Moldeswarps

The giant armoured moles are creatures of the Underdeeps. Adult Moldewarps might be the size of a bear, a cave bear, or a cave drake. In the Common Speech they might be described as giant armoured moles, or where the Common Speech is coloured by Northron tongues, moldewarps.

Detailed Description
Whether once-natural beasts warped by the Mordo, the outpouring of Morgoth's own corrupted soul-power into Middle-earth, or whether bred in the pits of Angband, the origin of these monsters is lost in the deeps of time.

Where the common mole does have tiny eyes, the eyeless moldewarp is truly blind, and relies entirely on its excellent sense of sound and smell. It detects sound vibrations as much through its body and whiskers as with its ears, which are small and hidden within its fur. In addition to its whiskers, which spread as wide as its shoulders, the snout which projects forward above its fanged mouth bears a striking array of fleshy tentacles radiating from its nostrils.The legs are shorter than in many creatures but stout and immensely powerful, with scaled, shovel-like forefeet turned outward to angle the strong claws for digging.

These creatures are able of digging through rock like their lesser cousins through earth. It takes longer of course, for the Moldewarp to dig through living rock.

Where common moles are voracious, eating two to three times their own body weight a day, the giant moldewarp of the Underdeeps can enter a state of hibernation-like torpor in which, as for the sleep of dragons, it is sustained by its own dark spirit.

Notes for Game-Play
The head, back and flanks of a Giant Moldewarp are covered with horny plates of armour, much-scarred by scraping through rock-tunnels. Its short limbs mean its body remains close to the ground, making it difficult to land a powerful blow on its furred-hide under-regions. Seeking to stab an eye below the browarmour will prove vain.

To fight such a beast calls for a dragonslayer's valour. Its most vulnerable point is its snout, a blow to which will cause it to recoil in pain, or thrash about in a dangerous but unfocussed fashion. But to attack its snout is to put oneself in the path of the two mighty forepaws, the digging-like attacks of which are likely to sweep a man off his feet and pound him against the tunnel wall to left or right. The sensing-tentacles are also coated with a slime that will paralyse or at least slow a mansized victim if they contact exposed skin. A stunned, pummelled senseless or paralysed victim will be finished off with a stab of the claw-points.