Original generation · R21 Media Group
Tallyworm
Tiny aberration, unaligned
A free port runs on its ledgers, and something has always eaten ledgers. A tallyworm lies flat along a line of entry and digests the ink, and the figure left behind afterwards is not the figure that was written — it is the figure the worm found easiest to swallow. Saltspire's bonded warehouses have their books read aloud twice a year by two clerks who are not permitted to speak to one another, and that practice is older than any explanation anyone can give for it.
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 10 (4d4)
Speed 15 ft., climb 15 ft.
- STR
- 4 (-3)
- DEX
- 16 (+3)
- CON
- 10 (+0)
- INT
- 11 (+0)
- WIS
- 12 (+1)
- CHA
- 7 (-2)
Skills Stealth +5
Condition Immunities blinded, prone
Senses blindsight 30 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 11
Languages reads Common and Infernal; cannot speak or write
Challenge 1/4
Traits
False Appearance. While the tallyworm lies still on a written page, it is indistinguishable from a line of script.
Inkwright. Over the course of an hour the tallyworm can consume one written entry and leave a different one in its place, in the same hand. It has no understanding of what it writes; it produces whichever figure was easiest to digest, which in practice means the roundest one. A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check notices that the entry does not match the impression it left on the page beneath.
Actions
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage.
Errata (Recharge 5–6). The tallyworm rearranges itself across a page a creature within 30 feet is reading. That creature must succeed on a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw or become convinced, for 1 hour, that the altered entry is what the document has always said. The effect ends early if the creature is shown the same record from another source.