Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny maggot. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Absorb Information. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 to hit, reach 0 ft., one page of written material in the swarm’s space. Hit: The target page is destroyed. Any knowledge on the page has a 50% chance of transferring to the Bookworm swarm at the beginning of the following round.
Unpredictable Savants. (Recharge 4–6). If the Bookworm swarm possesses magical knowledge, the Bookworm swarm may cast any one of its learned spells, including cantrips, once per long rest at the minimum caster level for the spell. The DM determines which spell randomly from its available uncast spell list. Bookworms may ignore verbal spell components, shape and wriggle themselves as required for somatic components, but otherwise still require any consumed spellcasting materials. Bookworms can sense and will actively crawl in the direction of the nearest required component. Bookworms will use this ability intentionally against targets only when provoked, targeting the nearest attacker. Otherwise, the swarm will cast spells in random directions or at random targets. For missile, line, ray, cone, or area spells, roll a d6 for the direction: 1, north; 2, south; 3, east; 4, west; 5, up; 6, down. For target spells, choose the target randomly from the number of available targets within line of sight. Include "self" as an available target for both beneficial and harmful spells. A Bookworm may know how to cast a spell, but it has limited understanding of its potential effects on self preservation.
Bookworms have been known to cast rituals, and are sometimes kept by powerful spellcasters for this very purpose.
If the swarm has mundane knowledge, such as a trade skill or other expertise, it will express interest in applying and perfecting its knowledge. The swarm may, for example, create artisan goods, or seek apprenticeship under a master craftsman - when they're not raiding the master's professional library, of course.
Any effect that cures disease kills the Bookworm swarm.
Description
The bookworm has a truly voracious appetite for the written word. They love to get into a good book, or take in all that a scroll has to offer. They will slowly shrivel and die over the course of a month if they cannot feed on a page with mundane or magical inscriptions. They can eat much faster, of course: a grand library can be decimated in weeks by a single colony of the creatures.
Legend has it that these small aberrations were first created by a well-intending cadet for an alchemy fair in an arcane academy long ago, but of course this is conjecture, as no records would survive their creation. In exotic courts, some royal chefs keep recipe-fed bookworms as assistants, trained to choose the best spices for a dish.
Previous Versions
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