The purple worm, how have you dealt with / used it?

[Scorpio616]

One of the oldest and and most dangerous monsters in D&D, the purple worm is generally regarded as Bad News^TM. Burrowing, a bucket of HD, swallow whole and a poison sting all add up to a monster most parties try to avoid, if they can.

How have you dealt with this beast? Is it a foe your PCs avoid, have you triumphed against this? Have you spiced the monster up when you are behind the screen?

Related video
[video=youtube;mzLSXMgzWpk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzLSXMgzWpk[/video]

I've always wondered why the purple worm would have a poison sting. What kind of foe would such a weapon be meant or needed for?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I figure the stinger is to slay creatures it's size. So when it slams a massive dose into a PC's veins, which are now literally bulging with poison... it should hurt. Good thing paragon-level PCs are so hard to kill.

 

[Hussar]

In all the years I've played D&D, either as a player or a DM, I don't think I've ever seen a purple worm in play. Guess I should remedy that.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I used a purple worm for the first time (that I remember) the other day. The PCs took one look at it and ran away, which may be a first for my games (not running away, but doing so immediately).

So I didn't really get a chance to play it, but I guess I sold it pretty well.

 

[steeldragons]

In my experience, a fireball cast as far as possible into its nearly always-opened maw has done wonders in the past. Messy purple sploog and the scent of burned pudding all over everything. But effective.

As for the stinger, I have (in the past) generally removed it from play. The thing is massive and usually encountered in a tunnel of its own making...or, as the graphic the OP displayed, the front end is popping out of the ground. I suspect it was originally put in by E.G.G. simply to discourage "back stabs" or other attempted attacks from the rear. I have always found it kind dumb. How's the thing supposed to know or aim at something attacking it from behind? I mean, unless you're in a massive cavern or catch the entire thing above ground (which has never happened in any game I've ever been in), how is it supposed to swing its back end around to stab at something?

So, it's generally just not used. If something is attacking it from behind, it'll just burrow (way faster than most PCs could follow) away. I suppose one could make it inclined to circle back and see what was hurting it...but that attributes quite a bit more intelligence to a giant worm than I'm willing to accept/suspend my disbelief.

 

[Gilladian]

I can remember a couple of purple worm encounters over the years - in one or two cases, the PCs fled as fast as possible, and sweated blood til they were certain they had gotten away. In one other case, the fighter got swallowed whole, and the rogue dived in after him. Epic "chop your way out from the inside" battle began, with the wizard unable to fireball because of fears of toasty PC.

But it HAS been YEARS since I used one. Definitely time to rectify the situation.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I've used it one time because it was set up for me to use it in one of the current D&D Next Adventures.

[sblock]Scott Kurtz's The Mines of Madness includes a really fun encounter with a purple worm right at the beginning of the module, where it pretty much guarantees that at least one PC is going to bite it.[/sblock]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A purple worm is what killed the last 2 PCs in the party- a wizard and my fighter- of the very first D&D adventure I went on. Long (fun) story short, at the end of the combat, with simultaneous initiative and 4 HP each, the worm and I squared off...I missed, it didn't.

I was hooked!

 

[nijineko]

the sting makes a lot more sense if it can also spray poison all around. as it burrows away, it releases a cloud of poison mist with flung droplets of touch poison interspersed. anything near right next to the opening would likely get slammed/stung by the tail/sting as it gyrates around.

 

[the Jester]

I've used purple worms a number of times over the years.

One memorable moment was at the end of Steaks, an adventure in... I think it's I13, but whatever it is, it's Adventure Pack 1. Basically, a bunch of small adventures for all levels in one product.

Steaks is a fun one that centers on a new restaurant in town that's serving up delicious steak and eating up all the business in town. The pcs are hired to investigate and figure out what's going on.

Spoilers:
[sblock]At the end, the pcs can find out where the steaks are coming from. The module gives the dm a number of suggestions; I've run this adventure twice, and the first time I used purple worms as the source of the meat. The second time, I used unicorns. [/sblock]

So that was pretty fun. Another great one is, IIRC, in I5, Lost Tomb of Martek. I'd put this in a spoiler block, but it's the picture on the cover: the pcs are sailing in a magic boat along a sea of glass in the middle of a desert, and a purple worm erupts from beneath them. It was an awesome and terrifying fight, both when I ran the module and when I played it.

There have been a number of other encounters with purple worms, ranging from the party fleeing from the worm (this has happened more than once) to one-round-killing it (in 3e). But those two examples above are the coolest.