Necral Worm Swarm

A single finger-length bore worm is unpleasant but mostly innocuous. Ten thousand bore worms, on the other hand, pose a formidable threat to even seasoned adventurers. The countless worms form a roiling, rancid mass of acid and pain, capable of delivering a hideous death to any person or beast unable to escape them. Unfortunately for any creature other than a bore worm, most encounters involve swarms.

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.

An undead sorcerer in the ghoul-run Darklands city of Nemret Noktoria developed necral worms about 60 years ago by filling an empress bore worm's abandoned exoskeleton with a unique alchemical paste. These undead bore worms radiate the very energies of death, making them surprisingly sophisticated magical batteries. Less pleasant entities often use them as magical tools.