Souterraine Severer (Basic Lore)

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Souterraine Severer (CR 15)

Souterraine Severer
Pure Evil - Large - Magical Beast
Souterraines are weird creatures that can be found deep underground in both natural caves and created passages. They can also be found getting close to the surface and infesting ruins, surface caves, and sometimes even sewers, dungeons, keeps, and the like. They are earth-natured creatures, their flesh resembling dirt and stone. When they are killed, there is no definite "end" to them below the surface: they instead seems to be intimately commingled with whatever the base stone and soil is. They are strongly suspected of being intrusions into the prime material plane from some plane of Earth, or a demi-plane close to it.

In appearance, they look like low mounds of earth and rock about eight to ten feet across. They are very difficult to spot in natural and rough terrain, and even in finished stone structures are easily mistaken for mounds of debris, trash, and rubble. Until they go active, that is.

When they are active and attacking, the wide, low mound of rubble splits to reveal a gigantic maw that is seemingly inset into the surface they are inhabiting. They always seem to be 'inside' an earth or stone surface, most commonly the floor, frequently a wall, and sometimes even a ceiling, buttress, pier, or other structure.

When they open their maws, they extrude from six to a dozen long, strong, rope-like prehensile tentacles from around the maw that are incredibly long and strong. They typically lash these tentacles around their victims and drag them to their maws to be swallowed. The tentacles are frequently equipped with suckers, razor-sharp claws, scutes, acid-emitting glands, glue-glands, poison glands, and numerous other effects, each more terrible than the last.

Perhaps worst of all is their ability to pull in their tentacles, close their maws, and 'sink into' the surface they inhabit, merely to appear moments later, having used earth glide to move to a new location., seeming to 'surface' in their new location like a massive turtle rising to the surface of a pond.

A souterraine severer is typical of the breed, lurking in dark, stony places and ready to ambush and eat the unwary. Their tentacles are very strong for a souterraine, and are equipped with razor-sharp blades of bone along their entire lengths. Severer's have weak maws compared to most souterraines and cannot swallow whole: They make up for this with much stronger tentacle attacks, the ability to grapple, and the ability to shove their victims around the battlefield.