A Caveworm
Cave Worms were the most specialized and repellent breed of Cave Drakes. They lacked any noticeable limbs and spent their entire lives underground. Like most cave creatures, they had little pigmentation and almost no sight, relying on the ability to read vibrations and a keen sense of smell to locate prey seized with their prehensile tongues. Because they required constant calcium intake, bones were a Cave Worm's preferred food.
Cave Worms combined many of the least desirable traits of worms and were constantly coated in slimy mucus. They ate almost anything—meat was a favourite, but roots and fungus were acceptable in a pinch. They did not, however, eat rock, despite persistent Dwarvish legends to the contrary. Instead, they used six hard horns on their bony heads as drill bits to bore through soft or crumbling stone, sliding along on a coating of mucus as they went. A bony ridge protected their jaws and narrow eyes during this boring activity.
Cave Worms dwelt in the Underdeeps and were most common in Moria, though they could be encountered anywhere someone had been foolish enough to dig too far beneath the earth.
Editorial Note: This article may contain speculative material based on secondary or tertiary sources such as pen-and-paper role-playing content, video games, or fanon publications. Interpretations are part of the NNCA’s speculative corpus and may not reflect canonical sources. References may exist but have not yet been verified or cited.