Century Worm
T
he century worm is patient; it moves slowly
when not on the hunt, conserving energy. The
worm waits a hundred years between its first
meal and its second, and frequently passes
years or decades between meals, content to sit
and digest, buried deep within the earth.
Eventually, however, the century worm
reaches reproductive age, and the pace of its life accelerates.
Suddenly, the worm's interior is full of thousands of mewling
spawn, each wanting a meal of its own, and the worm is
overcome with a ravenous hunger that drives it to swallow
entire villages.
Century Worm Lore
Nature DC 10: Like many worms, the century worm can be
forced to surface by driving an electrical current through the
ground around it, confusing its sense of direction.
Nature DC 15: The century worm's stomach doubles as its
womb, full of larvae nourished on its caustic bile. Creatures
unlucky enough to survive being swallowed are infested with
the fetal worms; the creature invariably dies shortly
thereafter, but the spawn takes up to a century to fully
consume and digest it.
Nature DC 20: Much like certain parsites known to infest
insects, the parasitic larvae hijack a host's senses and
desires, making it crave the pressing dark of the grave.
Century Worm Tactics
An immature century worm never surfaces unless forced to,
instead using its earth quaker trait to creatue fissures, then
when a creature falls in positioning itself beneath and using
its Swallow Earth ability and retreating if it takes 20 or more
damage in a turn.
A century worm heavy with young, however, must feed
urgently. It begins combat the same way, but as soon as it
takes damage uses its Terror From the Deep and begins
swallowing every creature it can reach as quickly as possible.
It uses its Wriggling Progeny each round ordinarily, but if
forced to make one or more saves due to internal damage
begins using its bile surge until its meal calms down.
It typically uses its spit bile only when it has advantage
from its Bile Surge legendary action, or if has no foes in
biting range. Whenever possible, it ends its turn underground
for protection. When it uses its Writhing Dive, it burrows
straight down to leave as inconvenient a hole as possible.
Encounter Groups
CR 26 Encounter 39,200 XP
1 Century Worm (CR 19)
1 Larva Mage (CR 16)
10 Derro Crawlers (CR M4)
Century Worm
Gargantuan monstrosity, unaligned
Armor Class 18 (Natural Armor)
Hit Points 346 (21d20 + 126)
Speed 50 ft., burrow 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
29 (+9) 11 (+0) 23 (+6) 6 (-2) 14 (+2) 8 (-1)
Saving Throws CON +12, WIS +8
Damage Resistances Weapon attacks not made from
inside it
Senses Blindsight 30 ft., Tremorsense 60 ft., Passive
Perception 12
Languages Wormscream
Challenge 19 (22,000 XP)
Tunneler. The worm can burrow through solid rock at
half its burrow speed and leaves a 10-foot-diameter
tunnel in its wake.
Earth Quaker. When the worm burrows 30 feet or fewer
below the surface, 10 foot wide, 10 foot deep fissures
open at the surface above where it passes. Creatures in
the space where a fissure opens must succeed on a DC
20 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone in the trench.
On a success, a creature may use its reaction to move
up to 10 feet to avoid falling in.
Worm Keening. At the beginning of the worm's turn,
each creature within 30 feet of the worm takes 18
(4d8) thunder damage and is deafened. Structures in
the area instead take maximum damage.
Shock Sensitivity. If the worm, or the ground within 30
feet of it is subjected to lightning damage, it cannot
use its Terror From the Deep or Swallow Earth actions
on its next turn, and must use all of its movement to
surface.
Implacable. If the worm fails a saving throw, it can
choose to succeed instead. If it does, it loses 25 hit
points.
Actions
Multiattack. The worm attacks twice with its Spit Bile.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +15 to hit, reach 10 ft.,
one target. Hit: 31 (4d10 + 9) piercing damage. If the
target is a Large or smaller creature, it must succeed on
a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the
worm. A swallowed creature is Blinded and restrained,
it has total cover against attacks and other effects
outside the worm.
If the worm takes 30 damage or more on a single turn
from a creature inside it, the worm must succeed on a
DC 21 Constitution saving throw at the end of that
turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall
prone in a space within 10 feet of the worm. If the
worm dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained
by it and can escape from the corpse by using 20 feet
of movement, exiting prone.
Spit Bile. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 30 ft.,
one target. Hit: 27 (6d8) acid damage. Additionally on
a hit, if the target is wearing nonmagical armor, it takes
a permanent and cumulative −1 penalty to the AC it
offers. Armor reduced to an AC of 10 is destroyed.
Swallow Earth. While burrowing no more than 20 feet
beneath the surface, the worm begins to swallow the
earth above it. A 5 foot radius pit appears on the
surface above the worm; each creature in the area must
succeed on a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw or fall in
and have the worm immediately make a bite attack
against it, or move to the nearest adjacent space on a
success.
Terror From the Deep (Recharge 5-6). The worm moves
up to its burrow speed, then bursts from underground
thrashing in a flurry of debris. Each creature in a 15
foot radius must succeed on a DC 20 Dexterity saving
throw or take 35 (10d6) bludgeoning damage and be
knocked prone, or half damage on a success. As a
bonus action, the worm may make a bite attack against
a creature that failed this saving throw.
Legendary Actions
The worm can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from
the options below.
Writhing Dive. The century worm moves up to half its
burrow speed. Each creature that makes an attack of
opportunity provoked by this movement must succeed
on a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw or fall into the
tunnel left in its wake.
Bile Surge (Costs 2 Actions). Each creature swallowed by
the century worm must succeed on a DC 20
Constitution saving throw or take 22 (5d8) acid
damage. On the worm's following turn, attacks it
makes with its Spit Bile are at advantage.
Wriggling Progeny (Costs 2 Actions). Each creature
swallowed by the century worm must succeed on a DC
20 Constitution saving throw or have its Constitution
modifier reduced by 1d6, to a minimum of 1. A
creature that has its Constitution modifier reduced to 1
in this way takes 28 (8d6) piercing damage and has a
century worm larva burrow into its body and attach to
its spine, then is ejected from the century worm.
While it has a larva burrowed in it, a creature is
Charmed by the worm and must use its action to dash
each turn until it finds soft earth in which to dig a hole
and bury itself alive.
Art Credits You Found the Free Books!
Massacre Wurm by Jason Chan
Bisk, Goblin King by Rae Elderidge

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