FREQUENCY: Very rare
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 4
MOVE: //16"
HIT DICE: 7 + 7 to 9 + 9
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 bite or 1 tail slap
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 2-12 or 3-12
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Swallows prey whole if it hits successfully; dissolving; paralysis
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Animal
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: L (20' to 40' long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
    Attack/Defense Modes: Nil
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE:
    7+7 HD, VII/1100 + 10/hp
    8+8 HD, VII/1700 + 12/hp
    9+9 HD, VII/2550 + 14/hp

    These solitary marine creatures cruise the
deeps endlessly, swallowing anything edible
that their great jaws can encompass. Locathah
report that these creatures regard vast
areas of the ocean as their personal territory
in the same way that many land creatures
do, and the rare battles for sovereignty
are titanic struggles, dangerous to behold.
Vurgens have no lairs as such, although
they often retreat to deep caverns to give
birth or recover from wounds, and will
certainly haunt waters that have yielded
plentiful food in the past.

    Most aquatic creatures take interest only
in the details of fighting a vurgen, however,
for if they encounter one, they must triumph
or die. A vurgen is basically a huge
pair of jaws, set with tiny but acute eyes
(12" infravision plus normal vision to sight
limits of waters) attached to a long, expandable
bag of a body with a strong swimming
tail. A row of spines on either side of the
vurgen's body begins at the "neck" and
runs to the tip of their tail. These spines have
sharp points and edges, like a row of sword
blades, and do 1-4 points of damage to any
creature who comes into contact with them. 
A direct blow from a vurgen's tail does 3-12
points of damage, for it is stunningly strong
and formed of a pointed, tapered cluster of
spines.

    Vurgens rarely fight, however; they
merely strike to swallow prey whole (hence
their nickname of the "giant gulper") and
then cruise on in search of the next morsel.
The great jaws enable a vurgen to gulp prey
of up to large size effortlessly. Once prey is
swallowed, saliva courses from a gland
behind the brain down into the mouth and
thence down the body to the tail. This saliva
is harmless to the vurgen itself, but all
creatures it swallows must save vs. poison
or be paralyzed by it. Digestive juices interact
with the saliva to do 4-16 ponts of corrosive
damage to prey per round in the
gullet, regardless of whether the prey is
paralyzed or not. Active prey can easily cut
or eat its way to freedom if the victim can
break or fit between the curving, spiny ribs.
The large jaws of the gulper do only 2-12
damage; they toothless bony ridges
designed to clamp down on prey and keep it
within the mouth when closed, not to shred
or chop up food.

    Vurgens are usually a mottled brown in
color, although olive, russet, white and even
purple specimens have been reported.
Vurgens have been known to come up to
the surface and hunt in shallows or even in
harbors.
 

    by Ed Greenwood