Roper

To all but the most sharp-eyed underground explorers, a roper appears to be nothing more than a large stalactite, stalagmite, or pillar of ice. Cunning and patient ambush predators, ropers use this to their advantage.

Ropers do not form large societies (although they can often be found living alongside other deep-dwelling denizens), but they often congregate in small clusters and sometimes hunt in groups. Particularly interested in the philosophy of life and death and the flner points of the more cruel and sinister religions of the world, a roper can talk or argue for hours with those it initially sought merely to eat. Quick-thinking spelunkers can sometimes stave off a roper's appetite by entertaining it with stories or discussions of philosophy, but ropers do not willingly allow such intriguing prey to escape alive. Stories speak of particularly skilled debaters and philosophers who have been kept for days or even years as pets or conversational companions by roper clusters, but in the end, if such pets don't eventually escape, the ropers' appetites win out over their intellectual curiosity-especially in cases where the pets constantly outmaneuver their keepers' wits and patience. A roper is 9 feet tall and weighs 2,200 pounds.