Monster Mash: Gummy Worm
I’ve been doing some housekeeping on the site, recategorising posts and updating images and broken links. I came across this one sitting in drafts and I’m genuinely not sure why I never published it, so here it is – 6 years after I originally wrote it.
On Saturday I appeared on The RPG Lab’s Twitch channel with a handful of really talented creators, where we were discussing D&D monsters and attempting to combine some already-existing creatures into something new and interesting.
For my mashup I chose to combine two of my favourite monsters – the Purple Worm and the Gelatinous Cube – creating a rolling ooze worm that I dubbed the Gummy Worm.
If you head over to The RPG Lab you’ll be able to find the VOD of the stream, where I talk about some of the design decisions that went into creating this thing. I’m not sure how long that will remain available, so in a future post I’ll write at more length about combining existing monsters into new creations, and we’ll work on creating some more mashups.
For now you can download the Gummy Worm, and use the adventure hooks here to introduce it into your games. Enjoy!
[Click to download PDF for free]
Gummy Worm Adventure Hooks
These hooks are designed to be used while your party are underground, be it in tunnels and cave system or the Underdark itself.
- Surprise! The party are resting up in a stronghold or settlement somewhere in the Underdark. As they chat, drink, or engage in whatever they’re currently doing, there is a chance (DC 14 Wisdom (Perception)) that somebody notices the sound of shifting earth from somewhere beyond the nearest wall. A few moments later the masonry crumbles and falls apart, revealing a deep tunnel around 10’ wide that vanishes into the earth. Something oozes out of the opening, a mass of slithering slime that begins to spew acid and suck people into its gelatinous form.
- The Missing Party. A group of adventurers – or miners, travelers, whatever suits your game – ventured out of the city a little over a week ago. They were heading for a nearby settlement, a journey that should have taken a day or two, and were expected to send word via a sending spell or some other means that they had arrived safely, but no word has come. A newcomer to town mentions that she saw a group that matches their description on her journey, but that they appeared to be rotting zombies that were somehow drifting along the tunnels, and she gave them a wide berth.
- The Slime Caves. The slime caves are well known, and often avoided by travelers. They are a labyrinthine series of tunnels, chimneys, and caverns, that are home to numerous oozes and slimes. Most travelers who venture in there never return. Occasionally adventurers head into the caves, but there is little to be had in the way of treasure in there and most people simply ignore them. Still, they have been well mapped, and local magic users often recruit people to go and recover strong acids and samples of the oozes for their research. Now, though, the tunnels have begun to change – old passages are caving in, new paths are being dug into the earth, and many of the slimes that dwell in the caves have begun to venture out, seeming to be retreating in some way (though nobody has ever known mindless oozes to show fear before). Something new has moved in, and it seems only a matter of time before the ooze spreads to encompass the nearby area.