Species Description:
Fortunately, these hideous reptiles are only found in desert areas where there are loose sandy soils - often near to hssaar settlements - as they are amongst Caevalonia's most deadly predators.
Sandwurms look rather like very large, mutated hssaar and can grow anything up to 20ft long. Their limbs (they only have arms and never legs as well, unlike some hssaar) appear wasted and thin and end in three long ivory white talons. They have no prehensile thumb and use their arms mainly to drag themselves across surfaces they cannot burrow through on the occasions that they emerge from beneath the ground. They also use their arms for fighting or catching on to their prey.
They spend most of their time beneath the surface and can move through the desert sands almost as easily as a fish does through water and for this they are nicknamed the 'sharks of the desert', 'sand sharks' or 'desert sharks'. They are virtually blind and have large opaque yellow or white pupilless eyes. They are, however, extremely sensitive to even the slightest of vibrations which they can feel as far as a hundred metres away through the sand.
Sandwurms prey upon anything that happens to be moving on the desert surface and are the bane of travellers and merchants. Their poison is the most lethal in Caevalonia and acts instantly to kill smaller prey. On larger creatures - even dragons - the victim is first paralyzed by a chemical in the toxin while the poison kills it. Sandwurms are well camouflaged, with skin colour ranging from desert browns to sickly sandy green.
Legend has it that sandwurms were actually once a group of hssaar who, for some unknown reason, displeased their gods and so were transformed into the race of hideous monsters that they are today. Whatever the reason, the two races do seem to share a certain kinship (although sandwurms are as happy eating hssaar as they are other species) and some powerful hssaar, for instance the High Priestess, Nresha, actually keep sandwurms as 'guard dogs' or as a means of disposing of unwelcome guests/enemies etc. Sandwurms are very intelligent animals and have been reported to even create traps and ambushes, sometimes working in groups against a larger more difficult prey. There have also been reports of sandwurms killing people not for food, but to take gold or precious items that they may have been carrying, even taking their time over killing their prey, leading to the conclusion that these creatures are evil and don't simply kill for the necessity for food.
Average Statistics
Size: up to 20ft depending on age
Weight:
Diet: carnivore / scavenger
Alignment (if any): evil
Life expectancy: unknown
Solitary/Group (number): either. Usually shoals of up to 15 individuals.