Perception +8; darkvision, scent (imprecise) 30 feet
Languages Aklo (can’t speak any language)
Skills Athletics +9, Stealth +8 (+10 in rocky terrain)
Str +4, Dex +3, Con +2, Int –3, Wis +3, Cha –2
AC 20; Fort +7, Ref +10, Will +10
HP 35; Resistances physical 5 (except magic)
Gripping Tentacle Trigger A creature in the grick’s reach uses a move action or leaves a square during a move action it’s using; Effect The grick makes a tentacle Strike against the target. If the attack is a critical hit and the trigger was a move action, the grick disrupts that action.
Speed 25 feet, climb 20 feet
Melee jaws +11, Damage 1d12+6 slashing
Melee tentacle +11 (agile), Damage 1d8+6 bludgeoning
The wormlike gricks terrorize the caverns and tunnels in which it dwells, lying in wait near heavily traveled underground passages or subterranean cities for the chance to reach forth from the darkness and take its prey. Those laid low by a grick are rarely consumed on the spot. Instead, gricks haul back fresh food back to their lair in a tight burrow or high on a cavern ledge, where they consume their spoils in small bites at the gricks’ leisure.
The origin of gricks is unknown. Even though these creatures have a rudimentary intelligence, they don’t have any social structure to speak of. Most gricks are encountered alone. Even on those occasions when unfortunate travelers meet multiple gricks in small groups, those gricks don’t appear to communicate or work together; each instead attacks an individual target and retreats with its prize as soon as it manages to bring down an opponent. Capable predators, gricks also have a strangely weapon-resistant hide that makes them especially dangerous to the unprepared. Many novice adventurers have fallen to grick attacks merely because they couldn’t damage these creatures with their non-magical weapons. Those familiar with gricks (especially dwarves, morlocks, and xulgaths) know the best strategy for dealing with them when one lacks access to magic weapons is to fall back and wait for more powerful or magical reinforcements.
Gricks rely on their dark coloration and ability to climb walls to keep them out of sight until they’re ready to spring an ambush. On occasions, when food becomes scarce in a particular area, gricks have been known to travel to the surface and roam the wilderness in search of prey, but they make these sojourns almost always out of necessity, lasting only as long as it takes them to find entrances to new subterranean lairs. These creatures prefer darkness and the comfort of a ceiling overhead; they avoid the open sky and go to great lengths to keep the cover of trees, low clouds, or buildings between them and the empty gulf overhead.
Some Darklands societies have tried to recruit gricks as guardians or even beasts of burden, but their intelligence—while middling at best—is more than enough for them to stubbornly resist and even resent attempts at “training.” The best most societies can manage is to keep a grick guardian happy by making sure it remains well-fed and comfortable.
