Crimson Worlds

Empress Lava Worm

4 min read

columns: 2
forcecolumns: true
layout: Basic Pathfinder 2e Layout
source: "Pathfinder Bestiary 3"
name: "Empress Lava Worm"
level: "Creature 7"
 
alignment: ""
size: "huge"
trait_01: [[animal]]
modifier: 13
perception:
  - name: "Perception"
    desc: "+13; Tremorsense (Imprecise) 60 Feet"
languages: ""
skills:
  - name: "Skills"
    desc: "Athletics: +17, Stealth: +14"
abilityMods: [6, 3, 5, -5, 2, -4]
speed: 25 feet,  burrow 40 feet
sourcebook: "_Pathfinder Bestiary 3_"
ac: 23
armorclass:
  - name: AC
    desc: "23; __Fort__ +18, __Ref__ +14, __Will__ +11"
hp: 140
health:
  - name: ""
  - name: HP
    desc: "140; __Immunities__  fire; __Weaknesses__ water 10"
abilities_top:
  - name: ""
 
  - name: "[[Bestiary Ability Glossary/Tremorsense|Tremorsense (Imprecise) 60 feet]]"
    desc: "  Tremorsense allows a monster to feel the vibrations through a solid surface caused by movement. It is an imprecise sense with a limited range (listed in the ability). Tremorsense functions only if the monster is on the same surface as the subject, and only if the subject is moving along (or burrowing through) the surface."
 
abilities_mid:
  - name: ""
  - name: "Viviparous Birth"
    desc: "  When killed, an empress lava worm violently expels the young it carries. These young erupt as a [[Bestiary 3/Lava Worm Swarm|Lava Worm Swarm]] in the empress lava worm's space.\n\nIn addition, every creature within 20 feet takes 5d10 fire damage (DC 25 Reflex check save) from the splatter of fiery viscera."
 
attacks:
  - name: ""
 
  - name: "**Melee** `pf2:1` Bite"
    desc: "+17 (reach 15 feet)\n__Damage__  2d6 + 9 piercing plus painful-bite 1d6 fire plus painful-bite"
 
  - name: "Borer"
    desc: "  An empress lava worm can leave a tunnel behind itself when it burrows, and it usually does."
 
  - name: "Fiery Wake"
    desc: "`pf2:1`  The empress lava worm Strides, leaving behind dribbles of lava in every square that it passes through.\n\nA creature that enters or begins its turn in such a square takes 3d6 fire damage (DC 22 Fortitude check save). The lava becomes inert after 1 minute."
 
  - name: "Painful Bite"
    desc: "  The bite of an empress lava worm causes excruciating pain. The target must succeed at a DC 25 Fortitude check save or become [[Conditions/Sickened|Sickened 1]] from the pain ([[Conditions/Sickened|Sickened 2]] on a critical failure)."
 
name: Empress Lava Worm
creatures:
  - 1: Empress Lava Worm

When an area lacks sufficient food, the bore worms in a swarm become increasingly agitated and desperate. Eventually, at some chemical signal, the worms begin to cannibalize each other, devouring one other in a frenzy too gruesome to behold. A single worm emerges from this melee victorious; it rapidly grows larger and more voracious until it reaches an absolutely elephantine size.

This empress bore worm lives only briefly, as it sets out in search of a new feeding ground and eats everything in its path in an attempt to sustain itself. However, the empress bore worm’s ravenous metabolism demands more from its body than what it can physically sustain, as it exists only as a vessel for the next generation. Most live only a few days, or weeks at best, traveling and eating nonstop before dying-and in so doing, giving birth to new swarms of bore worms.

These Darklands vermin produce corrosive, noxious slime and deliver agonizing bites, whether as a revolting, wriggling swarm of finger-length worms or a single massive, lurching beast. Among Darklands communities, most inhabitants regard bore worms much in the same way surface cultures speak of maggots or cockroaches-with general disdain and revulsion. Children consider catching a single bore worm and using it to torment others a rite of passage, albeit a dangerous one.

Dwelling in the deepest, hottest reaches of the Darklands, these bizarre creatures consume not living matter but minerals and rare earths. They’re most often found near volcanoes or open magma and will swim through the lava in pursuit of a meal.

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