Spine Worm

Small aberration, chaotic neutral

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 4 (1d6 + 1)
Speed 25 ft., climb 25 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
5 (-3)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	3 (-4)	7 (-2)	3 (-4)

Senses tremorsense 30 ft., passive Perception 8
Challenge ¼ (50 XP)

SPECIAL TRAITS

• Symbiotic Bond. The spine worm can bond with a willing or unconscious creature. The spine worm latches onto its host’s spine and its host may control the worm’s tentacles. These tentacles can lift, drop, hold, push, and grasp things. They each have a reach of 5 feet, and can lift up to 50 pounds. They can’t wield weapons or shields or do anything that requires precision, such as using tools, magic items, or performing the somatic components of spells. The tentacles are natural melee weapons which have reach. As a bonus action, they can do one of the following: use an object, help, grapple, or make an unarmed attack dealing bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier, instead of the normal bludgeoning damage for an unarmed strike.

ACTIONS

• Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 11) if it is a Medium or smaller creature. If the creature remains grappled in this way for 1 minute, it becomes the spine worm’s host. Removing the spine worm causes 10 (3d6) piercing damage to the host.
• Multiattack. The spine worm makes 2 tendril attacks.
• Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage.

ABOUT

Spine worms navigate the world through their sense of touch, seeking hosts only to increase their perceptive field by integrating themselves into their host’s nervous and sensory systems. Spine worms are some of the most natural-looking of all aberrants, at first glance resembling overgrown centipedes until closer examination reveals a spine-like carapace and two large antennae that seem to possess minds of their own.

Touchy-feely. Spine worms perceive the world through touch, using the highly developed vibrational sensors in their legs to determine their surroundings and their sensitive antennae to feel out specific detail. With such heightened sensory capabilities, most physical contact – including pain – is perceived as pleasurable to a spine worm. While integrated with a host, a spine worm receives sensory information from its host’s body as well as its own. The array of sensations provided by a host body is more than enough incentive for any spine worm to seek out a host of its own. When bonding with a host, a spine worm inserts its needle-like legs through the host’s back and taps directly into their spinal cord. Spine worm hosts do not suffer from the change, gaining only a preference for and stronger sense of touch.

Alien Influence. The spine worm gives its host the following flaw: “I trust my sense of touch more than any of my other senses.”