Palpares
Level 11Attacks
Abilities
Trigger The palpares is aboveground and would take damage Effect The palpares Burrows up to its Speed, throwing up a shield of dirt that reduces the damage by 11.
Requirements The palpares is underground
The palpares Burrows up to twice its Speed underneath a creature, then Strikes upward with its pincers, ending aboveground.
Saving Throw DC 30 fortitude Maximum Duration 6 rounds Stage 1 3d6 poison damage and Stunned 1 (1 round) Stage 2 3d8 poison damage and Stunned 2 (1 round) Stage 3 3d10 poison damage and Paralyzed (1 minute)
The palpares Burrows to create a 30-foot emanation sloping pit centered on itself that's 10 feet deep at the center. All creatures in the area must attempt a DC 30 reflex save. Critical Success The creature is moved by tremors to a square outside the edge of the pit. Success As critical success, but the creature is also Clumsy 1 for 1 round. Failure The creature falls 10 feet into the pit and is knocked Prone. Critical Failure As failure, and the creature is Stunned 1.
Requirements The palpares has a creature Grabbed
The palpares uses its mandibles to inject venom, dealing 3d8 acid damage and exposes the creature to palpares venom.
Requirements The monster's last action was a successful Strike that lists Grab in its damage entry, or the monster has a creature Grabbed or Restrained Effect If used after a Strike, the monster attempts to Grapple the creature using the body part it attacked with. This attempt neither applies nor counts toward the creature's multiple attack penalty. The monster can instead use Grab and choose one creature it's grabbing or restraining with an appendage that has Grab to automatically extend that condition to the end of the monster's next turn.
Description
Ancient dwarves paid little attention to the Sea of Dirt, seeing little worth harvesting from its muck. Orcs were considerably braver, yet even they're wary of monsters swimming through the silt. To an outsider, palpares might seem like a cautionary tale to keep children from sinking into the quicksand, and the large pits found dotting the Sea of Dirt's shores are just geological phenomena that appear in the wet season. Those who have stumbled across these traps know the dangerous reality.
Few know much about palpares, an enormous insect whose plated, hulking abdomen takes up most of its size. They seem to be solitary ambush hunters that hibernate during the dry season, then awaken during the Flood to create their enormous pit traps. These traps capture prey of all sizes, even the occasional herd of migrating aurochs, as they wait buried in the center. Though usually very patient, when disturbed, a palpares can move through its native sandy soil surprisingly quick, greeting intruders who enter its domain with its shovellike head and vicious pincers.
Life Stages
Research suggests palpares aren't yet in its final form of life, as large caverns on the shores have been discovered to hold traces of chitin and the rotting remains of palpares partially transformed. Though nobody has encountered an adult and lived to tell the tale, rumors abound that the fully fledged insect form resembles Rovagug. Communities are quick to locate and dispose of any pupae they find in large, sand-encrusted mounds in the dirt. Some towns hold large barbecues to harvest tons of "mud bacon."