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PFS LimitedEmpress Bore Worm

When an area lacks sufficient food, the bore worms in a swarm become increasingly agitated and desperate. Eventually, at some chemical signal, the worms begin to cannibalize each other, devouring one other in a frenzy too gruesome to behold. A single worm emerges from this melee victorious; it rapidly grows larger and more voracious until it reaches an absolutely elephantine size.

This empress bore worm lives only briefly, as it sets out in search of a new feeding ground and eats everything in its path in an attempt to sustain itself. However, the empress bore worm's ravenous metabolism demands more from its body than what it can physically sustain, as it exists only as a vessel for the next generation. Most live only a few days, or weeks at best, traveling and eating nonstop before dying—and in so doing, giving birth to new swarms of bore worms.

Recall Knowledge - Animal (Nature): DC 23
Unspecific Lore: DC 21
Specific Lore: DC 18

Elite | Normal | Weak
Proficiency without Level

Empress Bore WormCreature 7

Legacy Content

N Huge Animal 
Source Bestiary 3 pg. 37
Perception +13; tremorsense (imprecise) 60 feet
Skills Athletics +17, Stealth +14
Str +6, Dex +3, Con +5, Int -5, Wis +2, Cha -4
AC 23; Fort +18, Ref +14, Will +11
HP 140; Immunities acid; Weaknesses water 10
Viviparous Birth When killed, an empress bore worm violently expels the young it carries. These young erupt as a bore worm swarm in the empress bore worm's space. In addition, every creature within 20 feet takes 5d10 acid damage (DC 25 basic Reflex save) from the splatter of caustic viscera.
Speed 25 feet, burrow 40 feet
Melee [one-action] bite +17 [+12/+7] (reach 15 feet), Damage 2d6+9 piercing plus 1d6 acid and painful biteBorer An empress bore worm can leave a tunnel behind itself when it burrows, and it usually does.Corrosive Wake [one-action] The empress bore worm Strides, leaving behind dribbles of acid in every square that it passes through. A creature that enters or begins its turn in such a square takes 3d6 acid damage (DC 22 basic Fortitude save). The acid becomes inert after 1 minute.Painful Bite The bite of an empress bore worm causes excruciating pain. The target must succeed at a DC 25 Fortitude save or become sickened 1 from the pain (sickened 2 on a critical failure).

All Monsters in "Bore Worm"

NameLevel
Bore Worm Swarm5
Empress Bore Worm7

Bore Worm

Source Bestiary 3 pg. 36
These Darklands vermin produce corrosive, noxious slime and deliver agonizing bites, whether as a revolting, wriggling swarm of finger-length worms or a single massive, lurching beast. Among Darklands communities, most inhabitants regard bore worms much in the same way surface cultures speak of maggots or cockroaches—with general disdain and revulsion. Children consider catching a single bore worm and using it to torment others a rite of passage, albeit a dangerous one.

Variant Bore Worms

The humble bore worm is a small and simple creature, both biologically and magically. These qualities allow it to adapt rapidly to different environments, some of them quite extreme, and also makes it susceptible to magical radiation and experimentation. Many a Darklands apprentice takes their first steps in the school of transmutation by practicing on these worms, while variations— both natural and cultivated—are scattered about beneath Golarion's surface.

Ice Worms: Found tunneling through the glaciers beneath the Crown of the World, these pale-blue worms behave similarly to their soil-bred cousins, but their frigid acid inflicts marks similar to frostbite on anything they touch. Ice worms still flee from liquid water but are immune to cold rather than to acid, and they substitute cold for acid in all of their attacks and abilities.

Lava Worms: Dwelling in the deepest, hottest reaches of the Darklands, these bizarre creatures consume not living matter but minerals and rare earths. They're most often found near volcanoes or open magma and will swim through the lava in pursuit of a meal. Lava worms are immune to fire rather than to acid, and they substitute fire for acid in all of their attacks and abilities.

Necral Worms: An undead sorcerer in the ghoul-run Darklands city of Nemret Noktoria developed necral worms about 60 years ago by filling an empress bore worm's abandoned exoskeleton with a unique alchemical paste. These undead bore worms radiate the very energies of death, making them surprisingly sophisticated magical batteries. Less pleasant entities often use them as magical tools. Necral worms have the undead trait and negative healing. They substitute negative damage for acid damage in all of their attacks and abilities, and they gain a weakness to positive damage in place of their weakness to water.

Mage-Eater Worms: These luminous, purple worms present just one more reason to avoid the Mana Wastes between Geb and Nex, where magic is unreliable at best and more often dangerously unpredictable. When a creature fails a save against Swarming Bites or Painful Bite, the worms also attempt a counteract check against a single spell affecting the creature (counteract level 3, counteract modifier +12).

Sidebar - Additional Lore Bore Worm Farming

Despite their repulsive appearance, bore worms play an important part in the Darklands ecosystem by transforming rotting plants and animals into rich, loamy soil. Many subterranean farmers lure them to their property but must keep them well fed to avoid the cannibalistic frenzy that creates an empress bore worm. Bore worms also serve as a staple of Darklands cuisine. If properly cooked with fungus and plenty of salt, they become a favored delicacy; uncooked, they prove considerably less appetizing.

Sidebar - Additional Lore Hydrophobia

Water causes bore worms to curdle and die—even an empress bore worm will smoke and twitch, its shell eventually turning a dull brown before caving inwards. The secret as to why lies in the chemical composition of the worm's acid. Normally, bore worms are immune to their own acid, but exposure to water alters the acid's nature, and so the worms burn alive in their own secretions.