Mysterious Map, or, help me brainstorm please!

[Draco Paladin]

Gold Worms.

The Gold Worms might actually be Gold Wyrms. Maybe a clutch of gold dragon wyrmlings who have an almost insane sense of law and goodness, and who impose this impossible standard on all they encounter.

 

[Maraxle]

I have a few ideas for your Gold Worms.

#1 - There could have once been a mining community in that area. The remains of buildings and such could be found there. Of course, there would also be some mine shafts. One or more of the shafts could be accessible to the characters. Inside, they could find that there's still a lot of gold left that can be easily taken. It would look normal under a cursory inspection, though any dwarves in the group might feel that something is a little off. If they take any gold, it will seem fine for several weeks afterward, until at some predefined point, the larvae that's inside some of the gold nuggets will start to hatch. What hatches will be, of course, gold worms - simple little earthworm-like creatures that eat precious metals. Any gold or silver that they come in contact with will be slowly eaten. This could cause a problem if they happen to store it in their packs with other treasure, or if they pass it off at a store or inn. I'm sure the innkeeper would be pretty mad if his treasury was gobbled up by something you gave him.

#2 - The Gold Worms are a tribe of cannibalistic goblins who paint their faces with streaks of gold. They consider this area their territory, and will attempt to capture and cook anyone who passes through without obvious protection.

#3 - A misspelling of Gold Wyrms.

 

[jgbrowning]

G'day

I'd make goldworms large creatures like earthworms. Like earthworms, they eat soil. Unlike earthworms, they also eat stone. Their teeth are very hard (carborundum? diamond?) and the power of their agnathous maws enough to bite through rocks. Their integument is very resilient, their bodies elastic and tough, and they are short on vital organs. Their guts contain strong acid, and they are capable of vomiting limited quantities of this up to soften rocks. Goldworms can tunnel through any sort of soil at appreciable speed, but for subsistence they require soil containing organic matter. They have ruined the land they live in by eating most of the soil and casting up mounds of inorganic sand and gravel. Under the surface of blowing sand and sliding gravel is a subsoil absolutely ridded with partially-collapsed worm tunnels. The whole countryside is like a rotten cheese. And the worms are now so hungry that they don't necessarily wait for animals and plants to turn into soil before trying to eat them. But this is not the great danger. The great danger is that great goldworms grow from tiny eggs almost to small to see, and that the goldworm wastes are scattered with dormant eggs. If a party were to cross the barriers of sand and rock into the goldworm waste and come out alive, their clothes would be contaminated with goldworm eggs. And if these got into the soil of another country the worms would spread bringing (after a century or two) total devastation after them.

The opportunity that goldworms bring with them is that their digestions do not affect inorganic matter such as gold, rubies, sapphires, and beryls (though they do digest diamonds, and their digestions destroy active metals such as copper and iron. So when they eat or tunnel through soils containing gemstones or gold they eventually cast it up on the surface (along with softer and more chemically active rocks reduced to sand and powder). The wind blows away the sand and insoluble salts, leaving gold dust, nuggets of gold, and precious stones on the tops of [some of] the mounds of worm-gravel that make up the landscape.

Regards,


Agback

Agback, you not a biologist are you? That's one of the better treatments I've read about what is obviously some sort of invasive species, even in their "native" terrain (because of the lack of balance in their ecosystem, ie. where's the predators keeping down the pop to prevent such desolation you speak off). A lot of people don't even know that "cast" is the proper word for worm droppings. Very nice.



joe b.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

THE SLEEPER HAS AWAKEND!!!

.... OK on a more serious note, I'd go with making them golem-type dealie-wackers. Originally used to defend a wizard's holdings hundreds of years ago, they continue on their mission unaware their master has long since passed away. They can be confronted by:

1) Beating them up.
2) Sneaking into the wizard's tower and turning them off (traps ahoy!)
3) Somehow convincing them that their reason for existance has long expired.

My two cents.

 

[Ampolitor]

hmmmm

hmmm,

Sea of Death, a sea of rough waters (hence the lighthouse) where many ships were smashed against the rocks (further adventure hooks here). A graveyard of ships, broken masts can be seen at low tide from the surf.

Stone Nomads, a race of nomads who were driven from the area (need name where the goldworms now occupy.) A nomadic people who herd animals and are vital trading partners with the local town, or they could be gypsy type people, who know all about the old pyramids to the south.

Goldworms, instead of the obvious worm type creatures how about small creatures that were let loose from Stone nomad interlopers into the temples. These small worms were set free. Once they hit the sun they now grow to large sizes. They burrow under the ground like Ant lions and set traps. or maybe it could be a spelling error and be (gold Wyrms) which could set up a dragon encounter, the reason the stone nomads left etc...
Remember dont ever state the obvious to a group of PC's, never let them expect what or where anything will happen.

The ancient lighthouse can be overun with undead from the sea, etc,, or sahaugin who would sometimes crash the ships to claim their victims.

the temples could be a entire adventure in itself. Maybe a lost civilization that was wiped out by the goldworms before they were trapped and the survivors moved away. Lots of ideas here.

 

[Cedric]

Gold Worms .... Ah, I remember those (heh, not really, just making this up).

They were a failed gnomish/dwarven experiment. There were areas of the mines that were not able to safely be mined. So the Gnomes, working with the Dwarven miners, used magic and knowledge to breed a new type of worm.

Later dubbed, Gold Worms, they were able to chew through solid rock and burrow wherever they wanted. They want to feed on gold. The more gold they eat, the larger they get, topping out at about 6 feet long...originally.

The plan was to let them eat gold, which would stay with them ... and then specially trained Worm Trainers would lure them back to the normal caves to harvest them and get the Gold out.

Unfortunately, they underestimated just how much stone these worms could chew and soon they had littered the caves with a honeycomb of large holes...destabilizing the caves.

After a few years of failed effort trying to stabilize the caverns and mines, the dwarves and gnomes left.

To this day, some of the gold worms live yet, although most of the gold they rely on in the earth is gone. They turned on each other decades ago. There are only a few left, they are now HUGE creatures.

Benign but for the fact they keep chewing up the rock. So you have entire mountains that can just collapse on a whim. And there is no place safe to walk. Of course, if you find and kill one of the few worms left, you could retire.

Oh...and you might want to be really careful going through their territory with any gold. The years have greatly honed their gold sense (kind of like a metal detector sense). They will, in a pinch, feed on lesser metals as well now.

Cedric

 

[Teflon Billy]

Rubbish. Mapping first is much more fun.

We are in 100% agreement. Cartography is not only just about my favorite part of DM'ing, but it helps me form new ideas and inspiration for my PC's and their adventures.

 

[Cedric]

Ooh...Dead God Road and the Temple Complex. I like this. You could have a conglomerate of monks and priests who tend the temple.

And this could be a large temple where the essence of the gods who have passed is saved to be cared for and tended by those monks/priests.

Kind of a forbidden, do not enter, halls of the dead sort of place. Where anyone entering is expected to take up the priesthood or monkhood here for the remainder of their lives.

Cedric

 

[Pbartender]

Heh... What about making those gold worms more of a vermin infestation instead of hulking monsters?

Use the stone/gem/precious metal eating worm idea, but make them about as long and thick as someone's pinky. If the PCs camp anywhere in those plains, the gold worms infest their gear and eat 2d20 gp gold, gems or jewelry every day until found and exterminated.

An amusing end to the treasure hunt could be had by using the infestation of the character's gear as a foreshadowing of what they will find within a hidden treasure chest/sack along the way... Nothing but a bit of gold dust, a few chips of precious gems and the husks of a handful of dead gold worms.

Perhaps the chitonous exoskeletons of the gold worms actually contain refined gold from the metals they eat. What if the Nomads collect the worms and their husks to make money and jewelry out of?

 

[Agback]

Agback, you not a biologist are you?

Sorry, no. I'm a [retired] economist.

Regards,


Agback