Gaj

A gaj looks like a giant reptilian beetle. Its scaly, rust-orange shell is about 6 feet wide, with six four-jointed legs ending in clawed, webbed feet. The head is a pale, spongy globe some 2 feet across, ringed by six compound eyes, with three feathery antennae on top. Two barbed mandibles, each the length of a human arm, flank six finger-like feelers that dangle over its mouth.

The gaj opens with psionic attacks to cripple its targets, then closes with its mandibles. A victim it hits is held fast unless he saves vs. paralyzation, until he breaks free as in wrestling, taking 5 points of damage each round. Worse, the gaj wraps its antennae around his head and rips through his thoughts in a brutal version of probe, stripping 1d4 points per round from his Wisdom or Intelligence, divided randomly point by point. The loss is permanent, and a victim reduced to 0 in either becomes an empty husk who soon dies of hunger and thirst.

Its shell halves damage from any non-metal weapon. It can also tuck its head under the shell in melee without any loss of fighting ability, since the mandibles stay out.

Telepathy. Sciences: probe, domination, mass domination, tower of iron will. Devotions: contact, ESP, life detection, send thoughts, false sensory input, id insinuation, ego whip, psionic blast, inflict pain, aversion, mind blank, mental barrier, intellect fortress.

Gaj hunt alone, or rarely as mated pairs, preying on intelligent beings. They favor rocky ground where the shell blends in, or sand where they can lie hidden in shallow burrows.

Meat feeds the body, but the mind runs on others' thoughts, so a gaj constantly scans its surroundings with life detection through its antennae. After a week without eating an intelligent creature's thoughts it loses 1d10 PSPs per day, regained fully once it feeds. If its PSPs ever reach 0, it loses its powers and its will to live and dies within a week.