The dreadwood worm is an enormous caterpillar-like beast native to the Tuku Jungle. Its plant-like appearance allows it to easily camouflage itself amongst the dense foliage and vine-laden branches of the rainforest.
History
The Tukumen natives of the Tuku Jungle referred to this creature as gro’kobada, which meant “wooden worm of dread” once translated from Tuku into Tradespeak. Its ubiquitously understood name was coined by Ernest Celworth during one of his expeditions into the Tuku Jungle alongside Tukumen hunters.
In congruence with traditional Tukumen beliefs, the gro’kobada was understood to be warrior-daemons sent by Chal, the god of plants. They were believed to guard sites that were important to Chal, or to attack those who had angered him. Despite being viewed as emissaries of Chal, they were not revered, with Tukumen not ascribing to beliefs of omnipotence or omnibenevolence. To them, the gods were able to be opposed—sometimes for the necessary survival of their people.
Plant-Animal Hybrid Organism
Similar to Dun biology, the dreadwood worm is an animal that has incorporated certain plant biology into itself. Its flesh is soft and sinewy, laden with muscle and textured in a way one might expect for a large, plump caterpillar. However, its green colouration, yellow blood (hemolymph), and tree bark growths make it appear like a locomotive plant.
Similar to how duns can photosynthesize, dreadwood worms also utilize sunlight to supplement their immense caloric needs. However, this is only half of their “diet”, with predation as a necessary behaviour for it to survive.
Appearance
A dreadwood worm was a colossal creature, spanning 18 to 20 meters long with their bark-armoured heads (the thickest part of their body) being up to 2 meters wide.
The dreadwood worm’s body was covered in a thick armour not unlike the carapace one might find on an insect or arachnid. Instead of chitin, this shell was made of bark similar to dunbark. Dreadwood bark, often called “dreadbark”, could be up to 5 centimeters thick along a dreadwood worm’s head.
Dreadwood worms possessed a quadripartite beak made of dreadbark, which formed a sharp cone when interlocked. When opened, the four plates of the beak blossomed open like a flower before clamping down to sunder captured prey.
Their fleshy underbelly was soft and green coloured. During periods of rest, dreadwood worms would climb high into trees and roll onto their backs to expose this part of their bodies in order to photosynthesize.
The dreadwood worm had massive, bulging black eyes at the sides of its head.
Predatory Behaviour
Dreadwood worms were ambush predators, using their plant-like appearance to hide in trees and along the ground. They blended in well in canopies, or could look like fallen logs when in the right place on the forest floor.
When sprung upon their prey, dreadwood worms could extend appendages not unlike thick vines from the sides of their jaws, using them to wrap around prey before dragging them into their beak.
Dreadwood worms’ heads were large, mainly from being reinforced with dreadbark. They could use their heads to bash other creatures to devastating effect—although this was typically done in self defense rather than as hunting behaviour.
After gorging themselves on prey, dreadwood worms would retreat to the highest canopies possible to sunbathe, supplementing their diet with additional calories as a result of photosynthesis.
Maturation
Dreadwood worms were, despite their prodigious size, mere larvae. A dreadwood worm could live for a hundred years before entering a chrysalis and metamorphosizing into its adult form. The metamorphosis of a dreadwood worm was equally lengthy, taking anywhere from a decade to two to complete.
A dreadwood worm’s chrysalis was tough and durable, made of a thick layer of dreadbark. It would sprout leaves to support the lengthy metamorphosis with additional energy, doubling as a built-in camouflage. Despite being naturally tough and disguised to look much like any other plant growth, the dreadwood worm’s chrysalis was ultimately defenseless and at the mercy of whatever found it.
Upon successful metamorphosis, the mature Apothran Moth would emerge from the chrysalis.
Environmental Interaction
Competition
The dreadwood worm competed with the Queen Hunter for top predator of the Tuku Jungle. The queen hunter often won engagements with dreadwood worms, being a faster, smarter, and equipped with paralytic poisons and overall better defenses.
While Dreadwood worms were rarely hunted by large predators due to their unpleasant taste and plant-like scent, queen hunters would often attack dreadwood worms in order to protect their hunting grounds. This usually resulted in the dreadwood worm fleeing, or perishing.
Hunting & Consumption
Tukumen would eat dreadwood worms with the belief that their flesh would imbue them with a small amount of power from the god Chal. Dreadwood worm flesh, once cooked, could be compared to “the taste of a roasted green bell pepper with the texture of steak”.
Tukumen would, as a resourceful people, often save dreadbark and use it as body armour.