Worm Week Continues! New Monster: Carriage Worm

PLASE NOTE: Tuesdays is normally "Illustration of the Week" day, so I hope today's listing lives up to the both the promise of an "Illustration of the Week, as well as a new "Worm Week" entry.

DESCRIPTION The carriage worm appears as a giant armored worm with overlapping plates, and its head features a sucker like mouth and a pair of optic tentacles. A carriage worm is most active when the ground is moist (e.g., after a long rain) and at night, preferring to avoid the light and heat of day. When burrowing, it's not uncommon for its immense size and length to produce tunnels up to 7' in diameter and dozens of miles long. At any given time, a carriage worm has 20-30 rider worms (see rider worm) under the folds of its plates and it acts as a sort of "host" for the rider worms who feed from the carriage worm through a series of secretion glands located under its plates. In attack situations, the carriage worm communicates telepathically with its passengers, ordering them to attack the carriage worm's opponent(s.) When the rider worms have successfully paralyzed the carriage worm's victims, they will climb back under the plates of the carriage worm, then the carriage worm will discharge a lubricating sputum from its mouth and devour its prey whole. As the carriage worm's meal is digested, it creates the intoxicating secretion from which the rider worms extract their nutrition. The carriage worm can "spit" its slippery secretion up to a distance of 10'. Upon a successful "to hit" roll, the worm's target loses 1 point of armor class per digit of the resulting "to hit" roll over the target "to hit" number, until the secretion has been cleaned off. Rider worm stats to come tomorrow!

Oe/1E STATS FREQUENCY: Rare NO. APPEARING: 1 ARMOR CLASS: 3 MOVE: 6" (3") HIT DICE: 12 % IN LAIR: Nil TREASURE TYPE: Nil NO. OF ATTACKS: 1 + special DAMAGE/ATTACK: See below SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Non- ALIGNMENT: Neutral SIZE: L (40-50' long) PSIONIC ABILITY: See below Attack/Defense Modes: Nil BX STATS ARMOR CLASS: 3 HIT DICE: 12** MOVE: 60' (30') ATTACKS: 1 spit + special DAMAGE: See below NO. APPEARING: 1 SAVE AS: Fighter: 7 MORALE: 10 TREASURE TYPE: Nil ALIGNMENT: Neutral