Pahü Worm

---

Pahü Worm (or simply Pahü) are furry, centipede-like creatures that make their home in arctic tundras and frozen caverns. With their coat of fur and thick insulating blubber, they burrow into glaciers to make their nests among ice and snow. In the Outer Shell, they live only in places like the Phrōjhana Region, where ice and stone are equal parts of the caverns.

Description

Pahü are several meters in length, with a multitude of legs across their body that end in sharp, two-pronged claws. Their blubbery body has a thick, rubbery consistency that yields to impact without bursting or breaking. They are covered in rugged fur, ranging from bright white to a more faded grey depending on their size. Despite their speed and bulk, Pahü can move with surprising speed when threatened. More than one hunter has been surprised by the Pahü's ability to rear up and suddenly spring on an attacker.

by Rock Cafe.info

The Pahü's mandibles are large and forward facing, hacking downwards to help aid it when it burrows through the ice or injects its potent venom with a single strike. The worm has multiple eyes on either side of its face and a beak-like maw that it extends from deep within its mouth to feed. The Pahü's tail ends in a wide, shovel-like blade of bone which it can use either to dig or to swipe at opponents.

Behavior

Although they will eat meat, Pahü primarily feed on the red algae that grow on glaciers and on frigid waters of the Surface and Outer Shell. They supplement this diet with whatever plants and fungi they come across. When they do eat meat, it is usually that of another Pahü, either dead by accident, predator or during a mating duel. Should a hungry Pahü come across a corpse, they won't hesitate burrow inside to eat the soft organs.

Pahü are not aggressive if left alone and at distance. Only if their nest is invaded or threatened will they attack and give chase for a long period of time.

Pahü dig their nests out of ice and create large warrens for their extended families. It is where they sleep and seek shelter from Blight storms or blizzards, as well as house their eggs. If an area has been exhausted of food or is threatened, the Pahü will abandon them to make new nests elsewhere. Such abandoned nests are often used by other beasts, once whatever danger that drove the Pahü away has passed.

When threatened, the Pahü latch on and coil around their attacker to deliver repeated bites. When the poison has incapacitated the unfortunate soul, the Pahü will scuttle away, unless disturbed in their lair. In such cases, the entire family of Pahü will swarm and continue to bite until the attacker is dead. The worm can swipe with its tail, though it tends to be more of a wild flail to keep predators from approaching it from behind.

Life-Cycle

Pahü live together in large clans, dominated by the largest individual worms. These leaders eat first and nest in the largest warrens, but must ever to often defend these privileges against a younger Pahü. These duels are usually without loss of life even when they move beyond posturing, but not always. The Pahü have no genders, with each capable of laying eggs or fertilizing them. In desperate straights, the Pahü can even fertilize their own eggs although they avoid doing so.

by Rock Cafe.info

The dominant Pahü will lay their eggs first and in the best parts of the warren, then bully weaker worms to tend to them. Such tenders spend much of their time coiled around the slimy egg-sacks to give them warmth, while other Pahü bring them food. Once the eggs have hatched, the young are kept in the lair and fed up until a few months, where they join the rest of the family outside the warren. Mortality among young Pahü is high, either from exposure, predator or accidental deaths from the many play-fights that young Pahü engage in.
As a Pahü grow older, their fur begins to grey and their senses dim. When they are too weak to leave their warrens to feed, the aging Pahü is left to die and then devoured by its family.

Pahü in the World

Pahü hold an important part in the regions where they live. Many predator who would be unable to eat the blighted algae can instead feed upon the Pahü. Humans hunt the Pahü for their blubber and fur, while the claws and tail are used to fashion tools or crude weapons. Pahü fur is either kept on the hide which is treated to last then sewn into clothes, or sheared away and knitted into the desired shape. Pahü blubber can be eaten on its own, made into oil or added to any number of dishes for a tasty, if greasy, flavor.

The Phtangi Nomads have perfected the art of hunting just enough of the Pahü to keep them from exhausting an area of the red algae and moving on, but not so many that the creature feels threatened enough to move their nests. It is a balance easily disrupted.

There have been attempts to domesticate the Pahü, with mixed results. A few ranches in Phrōjhana keep pens of the Pahü, but they are wild animals in captivity rather than cattle content to wait for slaughter. It is a profitable enough venture that the loss of a ranch-hand or the occasional envenomation has not deterred future attempts.

The Pahü Worms are native to two major regions of Araea: The Surface and the Outer Shell.
The Surface
The Surface is a dangerous, irradiated land of frozen tundras and blasted deserts, where monsters fight fiercely for survival. The Pahü Worms make their home in the vast glacial icescapes or in arctic lands such as Hēla
Read More About The Surface
The Outer Shell
The Outer Shell are the tunnels and caves nearest the surface, in some cases separated only by mere feet of stone. The grottoes are are smaller and support less life than those deeper down in Araea, but offer sanctuary when storms of blight and lightning ravage the Surface where the Pahü live.
Read More About The Outer Shell

by Rock Cafe.info

Pahü Poison

It felt like my veins were on fire just moments after it bit me. There was so much venom that some of it just pushed itself out of the wound, but what I got was enough.
I've been bit by a Suryō Spider before and that was child's play in comparison.

— Senchai, Blight-Tracker

The Pahü's venom is a power poison inflicts crippling pain as flesh dies and veins atrophy. The area around the bite will almost certainly turn necrotic without treatment and most who taste the venom carry the scars for the rest of their lives.
The Pahü's venom will not usually kill its victim, but they might wish it would while it still courses through their veins.

by Rock Cafe.info

Pahümelette

Pahü eggs are a popular dish to those who can get them. Once cleaned of their slime coat and cooked by roasting or boiling, the eggs have a rich and pungent flavor. The flesh of the egg is dense and the meal hearty, with the preferred method of serving being to cut the boiled eggs into strips and than season them with salt.
As the Pahü are almost always in their lair, acquiring the eggs is dangerous. More than a few hunters have instead tested the theory that the Pahü do not eat human flesh.

Pahü are not immune to the ravages of Blight, but they are much more resistant than humanity. Some variants of the creature make lairs at the edge of the Shrouded Lands as a way to hide from predators.
With more red algae or similar flora to sustain them, these Pahü grow larger and vicious.

by Rock Cafe.info

In Culture

Due to its importance, the Pahü feature prominently in the stories and culture of both Phtangi Nomads and the Phrōjhana settlers. Rather than being central players in the tales, the Pahü instead tend to be the subject, whether it is by presenting as enduring their venom as a test of toughness or stealing eggs from their lair.
Among the Phtangi in particular, it is rare to see a hunter who does not carry at least one scar from a Pahü bite.