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Usually, yes - Perception vs. Stealth.
The GM can make up all kinds of modifiers. (If you're walking across dunes you expect the sand to shift so -10 to detect the burrower. If the ground is densely packed earth the burrowing leaves a slight surface trace; +5). Completely up to him.
And the GM might decide that some situations are so unexpected there's no way you can react (though these should be very rare).
What you are describing is a "surprise round." Barring some unusual abilities any creature that can act in a surprise round may only take a move or a standard action. That means the WiSC could burrow up to the surface (a move) but couldn't attack the same round (a standard). After that you would go to the standard initiative order. Check out page 178 of the Core Rulebook.
Uncanny Dodge only means you aren't flat-footed to an attack. You can still be surprised.
Usually, yes - Perception vs. Stealth.
The GM can make up all kinds of modifiers. (If you're walking across dunes you expect the sand to shift so -10 to detect the burrower. If the ground is densely packed earth the burrowing leaves a slight surface trace; +5). Completely up to him.
And the GM might decide that some situations are so unexpected there's no way you can react (though these should be very rare).
What you are describing is a "surprise round." Barring some unusual abilities any creature that can act in a surprise round may only take a move or a standard action. That means the WiSC could burrow up to the surface (a move) but couldn't attack the same round (a standard). After that you would go to the standard initiative order. Check out page 178 of the Core Rulebook.
Uncanny Dodge only means you aren't flat-footed to an attack. You can still be surprised.
While I agree that it's Preception vs Stealth I disagree that moving above ground is the action on the surprise round (assuming preception checks fail). Rather the surprise round takes place after the creature bursts forth, otherwise you get really stupid surprise rounds.
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It is of course completely up to the GM what constitutes the surprise.
In my view (and most of the GMs I know) the surprise round is the "holy crap we weren't expecting that!" Not necessarily the "extra chance for the bad guys to attack."
A swathed woman raising her veil to reveal that she is a Medusa. The man in the crowd next to you quick-draws a dagger and stabs you. You walk around a corner, see a shadow mastiff - will it surprise you with its bay? In the case of the WiSC it is a very slow creature. Managing to burrow under someone with its 5' movement is definitely a surprise to me.
Bear in mind that even after the surprise round you go to normal initiative. I have seen many occasions where the monster beats all or most of the PCs on initiative. So the WiSC could possibly burrow up, then get a full-round attack off before anyone else can act.
edit: again, I don't want to argue about "when the surprise round starts." That's going to be completely up to the GM and depend heavily on the narrative being told. My intention was to give the OP some pointers if her/his group is trying to stick close to "the rules."
That's going to be completely up to the GM and depend heavily on the narrative being told
I agree to this, and you are correct that the GM has final decision on this. Let me just give one example encounter and then state one thing that happened to me in a PFS game.
What makes a better surprise round when bandits are laying in wait, hiding and laying prone. Would you force them to stand during the surprise round or would them standing up be what triggers the surprise round?
Once in a PFS game the GM made opening the door an action in the surprise round, this was very unsatisfying as it cost one person an action and the rest of us had to delay down to his very low initiative roll. I felt this would have been better had opening the door as the trigger for the surprise round.
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It seems to happen a few times per game session.
This is what worries me about the situation.
Sometimes the party gets ambushed. Sometimes the GM engineers things to make sure they get ambushed, either by using stealth tricks within RAW or fiat, because it's good storytelling (though I wouldn't negate PC abilities like superior senses without a very good in-game justification). But getting ambushed several times per game session is probably not good storytelling.
You mentioned you're new. Is the GM also new? Are they unfamiliar with the rules involved in Stealth vs Perception checks and surprise rounds?
In the event the GM is rolling Perception secretly (and this is common practice), does your entire party have abysmal Perception skill? Is the entire party surprised, or just some of them?
I'll be honest, I kinda over-use Surprise rounds myself while GMing, if only to give some enemies (usually ones alone) the chance to attack before the 4 Man Murder Squad takes them down.
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You're right in a way. You probably should have been able to react in some ways.
But GMing is 1 part rules 3 parts story telling. If the story or scene works better by having some unique skill not work as written then so be it. As long as he isn't breaking anything too badly and you're having fun I wouldn't worry.
This.
If your GM is doing this to kill off PCs, then that's bad. If he does it to give you a good challenge, make you feel the struggle, and value your lives, while keeping it fun - Then you have a great GM :)
It is important that he only bend the rules at most, primarily to make sure his/her story plays out to the best ways possible.