Burning Wheel

They are parasites that infect mountains. These creatures absorb a mountain and then use it to lure organic life into their bodies to crush them up and eat them.

A fully grown Wooshk will look like a ruby red mountain. They have some camouflage in icy biomes snow covers most of their body. In warmer climates plant growth will often grow in abundance as the Wooshk feeds the plants some its nutrition from its victims as the camouflage aids the Wooshk in trapping people

- New Wooshks are created from existing Wooshks. A Wooshk in the later stages of its life will extend its long tendrils deep underground hundreds of miles. These tendrils will eventually discover a new viable habitat and begin to tunnel upwards. Somewhere in this process the Old Wooshk severs its connection to the tendril much like it can open and close its cave mouths. The new tendril slowly makes its way up through the base of the new mountain home.

-Early Wooshk Colony. The tendril slowly gains body mass as it consumes minerals and crystals within the mountain, great tunnel networks are slowly formed as the Wooshk seeks out veins of resources. At this point the mind of a Wooshk is only just beginning to form it only has one directive it must feed. During this stage the surrounding area will suffer from small earthquakes as the Wooshk slowly ripps apart the inner layers of the mountain.

-Entrenched Wooshk. As the Wooshk integrates the mountains resources into its body mass the Wooshk begins to grow tendrils that begin growing out of the mountain and start covering the outer layer. Within a couple of days the tendrils have covered the entire mountain. The tendrils then begin to flatten and form a outer protective shell of the wooshk. At this point the mountain is the Wooshk as every rock, stone, crystal has been infused with the Wooshk organism.

-Awakened Wooshk. An awakened Wooshk has reached a size where it can no longer fuel itself on just the raw materials of the mountain and instead it needs organic matter.

Once the assimilation of the mountain is complete the Wooshk begins to develop a mind that is capable of planning. These Wooshks are cunning and will try and lure prey into their bodies in any way they can. Once inside the Wooshk crushes them up by sealing whatever cave was made for their prey. Their bones and sinew ground up into a liquid that then sits within the Wooshk slowly decomposing into the rock.

-Old Wooshk. When Wooshks get old they slowly begin retracting their skin into the mountain. With each loss of territory the central hub of the mountain gets more and more stuffed with Wooshk material. Eventually once this area deep within the mountain is the only thing left of the Wooshk it dies usually leaving a large cavern of Crystalised Wooshk flesh. The mountain its staying in often has some shift as the tunnels the Wooshk made are no longer stable. Its outer shell is also impacted and any wildlife or organic matter on top of the mountain is destroyed.

-Unsated Wooshk. Sometimes a Wooshk is very unsuccessful in luring prey. When this happens great earthquakes rock the area as the Wooshk shudders in hunger. If it does not solve the problem quickly the flesh on the outside of the mountain begins to die off. In this case the Wooshk will leave a carcase of crystalized Wooshk flesh all over the mountain. The Wooshk eventually goes into a coma from lack of food and never reawakens if there is no food offered to it.