So if you manage to kill one, its gut may contain treasure! They dig by eating the rock or soil and quickly excreting it, though stuff like refined metal, precious ores and gems have a tendency to stick in the worm's gut for longer periods. Unlike the Dune sand worms, purple worms can burrow through solid rock just fine, and in addition to their cavernous maws some have a venomous stinger on the tip of their tails. Large Underdark settlements are always protected by a perimeter of anti-worm wards, and when these settlements war with each other sabotaging those wards is a popular move. They also have a knack for showing up precisely when people think things can't get any worse. They're such efficient tunnelers that you can't tell they're coming until they're almost directly underneath you. They're not always hungry, but their feeding strategy is gorging themselves about once a week so the end result is more or less the same. Large enough to swallow a giant whole, purple worms burrow through the Underdark and through rocky and mountainous terrain on the surface. Yeah, the world of D&D is kind of a dangerous place. They're entirely natural creatures, just like cats and dogs.

They're in both the Monster Manual and Monster Vault.īelieve it or not, purple worms were not created by some drug-addled wizard or vengeful primordial. Purple Worms have been in D&D since at least the days of BECMI, and are likely inspired by the sand worms of Frank Herbert's Dune.

D&d purple worm