The Pit Worm

Pit Worm

Basic Overview of the Beast
The Pit Worm is a large worm-like creature, the larval stage of the Lurker. It has been domesticated by the R'unorians as a food source. The Pit Worm can grow up to a maximum of three peds in length, and one ped in diameter. Their soft, white outer body is complemented with a contrasting black head. The mouth of the creature is around a half-fore across, with fairly large mandibles growing from it, serving to crush any food the worm comes across, ready for digestion.

Appearance
The Pit Worm is an ugly creature, which consists of essentially a long cylindrical body and two spikes, the mandibles, protruding at one end. Their soft, white outer body is complemented with a contrasting black head. The mouth of the creature is around a half-fore across, with the creature's fairly large mandibles growing from it, serving to crush any food the worm comes across, ready for digestion. Upon the creature's forehead lie three eyes, each blood red, and arranged in a triangular pattern. Their otherwise unmarked white skin is often ruined by splashes of mud, coming from wriggling around in dirt too much. If you should watch larvae of other species crawling over each other in a small hole, then imagine it a hundred times bigger, that is what a group of Pit Worms look like.

Special Abilities
The Pit Worms are a relatively boring animal, and the only thing they do for around five years is squirm around, and eat. However, after these five years, the pupate and become Lurkers, a much more interesting creature.

Territory
The Pit Worms are found only in the R'unorian Islands. Here they are virtually non-existent in the wild, though are very common as domesticated farm animals. They live in large pits, around fifty peds deep, and around twenty peds wide. It has not yet been attempted to cultivate the Pit Worms outside of the R'unorian Islands, though it is expected that, providing they were fed well, they could grow elsewhere.

Habitat/Behavior
The Pit Worms have little to no intelligence, and do not form packs, communities or any such things. They are completely controlled by instinct, and try to find food, which, due to them being cultivated, is easy, and otherwise try to get into the best spot to sleep in the pit.

Diet
The Pit Worms eat essentially anything they can get their mandibles around, be it meat or plant. When eating, the worms crush the food as best they can with their powerful mandibles, before grabbing the rest with their toothless mouths, digesting it instantly. They have a powerful digestive system, which allows them to eat without chewing, though the mandibles are required to allow the food to fit down their throat. While being farmed, they are often fed in the same way as pigs are in Santharia, with the leftovers of other meals, and rotten vegetables.

Mating
Being the larval stage of the Lurker, Pit Worms do not mate.

Usages
The Pit Worm is farmed extensively in the Isles of R'unor, where the farming method is as follows: First, after having been fertilized, an adult female Lurker is moved to one of these Pit Worm pits, and remains there for five years while the Pit Worms grow. Once the female lays the eggs, and they hatch, the pit worms feed on the layer of food that was deposited in the pit, as well as feeding from several secretions from the adult lurker, which mostly serve to control the rate of growth and create the change from Pit Worm to Lurker later in life. After five years, the worms are harvested as food, and are cut into segments, each for different meals. Some worms are kept, which pupate and after three months emerge as Lurkers.