Huge and Hungry: Purple Worms

“These huge and hungry monsters lurk nearly everywhere just beneath the surface of the land… Purple Worms never check morale and will always attack” —Dungeons and Dragons Book II: Monsters and Treasures (1974).

Purple worms have seemingly been in every single edition of D&D, plus David R. Megarry’s Dungeon! board game (1975). They feature prominently in the underworld tableau on the back cover of the 1e Monster Manual (1977). In the early versions of the game purple worms were one of the apex challenges, found only on the lowest dungeon level matrices: 50 feet long and eight to ten feet in diameter, with 15d8 Hit Dice, a poison sting, and the ability to swallow an ogre whole, they were not to be trifled with. For perspective, Orcus and Demogorgon “only” had 12d12 and 10d20 HD respectively in Eldritch Wizardry (1975).

Although I had a pretty decent pre-painted purple worm from the 2006 War of the Dragon Queen set, I grabbed the Goremaw miniature from the Reaper Bones 3: The Search for Mr. Bones Kickstarter back in 2015. I think my plan was to paint this one, like Mashaaf, for my Age of Worms campaign, possibly as a stand-in for an Ulgurstasta. In any case, this miniature became yet another Bones 3 model stuck in my painting logjam.

I finally got around to tackling this figure in April and once again, a Michael Mordor tutorial proved extremely helpful. I primed the model with Army Painter spray-on Uniform Gray, then used Army Painter Alien Purple for the base coat. Due to the sheet size of Goremaw, the airbrush helped make quick work of this step. I then used Army Painter purple tone before painting a yellowed bone color on the horns/teeth/whatever that cover its body. Mordor used more of a pure white on those. I tried his technique of washing the teeth with Army Painter Strong Tone, then wicking away the highlighted areas with a Q-Tip. I didn’t get the same great results he got, in part because my bone color was already stained and the Strong Tone didn’t create a good enough contrast. I would have been better off using a pure white to pull off this technique.

I then did a lot of dry brushing. I initially thought I had done too much but overall I’m satisfied with the results. This was an incredibly fun model to paint: the Bobby Jackson sculpt has a very dynamic, writhing pose and looks like the monster just burst out of the dungeon floor to surprise some poor adventurers. It’s also a suitably large model, heavy in the hand and about 100mm in diameter at the base, suitable for its Gargantuan size.

Purple Worms in the Great Dungeon

Purple worms are only found in the North within the basin of the Great Gobbo River. It is said that the hills of granite and ledge that encircle the basin act as natural barriers to the worms, preventing their expansion into other areas. Along the flood plains and foothills of the Gobbo the worms are a frequent terror, and a mottled variety are found living in the muck at the bottom of Black Lake. The dragon Old Brokehorn has been spooted fighting more than one of these horrors, a terrifying struggle between two titans. Purple worms are said to occasionally tunnel into the deepest levels of the Great Dungeon, and particularly bold adventurers have sought out worm tunnels as a possible new route into the lower halls. Clutches of purple worm eggs are sometimes found with 1d10+10 immature worms.

The following text is Open Game Content.

Purple Worm, Immature

This flailing, wriggling creature appears to be a gigantic earthworm, five feet long and nearly a foot round, its slimy skin colored a purple so dark as to be nearly black.

0e

Immature Purple Worm CL 3 (60 XP)

An immature purple worm has a poisonous sting but cannot swallow whole.

HD 1; AC 4 [15]; Atk 1 bite (1d6), sting (1d4 + poison); Move 4; Save 17; AL N; Special lethal poison (+4 saving throw).

3.5e

Immature Purple Worm CR 1/2

Always N Medium magical beast

Init +0; Senses tremorsense 30 ft.; Listen +2

Defense

AC 16 (+6 natural), touch 10, flat-footed 16

hp 9 (1d10+4)

Fort +2, Ref +2, Will -2

Offense

Spd 10 ft., burrow 10 ft., swim 5 ft.

Melee 1 bite +1 (1d6), 1 sting -4 (1d4 plus poison)

Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

Special Attacks poison (DC 11, 1d2 Str/1d4 Str)

Statistics

Str 11, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 1, Wis 6, Cha 6

Base Atk +1; Grp +1

Feats Toughness

Skills Listen +2, Swim +0

Ecology

Environment Underground

Organization hatching (11–20)

Treasure standard

Advancement 2–5 HD (Medium); 6–10 HD (Large); 11–15 HD (Huge)

5e

Immature Purple Worm

Medium monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 14 (natural)
Hit Points 22 (4d8 + 4)
Speed 20 ft., burrow 10 ft.
Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
11 (+0)	10 (+0)	13 (+1)	1 (-5)	6 (-2)	4 (-3)
Saving Throws Con +3, Wis +0
Senses blindsight 15 ft., tremorsense 30 ft., passive Perception 8
Languages —
Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)
Actions
Multiattack. The worm makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its stinger.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) piercing damage.
Stinger. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 2 (1d4) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 3 (1d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

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