Cameroceras

WHERE MY ORDOVICIAN PERIOD FANS AT?  PALEOZOIC REPRESENT!

Okay, so certain periods of prehistory don’t have the charismatic dinofauna of the Cretaceous or even the buggy glamor of the Carboniferous.  But when you need a primeval squid (and who doesn’t?), the cameroceras has you covered.  It’s perfect for subterranean seas, time-travel scenarios, and deep-water encounters (courtesy of Pressure Adaptation (Ex)).  And the fact it can grapple creatures right up into its shell and trap them there is pretty sweet.

Long trapped underground, a tribe of gripplis has evolved apart from their peers, both in terms of biology and culture.  Among other differences (such as worshipping various elemental powers of Earth), these gripplis carry their young suspended in jelly on their moisture-rich backs, rather than risk losing them to the predatory camerocerases that frequent the nearby subterranean lakes.

Adventurers investigate a strange rig out on the ocean—a dangerous wizard’s tsunami-harvester.  Some of the rig’s many spherical chambers are trapped to punish intruders.  One such sphere is weighted to drop more than 500 hundred fathoms deep, then open a series of valves to slowly release the air supply while allowing water—and hungry camerocerases—in.

Adventurers encounter a machine cyst and must destroy it before its automatons incorporate any more victims into its biomechanizer.  The cyst is not undefended though.  Robotic squids (treat as metal-clad or clockwork camerocerases; see the Advanced Bestiary) course through the cyst’s oily nutrient baths, acting as a sort of violent immune system.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 5 49

Metal squids?  Because I’m referencing The Matrix, right?  Nope!  I’m referencing the terrible beasts of Quintessa from The Transformers: TheMovie.

No radio show tonight.  I’m mostly dug out from the blizzard, but if I leave my neighborhood I will never see my parking space again, especially not at 12:50 A.M.