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The Worm That Walks: Difference between revisions
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*** Although it is unclear from the story whether such thing is an example of this trope or one human-sized maggot.
** An undead human corpse infested by maggots is also a possibility, since the verse is presumably supposed to refer to the long-dead ancestor of the protagonist who escorts him to the rite under Kingsport.
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]
* In the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]] [[Epic Level Handbook]]'', and [[Pathfinder]] Bestiary (part II), there is a monster called "Worm That Walks", a dead spellcaster that has become the [[Hive Mind]] for an army of worms - gaining insect-related powers and a great deal of additional resilience. Usually it's the evil ones that choose this method of life after death.▼
** Ravenloft got Maggot Golem. Every bit as gross as this sounds - its body consists of flies, eggs and maggots held together with magic and usually is created from a maggot-infested corpse.
▲** In the
** Players can actually turn themselves into a Worm That Walks, although it carries a chance of failing and just leaving them as a rotting corpse.
*** As the chance of success is the number of spells the player has memorized as a percentage, savvy players elect to use ''Rary's Mnemonic Enhancer'', usually a [[Useless Useful Spell]] that lets them trade out each of their better spells for six useless cantrips to get over 100% chance of success.
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*** Said campaign was published in its entirety in Dungeon magazine before Elder Evils came out. It's awesome.
** Also in the 3.5 Monster Manual, the Leechwalker. A bloated bipedal monster made of millions of leeches that have formed a hive mind. And it can drain a person of all their blood in seconds.
** What's worse than a druid who can turn into a giant bear and eat you? A druid who can turn into a swarm of 10,000 flesh-eating scarabs and eat you. Plus as a druid with the swarm ability you gain heavy resistance to melee and basic ranged attacks. Worse, there are some feats and magic items that turn you into a magic, resistant-to-all-damage walking colony of flesh-eating insects.
** The Worm That Walks shows up again in 4th Edition as the "Larva Mage." Not quite as evocative...
*** The Larva Mage has some cousins, too. The Larva Assassin is the soul of a [[Psycho for Hire]] given form through a swarm of hornets and centipedes. Larva Snipers were [[Cold Sniper|Cold Snipers]] (or at least sadistic marksmen) in life, now an undead composed of wasps. Larva War Masters were [[General Ripper|General Rippers]], [[Blood Knight|Blood Knights]] and similar depraved, insane warriors in life, their souls called back and thrust into undeath as the [[Hive Mind]] of a swarm of carnivorous beetles.
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