#wolfworm

Wolf Worm, by T. Kingfisher It’s the 1890s and Sonia Wilson, a scientific illustrator, has been hired to provide the visuals for Dr. Halder’s book on entomology. She travels to his house deep in the Carolina woods and begins her watercolors of Halder’s beloved parasites. Things are manageable, but unease creeps in as the local wildlife behaves strangely and Sonia begins to wonder about the…

Image © @bowelfly​, accessed at his tumblr here

[I had no idea to expect from the creatures I asked @bowelfly​ to design. My previous mentality for a wolfworm was a furry, chimera type creature, but his version screamed to me “undead”.]

Wolfworm Bursting from the ground is a serpentine horror with moist red skin and a head like a wolf’s skull.

When animals are slaughtered pointlessly, they do not rest easy. Their bodies may reanimate, shedding their limbs and becoming a crawling thing made of spinal cord and skull, sheathed in a thin layer of forever bloody flesh. These are the wolfworms, undead animals that seek to spread their condition. A land where one wolfworm spawns will shortly become home to dozens of the monsters, as their animal victims rise as new wolfworms.

A wolfworm can be created from any type of sizable animal, but wolf-headed versions are especially common, perhaps due to the conflicts between wolves and ranchers and other pastoral peoples. The only difference between wolfworms created from different beasts is their size and the shape of their skull—even peaceful herbivores will become ravenous undead killers. Wolfworms have no place in a normal ecology and are seen as a blight on the landscape by all but the most hateful fey and druids.

Variant Wolfworms The wolfworm statted here is of Medium size and represents the most common form. Larger or smaller wolfworms are possible. If applying the young or giant simple template to a wolfworm to create a Small or Large wolfworm, apply the penalty or bonus to Constitution to the wolfworm’s Charisma instead. Huge wolfworms can form from the carcasses of elephants and other megafauna—a Huge wolfworm has 8 HD, a Charisma score of 18 and is CR 6. Gargantuan wolfworms are possible but typically form only from the carcasses of whales or dinosaurs. A Gargantuan wolfworm has 12 HD, a Charisma of 22 and is CR 9.