Land Shark or Giant Cicada?

I just saw a post from Creighton Broadhurst of Raging Swan Press about Bulettes, and decided to reread the MM entry about the creature. It occurs to me that a critter this rapacious with a land and burrowing speed of 40 feet and an armor class of 17 probably does not have many natural enemies. So large swaths of land would be devastated if even one bulette entered the area.

I started thinking about how to make a little more logical sense of the existence of land sharks (as if “logical sense” applies to any fantastic creatures in D&D), and I wonder if the life cycle of the bulette might be akin to the life cycle of the cicada.

Image by Noël BEGUERIE from Pixabay, re-oriented.

Image from the D&D Basic Rules, pg 266.

What if bulette young lay dormant underground for thirteen years, then start to grow at alarming rates, shedding layers of progressively hard armor plates as they burrow around looking for food? At some point, the desire to mate and find larger prey forces them above ground, where they spend a month or so ravaging the countryside looking for FOOD! and a compatible mating partner. Eventually, any bulettes still surviving burrow back underground where they lay their eggs.

Or maybe they don’t actually lay their eggs. The two to four eggs remain within the female bulette, only to hatch inside and use the adult bulette’s body for food. These larval bulettes are small, white, blind, and don’t move around too much. As they grow, their armor hardens and they start burrowing around looking for underground prey. I imagine the female lies dormant with the eggs for about a year, the larvae hatch and grow slowly for another year, possibly even becoming dormant for a while as their armor comes in. At this point, the larvae sometimes prey on each other, and animals that can burrow deeply enough might prey on the larvae as well. As they grow, the larvae then spend several years underground feeding on insects and other burrowing creatures. Their tunnels are not very big, and stay well below the surface except for the brief times where they rise to the level of a rabbit’s den. The young bulettes hibernate for long periods of time after eating their fill, conserving energy and growing slowly until they have to shed their current armor, re-harden, and look for food again. These hibernate, shed, eat, hibernate cycles repeat several times over the course of a decade.

I imagine that there are remote villages that know when there are small, occasional tremors, and the small burrowing animal population drastically drops that it’s time to start packing up and head for the forests in the mountains where they might be safe from the land sharks that will erupt from the ground after the next thaw looking for larger prey.

Adventure Seeds

• The PCs are travelling and come upon a small hamlet where all the talk is about the suddenly dwindling population of rabbits, moles, and badgers. “Yup. My henhouse has not been bothered by foxes for the last couple of months.” There are discussions and arguments about whether this is a year early or not, how many of the pests there might be this time, the work that needs to be done on their forest cabin, and the best places to keep the sheep next year. Folks are also reminiscing about “Old man Tompson” who insisted last time that he would stay behind, and everyone thought he would be eaten, but there he was sitting atop the rubble of his house, grinning from ear to ear and holding up one massive talon.
• The PCs pass through a valley containing a village, deserted, except for a few chickens and a large flock of sheep. The sheep have been left to roam about freely, but are definitely not wild, as they contain ear tags showing at least half a dozen flock names. A deeply rutted track leads up the hillside and into the forest.
• The PCs are exploring an long abandoned mine, when they find a partially collapsed tunnel containing a bulette shell. As they poke around examining the remains, several very young bulettes, just out of the larval stage, emerge from the walls for a tasty meal.

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Young Bulette Stats

Small to medium monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 12 + 1 per CR
Hit Points 4d10 + 1d10 per CR + Constitution Bonus
Speed 20 feet at CR 1, 30 feet at CR 2-3, 40 feet at CR 4+, burrowing and land speed

STR 9+2 per CR (-1+1 per CR)

DEX 11 (+0)

CON 11+2 per CR (0+1 per CR)

INT 2 (-4)

WIS 10 (+0)

CHR 5 (-3)

Skills Perception +1 +1 per CR
Senses CR 1-2: darkvision 30 feet, tremorsense 30 feet, passive Perception 13
CR 3+: darkvision 60 feet, tremorsense 60 feet, passive Perception 16
Languages –
Challenge 1-4

Standing Leap as in the Monster Manual at CR 4+
Bite. Melee weapon attack: +2 +1 per CR, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: CR1: 10 (4d4 + Str bonus), CR2: 15 (4d6 + Str bonus), CR3: 20 (4d8 + Str bonus), CR4: 25 (4d10 + Str bonus).
Deadly Leap. As in the Monster Manual at CR 4+. At CR 4, DC 14 Str or Dex saving throw, 10 (2d6+3) bludgeoning damage and 10 (2d6+3) slashing damage.