Lukhorn Worm

Lukhorns average 200 feet in length, though stories tell of far larger ones. Their natural skin is gray, but they can shift its color to blend almost perfectly with surrounding stone. The body is soft and pliable enough to fill the shape of any passage it crawls through. Tiny pores cover the hide with a thick, slick fluid that keeps it supple and hides its warmth from infravision.

The lukhorn's favored trick is to become a tunnel. It settles into the opening of a dark passage, fits its body to the walls, and gapes wide, swallowing whatever strolls inside. A native of the deep underworld can spot the ruse with a successful Wisdom check, but surface folk cannot see through it without magic unless the area is lit as brightly as daylight.

A starving lukhorn may not wait, lunging from hiding at passersby, one target per round. A successful attack swallows the victim, and unlike a purple worm or giant slug, the lukhorn deals no damage until its prey is inside. There, digestive fluid deals 4d6 per round, dissolves cloth and wood in two rounds and metal gear in 4; magical items save vs. acid.

Cutting free requires 40 damage concentrated on one spot. The rubbery interior is only AC 5, but bludgeoning weapons do nothing to it and all others deal 2 less damage per hit. If the worm is attacked while digesting, it shrieks: everyone within 60 feet must save vs. petrification or collapse writhing for 1d6 rounds. The cry echoes for miles through the caverns and may draw, or scare away, other monsters.

Lukhorns are lone wanderers forever seeking their next meal. Their life cycle is a mystery; some scholars propose hidden breeding caverns far below, but no one has confirmed it. They seem to breed rarely and in small numbers.

Ravenous meat-eaters, lukhorns rank among the most powerful hunters of the underworld and have been known to eat entire drow patrols. Alchemists and wizards pay 100 gp a vial for their slick secretion, which lengthens the duration of invisibility and polymorph potions by 25%. It dries almost at once after the worm dies, so a fresh carcass rarely yields more than a vial or two.