eyes to scan for approaching silhouettes.
• When an opponent steps within range, the creature utilizes the explosive mechanical velocity of its folded raptorial arms to clamp onto the target’s lower limbs.
• Once a target is pinned or grappled, the segmented tail drives forward over the shell to repeatedly plunge its bulbous stinger into the weakest point of the target’s armor check.
• If attacked by a group of adventurers, the creature activates its shell defense, relying on its tripled Armor Check if located within a designated safe area, or its doubled value inside a city gate.
• It deliberately targets the held weapons and shields of martial opponents, using its heavy, serrated mandibles to crush item health points and render equipment broken.
• If its health pool is severely depleted, it backs slowly into deep, fast-moving water columns, using its webbed fin-limbs to execute a rapid aquatic retreat where land-bound foes cannot follow.

Actions

• Raptorial Clamp: The creature uses a full action to snap its spiked front limbs outward, rolling to hit an opponent’s total Armor Check to inflict slashing damage and initiate a grapple.
• Stinger Venom Plunge: The beast spends one action to drive its segmented tail downward into a grappled or adjacent target, inflicting piercing damage plus injecting a viscous, magic-reactive venom.
• Shell Retraction: The creature uses an action to pull its head, walking limbs, and tail entirely beneath its thick tortoise-derived carapace, maximizing its structural defenses against incoming physical attacks.
• Mandible Armor Crush: The predator uses an action to snap its heavy insectoid mouthparts against a weapon or shield held by a foe, dealing direct damage to the targeted item’s structural resilience.
• Undulating Swim: The creature utilizes a free action to activate its fin-like webbed limbs and scaled flanks, moving its full aquatic speed through deep water columns or muddy bogs.

Other Interesting Information

• The overlapping fish scales on the lower flanks of this beast retain a natural oil that completely insulates its body from the highly corrosive properties of industrial steam-factory runoff.
• Alchemists within port cities pay high prices for the creature’s venom, using it as a primary binding agent when crafting specialized alchemical ammunition that requires black powder.
• The tier 1 magic crystal harvested from a mature adult is shaped like a multi-faceted tortoise scute, possessing a high affinity for earth-based magic circuits and stationary power storage.
• Because the creature’s shell is composed of alternating layers of reptile bone and arachnid chitin, it does not rot or degrade after the physical vessel is killed and vaporized.
• Local state judges often employ specialized miners to search for the discarded carapaces of dead specimens to use as foundational arches for heavy stone bridges and water dams.
• Despite their intensely feral nature, juveniles captured during their aquatic fish-like phase can be raised in factory water channels to clear out blockages caused by invasive fungi and slimes.
• The creature shows a complete lack of response to telepathic item abilities used by tier 2 avatars, as its ancient insectoid-arachnid nervous system processes thoughts through localized physical vibrations rather than mental images.

An adventuring party exploring the waterways, swamp systems, and industrial zones of Saṃsāra might seek out or unexpectedly encounter this armored feral species for several strategic, economic, and defensive reasons rooted in the mechanics of the world.

Harvesting Specialized Infrastructure and Crafting Materials

• The thick dorsal carapace of the creature is composed of layered reptile bone and arachnid chitin, ensuring it does not rot or degrade after the physical vessel is killed.
• Local state judges frequently employ specialized miners to search for these abandoned shells to use as foundational structural arches for heavy stone bridges and water dams.
• Alchemists within prominent port cities pay high prices for the creature’s extracted venom, utilizing the viscous fluid as a primary binding agent when crafting specialized alchemical ammunition that requires black powder.
• The overlapping fish scales covering its lower flanks retain a natural protective oil that completely insulates its body from the highly corrosive properties of industrial steam-factory runoff, making them valuable raw materials for refining protective gear.

Procuring High-Density Catalyst Crystals

• Upon reaching adulthood, this species develops a coin-sized tier 1 magic crystal located directly beneath the apex of its protective shell.
• Because magic crystals function as mystical batteries that grow exponentially stronger over time, targeting an ancient, centuries-old specimen ensures the collection of a highly dense catalyst.
• Advanced party crafters require these specialized, scute-shaped crystals to use as catalysts for upgrading or merging equipment, or as power units for earth-based magic circuits and stationary power storage.
• Since the creature is unpossessed, it leaves behind a physical corpse upon death rather than vaporizing into sparks, allowing adventurers to safely harvest the crystal from beneath the carapace.

Clearing Municipal and Industrial Bounties

• This species prefers to nest in muddy banks beneath old, forgotten wooden bridges or directly near the drainage pipes of steam-powered textile factories where warm water runoff accumulates.
• Their habit of remaining perfectly motionless to mimic algae-covered boulders makes them a severe hazard to covered wagons traveling city trade routes or factory workers maintaining local pipes.
• City mayors and guild masters post lucrative bounty quests to clear out these territorial ambush predators from active municipal water tables and industrial sectors.
• Successfully resolving these infestations rewards the party with substantial renown points, which can be spent like currency to unlock restricted guild opportunities or secure favor with regional authorities.

Utilizing Hand-Slot Disarm Tactics

• In combat, this predator deliberately targets the held weapons and shields of martial opponents, utilizing its heavy, serrated mandibles to crush item health points and render equipment broken.
• An adventuring party looking to study or replicate precise disarming tactics might hunt the beast to observe its mechanical raptorial precision firsthand.
• Alternatively, encountering the beast forces characters to actively adapt their defensive strategies, as its ability to damage gear slots can easily compromise a party’s operational efficiency if they misjudge the creature’s reach.

Acquiring and Utilizing Juvenile Industrial Cleansers

• While adults are intensely solitary and aggressive, juveniles captured during their early, entirely aquatic fish-like phase can be successfully raised and handled in controlled environments.
• Industrial companies and advanced engineers seek out these juveniles to place them directly into factory water channels, where they naturally clear out blockages caused by invasive slimes and fungi.
• A party looking to secure long-term passive income or a favor from a local guild master might launch an expedition into tropical mangrove bogs specifically to capture a live juvenile school for commercial distribution.

Beyond the primary shell crystal and the industrial carapace, an unpossessed corpse of this species yields several highly specialized, magic-reactive organic materials. Because the creature is an evolutionary amalgamation of insect, arachnid, reptile, and fish traits, its distinct biology provides unique utility for artisans and alchemists across Saṃsāra.

Specialized Magic-Reactive Venom Glands

• Utility and Processing: Located within the bulbous stinger of the segmented arachnid tail is a specialized gland network that cultures a thick, highly toxic fluid.
• Applications: Highly trained alchemists harvest this viscous venom under strict containment protocols to isolate its unique chemical properties.
• Alchemical Blending: The fluid serves as a primary binding agent when crafting specialized alchemical ammunition, providing a stabilizing substrate that prevents early ignition when mixed with volatile black powder.

Overlapping Lower Flank Scales

• Utility and Processing: The brilliant, iridescent pink and silver salmon scales covering the creature’s lower flanks are coated in a resilient, naturally occurring oil secretion.
• Applications: Technomancers and refinery workers harvest these scales to line the interior joints of structural pipes and water conduits.
• Corrosion Resistance: The natural oil on these scales completely insulates surfaces from the corrosive effects of chemical mixtures and industrial steam-factory runoff, preventing structural decay.

Spiked Chitinous Raptorial Arms

• Utility and Processing: The highly articulated, serrated front limbs possess immense structural density and leverage, maintaining their mechanical sharpness long after the beast dies.
• Applications: Weaponsmiths clean and reinforce these spiked appendages to serve as raw materials for forging close-quarters trench knives, punching daggers, or gauntlet attachments.
• Armor Puncturing: Because the native insectoid structures are designed to snap outward with explosive velocity, weapons utilizing these bones excel at catching and gripping opponent armor plates during a struggle.

Webbed Fin-Limb Tissue and Sinew

• Utility and Processing: The column-like walking legs terminate in broad, fan-like webbing containing highly elastic, waterproof sinew fibers designed to withstand extreme hydraulic pressure.
• Applications: Leatherworkers and shipyard artisans harvest this fibrous material to weave heavy-duty underwater binding ropes, diving suits, and high-tensile netting.
• Steam Rigging: The waterproof nature of the dried sinew makes it an ideal component for rigging mechanical pulleys and drive belts on amphibious steam vessels that frequently transition between mud and deep water.

Crushing Mandible Plates

• Utility and Processing: The creature’s heavy, triangular mouthparts feature dense, calcified chewing plates capable of splintering thick bone and crushing dense external shells.
• Applications: Industrial engineers and stonemasons repurpose these extracted jaw pieces as heavy-duty boring tips or crushing plates within automated mineral mills.
• Material Processing: The plates are durable enough to grind raw alchemical ingredients, charcoal, and sulfur into fine dust without fracturing or losing their abrasive edge over time.

Mud-Dome Shield-Fish Having Claws that Snip and Tail of Fire-Water

Great old rock-mark falling into the swamp mud makes lines for the mouth to speak. This is the copying of the bark-leaves from the ancestors who walked before the big smoke-piles did turn the water into boiling tea, when the great king of the dirt did not yet possess the turning keys of iron. We have pushed this into our local talk with much sweat, though the true meaning drips away like fat from a roasting bird over an open pit.

• In the old days when the Planet-Ball VaporSphere did make a big shade over the face of the moon, the world was a soft egg.
• The Mother of all Mud-Places, who is called Gaialilith by the boat-men, did sit upon the sulfur-cracks to cook her thoughts into walking meat.
• She did look through the long glass-tubes of the ghost-world into the many dark bedrooms of the sky-emptiness where the stars grow like yellow mushrooms.
• Her eyes did pick up the shapes of different crawling-bugs and swimming-fins from the rooms that were far away and had no names.
• She did say with a loud throat-noise, I will make a big mixing of the shell-walkers and the water-scales to see if the meat can sit quiet in the wet grass without dying from the long teeth of the giants.
• First, she took the big stone-house of the slow land-turtle that lives for two hundred turns of Helios, whose shell is like a mountain that does not care about the hitting-sticks.
• She joined this stone-house onto the cold spirit of the river-salmon, which is a shiny fish of silver skin that jumps up the fast water-walls to make its babies in the mud.
• Then she did sew the snapping-arms of the grass-mantis onto the front of the turtle-dome so that the meat could grab the passing mice with a great mechanical speed.
• For the tail, she took the segmented rope of the black sand-scorpion that carries the burning water in its tail-bulb, which makes the spirit of the enemy run out through his skin-holes.
• When the beast did first crawl out of the warm bog-sludge, it did not have any words in its mouth, and its small brain was full of the great sickness of the new-born soul.
• The creature did hide its head inside the stone-house, looking like a big green rock that grew moss, while its webbed fish-limbs did paddle the mud to keep its belly safe.
• But the wild magic did splash up from the ground-mouths like boiling porridge, and the virus of the shiny stone did enter the ribs of the beast, making a crystal grow beneath its roof.
• The beast became very heavy and very slow because the armor plates were like iron weights given by the gods to punish the early people.
• It did sit in the deep river-channels where the steam-factories do now drop their bad water, and it did keep its compound bug-eyes just above the mud-line to look for the feet of the birds.
• The other monsters of the Great Mother’s garden did walk past the rock-beast without knowing it was a biting-thing, because it did look like an old stone from the hills.
• When its mantis-arms did snap open, they made a sound like a broken gear-chain, which did pin the legs of the wild pigs before they could run to the trees.
• The shield-beast did eat the meat of the river-monsters, breaking the hard bones with its front mandibles to make its internal crystal turn into a proper gold-weight.
• It did collect the old brass screws and the broken shafts of the ancient steam-pumps that fell from the sky-islands, using them to plug the door of its mud-hole.
• The marriage-talk of these beasts happens only when the moon is completely black, and they click their mouth-bones together like the hammers of a smithy to see who has the hardest dome.
• Many hunters of the old kings did try to poke the shield-beast with bronze sticks, but the beast did pull its legs inside its house and did let them hit the rock until their hands were blood.
• The weapons of the old people were turned into broken items because the mandibles of the beast did chew their iron shields like dry bread.
• The old books tell that the shield-fish still sits under the bridges where the state roads go, waiting for the characters of the multiverse to step upon its nose.
• It does not care about the shouting of the mayors or the laws of the four courts, and it stays in its wet ditch until the gold-hunters come with the mining-hammers to steal its skull-stone.

Moral of the Story

The turtle-dome that does not run away from the hammer shows that the soft meat which has no shell will always be eaten by the swamp-birds, but the stubborn spirit that stays quiet under its roof and bites only when the foot is near will keep its internal crystal safe for two hundred years of turning.

Suggested conversions to other systems:

Call of Cthulhu (7th Edition)

Scorpiomantis Testudo

This subterranean ambush horror is a biological monstrosity that resembles an evolutionary dead-end or a localized nightmare birthed from Shudde M’ell’s seismic churn. It mimics a mossy boulder along stagnant water tables, perfectly blending its heavy Galapagos-derived shell with segmented chitin and overlapping fish scales. When investigators trespass into its territory, its hidden mantis-like forelimbs snap outward to pin targets, while a segmented scorpion tail arches overhead to inject a horrific, chemically reactive venom that destabilizes the physical frame.

Characteristics

• STR: 95
• CON: 110
• SIZ: 80
• DEX: 45
• INT: 15
• POW: 40
• EDU: —
• APP: —
• Move: 4 Walking / 8 Swimming
• HP: 19
• Damage Bonus (DB): +1D6
• Build: 2
• Magic Points: 8

Combat

• Attacks per round: 1 (May use Raptorial Clamp to lock down a target, or deliver a Stinger Plunge if a target is already grappled).
• Fighting (Raptorial Clamp): 65% (32/13), damage 1D6 + DB + Target is Grappled.
• Stinger Plunge (Grappled Targets Only): 70% (35/14), damage 1D4 + DB + Venom injection (The victim must make an Extreme CON test or suffer an additional 2D6 damage from chemical internal burning).
• Mandible Armor Crush (Special Action): 50% (25/10), instead of doing damage to an investigator, the creature clamps onto a handheld firearm, blade, or mechanical item, rendering it broken or structurally compromised.
• Dodge: 22% (11/4)

Skills

• Camouflage 85%, Stealth 55%, Swim 70%.

Special Abilities

• Shell Retraction (Defensive Option): The creature can spend its combat action to pull its limbs and head completely under its heavy carapace. This action doubles its effective armor value against physical attacks for that round.
• Thick Chitinous Carapace: It possesses a dense bone and insectoid exterior shell providing 6 points of non-magical armor protection.

Sanity Loss

• 0/1D6 Sanity points to witness a Scorpiomantis Testudo.

Blades in the Dark

The Dome-Carapaced Dredger

A silent, armored horror that infests the forgotten bogs, flooded canals, and underwater pipes of the industrial sprawl. This solitary ambush predator features a fused physical hull constructed from thick tortoise scutes, heavy scorpion chitin, and iridescent river scales. Smugglers and Scoundrels operating near water-logged ruins or steam-factory drainage systems face sudden ambushes from these patient terrors, which can hold perfectly still to look like ordinary debris before launching an explosive mechanical grab.

Attributes & Traits

• Tier: II (Quality 2, Scale 0 – Solitary Ambush Predator)
• Threat Level: Formidable (Draws 2 Harm steps minimum on a failed close-quarters engagement).
• Faction Tags: Insectoid, Arachnid, Armored, Subterranean.

Consequences & Mechanics

• Raptorial Lock (Potency): The Dredger has absolute potency when grabbing or pinning targets in swampy terrain or shallow water. Escaping its grasp requires a desperate Prowl or Wreck action, and any failed attempt immediately ticks its attack clock.
• Mandible Crush (Deactivation): When the creature inflicts consequences, the GM may choose to apply a structural equipment penalty: one piece of held gear (such as a fine weapon, shield, or mechanical lockpick tool) is clamped in its mandibles, rendering it mechanically broken until downtime repair actions are performed.
• Layered Carapace (Armor): The beast’s heavy shell reduces all physical harm or standard ballistic damage by two full tier steps. Heavy electroplasmic charges or armor-piercing explosives bypass this protection.
• Carapace Retraction (Clock): When targeted by coordinated long-range attacks, the GM starts a 4-segment clock: “Withdrawn Defense.” While this clock is active, the beast retreats under its dome, rendering all standard physical tier actions ineffective until it emerges to strike.

Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition)

Scorpiomantis

Medium monstrosity, unaligned

• Armor Class: 18 (natural armor)
• Hit Points: 85 ($10d8 + 40$)
• Speed: 20 ft., climb 10 ft., swim 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	10 (+0)	19 (+4)	2 (-4)	12 (+1)	5 (-3)

• Saving Throws: Con +6
• Skills: Stealth +4 (+6 in swamps or murky water), Athletics +6
• Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 11
• Languages: —
• Challenge: 4 (1,100 XP)

Traits

• Amphibious: The scorpiomantis can breathe air and water seamlessly.
• False Appearance: While the scorpiomantis remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an algae-covered boulder or river stone.
• Poor Evasion: The scorpiomantis has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws against area-of-effect spells or traps due to its heavy armored bulk.

Actions

• Multiattack: The scorpiomantis makes two attacks: one with its Raptorial Clamp and one with its Stinger Venom Plunge.
• Raptorial Clamp: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 ($2d6 + 4$) slashing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the scorpiomantis can’t clamp another target.
• Stinger Venom Plunge: Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 ($1d6 + 4$) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 ($3d6$) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
• Shell Retraction (Bonus Action): The scorpiomantis pulls its head and limbs inside its carapace. Until the start of its next turn, it gains a +4 bonus to AC, its speed drops to 0, and it cannot take reactions.
• Mandible Armor Crush (Recharge 5–6): The scorpiomantis clamps its heavy mandibles onto a weapon or shield held by a grappled creature. The target must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or the item takes a permanent and cumulative -1 penalty to damage rolls (if a weapon) or AC bonus (if a shield). If the penalty reduces this value to 0, the item is destroyed.

Knave (2nd Edition)

Mud-Dome Shield-Fish

• Hit Dice: 6 (27 HP)
• Armor: 18 (Thick tortoise shell layered with arachnid chitin)
• Movement: Half normal land pace / Double swimming pace| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |

  | :— | :— | :— | :— | :— | :— |

  | +4 | +0 | +4 | -4 | +1 | -3 |

Abilities

• River Camouflage: While static in mud or slow-moving water, characters fail to notice the beast unless they succeed on an active investigation check with disadvantage.
• Raptorial Lock: If its attack roll succeeds, the target is pinned beneath its spiked front limbs and cannot move until they win an opposed Strength check.
• Carapace Shield: May choose to spend its turn withdrawing completely inside its shell. This adds +4 to its Armor rating against all standard physical attacks but reduces its movement to zero.
• Item Crusher: On a successful attack roll where the d20 result lands on an even number, the beast can bypass physical health damage to target an item in a character’s inventory slot. The item must make a resilience save or become broken and completely unusable until fixed at a forge workbench.

Loot Inventory

• Slot 1: Tier 1 Magic Crystal (Scute-shaped, worth 1,000 gold pieces to a bank branch or regional merchant).
• Slot 2: Viscous Stinger Venom (Can be refined by an alchemist into a black-powder binding stabilizer).
• Slot 3: Interlocking Lower Scales (Waterproof components that resist chemical corrosion).

Fate Core

Scorpiomantis Testudo (The Boreal Bog-Titan)

• High Concept: Heavy Armored Amphibious Ambush Predator
• Trouble: Immovable and Slow to React on Land
• Aspects: Spiked Mantis-Claw Trapper; Muscular Venomous Stinger Tail; Thick Layered Tortoise-Chitin Carapace

Approaches / Skills

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

Stunts

• Stone Camouflage: Because its muddy carapace matches river bogs, it gains a +2 to Stealth rolls to create an advantage or hide when it remains perfectly motionless underwater or in swamp silt.
• Raptorial Vice: It gains a +2 to Fight actions to create an advantage when attempting to pin or grapple an opponent using its massive, spiked front arms.
• Mandible Sunder: Once per conflict, when it wins a Fight roll with style against a target it has already grappled, it can choose to forgo the extra shift box clearance to force a Shattered Armor Slot or Broken Shield consequence directly onto the target’s carried equipment.

Stress and Consequences

• Physical Stress: [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
• Mental Stress: [ ] [ ]
• Mild Consequence (-2):
• Moderate Consequence (-4):
• Severe Consequence (-6):

Numenera & Cypher System

The Carapaced Silt-Lurker

• Level: 4 (Target Number 12)

Description

• This heavily armored aberration hides in stagnant mangrove water blocks, combining insectoid camouflage with an unstoppable defensive shell. It acts with complete territorial indifference until a target steps within physical striking distance.

Motivations and Actions

• Combat: It remains stationary to initiate an ambush, using its raptorial forelimbs to lock down prey before striking with its toxic rear tail.
• Interactions: Animal intelligence makes it immune to diplomatic overtures, though it will choose to retreat into deep water tables if outmatched.

Mechanics and Stats

• Health: 20
• Damage Inflicted: 4 physical points (raptorial grip) or 4 physical points + 3 speed points of poison (stinger strike).
• Armor: 3 points of non-magical protection from its layered, calcified carapace.
• Movement: Immediate land crawling, short swimming.
• Modifications: Defensive rolls to resist physical attacks while fully withdrawn under its shell are treated as Level 6 actions. Speed defense and dodge tasks are treated as Level 2 actions due to its massive bulk.

Cypher System Abilities

• Carapace Retraction (Enabler): The creature can spend its main action to pull all limbs inside its shell. While retracted, its Armor value increases to 5, but its movement speed drops to 0 and it cannot attack.
• Sunder Equipment (Level 4 Combat Action): Instead of inflicting health damage to a PC, the creature snaps its crushing mandibles down on a weapon, shield, or physical cipher. The player must succeed on a Speed defense roll or the item becomes broken and unusable until a dedicated repair task is completed.

Pathfinder (Second Edition)

Scorpiomantis

Creature 4

• Uncommon, N, Medium, Monstrosity
• Perception: +11; Darkvision
• Skills: Athletics +14, Stealth +10 (+14 in marshes, mud, and rivers), Survival +9
• Str: +4, Dex: +0, Con: +4, Int: -4, Wis: +1, Cha: -3

Defenses

• AC: 22 (Natural Armor; 26 while fully retracted under shell)
• Fort: +14, Ref: +8, Will: +9
• HP: 75
• Clumsy Evasion: The creature takes a -2 penalty to Reflex saving throws against area-of-effect spells or hazard traps due to its heavy armored dome.

Movement and Special Traits

• Speed: 20 feet, swim 40 feet
• False Boulder Appearance: While the scorpiomantis remains perfectly still in mud or water, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary stone formation. An individual must succeed on a DC 21 Perception check to realize it is a living creature.

Strikes

• Melee [one-action]: Claw +14 (Reach 5 feet), Damage: $2d6 + 4$ Slashing damage plus Grab.
• Melee [one-action]: Stinger +14 (Reach 5 feet), Damage: $2d4 + 4$ Piercing damage plus Scorpiomantis Venom.

Special Actions

• Shell Retraction [one-action]: The scorpiomantis pulls its head, walking legs, and tail completely inside its calcified carapace. It gains a +4 circumstance bonus to AC, its movement speeds become 0, it cannot take reactions, and it cannot execute strikes. It can end this state as a free action at the start of its next turn.
• Sunder Carried Gear [two-actions]: The creature makes an Athletics check against the Reflex DC of a target it currently has grappled. On a success, it clamps its heavy mandibles onto a weapon or shield held by the target, inflicting direct structural damage equal to its claw damage against the item’s Hardness rating to render the item broken.

Scorpiomantis Venom

• Saving Throw: DC 21 Fortitude
• Maximum Duration: 6 rounds
• Stage 1: $1d6$ poison damage and flat-footed (1 round)
• Stage 2: $2d6$ poison damage and clumsy 1 (1 round)

Savage Worlds (Adventure Edition)

Scorpiomantis Testudo (Wild Card)

• Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d10, Vigor d10
• Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d8, Swim d10
• Pace: 4 (d4); Swim Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 12 (5)

Edges

• Amphibious: The beast cannot drown and moves through deep bogs or water channels at its full swimming pace without penalty.
• Hard to Kill: The creature’s immense structural resilience allows it to ignore wound penalties when rolling to survive incapacitation.

Special Abilities

• Armor +5: A massive, dome-shaped carapace composed of reptile bone and arachnid chitin protects its dorsal flank from standard weapon strikes.
• Raptorial Pincers: Str+d6 damage. On a successful hit, the creature automatically initiates a grapple against targets of equal or smaller size.
• Stinger Tail: Str+d4 damage. A target shaken or wounded by a stinger strike must succeed on a Vigor roll at -2 or suffer the effects of Lethal Venom, becoming paralyzed for 1D4 rounds.
• Shell Enclosure: The creature can choose to defend by taking a total defense action to pull its appendages under its carapace. This raises its Parry score by +2 and increases its total Armor bonus to +9, but drops its walking pace to 0.
• Mandible Crush: The beast can make a targeted operational attack against a held item or weapon. With a successful Fighting roll opposed by the target’s Parry, the item takes direct damage and becomes broken until repaired at a workbench.

Shadowrun (6th World Edition)

Scorpiomantis Testudo (Awakened Mire-Breaker)

This sluggish parabeast is an armored chitinous predator that infests contaminated swamp basins, low-lying coastal estuaries, and polluted industrial waterways. Fusing the genetic and physical architecture of large turtles, mantises, and scorpions, it sits entirely static to trick corporate reconnaissance drones and extraction teams into mistaking it for a moss-covered boulder. Run teams face an immediate hazard due to the creature’s massive physical armor check rating and its instinctual drive to crush cybernetic limbs and physical gear attachments with its massive grinding mandibles.

Attributes

• Body: 7
• Agility: 3
• Reaction: 3
• Strength: 6
• Willpower: 4
• Logic: 1
• Intuition: 3
• Charisma: 1
• Edge: 2
• Essence: 6
• Magic: 3

Derived Stats

• Initiative: 6 + 1D6
• Astral Initiative: —
• Defense Rating: 11
• Condition Monitor (P/M): 12 / 10
• Armor (Layered Carapace): 5 (Chitin-Scute Plating)

Skills

• Athletics 3 (Swimming +3), Close Combat 4 (Grappling +2), Perception 3 (Visual +1), Stealth 5 (Mire Camouflage +3).

Powers

• Amphibious: The creature filters both water and oxygen flawlessly, moving through liquid environments without incurring operational penalties.
• False Stone Matrix: While the creature remains completely static in mud, silt, or marsh water, it gains a +3 dice pool modifier to all Stealth tests, rendering its physical form indistinguishable from environmental debris.
• Raptorial Vice: When the creature hits a target with its front claws, it automatically establishes a grapple block, forcing the defender to execute an opposed Strength + Agility test to break free.
• Slow Land Strider: The massive bulk of its dome shell causes the beast to experience a -1 dice pool penalty to all rapid dodging tests or evasion maneuvers on dry land.

Complex Actions

• Raptorial Claws: DV 3S, Attack Rating 8/—/—/—/— (Close Combat skill).
• Tail Stinger Plunge: DV 4P, Attack Rating 8/—/—/—/— (Requires a grappled target). This attack injects a highly toxic chemical fluid that forces the target to make a Body + Willpower (4) test to avoid suffering 3 boxes of unresistable Matrix-style physiological stress.
• Gear-Sunder Mandibles: Instead of dealing physical harm, the creature can attempt a targeted biting assault against a runner’s held firearm, smartlink attachment, or external cyberware limb. The creature rolls a Close Combat + Agility test opposed by the defender’s Reaction + Agility. On a success, the targeted piece of equipment or cybernetic housing takes direct structural damage and is rendered broken and completely inoperable until a dedicated engineering workbench repair is completed during downtime.

Starfinder (2nd Edition / Playtest)

Scorpiomantis

Medium monstrosity, unaligned

An amphibious, heavily armored biological anomaly native to the stagnant river networks, dense mangrove bogs, and toxic drainage lakes of primitive wilderness worlds. Lacking deep cognitive intelligence, the beast relies on total immobility to execute sudden close-quarters ambushes against surveying ground crews, using its massive carapace to withstand weapon fire while aggressively crushing high-tech shields, kinetic armaments, and spell focus items with its dense mouthparts.

Core Statistics

• Level: 4
• Perception: +11; Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 21
• Skills: Athletics +14 (+16 for Grappling), Stealth +10 (+14 in swamp or river terrain), Survival +9
• Str: +4, Dex: +0, Con: +4, Int: -4, Wis: +1, Cha: -3

Defenses

• AC: 16 (EAC), 22 (KAC); 26 while fully withdrawn under shell
• Fort: +14, Ref: +8, Will: +9
• HP: 75
• Immunities: None
• Resistances: Physical ballistics 5, acid 5
• Clumsy Profile: The massive, domed profile of its shell causes the creature to take a -2 penalty to Reflex saving throws against area-of-effect technical weaponry and explosive traps.

Movement and Features

• Speed: 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
• False Boulder Camouflage: While the scorpiomantis remains perfectly motionless underwater or in mud, it is completely indistinguishable from an ordinary mossy rock. Ground units must pass an active DC 21 Perception test to identify the creature before it strikes.

Attacks

• Melee (Standard Action): Spiked Claws +14 (Reach 5 ft.), Damage: 2D6 + 4 slashing damage plus Grab (DC 14).
• Melee (Standard Action): Toxic Stinger +14 (Reach 5 ft.), Damage: 1D6 + 4 piercing damage plus Scorpiomantis Poison.

Special Actions

• Shell Enclosure (Standard Action): The scorpiomantis withdraws its head, limbs, and segmented tail entirely beneath its protective shell scutes. It gains a +4 circumstance bonus to its AC ratings, its movement speeds become 0, it cannot take reactions, and it cannot perform melee attacks. It can terminate this defensive posture as a free action at the start of its subsequent turn.
• Sunder Technical Gear (Two Actions): The creature clamps its heavy mandibles onto an item, weapon, or technological shield held by a currently grappled target. It executes an Athletics test against the target’s KAC. On a success, it inflicts direct structural damage to the item’s durability profile, rendering the gear completely broken and useless until fixed at a technical bay.

Scorpiomantis Poison

• Saving Throw: DC 21 Fortitude
• Track: Health (Poisoned); Maximum Duration: 6 rounds
• Stage 1: 1D6 acid damage and flat-footed (1 round)
• Stage 2: 2D6 acid damage and flat-footed, slowed (1 round)

Traveller (Core Rulebook Update 2022)

Scorpiomantis Testudo (Armored Swamp Lurker)

Encountered routinely along the murky river banks, flooded cavern lakes, and agricultural irrigation bogs of dense, high-humidity worlds. This massive ambush predator features an incredibly dense, dome-shaped carapace that provides elite protection against kinetic impacts and environmental hazards. Explorers and surveyor teams tracking near manual processing centers or factory drainage lines must remain alert for stationary stone-like formations to avoid catastrophic close-range pinning incidents.

Characteristics

• STR: 10 (+1)
• DEX: 4 (-1)
• END: 11 (+1)
• INT: 1 (-2)
• INS: 9 (+1)
• CHA: 3 (-1)

Derived Combat Stats

• Pack/Scale: Solitary Ambusher
• Weight: 200 kg
• Armor: 5 (Layered calcified tortoise shell and arachnid chitin)
• Maneuver Speeds: Walking 6m, Swimming 12m
• Melee Attack (Raptorial Grab): DM+1, Damage 2D6 + Target is pinned

Skills

• Athletics (Swimming) 2, Athletics (Climbing) 1, Melee (Unarmed) 2, Stealth 3, Survival 2.

Special Rules

• Stationary Rock Concealment: When the beast remains perfectly still inside silt or slow-moving water columns, it receives a DM+3 modifier to all Stealth checks, preventing detection from passing explorers unless an active Recon test is passed.
• Carapace Withdrawal: The creature can use its main movement action to retreat fully inside its shell. This drops its movement speeds to zero and prevents it from executing attacks, but increases its total Armor score to 9 against all standard kinetic rifle fire and physical melee impacts.
• Mandible Item Crush: Instead of inflicting standard physiological harm to a traveler, the creature can direct its massive mouthparts against a held weapon, vacc-suit environmental pack, or scanning tool. The beast makes an opposed Melee (Unarmed) test against the traveler’s Dexterity. On a success, the item takes direct structural damage and is rendered broken and non-functional until a dedicated mechanics task is performed at a starport repair bench.
• Tail Stinger Strike: If the beast has a target successfully pinned in its raptorial arms, it can execute a follow-up stinger attack on its next turn. The attack inflicts 1D6 piercing damage and forces the traveler to make an END check (Difficulty 10) to avoid suffering a severe chemical toxin reaction that causes immediate physical paralysis for 1D4 rounds.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (4th Edition)

Scorpiomantis (The Great Mud-Dome Terror)

A massive, slow-moving monstrosity that infests the stagnant mangrove swamps, dark coastal cave tables, and damp sewer lines of industrial port cities. Combining a heavy, boulder-like tortoise shell with the snapping front arms of a mantis and the venomous stinger of a scorpion, this creature remains completely motionless for days at a time to trick travelers. It is an incredibly stubborn opponent, preferring to retreat inside its armored carapace to absorb incoming blows before snapping outward to crush weapon focuses and shields with its heavy mandibles.

Characteristics

• WS: 40
• BS: 00
• S: 45
• T: 50
• I: 25
• Agi: 20
• Dex: 15
• Int: 10
• WP: 35
• Fel: 05
• Wounds: 22
• Movement: 3 (Walking) / 5 (Swimming)

Traits

• Amphibious: The creature experiences no movement penalties while submerged and can breathe perfectly in both water and air.
• Armor (5): The massive dome shell acts as Grade 5 Armor Plating on the Body and Tail locations, resisting all standard non-magical strikes.
• Stinger Tail (Venomous): +6 Damage. If an attack from the stinger inflicts a wound, the target must pass a Challenging (+0) Endurance test or suffer the Poisoned condition, experiencing severe muscle locking for 1D4 rounds.
• Weapons (Raptorial Arms): +7 Damage. Attacks with the front claws gain the Grapple quality, locking opponents in a tight embrace on a successful hit.
• Slow: The creature is encumbered by its massive protective shell, taking a -10 penalty to all sudden Dodge or Agility-based tests on dry land.

Special Mechanics

• Shell Withdrawal: The scorpiomantis can spend its active combat turn withdrawing its head and walking limbs completely under its carapace. While withdrawn, its Armor trait rating increases to 8 on all locations, but its Movement drops to 0, it loses its active defense reactions, and it cannot perform attacks. It can exit this defensive state freely at the start of any turn.
• Sunder Armaments: When the creature successfully wins an opposed Weapon Skill test against an opponent it currently has grappled, it can forgo dealing physical damage to target a held sword, shield, or wizardly focus channel. The targeted item takes a direct impact against its structural durability, reducing its effective weapon damage or defensive qualities by a permanent -1 step. If an item’s rating drops to 0, it is rendered broken and completely unusable until fixed by a master smith at a forge.