Zhen Worm

Barely thicker than hempen rope, this orange-banded worm stretches many feet in length.

Zhen Worm (CR 1/2)

Medium Vermin
Alignment: Neutral
Initiative: -1
Senses: Tremorsense 60 feet; Perception +0

Speed: 20 feet, Burrow 10 feet, Swim 20 feet
Space: 5 feet

Defense

Armor Class: 9, touch 9, flat-footed 9 (-1 Dex)
Hit Points: 5 (1d8+1)
Saving Throws: Fort +3, Ref -1, Will +0
protective mucus
Immunity: gaze attacks, mind-affecting effects, sight-based attacks, and visual effects
Weaknesses: blindness

Offense

Melee: slam +1 (1d4+1 plus Grab)
Reach: 5 feet

Special Attacks: Constrict (1d4+1), dissolve flesh

Statistics

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
12 (+1)	9 (-1)	13 (+1)	-	10 (+0)	1 (-5)

Base Attack Bonus: +0
CMB +1
CMD 10

Feats: Blind-Fight

Skills: Stealth -1 (+9 in swamps), Swim +9

• Racial Modifiers: +10 Stealth in swamps

Languages:

Special Abilities

Blindness (Ex)

A zhen worm perceives solely through its tremorsense ability. It is immune to all sight-based effects and attacks, including gaze attacks.

Dissolve Flesh (Ex)

Though too dilute to cause damage in combat, a zhen worm's acidic mucus reduces a Mediumsized corpse to bones and a pool of foul-smelling slurry in 1d4 days. Each size category above Medium doubles the amount of time required, and each size category smaller than Medium halves it.

Protective Mucus (Ex)

Weapons slip off the slick slime that coats a zhen worm, and fire has difficulty burning it away. Zhen worms take half damage from weapons and fire. This ability does not reduce damage from confirmed critical hits.

Ecology

Environment: Warm Marshes
Organization: solitary, pair, or colony (3-20)
Treasure: none


The blind and mindless zhen worms thrive in warm, wet environments such as the Gorum Pots of Numeria. Cold disrupts their tremorsense, and they cannot burrow through rocky soil, so the worms do not roam far from their geothermal baths. Though rarely thicker than an inch in diameter, zhen worms reach up to 10 feet in length and weigh up to 20 pounds.

The orange bands along their sides react to tremors and vibration, providing their only means of perceiving the environment around them. Zhen worms hunt by lying unseen beneath mud or water, waiting for prey to approach close enough to attack. Zhen worms normally restrict themselves to modest prey such as rodents and lizards, but a hungry worm may attack Small or even Medium prey.

A zhen worm has no mouth or digestive tract. Instead, it absorbs nutrients and secretes waste through thousands of tiny orifices along its body. The mucus coating its body slowly dissolves organic matter. Over a matter of days, a zhen worm wrapped around a corpse reduces it to nothing but bones and a foul-smelling slurry.