The Purple Worm is an iconic Dungeons & Dragons creature that has been around as long as goblins and orcs. Who would have thought a giant 100-foot-long invertebrate would have been front and center in every edition since 1974? Maybe it's the novelty of the creature, or perhaps it's nostalgia, or maybe it just worms its way into our hearts. Whatever the reason, these massive ogre-swallowing monsters are here to stay. Let's dive in and see where what the Purple Worm is all about and how to avoid being its next meal.

OD&D - Purple Worms

Number Appearing: 1-4
Armor Class: 6
Movement: 6
Hit Dice: 15
% in Lair: 25%
Type of Treasure: D
Number of Attacks: 1 bite/1 sting
Damger per Attack: 2-24/bite, 1-8/sting***
***regardless of success vs. poison saving throw

While the statistics for the Purple Worm are first found in the original Dungeons & Dragons White Box in Book 2: Monsters & Treasures (1974), the monster actually appears before Dungeons & Dragons. It appears in Chainmail (1971) as a variant of the dragon. It, along with the Mottled Dragon, are a rare type of flightless worm with a horrific stinger. Though, don’t get too impressed by the Purple Worm being lumped in with dragons, so were basilisks and cockatrice.

**Book 2: Monsters & Treasures**, 1974 TSR Inc

Actually looking at the statistics of the Purple Worm, we must flip to the White Box and find a full paragraph of information! This is way better than what most other monsters get who are largely relegated to a single sentence, or told to just read another monster’s entry and then make one or two adjustments.

Of course, this isn’t good news for your adventurer. We are told that they can be found just about anywhere, lurking beneath the surface of the land. It's a bit disconcerting to think that a 50-foot long, 10-foot round, purple-hued eating machine might be tunneling beneath you wherever you are, but we're sure you're not worried. You're a mighty adventurer, after all!

These massive worms will always attack you on sight, to the surprise of no one. They have two methods of attack, apart from simply flopping on top of you and squishing you like a bug. Their first attack is with their tail which an enormous poison stinger at the end. There isn’t a whole lot of information on poison in the White Box, and definitely nothing set in stone as to how much damage this will do to you, but let’s go ahead and assume it is really bad since it shares the same saving throw as “Death Rays”. But hey, at least you get a save!

The mouth is the bigger, no pun intended, problem for those of you that have the unfortunate luck to encounter the Purple Worm. Its mouth is large enough to swallow an ogre whole and will do so if it makes a successful attack that scores over 20% of the minimum total required to hit, which basically means if it needs a 12 to hit, and it rolls a 15 or better, it’ll swallow you up. A swallowed creature has six turns to escape the Purple Worm's stomach before it dies.

Since death isn't the end in Dungeons & Dragons, your friends have another six rounds to save your corpse and bring you back to the realm of the living. After that, your corpse will have been completely digested in the creature's stomach acid. At this point, your character is dead-dead and it’s time to make a new character who hopefully won’t be as tasty of a snack as the previous one.

Basic D&D - Purple Worm

Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 15*
Move: 60' (20')
Attacks: 1 bite/1 sting
Damage: 2-16/1-8 + poison
No. Appearing: 1-2 (1-4)
Save As: Fighter 8
Morale: 10
Treasure Type: D
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value: 2,300

Found in the Holmes Basic Set (1977), Moldvay Expert Box Set (1981), and the Mentzer Expert Rules (1983), our purple burrowing invertebrate doubles in length, reaching up to 100 feet. Purple Worms are now covered in slime, much like traditional earthworms are. Like earthworms, the Purple Worm travels through the earth, happily tunneling through the dirt. Unlike earthworms, these creatures will burst forth to eat unsuspecting heroes, surprising them 25 percent of the time. If you and your friends are traveling underground and bump into a Purple Worm, the size of the tunnel can stop the Purple Worm from using one of its attacks. It's hard to turn around in a tight tunnel, so you'll only have to deal with a giant stinger or gaping maw. Neither option is advisable.

Attacking with its mouth and stinger is still the modus operandi for the Purple Worm. We have clear rules on how the poison stinger works, and they aren't good for your character’s lifespan. When you are stung, you should consider yourself lucky that you get to make a saving throw. If you're unlucky and fail the save, you die. Even if you save against the poison, you still take up to 8 damage, so even if the poison doesn’t get you, being jabbed with a massive stinger might still perforate your heart and kill you.

If you instead fight the head of the Purple Worm, you better watch out for that ridiculously large mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. If the attack roll for biting you succeeds by four or more, Holmes only requires two or more, than it needs to hit you, you are gobbled up and swallowed whole unless you happen to be larger than a man-sized creature. So we guess ogres are finally safe now. Upon being swallowed, you’ll take up to 18 damage and be subjected to that damage every round until you get out of the belly of the beast or you die. Luckily, there is nothing stating that your body dissolves in stomach acid, so your broken and digested corpse could still be useful if your cleric happens to survive the encounter. We bet they’ve always wanted a zombie friend.

The last mention of the Purple Worm in this edition is found in Rules Cyclopedia (1991), and while we don’t get anything new about the creature beyond its XP value increasing to 2,700, the Purple Worm is shown proper respect. The front cover of the book features a massive, purple creature that appears to be quite worm-like. While the book doesn’t verify what is on the cover, we are pretty sure that it is a most fearsome depiction of a Purple Worm about to have a horse-and-knight snack.

1e - Purple Worm

Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 1-2
Armor Class: 6
Move: 9”
Hit Dice: 15
% in Lair: 30%
Treasure Type: B, Q (x5), X
No. of Attacks: 1 and 1
Damage/Attack: 2-24/2-8
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Non-
Alignment: Neutral
Size: L (50’ long)
Psionic Ability: Nil

Found in the Monster Manual (1977), the Purple Worms undergo a size transformation once again. They are now a maximum of 50 feet long and 9 feet in diameter. It's a far cry from the 100 feet, but still much larger than when they are born since they are only 5 feet long. All the nutrients in the dirt they eat must make them grow big and strong since they poop out metal and gems as they cannot digest such materials. Or maybe it’s a steady diet of adventurers that’s the secret to their girth.

Speaking of adventurers, the Purple Worm can still swallow an average-sized creature whole in a single bite attack that deals up to 24 damage. If it rolls a 4 or higher above your Armor Class or scores a natural 20 on the attack roll, it also swallows you whole. If you do get swallowed, you have six rounds to get out. Otherwise, you are dead. If you stay for twelve rounds, you are instead digested and not much is going to bring you back to life unless your cleric happens to like you a lot and you left a few thousand gold worth of diamonds to them in your will.

Luckily, you do have a fighting chance to get out alive. While you are swallowed, you can fight the Purple Worm’s insides. You only have to hit AC 9, which is pretty easy. What it doesn’t specify is how much damage you have to deal to cut yourself out, so we are left to assume all fifteen Hit Dice of the Purple Worm must be cut through to escape. You better hope your barbarian is swinging their axe and not taking a nap. Especially since, for every round that passes, you take a cumulative -1 penalty to your damage rolls…until you inevitably die.

If you think that you’re safe fighting on the opposite end of the Purple Worm, far away from the mouth of doom, you’d be wrong. The stinger is painful and filled with poison, though more defensive than the main attack. If you're foolish enough to fight a Purple Worm in a large enough space that the creature can maneuver around, the worm will happily stab you in the face with the stinger before swallowing you. The damage isn't much, maxing out at a mere eight points, but it's the poison you must watch out for. Fail to make your saving throw, and you die. If you succeed the save, well you don’t die but you still have to fight the Purple Worm.

Finally, we are introduced to the Mottled Worm, first mentioned all the way back in Chainmail. This Purple Worm lives underwater, happily burrowing in the mud underneath the water. Other than its ability to swim, all other traits remain the same.

2e - Purple Worm

Climate/Terrain: Subterranean
Frequency: Rare
Organization: Solitary
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Carnivore
Intelligence: Non- (0)
Treasure: B, Q(x5), X in lair
Alignment: Neutral
No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 6
Movement: 9, Br 9
Hit Dice: 15
THAC0: 5
No. of Attacks: 2
Damage/Attack: 2-24/2-20
Special Attacks: See below
Special Defenses: Nil
Magic Resistance: Nil
Size: G (25’ long)
Morale: Steady (12)
XP Value: 13,000

The Purple Worm is now part of a larger family of worms in Monstrous Compendium Volume 2 (1989) and later in Monstrous Manual (1993). They triple in size, now growing up to 150 feet in length, though most are only 25 feet long. So maybe that means their size is actually halved? We’re not sure, but it’s probably pretty hard to get an accurate measurement of these writhing worms since they are so busy trying to eat you, tape measure and all.

Little changes for the Purple Worm in this edition. It can swallow humanoid-sized creatures if its attack hits by 4 or more over the target’s Armor Class. The stinger kills you on a failed save against poison. If you are swallowed, you have six rounds to save yourself or else you die, though now if you do die, it takes two hours for you to be digested. We’re going to put a positive spin on it and say that’s good news. Your friends will have plenty of time to cut your dead body out of the worm and resurrect you…or sift through your pockets for loose change if only the rogue survives. One minor change and some new information do go into detail on are the sex lives of worms. Purple Worms like to live alone but occasionally hook up to produce offspring. When a bouncing baby worm is born, it immediately tunnels into the earth, never to be seen again. Ah, if only raising children was that easy for us.

Though, if you do find a Purple Worm lair, then you might score big. Purple Worms can’t digest metals, ores, or gems that they may eat while burrowing or from eating your wizard. Instead, they travel back to their lair, barf up anything indigestible, to them, and then just go out again to look for more food. It’s a great way to maybe stumble across a hoard, and you can just claim it is a dragon hoard at the bar instead of admitting it’s worm-vomited treasure.

The Mottled Worm continues to be a thing. Why should you think you are safe from giant man-eating worms when you are underwater? Also introduced in the Monstrous Manual is the Thunderherder. The worms are much smaller than their cousins, reaching a maximum length of 10 feet. They travel in large herds, and you could be swarmed by up to one hundred of them if you're not careful when traveling across the sands. Being so small, they can't swallow you or even inflict damage with their mouths. They can start an earthquake on the surface if they are burrowing in the area though. An earthquake in the desert is horrifying unless being buried alive and having sand fill every orifice on your body seems like your idea of fun.

**Sink Worm** / **Monstrous Compendium Dark Sun Appendix**, 1992 TSR Inc

Dark Sun introduces the Sink Worm in the Monstrous Compendium Dark Sun Appendix (1992). While not referred to as a relative of the Purple Worm, they are striking similar. They grow up to 50 feet in length, travel under the desert sands, and swallow creatures whole. These huge white worms burst from the sand to swallow you up and can phase through rock. And yes, they bare a striking resemblance to those worms where the spice must flow.

In the land of Mystara exists a distant cousin of the Purple Worm, the Fyrsnaca. Found in the Monstrous Compendium Mystara Appendix (1994), these 70-foot-long worms are a reddish shade of purple and can breathe fire. Luckily for you and me, they are not meat eaters, so they won't actively look to kill you. They are just grumpy and will melt your face off if you disturb them, so we advise giving them a wide berth whenever possible.

3e - Purple Worm

Gargantuan Magical Beast
Hit Dice: 16d10+112 (200 hp)
Initiative: -2
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), burrow 20 ft., swim 10 ft.
Armor Class: 19 (–4 size, –2 Dex, +15 natural), touch 4, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +16/+40
Attack: Bite +25 melee (2d8+12)
Full Attack: Bite +25 melee (2d8+12) and sting +20 melee (2d6+6 plus poison)
Space/Reach: 20 ft./15ft.
Special Attacks: Improved grab, swallow whole, poison
Special Qualities: Tremorsense 60 ft.
Saves: Fortitude +17, Reflex +8, Will +4
Abilities: Str 35, Dex 6, Con 25, Int 1, Wis 8, Cha 8
Skills: Listen +18, Swim +20
Feats: Awesome Blow, Cleave, Improved Bull Rush, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (bite), Weapon Focus (sting)
Environment: Underground
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 12
Treasure: No coins, 50% goods (stone only), no items
Alignment: Always neutral
Advancement: 16–32 HD (Gargantuan); 33–48 HD (Colossal)
Level Adjustment: —

**Monster Manual**, 2000 Wizards of the Coast

Burrowing into the Monster Manual (2000/2003), the Purple Worm retains many of our favorite things about it… mostly it being a massive worm that is purple. They do go through a size change and are now 80 feet long and 5 feet in diameter. At this point, we are pretty sure that the so-called ‘scholars’ measuring these worms just grab a random Purple Worm, measure them, and then decide that that is good enough. They have no interest in measuring more of these horrific worms. After all, you’ve seen one killer worm, you’ve seen them all.

Like before, this creature consumes a massive quantity of dirt, stone, soil, ore, and gems as it carves a path through the ground. We gotta assume that these creatures are partly responsible for the Underdark, as they leave behind massive tunnels that twist and plunge through the ground. What do they do with all these unrefined ores and untouched gems? Well, they don’t have a lair to speak of, instead, if you are lucky enough to kill a Purple Worm, you can cut it open and look for its gizzard. Worm gizzards are typically located in the eighth segment, just after the crop and right before its intestines, while we aren’t sure that holds over to a massive Purple Worm, it’s a good place to look for any valuables first.

**A Practical Guide To Monsters**, 2007 WIzards of the Coast

Before you go off looking for treasures in a Purple Worm, you better make sure you are ready to fight them. If you start fighting one of these creatures, it will coil up like a giant snake in a 20-foot diameter, allowing it to use its mouth and stinger easier. Like before, a Purple Worm likes to get mouthy with its prey and will want to bite and swallow you. You can still cut your way out if swallowed, but now you don’t have to worry about killing the creature. Instead, you only have to deal 25 damage to its gizzard across multiple turns. Once you do so, you have cut yourself a hole, you fall out, and then the hole immediately closes up again so that no one else can use your escape hatch.

Of course, then you have its stinger to worry about. Luckily you aren’t a single save away from dying. Instead, when you are hit by it, you must make a Fortitude saving throw or reduce your Strength score by six. This is only temporary, but if your Strength score ever reaches 0, you crumple to the ground, unable to move and you are helpless, meaning that anyone can come over and just gobble you up and you can’t do anything about it. You are helpless.

This edition, sadly, does not feature an aquatic Mottled Worm but don’t think the water is safe. Now, all Purple Worms gain an impressive swimming ability. While they can’t breathe water, a Purple Worm is still pretty graceful in the waves. What this means is that the only safe place for an adventurer to be is up in the air, where you only have to worry about manticores and harpies.

The Purple Worm next shows up in The Ecology of the Purple Worm in Dragon #282 (April 2001) written by Johnathan M. Richards. We’ll try to ignore the fact that this is an April Fool’s edition of the magazine, and besides a few goofs and jokes in the article, it remains fairly serious and with an entertaining tale of a group of monster hunters taking down a Purple Worm. While we aren’t sure we’d call the group incompetent, their ability to accurately throw fireballs is deep in question as it ends up knocking many of them unconscious for portions of the fight.

**Dragon #282**, April 2001 Wizards of the Coast / Dennis Cramer

Looking at the Purple Worm, we get all manner of information about these fearsome beasts like that they are hermaphrodites and reproduce by meeting up with another Purple Worm, aligning themselves in opposite directions so that both of their sex organs line up, going at it for several hours, and then each retreating back to their own separate lair to lay their egg sacs. In addition, we get more information about how they tunnel, how their lairs are set up, and that Purple Worm dung is quite valuable since it often contains material they can’t digest, like gold and silver ore, magic items, weapons, rings, gems, and more.

**Sandstorm**, 2005 Wizards of the Coast / David Hudnut

If you want more juicy worms to throw at your enemies, sorry, we mean players, the Sandstorm (2005) sourcebook introduces the Ashworm to the world. They are another distant cousin to the Purple Worm, and you may recognize them by their other name, Thunderherders. They live in warm deserts or plains and are nowhere near as mean, aggressive, or big as their relatives, although they are large to huge creatures in this edition.

If you are thinking that you wish to recreate that one scene in Herbert’s Dune series, then you totally can. In fact, there is even a prestige class you can pick up where you are an Ashworm Dragoon and you get an Ashworm pet to train and ride through the sands. Many paladins like this class because you can go through a special ritual and summon an Ashworm whenever you want, the same way you would summon your holy mount. We can only imagine that being able to summon a massive worm is quite the sight.

4e - Purple Worm

Level 16 Solo Soldier
Huge natural beast (blind) / XP 7,000
Initiative +13
Senses Perception +10; blindsight 10, tremorsense 20
HP 780; Bloodied 390
AC 33 (26 against swallowed creatures); Fortitude 34, Reflex 30, Will 29
Immune gaze, illusion
Saving Throws +5
Speed 6, burrow 3 (tunneling)
Action Points 2
Bite (standard; at-will) Reach 3; +21 vs. Reflex; 2d8 + 7 damage, plus the target is grabbed (until escape). The purple worm cannot make bite attacks while grabbing a creature, but it can use clamping jaws.
Clamping Jaws (standard; at-will) If a purple worm begins its turn with a target grabbed in its jaws, it makes an attack against the grabbed creature: +21 vs. Reflex; 2d8 + 7 damage. Miss: Half damage.
Swallow (standard; at-will) The purple worm attempts to swallow a bloodied Medium or smaller creature it is grabbing: +21 vs. Fortitude; on a hit, the target is swallowed and restrained (no save) and takes 10 damage plus 10 acid damage on subsequent rounds at the start of the purple worm’s turn. The swallowed creature can make melee basic attacks only, and only with one-handed or natural weapons. If the purple worm dies, any creature trapped in its gullet can escape as a move action, ending that action in a square formerly occupied by the purple worm.
Alignment Unaligned / Languages -
Str 24 (+15) Dex 16 (+11) Wis 14 (+1) Con 20 (+13) Int 2 (+4) Cha 4 (+5)

**Monster Manual**, 2008 Wizards of the Coast / Fred Hooper

The good news is that, unlike many other classic creatures, the Purple Worm makes the early cut and is found in the Monster Manual (2008). The bad news is that this book provides scant information on these majestic armored worms. They are burrowing creatures that can carve their way through solid rock, they leave behind massive tunnels that creatures can stumble down, and a Purple Worm eats anything it can find. It’s not picky. Lastly, the Purple Worm has no stinger attack, so you don’t have to worry about dying from poison.

Luckily, the Purple Worm does have a friend and that is the Elder Purple Worm. If you thought the basic Purple Worm was just a push-over, the Elder Purple Worm is there to remind you there is always a bigger fish, or worm in this case. The Elder Purple Worm isn’t much different from the typical Purple Worm. Both have three main things you need to watch out for: Bite, Clamping Jaws, and Swallow.

All three of these attacks work in conjunction with the Purple Worm first biting on to you and grappling you. It then uses its Clamping Jaws to squeeze you tighter and tighter every round, slowly draining your hit points as it masticates your body. Once you reach half hit points, it can then use its Swallow ability to choke you down like a delicious, armored hot dog. If you get swallowed, you take acid damage every round you are down there until you die, cut your way out, or the Purple Worm dies and you crawl out.

For those disappointed in the lack of details in this edition, two more Purple Worm appear in the Monster Vault (2010) with the Adult Purple Worm and the Purple Worm Tunneler. While their names leave much to be desired, they are a fresh take on the Purple Worm and provide plenty of lore to sink your teeth into.

These creatures trawl the Underdark and are, in fact, responsible for making many of the twisting and confusing tunnels there. Those tunnels are typically safe places to travel, since Purple Worm rarely return to their previous tunnels, though if you travel in a large group or make too much noise, you’ll attract their attention. Unlike us, Purple Worms actually like a crowd, since it means that they can gorge themselves on those foolish mortals until they are nice and full. This is a good thing, for the Purple Worm, since they don’t get to eat every day. Sometimes they may have to go days between meals, so they’ve learned to gorge themselves whenever possible.

**Adventures in the Forgotten Realms,** 2021 Wizards of the Coast / Oliver Bernard

Because inhabitants of the Underdark are always looking for ways to kill other people, they have learned to use this tactic against their enemies. They’ll sabotage any magic that might be keeping Purple Worms away from the enemy cities, and then delight in the sudden destruction that the Purple Worms cause. Dwarves also use noise and crowds to attract Purple Worms, but it is typically to destroy them with siege equipment, not to destroy other creatures.

Looking at the two Purple Worms, they get new abilities like regaining the use of their Stinger that inflicts ongoing poison damage, but the Tunneler’s stinger even goes as far as impaling a creature and knocking it back up to 20 feet away from the Purple Worm. In addition, neither has to worry about reducing you to half hit points and then trying to swallow you whole, instead, they each have a special attack that allows them to make an attack against your Fortitude defense, and on a success, you change your occupation from Warlock to Food.

In addition, the Tunneler has special abilities that allow it to barrel through its enemies, knocking out anyone who tries to stand toe-to-worm against the creature. If that isn’t enough and you surround the poor innocent creature, the Tunneler can thrash about, slamming and pushing creatures away from it when you try to bring it down. The Adult Purple Worm can instead fling its enemies away with a flick of its tail or even regurgitate a disagreeable meal, dealing damage to the offending dinner. If that isn’t enough, both fly into a blood frenzy when they are reduced to half hit points, allowing them to take extra minor actions every turn until you are dead or you defeat this ponderous worm.

5e - Purple Worm

Gargantuan Monstrosity, Unaligned
Armor Class 18 (natural armor)
Hit Points 247 (15d20 + 90)
Speed 50 ft., burrow 30 ft.
STR 28 (+9) DEX 7 (-2) CON 22 (+6) INT 1 (-5) WIS 8 (-1) CHA 4 (-3)
Saving Throws CON +11, WIS +4
Senses Blindsight 30 ft., Tremorsense 60 ft., Passive Perception 9
Languages —
Challenge 15 (13,000 XP) Proficiency Bonus +5
Tunneler. The worm can burrow through solid rock at half its burrow speed and leaves a 10-foot-diameter tunnel in its wake.
Multiattack. The worm makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its stinger.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (3d8 + 9) piercing damage. If the target is a Large or smaller creature, it must succeed on a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw or be swallowed by the worm. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the worm, and it takes 21 (6d6) acid damage at the start of each of the worm's turns.
If the worm takes 30 damage or more on a single turn from a creature inside it, the worm must succeed on a DC 21 Constitution saving throw at the end of that turn or regurgitate all swallowed creatures, which fall prone in a space within 10 feet of the worm. If the worm dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 20 feet of movement, exiting prone.
Tail Stinger. Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 19 (3d6 + 9) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 19 Constitution saving throw, taking 42 (12d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

**Monster Manual**, 2014 Wizards of the Coast

The Purple Worm continues its terrifying crawl in the Monster Manual (2014). These are creatures of the Underdark who eat dirt and rock, tunneling, and terrorizing inhabitants in their never-ending quest for food. To the Purple Worm, everything is food, whether that be a mountain of granite, a village of drow, or you and your companions who happen to be wandering underground. The granite won't care because it's an inanimate object, and drow, duergar, and other creatures of the Underdark protect their cities with special wards to deter the Purple Worm. On the other hand, you probably have no protection, so remember, there is no shame in running away, especially when a gargantuan worm is bearing down on you, its mouth tearing through rock with ease.

The poison stinger attack returns to the base Purple Worm, but won't immediately kill you on a failed save. Being poisoned isn't fun, but being dead is much less fun, though taking up to 72 damage in a single blow plus being poisoned will make you feel like you are dead. In addition, the Purple Worm can swallow you whole with ease. No more being grabbed first, as the Purple Worm can slurp you up with a simple bite attack and a failed Dexterity saving throw on your part. Luckily, if your party is unable to save you, you’ll be digested and added to their dung piles that contain gems, metals, and other things they can discard. You’ll basically be treasure in death!

Just as we learned before, the tunnels they leave behind make great passageways for the denizens of the Underdark to use. If you notice that the surrounding area has tons of these massive tunnels, you won’t need to make a Nature check to realize that your current location is a favorite hunting ground for Purple Worms and you should probably get out of there. You won’t get the chance, though, as they can move incredibly fast, especially if they aren’t too busy digging their own tunnels and ambushing you from a solid rock wall.

**Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel**, 2022 WIzards of the Coast

The Purple Worm is a very well-understood creature. It is an unintelligent worm of massive proportions. It seeks to fill its stomach with whatever it can fit in its mouth, which often means adventurers who get the wrong idea about what it might take to squish a worm. We hope you’ve been practicing your cardio, as you are soon going to be booking it through the Underdark with a worm hot on your tracks.

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