3.5 earthen grasp, grapple

[Ferathos]

Hello everyone, I'm new to the Forum. My name is Ferathos and I have come with a simple rules question.
Grapple mechanics in 3.5 state that the one who's performing the grapple, if successful, has to move to the grappled place if he intends to maintain the action. If not, the one restrained should be released.
I have started playing a warlock recently and picked up the earthen grasp invocation. As the spell says, the hands created cannot move, and as such my interpretation is that after landing the attack, winning the grapple check and dealing damage, the prey should be freed.
Thank you in advance for your answers, and I apologize for any spelling mistakes.

[skunk3]

The prey is not freed. The invocation works more or less like the spell. The hand lasts for 2 rounds/level and can continue to grapple whatever it is grappling until it fails. Even if it does fail and the prey is not grappled, you can just try it again next round. :)

This is my interpretation.

[Kelb_Panthera]

You would be technically correct for any target that is not in the target square you cast the spell on but allowing the spell to pull foes into its square wouldn't make the spell notably stronger.

Since earthen grasp is a transmutation rather than a conjuration though, you can cast it on an occupied square just fine and any target in that square would be grappled for the duration of the spell or until they out-grapple the earthen hand.

[Ferathos]

Thank you for your answers, I apologize for the delayed reply.