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The Tazelwurm, or "worm with
feet", comes from Europe. Said to inhabit the
Swiss, Austrian, and Bavarian mountains, it is described as a
pale creature like a snake or lizard, but with smooth, nearly
inpenetrable skin and a poisonous bite. They average two to
three feet in length, have large eyes and flat heads, and move with
lizardlike speed when anyone attempts to capture one on film or by
hand. Reports vary, but many
witnesses claim it has only two small front feet. Some classify
it as a lesser dragon, strictly a product of mountain folklore, while
others
speculate that the Tazelwurm either is or was based on a real unknown amphibian or reptile; there are lizards with exceptionally tough skin
and poisonous bites, and both amphibians and reptiles have species
with two legs or no legs. The Tazelwurm is known by many local
names, such as the Tatzelwurm, the Springewurm ("jumping
worm"), and Stollenwurm ("tunnel worm").
Origins
Tazelwurms are thought to be a
result of magical intervention in native, nonmagical amphibians, probably an
attempt to create an underground "hound" to unearth gems, buried
treasure, or other prizes. They
are nevertheless a fairly old species in Tirialle. Similar, smaller
creatures can be found in remote bogs, though none with the tazelwurm's
peculiar ability to "swim" through dirt and mud. Wild
species range in size from one to five feet in length. The variety
offered at Skyhaven is the finned tazelwurms, a domestic version of the larger, more elusive and
more dangerous wild tazelwurms. They were originally developed and kept by subterranean races for companionship,
protection, and work, starting about a thousand years ago. Lately, they have become more popular with
above-ground populations as well. They average two to three feet long at maturity.
Habitat
Like their wild
ancestors, finned tazelwurms are denizens of the earth, and are found almost
anywhere with soil and stone. They are more common in western
Tirialle, in and around the Granite Mountains, though they aren't often seen
unless rains saturate the soil too much for effective swimming; they breathe
to a certain extent through their skin, and swimming in oversaturated soil
can drown a tazelwurm. They also dislike sand and clay.
Feeding
Young tazelwurms eat burrowing insects and worms, while adults
graduate to small animals, such as frogs, salamanders, mice, baby rats, or
young moles. Thanks in large part to an oil secreted by their smooth
skin, they can swim through dirt as though it were water, digging and
leaving no tunnel as they pass. It is a conscious act; they can stand
on the surface if they choose, but if threatened they can submerge in the
blink of an eye. (See Magical Traits, below, for more on tazelwurm
earthswimming skills.)
Tazelwurms track prey via their vibration-sensitive
ears and their skin, which can, at close range, detect the faint electrical impulse of living things.
Toothless, they snatch prey with their powerful, poison-coated tongues,
swallowing them whole and crushing them with gastroliths, swallowed stones
that accumulate in their stomach. Between stomach acid and hard use,
these stones don't last long; tazelwurms regurgitate and replace them
regularly. Finned tazelwurms often eat prepared food, deboned and
preground, offered by their masters, but can forage if necessary.
Life Cycle
Tazelwurms in
the wild tend to be solitary creatures, not seeking out company but rarely
actively rejecting it. Lacking territorial instincts,
they only clash with one another when ill or if there is a shortage of food.
Mating season is in early spring, with relatively little fanfare, courtship,
or loyalty. Females lay their eggs in shallow-dug nests, often under a
fallen log or rotting tree where insect food is abundant. Abandoned, the
small, leathery eggs hatch out in the summer, each egg containing two to
three white to off-white juveniles. Traditionally, only one juvenile
per egg survives. Young tazelwurms mature
in four to six years, depending on species and available food supply, at
which time they take on their adult coloring; though many above-ground
observers mistakenly think all tazelwurms are white, since they usually only
see immature specimens, adults in all species are often vividly colored. They live for thirty to
forty years in captivity, somewhat less in the wild, usually dying from
simple old age or internal parasites. Their skin is too tough for most
predators, and their skin oil has a bitter flavor which puts off all but the
hungriest of hunters.
Temperament
Fearless when confronted, tazelwurms nevertheless are hard to find when
hunted, implying that their fearlessness is tempered by practicality, or
that perhaps they only display their noted aggressive streak when
cornered. Finned tazelwurms, being a domestic creature, aren't
as nasty as their wild cousins, but they still frequently present a
challenge to an owner. Stubborn as they can be, however, it is highly
dangerous to actually strike a tazelwurm. Their skin,
inpenetrable to most blades and even repelling certain spells, and their
iron-hard constitution ensures that they will not be harmed - indeed, they
might hardly feel the hardest blow a human could deliver - but their pride
is easily bruised and their jaws, while toothless, can easily crush bone. The
domestic animal's poison can still temporarily numb limbs. (A
lash from a wild tazelwurm's tongue can cause permanent nerve damage even if
immediately treated.) Considering their size, they are unnaturally strong,
more than a match for almost any owner should it come down to a tug-of-war.
Magical Traits
Tazelwurms can
travel quite deep beneath the soil, able to endure massive pressure with no
ill effects. Their ability to earthswim is hindered by excessively
dry, saturated, or root-clogged soil. The source of a
tazelwurm's incredible ability to swim through dirt has never been
adequately determined by mythozoologists, but it is believed to be a
property of tazelwurm skin oil. Nobody knows how they deactivate this
oil's soil-shifting properties when they wish to walk on dirt instead of
swim through it. Historically, inventors have tried to create
dirt-swimming suits with tazelwurm oil, but most failed. The rest were
crushed by the incredible weight of dirt as it closed over their heads; only
those with the presence of mind to have safety lines and assistants on hand
survived their initial experiments.
Other Notes
Tazelwurms are completely mute, lacking even vestigal vocal cords. They communicate with each other
mostly through posture, scent, and touch. When underground, they can
produce subsonic vibrational bursts which seem to act much like echolocation
bursts do in bats and marine mammals. This might explain why
many would-be tazelwurm trainers can shout, beg, and plead until they are
blue in the face and not get anywhere; they simply don't naturally
acknowledge sound waves as a form of communication, but they can
learn. Some particularly firm-willed and patient people have
trained tazelwurms to perform remarkably complex tasks, but most consider it
good enough when they learn their name, come when called, and no longer make
a mess inside the house. Largely immune to both curses and flattery, tazelwurms are
best trained with treats. Once they determine that there's something
in it for them, they can pick things up amazingly fast,
but they are liable to test their trainers to the limits of endurance before giving in
and actually learning. Peculiarly, they are said to be most fond of
bird eggs, a treat they only rarely get a chance to taste in their native
habitat. They also like jerked meats, but too many such treats can
lead to stomach troubles.
As finned tazelwurms retain the urge to swallow stomach stones even though
they barely need them to digest prepared foods, their owners often feed
them raw gemstones. Tazelwurm stomach acid is the best known stone
polish, and the regurgitated stones are gleaming and ready for
market. Faceted gemstones, however, can harm tazelwurms by cutting
into their stomach; this should only be attempted with raw, uncut
stones. It is also recommended that owners using tazelwurms to
polish gemstones remember to feed them regularly so the wurm doesn't
forage on their own; hard use can shatter brittle gemstones, which on top
of the potential financial loss also presents a health risk to the animal.
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