Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Worm Week Entry #3: Rider Worm (New Monster)


DESCRIPTION
Rider worms are rust colored and their skin has the appearance of wet red clay. They are quite fast moving and their five-fanged bite emits a very effective paralytic toxin (all saves at -3, duration of 6-24 turns.)

Rider worms enjoy a symbiotic relationship with their carriage worm hosts (see carriage worm), wherein the rider worm does the carriage worm's bidding in furtherance of subduing its prey and, in return, the carriage worm provides it's parasitic forces with nutrition and sustenance. While rider worms are typically non-intelligent, the telepathic commands they receive (through a morse-code like system of electronic pulses) from their carriage worm host are able to provide them with basic objectives against a carriage worm's prey (e.g., to bite a specific nearby creature, to retreat, etc.)

Given the type and the duration of the rider worm's toxin, it is not uncommon for victims debilitated by a rider worm to be lubricated and ingested by the carriage worm, and remain conscious while being digested. The by-product of this digestive process is an intoxicating secretion that provides the rider worm all the nutrients it needs.
Oe/1E STATS
FREQUENCY: Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 20-30
ARMOR CLASS: 7
MOVE: 12"
HIT DICE: 1+2
% IN LAIR: Nil
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 1
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-3 + special
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Paralytic toxin
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to poison
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: See below
ALIGNMENT: Neutral
SIZE: S (1-2' long)
PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil
Attack/Defense Modes: Nil


BX STATS
ARMOR CLASS: 7
HIT DICE: 1+2
MOVE: 120'
ATTACKS: 1 bite
DAMAGE: 1-3 + toxin
NO. APPEARING: 20-30
SAVE AS: Fighter: 1
MORALE: 12 (in presence of host)
TREASURE TYPE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Neutral

1 comment:

  1. This creature is just begging for a Random Table to tamper with the telepathic commands of the Carriage Worm by a spell-caster or psion's use of Telepathy...

    And there might be a few strange ritual applications of deliberately allowing oneself to be ingested by the Carriage Worm, perhaps using it as a sort of coccoon to transmute into a more worm-like form perhaps...

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