The Shogg

Deep, deep below towering Bel'Zanar is the Underland.

Below the sprawling settlement of Undertown that lies beneath Bel'Zanar the Underland is an expansive underground realm of tunnels and caverns with their own ecologies and dangers. The deeper one goes, the more alien the Underland becomes. But in all honesty you probably will not get that far as one of the many, many predators that call the Underland their home will have found you first. Tribes of blind feral Trogs, Lizardmen, Mole People, huge reptilian monsters. A bewildering array of lethal and often very hungry predators all out to make your exploration of the Underland an exciting and often brief adventure.

But one terror rises above all others.

A mass of protoplasmic slime, writhing tentacles and randomly appearing eyes, mouths and beaks accompanied by a sound that bears remarkable resemblance to that of a young human girl giggling.

This is the Shogg.

It is widely accepted that should you be travelling the Underland and you hear a little girl giggling, you had better start running. Preferably upward because the Shogg is very likely pulling its vile bulk through the tunnels and caverns after you.

Like all good monsters, the Shogg's origins are unknown. It is the apex predator of the Underland. Even the Wraith Spiders avoid it. The Trog tribes worship it and sacrifice the weakest members of their kin or some hapless traveller they caught to appease it. The Lizardmen flee in terror at the merest hint of it being close by. Those it catches it pulls into its mass to be crushed, eviscerated and consumed. Often the only thing that slows it down is to distract it with something to eat. This can give groups enough time to flee. The needs of the many and all that.

Attempts by the denizens of Undercity and Bel'Zanar high above to destroy the Shogg have resulted in numerous massacres of the extermination teams. And on the few occasions when the Shogg has been thought slain it returns days, weeks or months later very much alive and very, very hungry. It is theorised that the Shogg can regenerate from its tiniest fragment so it is possibly unkillable.

It is a mindless beast. You cannot reason with the Shogg. It exists, it eats and that is it. It has no set lair and no predictable hunting ground. After a particularly large meal it may rest for a time to digest but such inactivity is quite short.

Its protoplasmic body is resistant to many different forms of attack and it has incorporated dirt, chunks of masonry and the armour of its victims to add further protection. If it has a weak spot or weakness none have found it and lived to tell others of it. It can move distressingly fast and shoot its tentacles out very, very far to snag prey. Despite its ponderous bulk the Shogg can fit through gaps far smaller than its body mass, squeezing itself through tunnels the foolish believe too small.

Ultimately, an encounter with the Shogg is a rare mercifully rare occurrence. The Underland is vast and those braving its dangers are unlikely to encounter the Shogg. And if you do, it is possible to escape its hunger. It will not pursue prey for long and will lose interest, the expenditure of energy in capturing its next meal deemed not worth the effort. There are always plenty of other things to eat in the Underland after all.