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The passage enters a 40-foot by 40-foot by 10-foot room with no visible doors. Near the northeast corner is a man-sized statue of a cigar-shaped beast with 6 tentacles and a gaping maw in the center of its body. The statue is about 5 feet high and 2 feet in diameter. The texture of the stone suggests a mass of rotting plant matter. The base of the statue partially covers a 3 foot diameter circular opening in the floor.

As soon as the party enters, the "statue"
(actually a storoper), suddenly shoots its
tentacles out at the lead party members. The
first 2 characters hit appear to turn to
stone -- no saving throw. The next round
this effect wears off, but the victims fight the
party to the best of their ability as long as
the storoper is alive. If the storoper is killed,
the victims wander about aimlessly until the
effect wears off (10 turns). Normal missile fire will not harm the storoper.

Otherwise, the storoper fights as a normal
roper -- each tentacle hit causes weakness
(50% strength loss in 1-3 rounds).
Characters hit by the tentacles are drawn to
the creature's maw at 10 feet per round.
Characters may break the tentacles by rolling
double their Bend Bars/Lift Gates percentage
or less. Lightning, cold and fire
attacks do normal damage to the storoper. <Fire Damage, WSG>
The storoper does not attack characters
under its control.

Once the storoper is slain, it may be cut
open to reveal 2 wooden bludgeons, 15
pp, and 5 polished red garnets worth 100 gp each.
One of the garnets is actually a gem of seeing,
but this will be noted only if a
character looks through it or casts a detect magick
spell upon it. The hole beneath the
storoper, when uncovered, leads to a passageway
10 feet below that leads northwest.

Storoper: AC 0; HD 6; hp 35; #AT 6 plus 1;
D strength drain, 1-10 bite
THACO 13
XP 710

>>8.