Cave Hallucigenia

This dry-land subspecies has adapted to caverns, creeping slowly through clusters of stalactites by gripping them with its tentacles. It is strictly a carnivore and lives on nothing but blood.

Its hunting post is a stalactite above a busy passage or junction, with its tail tentacles coiled tight around the stone. When a victim walks beneath, the creature lets go and swings down, its tail stretching to several times its resting length. The ambush is hard to see coming: characters suffer a +2 penalty on surprise rolls against it. All fourteen of its spines, which double as legs, slam home together for up to 14 points of damage.

The muscular tail then reels hunter and prey back up among the stalactites so it can feed in peace. For every round after that first strike that the victim stays impaled, blood loss deals another 14 points of damage. The victim cannot work himself loose; he stays pinned until companions free him or he dies.

Once a body is drained dry, the hallucigenia lets it fall to the cave floor for ordinary predators and scavengers to finish. Those remains are the only warning a party gets. Alert characters may notice old corpses below (a Wisdom or Intuition check, whichever fits the game), but the bones say nothing about which direction the next attack will come from.