### Bestiary (Or: Lifestyles of the Big and Monstrous)

A lot of people died to bring you this information:

- Roaches
- Roach Queens
- Rock Golems
- Rock Giants
- Wraithwings
- Evil Eyes
- Serpents
- Rattleserpents
- Adders
- Brains
- Wubbas
- The Living Tar
- The Awakened Mud
- The Forbidden Gel
- Spiders
- Goblins
- Aumtlich
- Waterskippers and their nests
- The Seep
- Gentryii
- Fluff
- Constructs

There are many others you may also encounter:

- Other Denizens of the Beneath

You may also wish to read a more detailed description of the underlying mechanics of monster movement patterns.

### Roaches

The five-foot dungeon roach is a common sight in infestations all over the world. It can survive all sorts of adverse conditions - extreme heat and cold, low oxygen, even weak acid. It doesn't like bright light, although it will survive in bright light if it has to. Although it can stand extreme heat, its carapace is not equipped to withstand explosions, and it can't survive in those areas of the Beneath that are hot enough to burn even the air. Thankfully. Dungeon roaches feed on whatever they are able to scavenge, their large, sophisticated digestive system doing most of the work. They will tend to aggressively attack any threat, if without tactics any better than "head straight for it and bite," which on the whole probably shouldn't be called "tactics." On the Eighth, they are traditionally used as a source of meat, which, when the internal organs are removed and the meat cooked thoroughly, surprisingly turns out pretty good. Smitemasters often have a clause in their contracts which states they retain ownership of any roaches they slay for this reason - it makes a good supplement to the seasonal smitemastering trade.

### Roach Queens

Roach queens give birth to roaches, fulfilling much the same role as queen bees. Unlike bees, however, all roaches that are born are considered workers - the roach queen usually carries around most, if not all, of the ingredients required to make roach eggs and is usually fed by her worker children during quiet, safe moments (and occasionally feeds on her worker children, usually when she is low on a few key roach-baby ingredients). Roach queens can be identified amongst their children by their enlarged abdomen, their glossy, silver wings (although they never fly), and, most tellingly, the fact that all the roaches are usually attacking any threat and the roach queen isn't.

When threatened, the roach queen will attempt to scurry as far away from the threat as possible, occasionally stopping to lay eggs in promising-looking areas. As these are roaches, this is almost anywhere. The larvae will hatch into mostly-developed roaches in a matter of seconds. Roach queens lay eggs at a much faster rate when they are running away from a threat in this manner, relying on their children for defense. This rate is predictable, and the alert smitemaster can count precisely how long it will be until the roach queen lays more eggs. Some roach queens are used in the roachmeat industries, but it turns out to be far more cost effective to hire smitemasters to clean out infestations and haul the carcasses back up than to breed roaches in captivity (which is costly, as the problems when a roach gets loose are much greater than with other, more docile meats.)

### Rock Golems

Rock golems were an early creation of the Empire, back in the days when they were just figuring out the basics of mineral-based life. Unfortunately, the Empire found them rather difficult to control - not because they are rebellious or willful, which they are not. But they are really, really dumb, and they just don't understand instructions very well. They don't remember them very well, either, unless they're really simple. If you tell the rock golem to go to the field, pick up some nice round rocks, and carry them to your house, you may discover later that the rock golem got confused, pulled your house up from its foundations, and carried it to the field. As a result, the empire tends to only use them as brute force defenders when possible.

While golems do have a brain, it only gets used when they are faced with something that their raw instinct can't deal with, such as dealing with obstacles in their path. While they can speak, their vocabulary is rather limited and shallow. They don't need to eat, and instead take great pleasure in crushing their prey with their large and heavy fists. They won't kill anything else that is a rock, and since their intelligence level is low, this means that someone clever could easily disguise themself as something rock-shaped and escape their clutches.

Rock golems are very difficult to kill permanently, as if you break them down, they will eventually reconstruct themselves over time. It takes much longer for them to be prepared for combat again, however. But for the practical purposes of smitemasters, the worst thing about golems is probably the piles of rocks that are left when you "kill" them. These will become an obstacle, so you will have to be careful where you choose to attack the golem. It is possible to destroy a golem completely (whether or not it is already broken down) by using a bomb, however.

Rock golems move in a direct fashion. If the direction toward their target is blocked, they will not move. They are not smart enough to move around obstacles by themselves, and will need to be "guided" around them.

### Rock Giants

Back in the days when the Empire was just beginning to figure out mineral based life, several thousand experiments were carried out. Of course, not all of these were successful, but they did lead to the creation of rock golems. This lead to thousands and thousands more experiments trying to solve the problem of golem intelligence.

But what happened to the rejects? Uncounted rock creatures were stored underground, tightly packed together. Combine this with the rock golem's ability to very slowly rebuild itself over time, and it was perhaps inevitable that the remains of these creatures did not always remain... entirely separate when reconstructing. And once bound together, the rock giants were not eager to fall apart again.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and these titanic creatures display far greater intelligence than their golem components (though four times a golem brain is still dumb). They understand simple commands and can carry them out reasonably well, so rather than being used as brute force defenders, rock giants are used as heavy lifters, miners and construction engineers.

Though unable to fit through the smaller passages, they are formidable in combat. Even a direct sword strike is not enough to kill one, as the giant will break apart into its component golems who will then continue the attack. Aside from the use of heavy explosives or collapsing/heating the floor on which they walk, it is very difficult to do more than break a rock giant apart into a few very angry golems.

### Wraithwings

Wraithwings are one of the few dungeon creatures that fly. Even then, they can't do it very well. They usually have to stick to near the ground, where the air currents won't buffet them around so much. Wraithwings resemble small winged demons, and anyone who's really studied flight can tell you that it's a wonder wraithwings can fly at all. They're heavier than most birds, with not a great amount of strength in the forelimbs. It takes constant, steady flapping to keep them afloat, but they occupy a niche that few other creatures do. Up on the surface, they usually stick to the expansive and deserted lowlands that few other creatures inhabit because of the minor problem of the extensive flooding every summer. During that time, they migrate into the dungeons because they have strong, adept legs and can cross the deep chasms that defeat every other creature who makes the attempt. Wraithwings are smart, and will usually only attack an intruder to their territory when they can surround them.

### Evil Eyes

Evil eyes, like wubbas, don't have any discernible method of digestion. Unlike wubbas, however, evil eyes are far less subtle in their feeding habits. Evil eyes get their name from their appearance - they appear to be a giant eyeball, covered in a translucent slime that they generate and use to lubricate the floor if they have to move. Normally, evil eyes can be found in groups of ten to twenty, although more and less have been sighted often enough to confirm this is merely a tendency. Their teamwork in watching certain areas, and the observed gathering of evil eyes, suggests some sort of communal instinct, and possibly communication, although nothing as yet is evident from their behavior. They will watch for likely prey to cross their field of vision and stir into life, charging at it blindly until they reach it. They quickly cover their prey in slime to stun and prepare it, then slowly digest it. Thankfully, they're quite docile until they notice their prey, which can make a thoughtful smitemaster's job easier.

Evil eyes are sometimes used to make eyeball pudding, in nearly all cases inadvisably and against the wishes of any and all who have to eat it.

### Serpents

Serpents are huge, red reptiles that live deep in the dungeons Beneath. They are subtle creatures, attuned to the secret vibrations of the soil. They're normally much larger than any other creature around, some having been sighted that are hundreds of feet in length. Thousands, if using actual feet. They usually feed on smaller animals, using their long bodies to restrict their prey's movement until closing in for the kill. As they're so large, they do have trouble changing direction and can't make sharp turns. Even more concerning is that their mighty body muscles, which propel them along the ground, aren't capable of subtle correction. One of the things serpents have given up to grow to such a size, in fact, is any ability to fine-tune their movement. Their movements are chaotic and hard to predict, but not entirely random.

Don't let this sad regression fool you, however, into thinking that serpents are easily dealt with, oh no. Their muscles are strong enough to resist even the greatest of pressures. Their skin is hard as rock. Smitemasters will occasionally - if they relish the prospect of carrying a heavy roll of skin up a mile or so of stairs - roll up serpent skin and sell it aboveground, where it's used as a kind of leather. It isn't that flexible or easy to work with, but it's incredibly durable and very strong. The only problem is getting some, as it's heavy...and on serpents. A very skilled smitemaster will have cracked the code of how the heartbeats of the soil affect how serpents stalk their prey and how serpents react when they know danger hasn't passed but can't quite see it. Serpents change preference for vertical and horizontal movement every five turns. They continue moving forward when their prey is directly in front of or directly behind them. Diagonal movement by an exterminator was, at one point, critical in successfully removing serpents from a dungeon, but orthogonal squares have recently taken away this advantage. When dealing with orthogonal squares, it is best to stay as many steps away from a serpent's head as possible while trying to lead it into a dead end.

### Rattleserpents

Blue serpents, also called "rattleserpents" or derogatorily as "rattlesnakes," are almost identical to their red counterparts, but rattleserpents are weak at their tails instead of their heads. In order to destroy a rattleserpent, an exterminator must hit the serpent's tail with their sword in order to shorten in. This means that a thirty foot (six tile long) long snake will require an exterminator to hit the serpent's tail a total of five times in order to kill it. If a rattleserpent gets trapped in a dead end, then it remains stationary.

### Adders

The Empire created the green adders after serpents and rattleserpents, when it was observed that both rattleserpents and serpents could essentially be rendered useless by being lured into dead ends. Luring an adder into a completely sealed dead end will result in the delver not being able to dispose of the adder, as the head is unreachable.

Unlike other serpents, adders have enlarged heads which allow them to consume other monsters, with the exception of rock giants, gentryii, and other serpents. They grow one tile for each monster eaten. Adders will also eat the pile of boulders that is left when a rock golem or giant is killed.

Unfortunately, this dramatic increase in size made the head a vulnerable area. An adder will shrink by one tile each time its head is stabbed. Adders will shrink like serpents if trapped by their own bodies or the body of another adder.

### Brains

The most disturbing of all the monsters in the Beneath looks altogether too much like a giant, pink brain. Monsters that resemble body parts are very, very creepy. What's even creepier is that the brain doesn't attack. At least, not directly. No, it knows all the ins and outs of the surrounding terrain like the back of its...brain...and will hijack the thought patterns of other creatures, giving them gentle suggestions on how to defend themselves when danger approaches. So when that mindless roach moves out of the trap you laid for it, navigates through a maze and heads straight for you amongst a herd of other creatures, going around your defenses one by one, you will know who is responsible. To adapt to brains, you must learn how they think. And when you do, you will learn that sometimes intellect is no match for raw instinct. Not in chess, maybe, but in other places. They do, for better or for worse, have a mouth, so presumably they eat.

### Wubbas

Wubbas are strange, strange creatures. The eating habits of the wubba have never been observed, though it has been theorized that they eat lichen and the occasional squashed corpse by ingesting it through their porous skin. The outer portion of a wubba's body is soft and fluffy, rather like a marshmallow, but they have a harder core where presumably the internal organs are. That is, if the skin does not itself take care of some of the functions we normally associate with, say, the stomach or the spleen. If they spot a meal, the wubbas will rush to it, although they are often blocked by obstacles in their path. They follow their prey around until they can get it in such a position where they can smush it. Or so it's thought by those who support the Porous Theory. It's possible they are just really, really bored and follow new things around like puppies in fits of excitement, as evidenced by the excited little noises they make when a smitemaster tries to pierce their thick, bouncy skin. We may never know for sure. In any event, wubbas move just like rock golems.

Wubbas get their name from a common childhood toy that looks just like them - a big white blob. These are everywhere because they can be specially molded, put together with love, and sold for hundreds to a family with more money than sense. Or a poor parent can just grab a pillowcase, stuff it with something cuddly, sew it up into a vaguely oval shape and present it to a thankful child.

### The Living Tar

The Living Tar is one of the most intimidating sights seen in the Beneath. It's not hard to see why. Not because it has a very thick outer skin, held together by a very strong form of surface tension (indeed, unless it's stabbed on a flat part where you can get a sword in far enough, it won't even break). Not because it can grow up and over walls, covering them completely in blue goop (the only way to uncover them being to plough into it). Not because it forms rubbery, stable globules of tar that block up vital passageways that won't be broken by the strongest thrust. Not even because it can split into completely separate, sentient, savage entities called tar babies when there isn't enough surface tension left to hold solid chunks of tar together. It's because everything the tar does, even when it only looks like a slightly transparent glob that just visibly pulses like an infernal blood vein, seems to be infused with malice.

What's worse - sometimes a tar mother, which only ever appears as a pair of bulging eyes glaring out of their lair, will reside deep within the tar. She isn't content until the entire cavern is covered with tar and her babies. Occasionally she will close her eyes, concentrate, and will the tar to grow outwards. She can even coax tar that's been separated from the main body to grow until it rejoins the rest of the tar.

### The Awakened Mud

Just like the Living Tar, the Awakened Mud is a sticky creation of the Rooted Empire. Some years ago, 583rd Tar Technician, in sudden inspiration, created it. As soon as that happened, he became the 1st Mud Coordinator, and managed to sway several of his friends to become Mud Coordinators as well. This substance caused the tar monopoly to be broken, as architects now have a choice of substances. The mud team is also a younger and more dynamic group of people, and they have helped make the reddish substance much more popular than anyone could have expected.

Mud is similar to tar in many ways, but opposite in the most important of them. Rather than being vulnerable at the sides, mud can only be cut at its corners, and is protected on its edges. If you are on the outside of mud, this means that it is impossible to have a slab of mud that is uncuttable. If you are on the inside, you must be extremely cautious, as it can be very easy to end up in a box of mud with no way out.

A mud mother performs the same task as a tar mother. Every thirty turns, the Mud Mother will cause all of the mud in a room to expand by one square. If mud is unable to continue a form of at least two squares wide and two squares long, mud babies will be formed. Mud babies, like tar babies, follow the same movement patterns as roaches.

Stable mud itself, for the most part, is a breeze. As long as you are on the outside of it, there is practically no way to have an uncuttable piece of mud. In order to be able to escape from a mass of Mud, a delver must make sure that he has at least one side of free space or wall that he is able to escape to. As soon as a delver is encased in mud, it will be impossible to escape.

### The Forbidden Gel

Long ago, the Rooted Empire engineered living gel, a substance similar to the Living Tar. However, the Empire's powerful Tar Authority feared competition from the new gel and successfully lobbied for its use to be forbidden. More recently, perhaps due to the widespread acceptance of the Awakened Mud and the subsequent weakening of the Tar Authority, the Forbidden Gel has begun to be used once again.

Gel is a green substance is much stickier and more viscous than its tar and mud counterparts, and because of that, it can only be cut on its inside corners. Gel differs from tar and mud in a number of other key ways as well. Gel babies, being extra sticky, move like wubbas and rock golems, unlike tar and mud babies, which move identically to roaches. Gel babies can also cross shallow water, whereas tar and mud babies cannot. Due to gel's increased surface tension, a gel mother's influence is reduced. Gel mothers can only expand masses of gel to which they are physically connected, unlike tar and mud mothers, which can expand all tar or mud in a room.

### Spiders

If anything could be said to be the evidence of a malevolent mind at work in the dungeons, it would be spiders. Spiders appeared twenty or so years ago, almost out of nowhere (figuratively and in actuality). They just so happened to not be the traditional dark colors of the smaller, aboveground spiders, but instead a strange shade of blue that exactly matched the color of a popular style of floor tiling. This rendered spiders almost invisible on that flooring. Smitemasters learned to stare real hard to catch glimpses of the spiders when their red, beady eyes were visible. But no more.

There were many complaints by smitemasters, excavators, and building crews. Dungeon owners themselves were sick of hearing complaints when prospective smitemasters learned they had used the infamous Palace style in their dungeon. Needless to say, they were also and a little concerned that they themselves might be killed without warning while touring their dungeon. In time, the Architect's Association officially recalled the style. That would have been the end for the spiders. They're none too bright and on every other type of floor they could have been spotted a mile off, if it hadn't been observed that spiders have, somehow, recently learned to change their skin color at will. This, it is believed, is no mere mutation.

For a long time, spiders were thought to move identically to roaches, but it has recently been discovered that they differ in one respect. Unlike roaches, spiders can tread on shallow water.

### Goblins

Goblins are one of the few denizens of the Beneath that are smart enough to match wits with intruders from above. They're cunning, wily, and even speak a vague approximation of the aboveground language. Their society is a rudimentary, tribal culture that exists in pockets of the Beneath, usually at the lower, safer levels of dungeons. Goblins, having occasional contact with humans, have assimilated the more materialistic values of the abovegrounders. Sometimes they dabble in making small wooden ornaments with varying degrees of skill. This, however, grates at the soul, and often they'll just give up and mug passers-by instead. Those rare goblins who are integrated into human society, having learned not to attack people and get taken out into the streets and killed, usually take menial jobs. Thankfully, they enjoy the simplicity and directness of the work as opposed to the politicking and bickering that accompanies more cerebral endeavors humans undertake, and for the most part they are treated kindly.

Isolated groups of goblins usually work quite differently. While very simple and sometimes brutal, their society is surprisingly advanced, with complex belief systems. These are usually eroded by their first contact with humans. When they attack, they tend to go for the back, believing that honor takes a second place to staying alive.

### Aumtlich

Rumors of unknown monsters are common in any society that sets great store on daring deeds done. Most can simply be dismissed as "The roach that got away;" but the most experienced smitemasters know that there is a grain of truth in every rumor. Some of these ancient rumors describe a species that exists in the deepest dungeons - one with a burning hatred of all people, a burning hunger for slaughter, and a burning gaze that instills a petrifying fear into everything it sees. It is believed that these gaunt beasts have been extinct for many generations, if they ever existed at all. Other people claim that they still live, lurking under the beds of naughty children who refuse to finish their leaf juice.

Recently, the journal of the noted dungeon-fauna-documentary producer Jaato Scrikely was discovered, which gives some weight to this rumor. Though badly burned, the last few pages were barely legible. The last recorded entry ends with: "The citizens called this area 'The Aumtlich Training Grounds.' There are thin beasts that are working on focusing their gaze into a steady, fiery gaze. I mustn't let them see me; some of what they looked upon was starting to smolder! Though I wonder, what is the proper plural form? Aumtlich? Aumtliches? Aumtlichen - gah, that sounds like some kind of plant. Wait, did I say that out loud? They're turning towards me, and aren't looking happy. I should get..."

The rest of the entry is badly burned and beyond recognition. Many smitemasters hope this journal is a fake made in poor taste, as no such creatures have been seen. Almost all smitemasters, though, have taken to checking under their beds each evening - just to be safe.

### Waterskippers and their nests

Waterskippers are carnivorous animals, occuring naturally throughout the Eighth. Recently, the Rooted Empire has engineered Waterskippers to live underground, and has employed them to defend their tunnels. When Onsuary floods strike dungeons, the Empire uses the underground lakes to insert waterskippers.

After reaching maturity, two waterskippers will make a nest on the water, scavenging branches from nearby areas and solidifying them into rough piles with their saliva. After the nest is finished and a brief mating dance is performed, the female occupies the nest and begins to spawn offspring at a prodigious rate, three times faster than the roach queen, itself no slouch in this department. The offspring immediately begin to look for food, seeking any nearby prey. Waterskippers do not leave the water as a rule but will leap onto land to attack. The waterskippers' unwary prey can easily become overwhelmed by the sheer number of attacking beasts.

### The Seep

To call these creatures "simple vapors living inside the walls" makes them seem less deadly then they actually are. Although the Empire has just recently been successful in developing a prototype and is only testing them in select dungeons, they have already created panic and fright inside of the Guild's halls. Prior to their existence, a Smitemaster could always feel a bit safer when his back was at the wall. Now smitemasters must always be watchful for the presence of seep or risk falling prey to them.

Seep are able to travel on both walls and doors. If a door is opened while seep are on it, then they will die. They can also be removed by a strike with a standard issue sword. Although the creature's contents are complicated, their actual movement is very simple. In fact, they move almost exactly the same as a standard dungeon roach, meaning they will always come directly towards you. The difference between the two is that while a roach will prefer to move vertically if given a choice, a seep will choose which ever one will bring it closer to its target. The only problem is getting them to reach the edge of a wall or a door so, like roaches and most other dungeon creatures, you will have to be careful where you lead seep to.

In case you were wondering, "seep" is used for both the singular and plural.

### Gentryii

The harpactognathus gentryii is a creation of the early Empire which would be better left forgotten. It is virtually indestructible, completely invulnerable to all known weapons and totally unfazed by explosions. Even a fall from a great height would not kill a gentryii, though fortunately, they are not capable of climbing out of pits. As there is no known way to destroy gentryii, they must be subdued by some other means, either locked up or chained to walls. However, over time, as walls weaken, the gentryii are sometimes able to break free of their moorings and attack. A chained gentryii is no threat to anyone who remains beyond the reach of its chain.

Although their trailing chains may resemble tails, gentryii have little in common with serpents. They are capable of moving diagonally through the tightest of spaces and will pursue delvers relentlessly. Fortunately, gentryii are no more intelligent than a common dungeon roach and can be blocked by the simplest of obstacles, including their own chains.

### Fluff

Fluff is a sentient noxious gas, deadly to any living creature that comes in contact with it. Clouds of fluff are essentially inert, but impassible, however, a single square wide cloud of fluff, also known as a puff, is capable of movement. Fortunately, puffs move very slowly, at a rate of one square every five turns, making them easy to avoid in open spaces. Puffs become dangerous when they appear in great numbers or when encountered in tight spaces.

Puffs will always target the closest living thing and attempt to move directly toward it, however, it cannot navigate around obstacles in its path. When a puff makes contact with its target, both the target and the puff are destroyed. A puff destroyed over water will form a thin layer of ice on the surface. When puffs gather in formations of two by two or more, they will coalesce into a larger cloud of fluff.

Fluff is commonly introduced to dungeons through vents placed in the floor. An exposed fluff vent will release a single puff every thirty turns, however, a vent covered by a cloud of fluff will cause the cloud to grow by one square in every direction every thirty turns.

Fluff is not affected by swords, which simply pass through it, however, other weapon types may prove more effective.

### Constructs

Constructs are intelligent machines created by the Empire. Despite some similarities, it would be a mistake to think of constructs as mechanical rock golems. Like golems, constructs leave behind impassible remains when killed, however, while rock golems can reportedly reassemble themselves after some unspecified length of time, constructs are able to do so quickly and with remarkable regularity. As soon as the construct's internal chronometer reaches 30, it will revive and continue its pursuit of any invaders. Only when a room is clear and all constructs disabled will they stand down permanently.

Despite their remarkable capacity for self-repair, constructs are not invulnerable. They can be destroyed permanently by explosions or being pushed or dropped into pits or deep water. While constructs can walk through shallow water safely, if one is disabled while on shallow water, it will not be able to restore itself. As they are made up primarily of metal, constructs cannot withstand exposure to oremites, and will never willingly walk on them.

Mechanics of monster movement patterns

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