Nightcrawler

Nightcrawlers were a massive, deadly form of nightshade found in the Plane of Shadows.

Description
Nightcrawlers resembled purple worms, but were covered in solid black, chitinous armor. Even the teeth and the inside of the mouth were black. They were approximately long and weighed.

Biology
Being a type of undead, these creatures did not need to eat, drink, or breath to survive.

Senses
Nightcrawlers were better at burrowing through the ground than walking over it. They had both tremorsense and darkvision.

Abilities
Like all nightshades, nightcrawlers radiated a desecrating aura. However, they greatly disliked natural daylight, being creatures of utter darkness.

Nightcrawlers had a number of spell-like abilities, being able to cast contagion, deeper darkness, detect magic, greater dispel magic, haste, invisibility, see invisibility, and unholy blight at will. They could summon undead creatures each night; the undead served for up to an hour. Nightcrawlers could summon 9–16 shadows, 3–6 greater shadows, or 2–4 dread wraiths this way.

Combat
They typically attacked by burrowing, then bursting out of the ground to swallow victims whole. When they did, their victim's body was drained of its life energy.

Diet
These creatures had an inescapable craving for the life force of other creatures, though it was not a dietary requirement. Being a type of undead, they had no dietary needs.

Relationships
Nightcrawlers were a favored monster of the gnome deity Urdlen. As such, he sometimes called them to the Prime Material plane for short periods in order to conduct some sort of task.