Desert Worm (Sand worm)
- Armor Class
- 6 [13]
- Hit Dice
- 4
- Attacks
- Bite (1d6+1)
- Special
- fear, swallow, surprise
- Move
- 12 Burrow 9
- HDE/XP
- 5/240
Description
Desert worms, also called sand worms, are giganticl carnivorous worms that live beneath the desert sands. They have gaping mouths full of serrated teeth, but no eyes or other sense organs. They are able to detect vibrations within 120 feet of their location, and will attack anything that moves by bursting up from beneath the sand, gaining surprise on a 1-4 on 1d6. On a natural-20 attack roll, a desert worm will swallow any human-sized or smaller creature it is attacking whole, dealing 1d6 points of damage every round after swallowing them to its prey.
The worm can only swallow one creature at a time. Creatures that have been swallowd can attempt to escape by dealing at least 15 points of damage to the worm with a small blade, such as a dagger from inside the belly of the beast, but it is extremely difficult to-hit under these circumstances, and only a roll of exactly 20 will hit. Desert dwelling peoples live in fear of the desert worms, this fear causing those who know of them to avoid making loud noises or even traveling through the worm's territory at all. Legends say that desert worms guard an ancient treasure, buried deep beneath the sand. Other legends tell of gigantic desert worms big enough to swallow an entire wagon whole, living the the deepest reaches of the desert.
Source note: This creature is converted from The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign – Omnibus Edition, 1st Edition Release 4, © 2010–2025 Chris Gonnerman, R. Kevin Smoot, James Lemon, Matt Sluis, and Contributors. The Basic Fantasy Field Guide textual material is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International; this page adapts that creature to White Box.