Riptide Horror

This vile, grayish-tan tubeworm is longer than a man. It has six eyeless heads and each mouth is lined with inward curving, serrated teeth. Six long grayish-tan tentacles protrude from the middle of its body.

Riptide Horror CR 8

XP 4,800
LE Medium magical beast (aquatic)
hp 63 (6d10+30)
Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +4
DR 10/piercing or slashing
Melee 6 tentacles +5 (1d4+1 plus grab plus poison) and 6 bites +4 (1d6+1),
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft. (10 ft. with tentacle)
Special Attacks paralytic poison
Base Atk +6; CMB +7; CMD 19
Feats Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills Perception +4, Stealth +7 (+17 in murky water), Swim +16; Racial Modifiers +8 Swim, +10 Stealth in murky water

Environment temperate marshes
Organization solitary, pair, or colony (2-8)
Treasure none

The terrifying riptide horror is a giant, sightless tubeworm found in sea caves or deep within desolate marshes. They are carnivorous creatures and have a voracious appetite that is only sated with meat, preferably that of warm-blooded humanoids or reptiles.

Opportunistic, ambush hunters, riptide horrors wait for prey to come to them. They can go several weeks without eating, and sometimes do, but if a meal is readily available, the horror does not hesitate to kill and devour it. Such a meal is placed in a “reserve” stomach-like sac. When the food supply is low, the riptide horror delves into its reserve and draws sustenance from the stored food.

Riptide horrors mate once a year, usually in flooded sea caves. The female crawls into the male’s lair and deposits a sticky, greenish-tan mass of eggs on the wall of the cave. The male fertilizes the eggs and in 4 months, the eggs begin to hatch. Juveniles are excellent swimmers and leave the cave as soon as they hatch. As a riptide horror ages, its body secretes a substance that forms a shell-like carapace on its dorsal side.