Horrible Screaming Tentacles From Many Miles Below The Surface

or HSTFMMBTS for short.

This would be a rare encounter, and would be found, rather counter-intuitively, at the surface.

Two larger tentacles (feel free to make them look as you wish, or perhaps make them match nearby surroundings in some way) shoot up through the ground on either side of the player to prevent escape until the creature is defeated.
If there will be flight of some kind, then the tentacles would slither around to make a horrible, horrible ceiling.

The tentacles would scream periodically emitting an aoe burst of sound nearby them, from one of their many mouths (gameplay wise there would be about 4-6 total, 2-3 on each of either side.). Additionally, the creature could send up an eye stalk/tentacle somewhere along the ground to check player position, then send out secondary tentacles from the primary ones at wherever it saw the player last.

The player may destroy one tentacle and escape, but receive no reward, or may continue to fight the remaining (pissed off) tentacle to gain something after it is defeated. Alternatively, if there will be a way to dig, the player could be required to dig down a little bit to be able to attack a brain tentacle/pod hidden just beneath the surface, and after some damage, the creature would fill in the holes to force you to find it again.


This encounter allows you to balance an endgame(?) fight around the player not being able to fly around (a la terraria), thus increasing difficulty and making for some interesting combat.

Feel free to alter any of this to accommodate gameplay mechanics, as I haven't really seen much by way of what all will be included in Starbound.

You already have a buyer in my fiance and me. We are both excited to play Starbound together! ^_^


:edit: I just read about the idea of having monster pets in the game, and thus I would like to add: while fighting there could be "Monopods" hopping about, which are simply eyeballs atop a single tentacle which it uses more or less like a pogo-stick. Perhaps they would spawn only rarely forcing the player to ....entertain... the primary monster until one appears for capture. I foresee the Monopod becoming a popular pet due to possible cuteness and pathetic-ness.

 

bump?