2025 Jul 5: Tunnel Beasts

 Giant ground sloths were once a relatively common sight in many parts of the world, but nowadays they are vanishingly rare save for some in the collections of some sorcerers, and a group that became the tunnel beasts. It is well known amongst scholars that giant sloths love to burrow, so it is unsurprising that some, having heard the call of chthonic deities, continued to dig, until they reached vast underground caverns filled with strange creatures, and even stranger magic. 

Over the years, living in such places slowly changed them. Their diet changed from plants, to mushrooms, to anything even vaguely edible. The deep is not kind to large-bodied animals after all, and these sloths probably wouldn't have survived if they didn't inherit their relatives' slower metabolisms, allowing them to subsist on less food than other similarly sized mammals. That said, they are always on the verge of starvation, and they need to stay on the move, always looking for food, always digging. In the rare occasions where their burrows intersect with  underground structures raised by mortal hands, the tunnel beasts usually see anything that wanders into the tunnels as prey. They would probably even try to come to the surface in search of food, if the sunlight didn't hurt their atrophied eyes, and if the wind didn't blow bitter cold among their scattered, pale fur. However when the night sky is dark, and the air still and warm, some do brave the outside and woe betide those who choose to camp too close mines, tombs, or other underground structures on those nights.

 Image by HodariNundu