FREQUENCY:Uncommon
NO. APPEARING: 1-10
ARMOR CLASS: Tenntacles 3, Maw 10
MOVE: 6"
HIT DICE: 5-10 (Plus 4 h.p. per tentacle
over 4; see below)
% IN LAIR: -
TREASURE TYPE: -
NO. OF ATTACKS: 5-10
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-2 per tentacle/4-32 maw
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Surprise on 1-5, jells
ground
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Regenerates tentacles,
2 h.p. per round, Only vulnerable spot buried below earth
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: Body 5-10 feet diameter, tentacles
10-20 feet long.
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes:
Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: [?]
Groundsquids are a horrid form of mutation,
akin to seasquids but
developed by a mad wizard to be used on
land. They are generally
found in the. most isolated and dire wilderlands,
however, they are
sometimes encountered in dirt-floored
rooms, usually “seeded” there
to protect some vulnerable area.
The Groundsquid has a soft, squishy, mottled
green body in which
its sucking maw is located, and 5-10 tentacles
which are greenish-brown
and rubbery. At the tip of each tentacle
there is a green, blade-shaped
and in which a tiny eye is set These tentacle
ends protrude slightly
above the ground and look almost exactly
like blades of grass. The
number of tentacles is a function of the
Groundsquid’s size and maturity,
and the progression is in one-foot increments;
i.e. a 6-die squid has 6
tentacles and a body 6 feet in diameter,
a 7-die squid has 7 tentacles and
3 seven-foot-diameter body, and so on.
Groundsquids attack with tentacles only, each single tentacle hitting
as a monster with the same hit dice as
the overall squid, i.e. the tentacles
of a 5-die squid EACH hit as a 5-die monster.
Tentacles take a full 8 h.p.
each; if damage in excess of this is done,
they are severed. Blunt
weapons do one-half damage to tentacles;
fire does not harm them.
The maw itself has 4 h.p., for each tentacle
over 4; i.e. the maw of a
5-tentacle squid has 4 h.p., that of a
10-die squid has 24 h.p. Severing
tentacles does not harm the squid; only
a hit directly in the maw will kill
it.
Any severed tentacle will be pulled back
beneath the earth, where it
regenerates at a rate of 2 h.p. per round.
If the maw of a Groundsquid is
exposed, it is easily aimed at since its
location is obvious. However,
players should state when they are directing
attacks against the maw,
since the entire body itself is just casing
for the vulnerable maw and
hitting it has no effect.
Groundsquids attack in this fashion: The
eyes in the tentacle tips
spot a likely-looking meal for the maw
(which is buried anywhere from 6
to 10 feet below the ground). The Groundsquid
will then wait until its
intended victim is in the center of its
tentacles, which are arranged in a
circular fashion to form an area as large
as its body proportion. The
tentacles will then rise out of the ground
with alarming swiftness and try
to fasten onto the victim. At the same
time, the buried maw secretes a
strange fluid which turns the ground above
it into a green, jelly-like
substance that has the effect of quicksand.
The radius of this jell from the
maw is the same as that of the squid’s
body, 2.5 feet for a 5 ft diameter
squid etc. The jelling takes 3 rounds
for a 5-6 die squid, 2 for 7-8 die
varieties, and but 1 melee round for a
9-10 die Groundsquid.
Once the ground becomes jelly, the tentacles drag the victim down
into it at a rate of 3 feet per melee
round, while other characters within
the jell sink at a rate of 1 foot a round
(faster for heavily-loaded or
armored characters, or mounts). Once a
victim is in over his or her head,
suffocation follows in 1-3 rounds (a magic
device such as a Helm of
Underwater Action or Necklace of Adaptation
will prevent this).
The character snared by tentacles also takes 1-2 pts. crushing damage
per round from their grip. Strength of
at least 18 is required to break
the grip of a tentacle, at the same percentage
chance as bending bars.
Roll randomly for where characters are
grabbed by tentacles (arm, leg,
neck, etc.); however, any natural 20 will
mean the tentacle wraps
around arms and torso, making weapon or
spell use impossible, and
more than 3 tentacles hitting will also definitely indicate such helplessness.
Once the tentacles have a victim, they
will drag him down to the
maw, which will engulf him whole, then
secrete a powerful acid doing
4-32 pts. of damage per round until the
victim is digested.
If a chosen victim does not enter the jellied area, the Groundsquid
will still strike at it when it is in
range of the tentacles (approximately 4
feet for smaller squids, 6 feet for medium
squids, and 10 feet for large
squids). Groundsquids generally hide amidst
patches of grass, and the
earth covering them has a greenish, grassy
look so as to cause them to
surprise on a 1-5. This surprise factor
would probably be modified if the
squids were in a dungeon rather than a
wilderness.
Groundsquids will gladly devour anything living and are quite immune
to all poisons; however, their appetites
are a direct function of
their size. The 5 or 6-die squid can eat
only a halfling, dwarf or gnome
and will not attack larger creatures.
If the halfling in question is mounted,
the squid will drag him off his mount.
Likewise, 7-8 die Groundsquids
are satisfied with two small characters,
or one 6-foot man or elf, or a
single horse. In the case of a mounted
character, the squid will probably
opt to drag him from the horse, though
it may entangle both. The large
Groundsquid will gladly munch on horse
and rider, or two to three large
men, or up to 6 smaller humanoids. The
Groundsquid’s attention is
always on its chosen meal or meals, and
it will ignore anything else.
However, once a meal is secured, it will
then attack other characters
simply to hold them until the meal is
eaten. Once a squid is sated, it will
release all held characters and not be
hungry again for 2-8 turns.
The jellied ground around a Groundsquid does suck people into it;
however, a character can “swim” out if
not held by a tentacle so
long as he/she has at least average strength.
This ground slows
movement by 50%, or by 75% if a character
is waist deep in it, and
the victim will continue to sink at 1
foot per round or more while in it
If oil is poured on the jelly and lit,
it will dry out about a 1-foot radius
to a muddy consistency; magical fire will
dry out more, though
naturally any character ensnared will
suffer damage if in the midst of
such. Normal fire will be extinguished
by the jell. The jelly may be
frozen by appropriate spells, turned to
rock (by a reverse Transmute
Rock to Mud), or excavated by a Dig spell
(the best bet, since this will
expose the vulnerable maw). Weapons thrust through the jell are -5
to hit, and in any case a weapon would
have to be at least a 10-foot
pole arm to reach the maw.
Should the maw be exposed to direct sunlight, the creature will
go dormant in 1-6 rounds, and thereafter
die in 1-3 turns. However,
there is a 50% chance such exposure will
cause it to flee. A Groundsquid
flees by flopping its body over sideways
and burrowing
through the earth by secreting the jellying
fluid at its normal movement
rate. If all the tentacles are severed
from a groundsquid, there is
a 35% chance it will do this.
The Groundsquid maw is susceptible to any spell damage, i.e.
cold, fire, electricity, which can reach
it through its protective sheath
of jellied earth. A Magic
Missile will not do so, nor will normal
missiles, unless sufficient earth has
been removed. Naturally, if a
squid has a victim in its grasp when earth
is moved, it will simply pop
it into its maw immediately and try to
digest it. There is a chance,
however, that quick action will destroy
the squid before this happens.
Groundsquid eyes are tiny black balls set into a slit in the blade-like
tentacle tips. They are extremely valuable
to Magic-Users, alchemists
and the like for manufacture of certain
potions (DM discretion). The
eyes are easily popped out of the slits,
though difficult to find unless a
close examination is made. However, they
quickly become brown, dry
and useless once a tentacle tip is severed,
unless they are packed in the
green, jellied earth in a fairly well-sealed
container (like a potion vial).
Their value is from 1,000 to 5,000 g.p.
per eye.
The jellied earth becomes firm again after the squid has digested its
meal or been thwarted, in 2-8 rounds,
and it is while it is still jelled that
the eyes must be packed in it, though
once so packed the firming will still
preserve them nevertheless.
Even more valuable is a live groundsquid, which would net from
50,000 to 80,000 g.p. from a collector
of exotic beasts or a mage. To
keep one alive in sunlight, a thin layer
(about 6 inches) of dirt must be
shoveled over the body and maw. This will
keep it dormant but alive. A
layer of dirt over a foot deep will make
a squid dangerous once more,
especially at night, though its chief
goal will be to return deeper into the
ground which sustains it.
| Dragon magazine | MM3 | - | Dragon #39 | 1st Edition AD&D |