Flowing tentacles and pulpy gray-black, elongated sack of a body...no distinguishing features at all other than the reaching, groping tentacles. Or was there—yes—a lump in the upper body of the thing...a container of sorts for the brain, basal ganglia, or whichever diseased organ governed this horror's loathsome life!

—Brian Lumley, The Burrowers Beneath

Now that Perilous Trials are upon you, grab your seismograph and stay out of those subway tunnels! As you may have noticed it is just a matter of months before Shudde M'ell breaks free from it's imprisonment in the lost city of G'harne, to bring forth it's Chthonic spawn and to bring ruin to the surface dwellers and to prepare it for the return of the CCD's (Cthulhu Cycle Deities). Even though the Chthonian reproduction cycle is notoriously slow and their numbers are limited, I've managed to ****** you a specimen for you to study, fresh from the next upcoming Asylum Pack: Initations of the Favored.

A Wake of Destruction!

The relationship between the Shub-Niggurath faction and giant, subterranean worm-like monstrosities is fairly well documented. An unseen creature destroys a Ghouls' burrow on Burrowing Beneath (Core Set, F137). And no one could have seen the danger coming when there is a Dhole Attack! (In the Dread of Night, F54). But if expert timing in destroying support cards isn't your highest priority, now there is Grasping Chthonian (Initiations of the Favored, F51) entering the fray.

Other than less stealth, a little less terror and a slightly lower skill, it does bring the pain for a lower cost and it has more staying power. More importantly, it can hit non-location support cards, making the Grasping Chthonian a flexible removal tool. Better yet, it's fully compatible with Under the Porch (The Horror Beneath the Surface, F36), turning the drawback of having the character return to your hand at the end of the phase into another chance to crush a support card.

Destabilizing the Flux

Between Shudde M'ells ability, Under the Porch and other mutagens present in Shub-Niggurath's faction, it's hard to keep your tomes safe from the horrors from below. At least you can hold off Shub's hordes temporarily by initiating the Flux Stabilizer (Perilous Trials, F30) – if only for a short while. It should at the very least distract them long enough to get through the first few chapters of these tomes, hopefully long enough for something like Guardian of the Key (Search for the Silver Key, F71) to show up for backup.

Having Chthonians around is a good call for Shub-Niggurath, Dark Mistress of the Woods (The Cacophony, F114) as she wants the flux to be as unstable as possible, so the Dark Youngs can come pouring through the gates. Shudde M'ell itself favors erratic flux as well. Even though it's ability can miss, not yielding a single Chthonian, at least the ability shuffles the deck for a new set of five cards on top. As it's just 2 to activate, eventually it's easy enough to activate it multiple times.

Factions Within Factions

The Dark Goat of the Woods cares for her tribes and between Mi-Go, Dark Young and now, Chthonians she will have to do a lot of mutation and selection to make it work. But if anyone can handle it, it's She With A Thousand Young, by bringing the tribes together. Each are part of a greater whole. Each has something to bring to the table, or, in the case of the burrowers, to sweep something off the table. Keep an eye on that needle, and beware of after shocks. They are coming closer and closer. They are coming straight for you!