Bristles--injury; save DC 20, effect paralysis for 1d4 rounds and 1d6/1 CON damage per round until saved.
This pallid beast clatters upon dozens of small legs. Writhing bristles twitch on its back, and its shadow seems strangely mobile.
The caterpillar-like tenebrous worm is a voracious predator that hungers for mortal flesh. The tenebrous worm is the larval stage of the gloomwing (see page 133)-but in a strange reversal, these younger creatures are more dangerous than the adults they grow into. A native of the Plane of Shadow, a tenebrous worm hatches from the body of an unfortunate creature that has been implanted with an egg by a gloomwing. The tenebrous worm is fully grown upon hatching, and immediately begins to scour its environs for flesh to consume. Although the tenebrous worm tends to be relatively palecolored, its internal organs seethe and roil with shadowy energies and dark fluids. As the creature feeds, these shadowy innards begin to grow out of its body, forming strange bristle-like filaments of semisolid shadowstuff not only capable of piercing the flesh of those who would attack the worm, but also possessing a deadly paralytic poison. Additional shadowy fluids constantly seep from the worm's mandibles-when it bites prey, these fluids melt flesh into shadows that the creature can then consume. When a tenebrous worm feeds on enough of this shadowy flesh, the creature seeks out a secluded, shady area (typically just within a cave entrance or in a ruined building) and spins a shadowy cocoon around itself. A tenebrous worm's cocoon exudes the effects of a darkness spell (CL 8th), muting the surrounding light. After a period of several days, the cocoon tears open and a fully grown gloomwing emerges, ready to seek a host for its eggs.