Kluzd

This snakelike reptile measures some ten feet, with a girth of two or three, enough to swallow a man whole, leaving a comical bulge mid-body. Males sport turquoise and white heads and necks; females are sandy brown flecked black throughout. A frill of long, feathery scales behind the head flares when angered, a crude bluff to seem larger. Kluzd have animal minds and only rudimentary communication without magic or psionics.

Sensing movement atop its mud, a kluzd swims over and bites with barbed, needle teeth for 1d8. It burrows swiftly through mud, never dry soil or sand.

Each round it also grabs at whatever is submerged, typically a leg. The victim saves vs. paralyzation or is caught, then rolls bend bars/lift gates every round: failure keeps him under all round, success lets him surface to gasp a breath while still held, and a roll below half his usual chance frees him to flee through the mud that round.

A held-under victim can go Constitution/6 rounds (round up) without air, then must pass a Constitution check each round, unmodified at first and at a cumulative -2 thereafter, suffocating on the first failure. He cannot use weapons or ordinary attacks while submerged, though psionics work. Once the first victim dies, the kluzd swallows it, sinks deep and leaves others alone to feed.

Few predators can hunt in thick muck, so the kluzd is safe at home and vulnerable only when its pool dries up entirely. It then travels in a straight line seeking new mud, dying of dehydration if none turns up within four days.

Kluzd mate once the flat's surface hardens into cracked crust. A clutch of 1d8 eggs hatches and grows to full size in six weeks. Parents guard the young, who never hunt, dragging creatures that walk the crust down to feed them.