How many worm creatures does a single book really need!? I know it's a maggot and not technically a worm, but it's also created by Kyuss himself when he was still human. You know, the Worm that Walks. I'd say it still counts.

The Ulgurstasta (a name I am convinced comes from the sound it makes when gathering its phlegm and stomach acid and spitting it all on unsuspecting adventurers) is a gargantuan maggot-like creature that was created by combining the flesh, eyes, bones and teeth of multiple humanoids and beasts, resulting in an abomination with forty eyes, hundreds of teeth, about twenty legs finishing with claws that are in fact sharpened bones, millions of tendrils extending from its pores, and stomach acid so infused with negative energy that it instantly transforms any creature dissolved by it into an animated skeleton. See the original post for the full picture (one of the best in this book, in my opinion).
They were initially conceived to work as skeleton factories, but as Kyuss ascended to godhood, and later became an Elder Evil, his followers soon noticed that some ulgurstastas had begun thinking for themselves. For every skeleton they created, a tiny bit of the creature's intelligence rubbed off on the maggot, to the point that the surviving ulgurstastas are nowadays more intelligent than humans, and plot to gain even more intelligence (presumably by enslaving a kingdom to have unlimited access to living creatures).

I like monsters with a doomsday backstory, and the ulgurstasta is also very flexible, as it is explicitly said that there could be ulgurstastas of any intelligence, some even gaining class levels and learning necromancy themselves. Still, the Ulgurstasta is in the weird spot of being a creature with wizard-level intellect, but abilities that you would see on much more beastly creatures. So that's exactly what will happen if you put a PC in control of this thing.

- 17 RHD Gargantuan Undead. Oh, you can already see how melee-oriented this Undead is. Not a good start.
- +18 Str, +4 Dex, no Con, +8 Int, +6 Wis, +8 Cha, +9 natural armor. Congrats, with this Str bonus, you have a higher attack bonus than a 17th level rogue. By 1 point. Spectacular.
- 40ft speed, one bite with Improved Grab and Swallow Whole. Apparently the jaws are mounted on a flexible stalk, alien-style, which gives them a 20ft reach.
- Necromantic acid : ulgurstastas have no actual digestive process, but secrete necromantic stomach acid that deals 1d8 Con drain to swallowed creatures. It can also regurgitate the acid in a 60ft breath weapon 1/day dealing 3d6 Con drain, or 1d6 Con damage on a successful Reflex save. Additionally, after using it, its stomach is dried up for a day, and creatures just kinda stand in there without taking any damage. The 1/day is a shame, but it's still actually a really good breath weapon, especially since it also regurgitates all the skeletons in there. Oh, yeah, the skeletons. Creatures that die from the acid (either the breath weapon or by being swallowed) transform into skeletons under the ulgurstasta's commands. Supposedly it can just swallow them at the end of combat and constantly move around with 2 Huge, 8 Large, 32 Medium or 128 Small skeletons to spit. Vomitted skeletons are also covered with acid, and deal 1 Con damage per attack, for added fun.
- Tendrils : One large (40ft radius) unfriendly area (though it activates when the ulgurstasta is angered, so probably at will) of wildly slashing tendrils, in which every creature takes 1d12 damage per round, every nonmagical arrow is destroyed before hitting their target, and everybody takes a -2 to attack roll. Honestly a fun ability, though not the reason why you'd want to play an ulgurstasta.
- SR 5+HD, DR 10/Magic and Piercing, acid and cold immunity.

The breath weapon and skeletons with Con-damaging attacks have potential, but the fact that it can not rely on it since it's only 1/day is a problem, especially since, as an Undead, it will have a hard time hitting with a regular bite. One level of dread necromancer for infinite healing is always good, but no more, since the ulgurstasta cannot do vocal components. Afterwards, going Horned Harbinger could be good to be able to animate dead without having to rely on stomach acid. 8 RHD, DLA-7.


Kyuss is a fun guy. Genius necromancer of Orcus (or, I guess, Tenebrous at the time), his obsession with worms made him create many aberrations (Avolakia, "lesser" worm that walks (the epic monster)...), undead (Ulgurstasta, Spawn of Kyuss, Gravecrawler...) and vermin (leechwalkers...). But he wanted to become a god himself, and gathered a cult around him, using their worship to become a demigod. But he was still not satisfied, and channeling his inner Karsus, researched a ritual that would make him a true deity. He succeeded, but the ritual involved sacrificing hundreds of people, and Kyuss decided that the best way to do that was to slaughter his own cult. As the last body hit the floor, he gained the power of a true deity, but immediately found himself with no worshipper, and lost his godhood instantaneously, thus becoming the Elder Evil we now know and loathe. Do NOT try to cheat your way into godhood, it's not that complicated, and has a 100% chance of something bad happening to you. Like changing into a rock with weird patterns. Which happened both for Kyuss and Karsus. It's not a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
We are slowly approaching the end of Fiend Folio. The next monster is the Wicker Man, and there will only be three more after that.