giant opabinia

Opabinia are said to be an ancient sea creature from a long time ago that have somehow returned to Scaraqua in numbers, much larger and stronger than ever before.
Preferring deep water in relatively cold and isolated locales. These ancient predators are highly aggressive and very dangerous.
Their carapace is thick and turns aside most attacks. Their underbelly is a bit more vulnerable to attacks but opabina are cunning and nimble fast swimmers that make great effort to not expose their belly to threats.
An opabina's main attack is their strong grappling trunk. Targets are held in place by the grapple and bitten. Their trunks also emit a paralytic poison to targets touched by it. Their bite is strong enough to take down even full grown Astakalians.

Myth and Legend

Rumor has it that these creatures recently emerged from melting ice. Some Scaraquans say that the opabina are yet another monster released on the seas because of Taedi being miffed at someone and responding with a monster. Taedi's priests and priestesses deny this vehemently (and they usually aren't shy about claiming Taedi's "children").
Some whisper that giant opabina represents a rare example of Mubete losing a temper or perhaps making a mistake.
Some whisper that opabinia were created without the Seeyirah, or any other deity's hand involve and that they were somehow created by Sea itself, the Void , or some other outside force, perhaps even a talented mortal wizard.
Proponents of this theory of a non-divine origin point to the opabina's alien appearance and general strangeness as evidence of support.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Opabina have five oddly placed eyes giving them 360 degree vision and a keen sense of smell to boot.

Geographic Distribution

• Scaraqua