Grick Anicent

Appearance

The Grick Ancients of Grizburg are monstrous coils of muscle and scarred chitin, wormlike predators that slither through the Whispering Depths. Their bodies are studded with fungal growths that glow faint green, while rusted chains from failed attempts at capture still dangle like trophies. Their beaks resemble rust-crusted furnaces, snapping with metallic resonance, while their four vast tentacles flex with jagged hooks of bone and hardened stone.   ---

Origins

No one agrees where Gricks first came from. Some say they are worms warped by the death-essence of Zothra-Khaar, twisted into apex predators of the Depths. Others believe they are guardians left behind by a forgotten subterranean empire, their purpose lost but their hunger eternal. In Grizburg, their presence is tied to collapse: whole districts are said to fall silent when an Ancient stirs in the catacombs below.   ---  

Habitat

These horrors thrive in the labyrinth beneath Rustwater, burrowing through sewage tunnels, collapsing vaults, and swallowing entire cisterns into their lairs. They are known to breach into the Greendocks through sinkholes, dragging barges under when their tentacles lash upward through stone and wood. Every worker in Grizburg knows the saying: “If the floor breathes, run.”   ---  

Ecology

Grick Ancients devour everything: stone, bone, wood, metal. Their bodies can dissolve almost any matter, leaving behind only corroded fragments and piles of rust where once whole weapons lay. They are cannibals too, feasting on younger gricks that grow too bold. Their lairs are strewn with twisted relics and skulls gnawed smooth, remnants of centuries of feasting.   ---  

Behavior

Unlike their lesser kin, Grick Ancients hunt actively. They burst from walls and ceilings, smashing prey with their immense weight before rending flesh with tentacles. They are cunning predators, waiting days in silence before striking, but once they emerge they do not relent. Their tentacles can crush walls, tear beams apart, or drag whole caravans screaming into the dark.   ---  

The Whispering Depths Connection

The Whispering Depths are riddled with carvings depicting wormlike gods, their tentacles carved into shrines long before Grizburg’s founding. Many scholars now argue that Grick Ancients are fragments of those old deities, still alive, still hungering. Explorers swear they hear whispers while hunted, as if the beasts speak through the stone itself, promising release only through consumption.   ---  

Use by Factions

The Rust Barons do not control them, but some have tried. Failed experiments remain chained into cavern walls, their bindings gnawed apart as the Ancients tore free. Still, whispers tell of certain Barons who lure Ancients toward rival vaults, sacrificing scores of workers just to bury enemies beneath collapsing stone.   ---

Cultural Role

Among the underclass, Grick Ancients are spoken of as omens. Their tunnels are called “hunger roads,” and their appearance in dreams is taken as warning that betrayal or famine will strike soon. Rustwater cults leave offerings of rusted metal and rotting meat, hoping to appease the beasts or steer them away from their tenements.   ---  

Legends

Old Muckfingers recounts the tale of the Wyrm of the Rustwater Arches, a Grick Ancient so massive its coils wrapped entire catacombs, crushing the stone into rubble. It is said the Barons attempted to bury it with dynamite, but the beast still stirs below, its breathing felt in the cracks of certain warehouses when the river runs low.   ---  

Threats to the City

Every collapse of a dock tier, every sudden sinkhole swallowing barges, is blamed on them. Whether true or not, fear keeps workers glancing at the ground beneath their feet. If a Grick Ancient truly rises beneath Grizburg, the destruction would not be contained to Rustwater—it would send the city itself sliding into the Sko.   ---  

Behavioral Oddities

Grick Ancients are known to coil around carvings or statues, as if worshiping. Some scholars claim these poses are mockery, others that the beasts retain a fragment of memory from whatever created them. When roused, they strike first at lights, hating brightness more than blades, dragging lanterns into their maws as though devouring the day itself.   ---  

Adventuring Hooks

• An Ancient tunnels beneath Greendocks, threatening to sink merchant warehouses. • Rust Barons seek mercenaries to redirect a Grick Ancient into rival territory. • Strange runes appear on an Ancient’s hide, glowing with Zothra-Khaar’s whispers. • Miners uncover a hollow chamber filled with bones—and the slumbering coils of a Grick Ancient.   ---  

Closing Words

Grick Ancients embody the hunger of Grizburg itself: relentless, silent, inevitable. To face one is to confront the city’s truth—that beneath every forge, every dock, every rusted chain, something waits to devour. And when it comes, no wall, no relic, no history will be spared. See full stats on D&D Beyond