CARRIER WORM

Number Appearing: 1-4

Size: 60-120' long

Armor: Thick epidermis provides excellent protection, immune to arrows, vital bits shielded by several feet of skin and muscle, eyes somewhat more vulnerable, disrupts spells

Resilience: Exceedingly hard to kill

Intelligence: Dog-like

Communication: Perform facial-tentacle semaphore, understand simple commands and directions in Underworld common, several dialects

Disposition: Fearless, steady under fire, but occasionally freak out and join battles-in-progress despite orders to the contrary

Violence: Can readily swallow 1-4 human size creatures whole at a go, could batter most foes senseless with facial-tentacles but why bother when you can just rear up then come down on enemies like a colossal heap of bricks

Enemies: Those of their master, Underworld godling Shaggath Ka

Aims: Deliver and extract worm troopers as ordered by their master or his priesthood

Peculiarities:

• Created at the behest of Shaggath Ka by his enslaved drone-brides, who perish in the process of generating a single clutch of massive carrier worm eggs (1-6 per clutch)
• Stores up to 36 encysted worm troopers or other roughly human-size forces in massive transport gizzard
• Supplemental gizzards used to haul heavy siege equipment or other military cargoes
• Tunnel through earth and rock at respectable rate of 10 mph
• Flawless Underworld navigation via psio-location, send out constant waves of psionic impulses, perceive 3-D image of surroundings to a distance of several miles
• Spell-casting disrupted within 60 feet of carrier worm as side-effect of psionic emissions
• Explode into caverns and chambers, regurgitate troops, resume tunneling as per orders, stand by to extract troops 
• Will only wholly emerge from tunnels at direst emergency or if berserk (see below)
• Rarely, carrier worms succumb to their mostly suppressed battle urges and go on rampages of violent mayhem, always directed at known enemies but sometimes inadvertently screwing up carefully planned operations, an offense for which they face eternal damnation and exile
• Embittered exile worms sometimes attach themselves to Underworld mercenary forces
• When not on active duty spend every available moment in active praise and worship of their deity, lurking outside of his unholy Dome of Contemplation like faithful but slightly irritating attention-seeking hounds, they just want to get as close as possible to their cherished Worm Sultan

Treasure: Frequently carry implements of war in their supplemental gizzards, occasionally loaded with loot from conquests