Purple Worms


Johtull Wurm by Ian Miller

HD 15, AC as Chain, damage 2d6 (bite).

100' in length, and 12' or more in diameter. Flesh is smooth and rubbery, with a deep indigo hue, marking them as the lords of all worms.

The worm's most defining feature is it's grinning maw of human-like teeth on an otherwise featureless face. It will eat anything in it's path, leaving behind a trail of acid-sludge.

Always attacks living creatures on sight. Never checks morale. 

  • Swallow whole. Whenever the purple worm attacks a creature human-size or smaller, the target must save versus dragon breath or be swallowed whole.

  • Inside the worm. Creatures caught in the worm's stomach suffer 2d6 damage per round, and -4 to all attack rolls.

  • Squishy insides. All damage dealt to the worm from the inside is doubled.

  • Pearly whites. A purple worm has 32 teeth of smooth, white ivory, which are prized among collectors and make excellent grindstones. A single tooth will sell for 1,000 silver pieces.

 ***

Aesthetically, I love Ian Miller's Johtull Wurm for MtG, it always looked so creepy to me. I think of purple worms as being these nasty, slithy creatures, which will eat anything living in their path, and I think this piece evokes that perfectly.

An additional touchstone is the Dodongo Snake from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. These things always creeped me out a lot. Being impervious to damage, they must be killed by feeding them bombs.

The stats are derived from Old School Essentials and Fantastical Medieval Campaigns.

I'm really happy with this take on the monster. I love the way adding the weakness to internal damage changes the encounter to a kind of puzzle. A Fireball to its insides could deal very significant damage, but will a swallowed wizard be able to survive it's acid? The teeth add a nice incentive to actually try to hunt something like this. I like that sort of addition for monsters which don't keep treasure of their own.

Dodongo Snake from Link's Awakening. Screenshot from zeldawiki.wiki


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