Purple Worm

[Admin Pete]

Original writeup in the quote and my changes below:

PURPLE WORMS: These huge and hungry monsters lurk nearly everywhere just beneath the surface of the land. Some reach a length of 50 feet and a girth of nearly 10 feet diameter. There is a poisonous sting at its tail, but its mouth is the more fearsome weapon, for it is so large as to be able to swallow up to ogre sized opponents in one gulp. Any hit which scores over 20% of the minimum total required to hit, or 100% in any case" indicates the Purple Worm has swallowed its victim. In six turns the swallowed creature will be dead. In twelve turns it will be totally digested and irrecoverable. Purple Worms never check morale and will always attack,

Emphasis added and IMC they can reach up to 100 feet in length.

Monster Type	Number Appearing	Armor Class	Move In Inches	Hit Dice	% In Lair	Type or Amount of Treasure
Original Purple Worm	1-4	6	6	15	25%	Type D
IMC Purple Worm	1-6	2	6 below ground/15 above ground	15-30	25%	Type D

[Vile Traveller]

The original D&D boss-monster! I always used to make them longer and leaner, but a ratio of 1:10 actually matches that of the monsters of Dune on which I assume these were based.

[Admin Pete]

Sandworms are animals similar in appearance to colossal terrestrial annelids and in other ways to the lamprey. They are cylindrical worm-like creatures with a fearsome array of crystalline teeth that are used primarily for rasping rocks and sand. During his first close encounter with a sandworm in Dune, Paul Atreides notes, "Its mouth was some eighty meters in diameter ... crystal teeth with the curved shape of crysknives glinting around the rim ... the bellows breath of cinnamon, subtle aldehydes ... acids ..."

Sandworms grow to hundreds of meters in length, with specimens observed over 400 meters (1,312 ft) long and 40 meters (131 ft) in diameter, although Paul becomes a sandrider by summoning a worm that "appeared to be" around half a league (2,778 meters) or more in length. These gigantic worms burrow deep in the ground and travel swiftly; "most of the sand on Arrakis is credited to sandworm action."

Sandworms are described as "incredibly tough" by Liet-Kynes, who further notes that "high voltage electrical shock applied separately to each ring segment" is the only known way to kill and preserve them; atomics are the only explosive powerful enough to kill an entire worm, with conventional explosives being unfeasible as "each ring segment has a life of its own." Water is poisonous to the worms, but is in too short supply on Arrakis to be of use against any but the smallest of them.