The Worm that Walks - Kyuss | D&D Lore

[@ianross8083]

Kyuss: The Worm that walks. Also a pretty good band

[@TheNickcone]

an awesome band. but the DnD character is cool too.

[@wakeful1710]

Pronounced kai-us. My previous dogs were named Kyuss and Vitus

[@karldehaut]

The name band was inspired by the character

[@pathevermore3683]

"the eagles of death metal" and "queens of the stone age" are better.

[@aaronpangilinan8849]

There’s actually a Kyuss set of adventures for 5e Adventures League known as the Saga of the Worm optimized for higher level play. Starting with DDAL00-01 Window to the Past, then DDAL00-03 Those that Came Before, and DDAL00-10 Trust and Understanding. You can easily adapt it to your homebrew game if you don’t wanna use the adventure league rules

[@genghisgalahad8465]

Soo cool! I had no idea it was in 5e Adventurers League modules! Thank you!

[@Menzobarrenza]

Sincerely, thank you for sharing. This is perfect for me, as I already use him in my homebrew world.

[@serdna96]

You, good sir, are a gentleman and a scholar

[@Grayhammer]

Awesome!

[@Sirvantir]

Was about to make mention of it myself, I've run them all and damn they are fun. In these mods though Kyuss has been split among three crystals that the Cult of the Wurm is trying to recover, free it and make it whole again. Really surprised that Jorphdan (the P, H is silent) didn't know about the modules.

[@batmenic365StopMotion]

Kyuss has been the main villain of my campaign since 2019, the party only learned of his name last month but things are ramping up!

[@Langharig_Tuig]

I've heard the signature move of Kyuss is killer guitar riffs and being a pioneer within a new genre... pretty rad

[@JordonVirtue]

An adventuring party named the Queens of the Stone Age go on to battle kyuss...

[@bastienmillecam3183]

The Demon Cleaner group will Burn The Witch!

[@Seethyr]

It happened in Sky Valley I believe.

[@elf-lordsfriarofthemeadowl2039]

sounds like the name of a Rock band

[@quincyingram5136]

No One Knows if they'll be succesful

[@n.henzler50]

Bonus points if the campaign ends with the circus leaving town and a spaceship landing.

[@brittanislarp3850]

AoW was the second Adventure Path ever, and the first where Paizo wasn’t experimental with the whole thing. The absolutely ASTRONOMICAL success of the Age of Worms adventures led directly to Paizo’s long-term business strategy with their stand-alone Adventure Path series as a subscription service for customers.

[@Jorphdan]

That's awesome and great info thank you!

[@RoinDanton]

In this video we DisKyuss an elder evil. Please exKyuss any upcoming puns.

[@AJPickett]

Nice! Liking the new format.

[@misomiso8228]

One of the best DnD Villains ever created. Really hope we get and adventure on him one day from the 5e team.

[@cameronpearce5943]

We got some really good AL Modules for him. You should check those out :)

[@misomiso8228]

@@cameronpearce5943 'AL' modules?

[@LordMortanius]

I've...never really got the idea that he was a decent villain. He had his divinity stolen by Mellifleur, he was reduced to a quasipower, and he doesn't even offer much to the undead that the gods of their respective kinds or the gods they revered in life can't give. To cap it all off, he's not even the star of his own adventure path - Kyuss is the Herald of the Age of Worms, not its lord.

[@misomiso8228]

@@LordMortanius It's really the ideas behind him - the worm that walks - and the visual image of these creatures made up entirely of worms walking around. it's so evocative.

[@zedgathegreat9122]

He really is an interesting villain. Based off all the research I've done (there's a lot of vague stuff about him, and most of it essentially "non-cannon" as the dragon magazine has never been considered cannon, but who cares). And depending on the world he was a human, or a tabaxi trying to become a god on Chult... whatever the case I like the idea that he was a head of a cult of Orcus, and had plans to achieve Orcus's goals. He found a way to do it, even though it was a bit different, and by doing it he had a chance at becoming a god himself. He is actually able to achieve and pull everything off but it was essentially deus ex machina'd out of it (I like to think the Dark Powers created a specific demi-plane for him that his followers are trying to break him out of. And if he was ever released it it really would be a plague of worms upon every multiverse). He became the god he wanted to be for a fraction of a second, and everything was taken away from him. You also have amazing interplay between him, Orcus, and Vecna. How is that going to work out? Not to mention he has created some of the worst freaking monsters D&D has ever seen...

[@yesmilord2350]

Worms eat the living not the dead.. Disease blossom, contagion spread. Spawn of Kyuss rise and scream. Spread the gift of Orcus' dream. So glad to see a video on Kyuss. One of my favorite undead baddies. I used one of his spawns in my game and wrote the above as a spell incantation for creating one.

[@Jorphdan]

Very cool :)

[@Grimtheorist]

I'm not really a fan of the Kee-oos pronunciation... I've always said Ky-us, sounds eviler.

[@zacharyaustinart8805]

As someone who's been active in the metal and nerd communities for years, I have never heard anyone pronounce it Kee-oos. I have always heard Kai-uhs (referring to stoner rock or undeath). It's not a big deal that Jorphdan is doing it here, but everytime I heard it an alarm went off in my brain lol

[@RaysHobbies]

I'm with you. Never heard this pronunciation before. I'll continue to say it as I've always felt right. But I've known many to intentionally mispronounced names as its fantasy and so no rules right. Keeus just sounds like a sry kobold

[@Grimtheorist]

@@RaysHobbies You make a good point about intentionally mispronouncing names... I've noticed a lot of KZbin channels do that to encourage people to talk about it in the comments.. hehe ;-)

[@KingAndy1992]

@@Grimtheorist It comes from a pronunciation guide in Dragon #93. I agree that it doesn't sound as menacing, though.

[@Grimtheorist]

@@KingAndy1992 I didn't know that. Thanks :-)

[@NerdImmersion]

Shoutout to Sunblades for defeating all manner of high level bosses

[@basshunter69ffs]

*comment pleasing the algorithm*

[@aakashpandya1427]

May the viral god accept our offerings

[@Deathven1482]

“KZbin is a perfectly balanced game with no exploits.” :D

[@stefanomartinelli7344]

Is a good day to feed the algoritm.

[@christofferjakob4386]

NomNomNom

[@lucasparham5068]

Ditto

[@shiranuiraccoon7521]

Paizo still publishes their adventures in fractioned manner tho, it's pretty cool

[@jaywingate187]

I can attest, the Pathfinder adventures are pretty easy to convert to 5e and some of them are incredibly fun. Iron gods is a personal favorite

[@ashleysimmons3124]

Actually just got done playing this entire adventure 1-20 lvls! It was awesome!

[@johnroberts4456]

Lucky! I am missing a few of the tail end magazines

[@winsol]

"with the blood of thousands on his hands, he stood before the great obelisk and recited the words that were now etched into his mind...Discover audible with an audio book on us". Perfectly timed ad.

[@Jorphdan]

LOL!!!

[@ryanrizzo4869]

Everything you say Doobley-Doo, I can't help but smile. Keep up the great work, Jorphdan! Oh, and Daleland videos, pleeeeeease?? I'd like to know more about Shadowdale, Battledale, Archendale, and the other individual Dales. As always, thank you in advance and keep up the amazing content!

[@connorcarson6785]

Please do a series on the Elder Evils! I love the far realm and aberrant creatures. Would love as much extra information as possible

[@plewelly]

Love the elder evils. In the current campaign that I'm running, the big bad will end up being a modified version of Atropus, the World Born Dead. Modifying it to be more Far Realm-ey than undead.

[@billp6602]

BBEG of my campaign :)

[@Jorphdan]

noice!!

[@TPaether]

"With the blood of thousands on his hands, he recited the words that were now etched into his mind: **RAID SHADOW LEGENDS!!!**

[@roryamunrud6916]

Your content has gotten so, so good Jorphdan! Kyuss didn't sound all that interesting at first glance but holy heck, you brought so many fun ideas to the table!

[@Jorphdan]

Thanks!!

[@heidihurlock06]

You are a godsend! I was planning a campaign around Kyuss, you posted this just in time!

[@CONTINGENCY_sys]

I used them, use them, create them, and teach them. The true definition of "big bad", ancient evils with unique status The Elder Evils are delicious content.

[@oh_jeebus1021]

Ahhh one of my AL characters is a goblin death cleric of Kyuss, even has a pet worm with a cert from extra life!

[@CvijaFaQ]

Kyuss the Demon Cleaner!

[@connerwhite7743]

Incredibly good timing! Very enjoyable video. You've won me over as a sub. I have Kyuss as a post-game objective for the barbarian I'm Dming for.

[@mikerainbow11]

I own the original adventure path, I am quite proud of it. I converted it to Pathfinder a number of years ago and I have been a big fan of it!

[@eldritchkaiju5829]

The worm that walks and the band that rocks

[@gabrielcano3729]

I love the elder evils as end campaign villains! I'm currently running a spelljammer campaign with the infested stars as main antagonists pulling the strings.

[@nickthenorbertine]

How are your players going to ultimately defeat the infested star? Whats your end game plan? Currently planning an Elder Evil ending for my campaign.

[@iagors626]

Please, do more videos about the elder evils! I think we all will want to know more about the Lovecraftian side of D&D and about figures such as Ragnora, Antropal and Pandorym!

[@ArcRevenant]

Nice concise info on Kyuss is appreciated. I like what you've done with the backdrop for your videos. I kind of want to steal it for my game-space.

[@billstubbles2398]

Thank you for this - it's a great resource. I played Age of Worms back in 3.5 when it first came out, and I've played Curse of Strahd in 5e. My son's asked me to look into running Curse of Strahd again, and I wanted something different so I'm looking at a hybrid AoW/CoS campaign.

[@JAG19d]

Adventurers League has a really cool set of tier 4 adventures centered around Kyuss getting free

[@trexdrew]

So something else that’s related to Kyuss if you wanted stronger heralds of him the Star Spawn are also his. It mentions him and Kezek using them but you can use the Star Spawn as well for a full on cult battle in 5E.

[@serdna96]

Perfect timing, I'm in the middle of DMing a heavily homebrewed version of the Age of Worms Set in Eberron

[@iknowthatyougreatlyloveyou1613]

Welcome to the Sky Valley

[@IndoorAdventures]

Most excellent video filling me with even more villainous ideas! Kyuss has been the BBEG of my homebrew campaing for years, and the players only recently found out of his existence!

[@nicobe8732]

We currently play a campaign which hints at Kyuss. We don't know yet who is actually behind the undead plague of worms, but a city was recently attacked by Drow under the lead of someone who called himself Kyuss, probably a devode cleric or sth. We managed to talk this "Kyuss" out of his idea of using his power over the Drow (he probably could stop the plague of worms there) and promised him regency over one of the five biggest cities in our Kingdom (homemade world). So yeah, we managed to stop the threat of a Drow army attacking, but we are now stuck with this boy as a regent of one of the most influential cities.... let's see what he plans next. It's exciting!

[@Kaither]

This was an excellent video Jorphdan.

[@Jorphdan]

Thanks!

[@Scribeoflife]

As always, very informative and yet entertaining. Good work :)

[@thinking-ape6483]

Historically he worshipped Nerull as far as I know.

[@chaosmittens]

Kyuss rocks and will probably port him into the setting for DnD I’ve been writing. The Wormcrall Fissure would be an awesome destination to add to my map

[@RIVERSRPGChannel]

Good information Sounds like a good BBEG

[@Nick-dc6ix]

What a great video. Love the tie in to the adventures; might be my next campaign

[@joshDammmit]

Oooo, I love Kyuss! Welcome to worm Valley is my favorite album.

[@sethbowen3093]

Awesome! I've wanted to run this since I bought 3 of the 10? Mags 15 years ago. Thanx for the reminder!

[@yanaleigh]

I don't think I'll be using him anytime soon, maggots are not my favorite... However, I hope you'll do more Elder Evils! I fell into a hole researching them last month and I'm a bit disappointed that 5e hasn't done more with the idea. I'm itching to use Zargon in a campaign.

[@theillethedartisan7514]

Same thing happened to me, I’m really liking Borem rn

[@dannywillard151]

I love your channel and the videos you make about dnd backstory and lore. I've always thought dnd lore was fascinating. I'm not too big into the game itself but I do enjoy neverwinter on xb1. I was wondering if you might be able to make a video that would organize all the dnd books in an order of some sorts that would allow a new lore collector to start working towards?

[@Jorphdan]

dnd books like the novels? That's a lot of info to cover. DnD Books like supplements..? Mabye do-able. I'll have to piece together an idea.

[@dannywillard151]

@@Jorphdan yeah I know that there are alot of books that have been made throughout the years that include the totality of dnd lore including magazines, novels, and the guides for the game itself but I just haven't been able to find a comprehensive list anywhere that organizes them in any special way besides just wikipedia being like here is every book ever made. So I was just wondering if it was possible to organize the books that contain lore, however your thought relevent, in some way that would make a sensical story of the lore. A pretty tall order I'm sure but was just curious if it was possible or if anyone knew if it had been done and I just can't find it

[@ItsJackDolan]

2:25 check out AJ Pickett's Spellweaver video for more on that lost civilization! Quite a doosey they are!

[@DoWhatNowQuestionmark]

Love your vids! Keep em coming

[@dripskylark6054]

I wish I had known about this before I started my campaign. Sounds like a dope concept

[@jack-rh8me]

it is, the 'zines were well put together...

[@barge489]

Totally, I want to run this as a zombie apocalypse kinda campaign.

[@genghisgalahad8465]

Wow, 6:00 is actually a really fun idea especially for newbie DM’s and players where there is equal expectations and just lets the table dive in. Perfect for player/DM’s maybe taking turns even! Also Kyuss seems the earlier progenitor of animating worms as in the vampire trilogy novels and now show The Strain by GDT and Chuck Hogan. DnD really does have some major BBEG’s like you would find in an issue of Marvel comics opposite of the One Dark Lord as in LotR or SW. Except of course Strahd in dread plane of Barovia... actually more intriguing and in-world to me than the worms of the Illithid. That one’s more Alien-y if that’s your SpellJAMmer! Trying to drop as many pop culture references as I can... if GH does arise officially in 5e, AoW would/should be the main storyline! Or transpose into the FR! Plus that obelisk reference! That’s endgame stuff you hit upon, Jorphdan! How about the “Further Realm”? That was an epic lore video! Also digging the difference in the fonts for this new series!

[@DarkAutumnScribe]

This is really gross!! And also very cool... I had forgotten all about the Elder Evils ...

[@Menzobarrenza]

Thank you. I'm already using Kyuss, so this is perfect. I even homebrewed a gargantuan worm with a Kyuss-worm breath weapon.

[@tmcdon]

Dungeon Magazine was/is one of the best investments in D&D. Stat blocks will have to be modified, of course, but you get so much adventure goodness in each issue. Well worth the price. It's a tragedy it's no longer published.

[@lexsamreeth8724]

My first ever character was almost sacrificed by a similar creature - an evil spellcaster composed entirely of spiders. He came back later trying to invade the kingdom's capitol through a hijacked planar gate. To be honest, the NPCs were real stars in that battle. A gnomish sniper, a massive golem, and all of the students of the local magical academy simultaneously casting cantrips. And meanwhile, my ratfolk rogue was up on the arch, desperately singing out prayers to Shelyn as he tried to protect himself and his party.

[@aaronsnoddy122]

Thank you my dude. I’ve been looking for some stuff on Kyuss lately and that filled in some good gaps. I suspect my players will hate this lol.

[@noobdm8129]

Jorphdan always feeding my campaign with the best lore

[@jtb6737]

I was having a war of the gods campaign, where ones are muscling in or trying to subvert a takeover. This helps a lot as the ultimate BBEG, which I was having trouble creating.

[@neue01]

Blues for a red sun

[@cameronpearce5943]

With him being linked to the Spellweavers, once being a servant of Orcus like how Acererak or Vecna was, Vecna destroying the Spellweavers and selling their time machines to Netheril, makes me wonder if we could have some kind of connected story

[@blights5468]

A cabal of big brain multiversal liches turned elder gods would be great late game villains for planescape

[@Azgaroththewise]

Plan on a campaign centered around Kyuss, where the star spawn are the main antagonists that started a cult to the worm that walks. It begins with neogi crash landing with a star spawn emissary, kinda like John carpenters the thing, from there the neogi start kidnapping people to get the events under way and yeah eventually the cult and later star spawn are reviled to be enacting kyuss’ will

[@ethanbest9110]

Age of Worms was on my list of adventures for my group to vote on when I started running most recently, along with its pseudo-predecessor The Shackled City. We ended up going with Frostmaiden, and I can't help but think they would have liked either of these way more.

[@wiederganger1959]

If you like the idea of Kyuss, read Lovecraft's short story "The Festival", that (clearly) inspired it. "Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl."

[@dantower8268]

Feast upon frustration of life. I get you Kyuss. Been there. I'll take your pamphlet...

[@MSXTJ]

Somebody call Mannimarco, the king of worms, to check this fool.

[@moonringXD]

2:30 3:03 do you think this could tie into the black obelisk?

[@Jorphdan]

maybe! It's an interesting angle for sure!

[@matadorspvfc-comaberenices2234]

Would love to see more on Elder evils, Elder Eternal Evils, and Aboleth Elder Evils. These are great for my homebrew campaign's BBEG.

[@Zeemis]

Loved this one man! Could you do a video, if you haven't of course, on Larloch the Lich?

[@Jorphdan]

sure! kzbin.info/www/bejne/lXLal6KcjNxnpas

[@robertjuangreggor2385]

I love the zombies called the spawn, shall be adding them into my necromancer’s lair

[@mercaius]

I mean, Paizo still releases monthly/bi-monthly chapters of adventure paths for their Pathfinder RPG. That's still a thing. Reading bits from Rise of the Runelords and such is actually what finally convinced me to give Pathfinder a shot, given how interesting and detailed the sites of adventure were within.

[@staticcharm3808]

Good luck getting a game. No one really plays Pathfinder. It's much easier to find a 3.5ed game which Pathfinder basically is a rip off of

[@yeager1957]

BTW that weapon he’s holding, it’s called a executioners mace. Mechanically the best martial weapon in 3.5.

[@Insane-Howl-Cowl]

Love anything tying into the Elder Evils. I would love to run a campaign with Kyuss

[@SamuraiMujuru]

Sandy Peterson's Cthulhu Mythos for 5E has really cool rules for "beings to grand for reality bleeding through" that'd be perfect for the Kyuss as demiplane approach.

[@jaywingate187]

God I miss the old paizo adventure paths. Savage tide was the first game I ever DMed when I was in high school

[@drawbyyourselve]

Christ it's that dude again and he was recommended and the theme is interesting guess I will subscribe jeez

[@Jorphdan]

Woo!

[@ducklord9933]

Paizo uses that format that the adventure path had, they have been doing since pathfinder rise of runelords, and honestly I like it more than what Wotc does. It's exciting for me and my friends to guess what the next adventure each month will be like.

[@Roselyse]

Kyuss sounds like he’d also assist Tharizdun since he wants to destroy everything

[@nexusoldbind5015]

If anyone wants a miniature for this character you can find a disciple of kyuss in the dungeon command undead box set.

[@samuelreese1816]

Every time I learn more about dnd lore and old Uber bosses, I think of the never war from the book side jobs, from the dresden files book series. It's a good read, and an enticing campaign idea or motivation for antagonists

[@kegsyk8499]

Great content. Great story. Love the channel.

[@Jaggedknife11]

Wait......this isn't about the 90s metal band with Josh homme?

[@Jorphdan]

Nope! ^^;

[@hostilegraveyard2849]

DEMON CLEANER. 'nuff said.

[@BockwinkleB]

And the best stoner rock band

[@artur_pc]

Kyuss video, nice. Do you intend to talk about more of the Elder Evils? Atropus and Ragnorra are pretty neat, although I don't think there is much more on then than the one book. Also there is a Kyuss stat block for 5e. I believe it's in a AL adventure called "Window to the Past".

[@jahcoba]

Just a note that the 3e worm that walks is Medium size and is written to be a template to be added to any evil arcane user, not just kyuss

[@Witandwitless]

Holy shit this is neat. I was working on a Halloween One shot that was based on a prompt of the party finds a bird filled with strange worms. Was going to do a comet fell from the sky and had the spawns of Kyuss being the main thing for a unique spin on a zombie one shot. I wasn't too familiar with Kyuss I may make it part of his monolith that fell and try to fit it into the larger world for later campaigns.

[@Rocker7773]

Hello , i played this module as my first, and we defeated Kyus with the sfeare of anihalation, not the rod of seven parts, although we did poses one or two parts of the wand.Not trying to invade just sharing my expirience. :3

[@ashleycook6025]

Jorphdan: The PH is silent..... My Lizard Brain: The Ø *is* silent.

[@Nnonymous]

The farer realm. Top tier humor

[@km1dash6]

I 100% recommend listening to The Magnus Archives and using the evil beings there as elder evils. I did that, made an Elder Evil that embodies the fear if the uncanny and my players were genuinely afraid.

[@Daleksaresupreme1]

I love the Greyhawk setting

[@ashmaker614]

Encountered him in my last campaign

[@Jorphdan]

Nice!

[@RoinDanton]

How did it go?

[@ashmaker614]

@@RoinDanton eating the worms is a bad solution to the problem the adventure poses :|

[@JoshBCamp]

The paladin in my campaign is starting a religion and I was going to have her stumble into some spooky far realm cults. This is perfect!

[@KnicKnac]

I think I still have a few of the Dragon magazines that the old adventure was printed in.

[@TheXTruthAbout]

Very cool video. I don't play D&D. We're big into 1e Pathfinder. But you got a sub!

[@Jorphdan]

Welcome aboard!

[@dungeonsanddronesrpgroup]

Where does the image at 2:30 come from?

[@LordMortanius]

I'm relatively certain that Kyuss never worshipped Orcus. In life, he was a sorcerer-priest in Nerull's service who was sponsored to divinity by his patron. It's heavily implied that the god Mellifleur is the reason he was stuck in an obelisk, as the lich siphoned off the divine power Nerull was expending to elevate Kyuss to instead become a god by total accident.

[@Persephon94]

Gosh darnit - its the the Spellweavers again!

[@Gomjibar]

I use the Spawn of Kyuss, (and infest other creatures with the worm too) but more as a minion of Orcus rather than their own faction