Mnemovore Worms and Phantasmal Plants

In the year 1837, a short paper was read by me before the Geological Society of London, “On the Formation of Mould,” in which it was shown that small fragments of burnt marl, cinders, &c., which had been thickly strewed over the surface of several meadows, were found after a few years lying at the depth of some inches beneath the turf, but still forming a layer.  This apparent sinking of superficial bodies is due, as was first suggested to me by Mr. Wedgwood of Maer Hall in Staffordshire, to the large quantity of fine earth continually brought up to the surface by worms in the form of castings.  These castings are sooner or later spread out and cover up any object left on the surface.  I was thus led to conclude that all the vegetable mould over the whole country has passed many times through, and will again pass many times through, the intestinal canals of worms.  Hence the term “animal mould” would be in some respects more appropriate than that commonly used of “vegetable mould.”

-Charles Darwin, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, 1881

 

The world of the jinn is like a translucent layer atop mortal reality, where those made of smokeless fire and other spirits are always unhidden. But, if one with eyes unclouded were to peer into this layer, in addition to the monstrous forms of shimmering spirits, they would see something else: a thin and somewhat mushy layer of what looks like softly glowing dirt. A field of this substance, spirit dirt or memory mold, blankets the world of the jinn, a thin layer even abounding on human architecture and statuary, and on the shoulders of those who bathe (either with water or sand) very infrequently. This humus (not hummus!!) is the product of one of the perhaps most humble subjects of the realm of spirits, the mnemovore worm.

 

Mnemovore Worm

Number Encountered: 2d4 OR 1 swarm

Hit Dice: 1 hit point OR 1+1 HD for a swarm
Attacks: 1 mental bore OR 6 mental bores (when in a swarm) (see below)

Armor: none

Morale: 4 

Mental Bore: Mnemovore worms leap up from the spirit dirt and pass straight through their victim's skull in search of their quarry: memories. The target must save vs. wands or forget something, determined at random:

Roll 1d12:

1. A memory from their youth. 
2. An event from a month previous.
3. An event from a week previous.
4. An event from the day previous.
5. An NPC the party has worked with (this can include hirelings).
6. How to exit the dungeon or how to find their way back home.
7. How to use one of their weapons (disadvantage on to-hit rolls, removed after familiarity returns 1d6 attacks with the weapon later).
8. Ability with a skill or power other than spellcasting (disadvantage on rolls with said skill, removed after familiarity returns 1d10 attempts later).
9. 1 prepared spell (they don't forget the spell completely, they just no longer have it prepared that day; if a non-spellcaster, re-roll).
10. Knowledge of 1 spell entirely (would have to seek out a teacher to re-learn the spell; if a non-spellcaster, re-roll).
11. Ability with a language (bumped down from fluency (if they could write the language, they lose that completely); if rolled a second time (3rd if they could read and write), they no longer speak that language).
12. An aspect of their personality (re-roll INT, WIS, or CHA, determined at random). 

Psychic Attraction: Mnemovore worms are attracted to magic-users, especially higher-level magic-users, as well as charismatic leaders. If a character has 15+ CHA or 3+ spells memorized, roll 1 die size higher on the wandering monster table (so d8 instead of d6, etc.); any results above 6 will be encounters with mnemovore worms. If a character has 6+ spells memorized, roll 2 die sizes higher (so d10 instead of d6, etc.).

Spirit: As spirits, mnemovore worms are immune to damage from mundane weapons. They take damage from magic, heated up silver weapons, intelligent swords, and the attacks of jinn. They can pass through clothing, armor, and flesh as if it wasn't even there, but cannot pass through walls. They can only be seen by jinn or by those with eyes unclouded.

 

Mnemovore worms are a crucial part of the spiritual-magical-mental ecosystem. They are the primary cause for forgetfulness, saving human brains from being overloaded with too much information. And, though humble and small, these little worms are one of the things keeping wizards in check. There are more than a few stories of sorcerer-tyrants from ages past steaming themselves to death in specially constructed silver contraptions heated with boiling water in order to keep the mnemovores out.

 

Memories enter a mnemovore worm through the mouth, and exit as spirit dirt. This memory-based mass serves as the fertile ground for all sorts of phantasmal plants which populate the realm of the jinn. While jinn generally (hehe, jinnerally) eat the same grains and meats that humans do (albeit generally restricted only to what is left over uneaten by humankind), they supplement their diets with such spectral produce. Phantasmal plants are also used by the jinn as medicine, and a gift of ghost-root or invisible leaf (or even the intel to know where a copse of such plants grows) is a reward a jinn may give to an ally, friend, or master.

 

A selection of phantasmal plants from below: a fishroot, a crawling scaletree, some grasping fragrances, some thief's eyes, and a wilting faint

 

1d12 Phantasmal Plants

1. Crawling Scaletree: A race of ancient antediluvian tree with bark like reptile's scales and thin needles on its branches. Ever since going extinct their ghostly forms crawl across the spirit-dirt aimlessly. 
2. Fishroot: From the surface of the memory mold, appears as a mass of long pale fronds, but when uprooted, its wriggling eyeless fish form is revealed. The fronds can be eaten to cure stomach ailments, despite its astringent bitter taste. The fish-like root has a fatty liver that can be rubbed on weapons to make them temporarily phase between worlds. 
3. Ghost Ginkgo: Strangely enough, ginkgo trees span the divide between worlds. Their foul-smelling fruits have no uses, but their seeds and leaves can cure lung and kidney illness. These eastern trees are only known over here in the menageries of sorcerers and nobles. 
4. Ghostgrass: Tall stretches of softly glowing pale green grass, gently swaying in the nonexistent breeze. Causes mysterious feelings of cold when passed through, whether one can see the grass or not. 
5. Grasping Fragrance: Sprouting directly out of the spirit dirt, grasping fragrances reach for those who pass, hoping to attach onto them and spread their fragrance (the means by which they reproduce) far and wide. Smelling the wrist of a grasping fragrance cures paralysis. 
6. Hedgehog Herb: Only visible in the realm of men and beasts during the full moon, and very few even know what it looks like then. When its leaves are rubbed on metal locks, it corrodes them.
7. Pillarwife: About five-foot tall pale trunks that ooze a salty sap when cut. Very confused deer and goats gather around the sites of phantasmal pillarwives without being able to find where the salt lick actually is. 
8. Prickly Marid: A rebellious plant that does anything it can to not be cut, squirming out of the way of blades. Its stalks can be brewed into a tea: drinking it causes blindness, while pouring it on petrified flesh un-petrifies it (and the reverse for un-petrified flesh). 
9. Sprouting Id: A thorny bush with a single bright red flower at its apex. When picked and made into a tea, it brings out the worst, most base aspect in the drinker. 
10. Thief's Eyes: A plant that spans the jinn's world and the world of men and beasts, with eyes clouded it appears as thin stalks tipped by eye-shaped berries, while in the spirit world these eyes are surrounded by ghostly ghoulish faces. When eaten causes hidden gold to glow in one's vision for 1 hour. 
11. Vengeful Father: A sprouting bush that superficially looks like a laid-out dead body. It produces juicy brightly-colored fruit, sweet-smelling and sweet-tasting, that (when the skin is broken) painfully lash out with knife-sharp edges of its inside flesh. 
12. Wilting Faint: Its petals form a vaguely humanoid outline, one arm held across the "forehead" as if fainting. If eaten, induces fainting, but its scent breaks fevers.

-------------

It took everything in my power to not call them ectoplasmic worms a la Noroi or Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi (check those out if you're at all interested in Japanese horror films, Koji Shiraishi is the GOAT). While the above is written with King of Kings in mind, I intend on incorporating the mnemovore worms into other game settings, namely Gamma Ohio or modern horror like the short mini-campaign using Underneath that I made one post about a couple years back. I really gotta get around to cleaning up my notes from that campaign and putting them up here, modern horror TTRPGs is something I'd like to do more with! Anywho, keep your heated silver ready if you've got a lot of thoughts bangin' around up there, and see you next time!

Goin' Through the Fiend Folio Part 15 (Shocker to Symbiotic Jelly)

Back at it again! Here's the last entry in this series, here's a link to the first post, etc. etc., time to pick back up where we last left off!

 

 

 

To begin with, however, I'd like to make some notes of a couple monsters that I accidentally missed had original versions in Fiend Factory! First, my overwhelming favorite from the last entry, the SHEET PHANTOM!!! You can't imagine my delight when I was scrolling through my pdf of the Factory column and saw this delightful illustration of the undead fabric that I had somehow completely missed. Content-wise, the Factory sheet phantom is just a simpler presentation of the phantom and ghoul in the Folio; I really appreciate the economy of language on display. For instance, the sheet ghoul is just one sentence rather than a whole separate entry. I could learn a thing or two from that!

On top of that (literally), it turned out that the berbalang, a Malay vampire that we covered much earlier in this series (like four years ago, embarrassingly enough), was also first present in Fiend Factory! I really like the way they rendered the name, with those cool bat wings on either side; and while the Russ Nicholson illustration in the Folio is distinctive, this one is pretty good too! The description is very similar to the Folio berbalang, so I don't really have anything to add there. Just wanted to make sure to note it!

Shocker

★★☆☆☆

Not the... worst monster I've seen, it's definitely very usable and I think there could be something interesting here, but the way its presented here leaves a Lot to be desired. Basically, its a hazy humanoid crackling with energy that has an electrical shock attack. That's about it; the only other interesting detail is that there are 1d4 gemstones within the shocker's body that will become apparent when it attacks; I quite like that, it feels kinda videogamey in a good way. Everything else is either incredibly basic and boring or just unnecessary. The entire first paragraph is a waste of ink, taking up almost half the creature's description just to say "we don't know where it comes from, maybe this plane, maybe that plane, who knows." Boring! Just commit to something interesting, please. Would be 1 star except I do think I'd use an electricity monster with gems inside, I just would want it to be more interesting than this.

 

Skeleton Warrior

★★★★☆

At first glance, this one looks really generic, typical of the overly taxonomic listings of various undead types in AD&D manuals; it's basically just a fighter class equivalent of the lich. While a fighter-lich might have some abstract value for gameplay, what I find more interesting and more compelling here is the tragic quality implicit in the skeleton warrior's description. They are "clad in the rich, but faded and rotting trappings of a powerful warrior," and are constantly in search of golden circlets which hold their soul similar to a lich's phylactery. Unlike the lich, the skeleton warrior doesn't necessarily know where this circlet is, and if one puts the circlet on their head and is within 240 feet of the skeleton warrior, they control the skeleton warrior's movements and actions. If the skeleton warrior is more than 240 feet away, or one takes off the circlet, the control goes away; and if the circlet is still in the possession of the skeleton warrior's former controller, they will rush at their former controller and attempt to kill them and take the circlet for themselves; for when they put the golden circlet on their head, they immediately die, and the circlet collapses into worthless dust. It also mentions that skeleton warriors will become aware of you the moment you acquire one such golden circlet even if you don't know how it works and seek you out too. This is amazing stuff! The implicit narrative here, of a long dead once-great warrior forced to cling to a pitiful existence while constantly at risk of being turned into little more than a puppet, violently seeking out his own destruction by seizing the golden circlet from its current owner at the first chance he gets, is incredibly compelling! I think that element alone makes me interested in putting a skeleton warrior in my game, although I'd probably make it somewhat unique rather than a whole "type" of undead; and maybe he will plead for the adventurers' mercy, begging to be allowed to collapse into dust, while being controlled by one of the players. 

Skulk

★★★☆☆

Just neat! Apparently, a people group known for cowardice can eventually evolve to develop chameleon-like camouflage powers (only a 10% chance of sighting one when they're not moving!). Who knew! They sneak and skulk (hehehe) around, stealing stuff to survive, using their heightened camouflage to blend into their surroundings. The note that these were once normal human beings who evolved chameleon-like powers makes them much more interesting than if they were just another demihuman race. The description is overwrought but that's to be expected I guess.

 

The five types of slaadi: clockwise from top left, Blue, Green, Red, Grey, and Death Slaadi

SLAAD

★★★★☆

The slaadi might be one of the best, most enduring, most distinctive and fun of the "races" of entities created for the Fiend Folio. I can't help but love an army of extradimensional color-coded frog-men, drawn in Russ Nicholson's delightfully grotty style each sporting somewhere between a shit-eating grin and a toothy grimace. While they dwell in the outer plane of Limbo along with the githzerai (who I explored the implications of in this previous installment), they can also be found "roaming the Prime Material Plane on missions of woe." MISSIONS OF WOE!!!! I love missions of woe!!

 

Even though there are five different types of slaadi, I'm bundling them all together because they're all basically the same. This is where I struggle; while I like the kind of videogamey color-coding of the ranks of malignant slaad, they take up just about two full pages of text to basically just say that this slaad has access to this spell list while this other kind has a this other spell list. It's incredibly unnecessary, and I think could be done in a much more succinct way. All slaadi have a gemstone-like symbol embedded in their skull which, when possessed, allows the holder to give the slaad three commands (although they must be rightfully rewarded for performing the commanded actions or else they'll kill you!). In addition, blue slaadi have sharp blades embedded in the backs of their hands that give them extra attacks, death slaadi are extra powerful (only four are known to exist), green slaadi reincarnate as blue slaadi if their bodies are destroyed but their symbol isn't (weird?), grey slaadi are the Executioners sent to the material plane to do the bidding of slaad leaders, and red slaadi have toxic pellets they inject when they attack that kill the target in 3-36 hours (weird range) on a failed save. Some of these are more distinctive than others; I'm docking one point mostly for the kinda annoying over-taxonomization of it all, but in general, as a concept I love the slaad... and that concept is only strengthened by the entities that lead this merry band of atrocious amphibians.

 

WOE BETIDE BEFORE SSENDAM

Ssendam - Lord of the Insane

★★★★★

The first of the two slaad lords is SSENDAM, a shapeshifter (the more powerful slaadi have the ability to shapeshift between their frog-like form and a human form) that appears either as a human with an accursed black sword or as a golden amoeba with a human brain instead of a nucleus. DUDE!!! That's SICK!!! In actuality, Ssendam's original form is just a golden frog-slaad unconscious in the plane of Limbo while his amoeboid form is in the Prime Material Plane, which I think is much more boring than if he was just a brain-amoeba all the time, but I gotta hand it to them for the amazing image of a shimmering slimy amoeba with a human brain floating at its center commanding an army of devil-frogs. I just love it!! He attacks with corrosive pseudopods, casts a lot of powerful spells, can summon any of the five types of slaadi, and regenerates 3 hp per round in combat, so he's a hefty opponent! Also: "When encountered, Ssendam always gives his true name, though woe betide he who tries to use it." I don't often get to the level of play where my players would be facing off against a creature as powerful as Ssendam, but in terms of high level monsters, this is a great one; I think I'd just make it so he's always in amoeba form (ooh or maybe he can shape his amoeba body into a vaguely humanoid silhouette rather than being able to shapeshift perfectly into a human).

 

COWER BEFORE "DEATH" IN THE CLAWS OF YGORL

Ygorl - Lord of Entropy

★★★★★

It's ya gorl! Just like with Ssendam, Ygorl is a slaad lord with a delightfully incongruent design: a pitch black, skeletal, bat-winged figure wielding a large scythe on the side of which is inscribed the word "DEATH", riding on an ancient brass dragon which the description informs us is named Shkiv. Ygorl doesn't change his form, unlike Ssendam, and nobody has seen his original frog-like form in Limbo (though the description includes speculation that it is a large black-colored slaad; again, I'd much rather Ygorl just always be the dark skeletal figure atop the dragon). Ygorl's death-scythe kills instantly on a failed save, and he attacks with it twice per round (in addition to Shkiv's presumed dragon-breath), as well as having a whole litany of spells and once-per-day powers (including power word: kill; maybe a bit overboard when your scythe already does basically the same thing!). Facing off against either Ssendam or Ygorl would be incredibly difficult, with all the various powers afforded them and their ability to summon other slaadi. I'd like to think that Ssendam and Ygorl are rivals; perhaps their interminable conflict (and whatever annoyance comes from the clone-like githzerai) is the only thing stopping the slaadi from completely overrunning the world; getting caught up in a space-faring extradimensional demon-frog cold war (with the gith as a wild card element) would make for an interesting higher level game!

Snyad (aka Pestie)

★☆☆☆☆

Mischievous and violent small humanoid #1589459. The description even notes that they're a cousin of the mite, which makes it even more obvious just how similar the two are! Not even the two grotty Russ Nicholson drawings featured alongside it can save this one. They dwell in tunnels dug into the sides of corridors that are really well hidden and only emerge to steal from adventuring parties, and never attack; they sometimes work with mites to lay traps, and have no spoken language yet somehow work together. Please just use a goblin.

 

Son of Kyuss

★★★★★

YEAHHH!!! The Son of Kyuss always stuck out to me, like some of the really iconic and distinctly "fiend folio" monsters from toward the beginning of the book. A staggering, shuddering walking corpse, animated by some evil priest long ago whose name still clings to them, with great big green worms writhing around in their eye sockets, nose hole, and mouth. It's an incredibly striking visual!! Just the simple addition of the worms takes this from Yet Another Undead to a unique type of undead that has its own distinctive associations. Mechanically, they're relatively simple yet distinct; they attack primarily by just flailing around their rotten fists which is so unsettling and gross, feeling less like an actual calculated attack and more like them just forcing their dead bulk on you, and there's a chance that the worms in their face-holes can jump out at a target and burrow into their flesh, beelining for the brain in 1d4 rounds. The worms end up feeling like they have more agency than the corpses themselves! On top of that, the Son of Kyuss's unfeeling fists cause LEPROSY. What's not to love! I think that the Sons of Kyuss would fit perfectly in the world of King of Kings, alongside my leprosy-causing assassin-geckos and parrot-fiends.

 

 

Hobbitses (aka silly little guys) are constantly in danger of being in the dungeon

Stunjelly

★★★☆☆

A relative of the gelatinous cube that trades the cube's transparent hallway-filling slime for a translucent surface that visually imitates the look of a stone wall. A lesser-known entrant into the "every single surface and object in the dungeon can and will kill you" genre! I personally find this less fun and evocative than the kinda weirder lurker above or trapper, but I guess it fills the space between those two! Paralyzes targets with a touch before trying to engulf and digest them. It's okay! 

 

Sussurus

★★★★★

The sussurus (taking its name from susurration, a term for a murmuring, whispering sound) is another Fiend Folio classic, a weird headless ape-thing made out of knotted thorny matter (it looks like a plant but the description doesn't say it is), criss-crossed with hollow tunnels that produce a droning sound when air moves through them. The sussurus "sees" through vibrations, feeds on the air, and is rendered briefly immobile by strong enough wind surging through its passageways. The "drone song" of the sussurus causes undead creatures to become placid, to enter a "sleep of the dead" where they stand there listlessly, only breaking out of it when attacked. Additionally, it hates fire; not because it is susceptible to burning, but because fire burns away oxygen! I just love how weird all of the various elements of the sussurus are, yet they feel just right all together, and mysterious enough to prompt interesting questions from the hypothetical players: where did these things come from, and why does the droning sound of their breathing cause undead to fall into a peaceful standing-sleep? I'd also recommend checking out this really great article over at Bogleech.com all about the various forms the sussurus has taken across the different editions of D&D!

 

Svirfneblin (aka Deep Gnome)

★★☆☆☆

Please Gary... no more demihuman races... there's too many of them... Svirfneblin first appear in the original series of adventure modules that first introduced the Underdark, the same origin point as the Drow and Kuo-Toa. Perhaps this is just due to my inclination toward weird evil things but the Svirfneblin feel like the weakest of the new subterranean races introduced in that line of modules. And yet, the Folio takes almost a page and a half to describe Deep Gnome powers and abilities, the weapons they carry, the makeup of their parties, etc. etc. It's a lot like the overwrought description for the Kuo-Toa honestly. Notably, they can summon earth elementals, and when the going gets tough they flee into tunnels carved exactly to their size (so I guess the players wouldn't be able to follow after... unless they were halflings or gnomes themselves?), and they'll only assist the players for a fee. The Russ Nicholson illustration does have a Jim Henson's Labyrinth quality to it which I like, but Svirfneblin are kinda meh... kinda like the name though! I think I'd just prefer something more like folkloric kobolds than yet-another-gnome-variant.

 

Symbiotic Jelly

★☆☆☆☆

Ahh... the furtive symbiotic jelly, so easily forgotten... and for good reason! I love weird slimes and oozes, I love monsters with very particular niches and lifestyles, but there is just Too Much going on with this monster in terms of what it does. The description itself isn't particularly long, but it proscribes such a particular mode of behavior for the jelly that I can't imagine ever actually putting it into a game. In basic terms, the symbiotic jelly has to feed on a carnivorous creature at the same time as the carnivore is feeding; weird, but alright. What it does to ensure this happens is, it hangs around in a monster's lair, and when the monster returns, it charms the creature and makes it attack whatever enters the lair afterward, and then uses a magical illusion power to make the carnivorous monster look weaker than it really is, and make the lair look like its filled with treasure when it isn't. I guess, to trick players into going into the lair because it'll seem like treasure that they can easily grab without having to worry about the monster. What is even the point of this. Moreso than the stunjelly or the lurker above or whatever, this monster seems like it only exists to fuck with the players. 

 

...strangely enough though, this player-fucking-with monster is actually our only creature in this post (not counting the ones I missed previously at the top) that has an original from the Fiend Factory; and the original name is So much better.

The CHAOTICUS SYMBIOTICUS??? I kinda really love the illustration here actually; the description is, as expected, much simpler, but basically hits the same notes as the Folio description. Don Turnbull loved this thing apparently:

Cheerio Fred! Perhaps his suggestion of only one per dungeon is a good one; I for one would only want one of these per campaign, if at all!

Now that was way more monsters than I originally planned on covering, but I didn't want to cut S into even smaller chunks. Sorry about that! I hope it's still interesting and fun to read :) Stay tuned next time for even more weirdos, starting with the letter T!

The Nume-serpent (A Monster for King of Kings)

Just a nice little monster for today... a bit of creative block has me caught between different ideas right now, but I've had adapting this little guy to King of Kings on my mind for a week or two. I say "adapting" because this is a new version of a monster I came up with for a setting years ago, a design that has stuck with me for quite some time. Also this post features some of my own art!

To the east there sits the march of Numistan, the Land of Coins. A mountainous and looming land, it is bisected by the domain of the King of Kings of the Enlightened Empire on the western flank and the kingdom of the southern Dog-Headed Men on the eastern flank. Its rocky outcroppings are rich with gold and silver, and lapis lazuli to boot, and so the mountain valleys have been fought over by enemy empires and feuding kings over the centuries. Its air is filled with the smoke of burning villages and coin mints. Great statues carved into the sides of mountains gaze across the horizon like blind gods. Ancient cities reborn with every conquest sit in isolated mountain valleys, their walls bedecked with rugs.

In the valleys of Numistan, there dwells a creature called the Nume-serpent. This furry little worm has a single eye which rolls around in its socket as it wriggles in the dirt and hides in the tall grasses. They can imitate sounds to trick their prey (mostly rodents and insects), and sometimes have been known to mimic the sounds of the hammers that bend the coins into shape, or the crackling of fire, or misunderstood snippets of speech they hear on the edges of human settlements. Nume-serpents despise gold and all things that hoard gold (whether greedy men, hungry ants, or magpie gryphons). They seem to panic whenever they see the glittering stuff, and are known to bury coins or chunks of gold in a desperate attempt to stop anything from finding it. Seekers after gold who travel through Numistan say that the surest way to find the glittering stuff is to see where the nume-serpents are not, or where they flee from in disgust. The nume-serpent is an anxious little thing.

The nume-serpent is sometimes kept as a pet. The merchants of the mountain passes and the desert roads bring forth their caged nume-serpent to see whether coin is true gold or not; if a coin is a forgery, the nume-serpent will likely curl around it rather than flee in terror. The nobles of the lands west of Numistan find the little creatures a fun novelty. They wear them draped on their shoulders as living stoles, and teach them silly little phrases to show off their mimicry, and put them in silly little hats. The serpents likely resent this. Spies and assassins keep nume-serpents for their weak venom. It is not a deadly nor paralytic venom; it simply weakens one's muscles slowly.

Nume-serpent

Armor Class: 11

Hit Dice: 1-1

Attacks: 1 x bite (1d6 + weakening venom)

To-Hit: +0

Movement: 90' (30')

Saving Throws: D12/W13/P14/B15/S16

Morale: 4

Alignment: Neutral

XP: 7

Number Appearing: 1d6 (2d6)

Atrophy Venom: The venomous fangs of the nume-serpent secrete a soft venom that weakens muscles. If successfully hit, save vs paralysis or take -1 to all rolls that involve physical exertion. Take an additional -1 every subsequent turn.

Aversion to Gold: When presented with gold in any form, the nume-serpent will attempt to flee or hide. If gold is presented with no other creatures around, the nume-serpent will attempt to bury it. 

Mimicry: Nume-serpents are able to imitate with incredible accuracy any sound that they hear. The imitation is made more accurate just by listening to the sound repeatedly.

The nume-serpent is a new rendition of a creature concept I came up with for one of my earliest D&D worlds. At the time I called it a gnomesnake, and it was a venomous one-eyed furry serpent wearing a gnome hat, intelligent and living in small villages in tall grasses. These are admittedly less intelligent than the original version, but I think the concept here is made even more interesting by the connection to gold and such... In my mind, the gnomesnake, now nume-serpent, is an iconic creature of mine, at least to me. I'm happy to have them in King of Kings; the first time I've used them since at least five years ago.

Sandstorm Worms

 In the sandy wasteland-like deserts which border the satrapies on the edge of the Empire to the north and south, numerous kinds of worms flourish. The sands have had an efflorescence of diverse worm species, adapted to almost every niche and lifestyle, forced into unusual modes of living by the stark environments in which they live. Some of the more unusual of these are the sessile sorts of worms, one of the more well known of which being the sandstorm worm.

They look almost like sulfide worms,
but in deserts and not deep sea

Sandstorm worms ensconce themselves in a partially translucent shell that keeps them moist and slimy, hibernating and resting until the winds kick up billowing clouds of sand. Sand is what the worms eat, catching the ground up particles on their long bodies that extend high into the air during sandstorms. If the winds calm for months on end, the worms tear their shells off of the rocks they are rooted in and crawl to a new location, eating sand from the dunes that surround them until they reach a new home. This is a dangerous thing for them, however; the horrible heat of the sun will kill them in only a few hours. They are only able to eat sand during sandstorms because of the darkness afforded them by the clouds of dust.

The gullet of the sandstorm worm is filled with pearls, black and brown in coloration. The easiest way to get at them is to find a worm with its body extended out from its moist shell, for they are almost defenseless from that position, but most of the time this means venturing out to harvest wormpearls during a desert sandstorm, an incredibly dangerous proposition indeed. The worm's shell is incredibly difficult to pierce otherwise. The chiefs of the nomads in the worm deserts often put wormpearls on their necks or on their crowns, showing off the natural wealth of their environment, and shipments of rare wormpearls are a luxury item worth great amounts in cities and towns. In the capital, they compete with gulf pearls, which are more common but, so it is said, less beautiful.

A sandstorm worm with no pearls will starve, for the pearls are part of their digestion process. After enough time, a wormpearl will melt away as new ones take its place, the worm's guts filled to the brim with the glittering stomach-rocks.

Sandstorm Worm

Armor Class: 19 (in shell), 7 (out of shell)

Hit Dice: 3

Attacks: flailing (1d12+1 to all in melee range)

To-Hit: +5

Movement: 20' (0')

Saving Throws: D12/W13/P14/B15/S16 (see below)

Morale: 6

Alignment: Neutral

XP: 35

Number Appearing: 1d6 (2d6)

Damage Reduction: When the worm is in its shell, it takes 3 fewer points of damage from all weaponry other than bludgeon weapons. Missile attacks have no effect when in its shell.

Decapitation: Two-handed bladed melee weapons instantly kill the worm when it is extended out of its shell, cutting it in two.

Immobile: Due to their very slow movement and general sessile behavior, sandstorm worms cannot move in combat and automatically fail any saving throws against area of effect powers, such as spells and dragon breath. When the worm is extended outside of its shell, its AC is 7.

Wormpearl: 200 coins per pearl (average of 4d6 large pearls per worm). 2 pearls take up one inventory slot.

Oh Hey Also How About Some Sandstorm Rules

Since the sandstorm worm's biggest challenge and consideration is having to reach it and deal with during a sandstorm, probably should have something about when sandstorms happen and what affect they have.

When the characters are venturing through a desert, there is a percentage chance that a dust storm kicks up on each watch (i.e. each time the group enters a 6 mile hex). The chance depends on the season, although it may vary by desert and its relative position in the continent.

    Spring: 20%

    Summer: 30%

    Fall: 10%

    Winter: 5%

If two dust storms are rolled on the same day, it means a sand storm has begun. 

During a dust storm, visibility is slightly hampered but conditions are not especially more dangerous. Due to the reduced visibility, all creatures take -2 to all rolls made in the dust storm. Uncovered light sources such as torches will automatically be snuffed out, and lanterns will be snuffed out half the time. Sandstorm worms will begin to reveal themselves during dust storms.

During a sandstorm, visibility is heavily hampered and conditions become much more dangerous. All creatures caught in the sandstorm take -4 to all rolls, and both uncovered and covered light sources will be snuffed out. Creatures caught in the storm take 1d3 damage per round, and there is a chance of suffocation from the sand if a creature that breathes does not cover their mouth and nose. A creature with uncovered mouth and nose has a number of rounds equal to their CON score before they suffocate. Additionally, travel through a sandstorm increases the chance of getting lost when traveling to 5-in-6.

(The above sandstorm rules are influenced by the sandstorm rules from the 3.5e book Sandstorm but reinterpreted through a B/X lens, with chances for sandstorms by hex rather than by DM fiat. Also since traveling through the desert during a sandstorm is a recipe for getting lost, even getting to the worms in the first place is a bit of a feat in and of itself)

Burgeoning Worm

 Yknow for a blog named "Save vs. Worm", not a single worm has graced my posts! It is time to rectify that!

(Oh and warning for body horror and parasitism here)