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Legacy of the Dragons
Dread Helminth Small Magical Beast Hit Dice: 4d10+4 (26 hp), dying/dead –2/–12 Initiative: +3 Speed: 20 feet AC: 21 (+1 size, +3 Dexterity, +6 natural, +1 dodge), touch 14, flat-footed 16 Base Attack/Grapple: +4/–1 Attack: Bite +7 melee (1d4–1 + poison) Full Attack: Bite +7 melee (1d4–1 + poison) Space/Reach: 5 feet/5 feet (Face/Reach: 5 feet by 5 feet/5 feet) Special Attacks: Breath weapon, poison Special Qualities: Blindsight 30 feet; air, earth, fire, and water resistance 5 Saves: Fort +5, Ref +7, Will +2 Abilities: Str 8, Dex 17, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 9, Cha 7 Skills: Sneak* +7, Spot +2 Feats: Defensive, Iron Will, Weapon Finesse Environment: Any Organization: Solitary (usually in addition to a host creature) Challenge Rating: 3 Treasure: Standard Advancement: 5–6 HD (Small); 7–8 HD (Medium) Level Adjustment: — The dread helminth presents a terrible surprise to a foe. This parasitic worm remains within its host until that creature dies, at which point it comes out, ready to hunt. Thus a character may think she has defeated her opponent, only to have a helminth burst from its corpse and attack her. The dread helminth procreates by laying eggs in a corpse, which is then eaten by a predator or scavenger. Only one egg survives within a given host, and the larva grows quickly. If the host is Small or smaller, the helminth never grows large enough to be anything but a vicious parasite that slays the host prematurely and then dies itself. If the host is at least Medium, however, the helminth can grow to become a deadly and horrible predator on its own. Within a Medium creature, the dread helminth can grow to full size, although this almost always creates a distended lump in the host’s abdomen or back. Within a Large or larger creature, the helminth’s presence causes no external change to the host. When the host dies, the helminth bursts out of the corpse and attacks any and all nearby creatures. A dread helminth free of its host must eat almost continually or die, so outside of a host one of the creatures usually lives a week at most. A few, however, find enough food to continue much longer, and grow to be almost six feet long.
A full-grown dread helminth usually measures about 2 to 3 feet long, depending on the size of its host. Its pale yellow skin glistens with a sticky moisture that coats its body. It has no eyes, and one can distinguish its head from its tail only by its large, hooked mouth. The dread helminth is more intelligent than one would expect for a parasitic worm. Although it cannot sense what is going on outside its host, it can interpret various physical signals from the host to get a basic idea—it knows when the host is in danger, when it is moving, fighting, eating, sleeping, and so forth. Dread helminths cannot speak or understand language, and they are always Unbound. The dread helminth is not a native of this world, but instead a parasite brought here within another creature. It has lived here long enough to have adapted to the realm, however, and made itself at home. Sages speculate that such adaptability may be a special ability of the creature, allowing it to propagate throughout any and all environments. Dread helminths are able to live on flesh normally anathema to other creatures, such as the substance of an ooze or meat from a demon’s corpse. A remove disease spell cast on the host of a dread helminth slays the parasite if the caster can make a caster power check (DC 10 + the helminth’s Hit Dice + its Constitution bonus, DC 15 for an average specimen). There is a 10 percent chance, however, that, rather than slaying the helminth, the spell merely forces it to burst out of the living host (inflicting 6d6 points of damage) and leave it. Of course, it immediately attacks any and all nearby creatures, including even the host.
Combat Inside a host, the dread helminth attaches itself to an inner cavity and feeds off food the host eats or off the host’s own flesh, if it must. Its poison is such that it can make the host unaware of its presence by numbing its nerves. While in the host, the helminth suffers no damage or ill effects experienced by its host until the host is dead. Outside of its host, the creature uses its breath weapon on the first creature(s) it sees, and then moves in to attack with its bite, relying on the surprise of its sudden appearance as it emerges. If not attacking from within its host, it attempts to hide, sometimes within corpses, sometimes simply in the mud, to attack prey. Impatient and starving, however, it doesn’t wait long before moving to a new, hopefully more fruitful location. It can control the virulence of its venom, changing its numbing bite to one that induces complete paralysis. Extremely hardy creatures, dread helminths prove resistant to all elements (air, earth, fire, and water resistance 5).
