Caterpillar Elevators (Part II)

Read part 1 first.

Sylk Wyrms or "Dire Wyrms" (as they are called by surfacers) are ordinarily more docile than their nickname implies. These  gigantic furry mollusks have earned the nickname, "Deep Mammoths" by the few lore-men who withdraw from ancient scrolls fantasies of the ancient cold. Mature wyrms even have powerful tusks which resemble those of the long-distant mammoth. Larvae wyrms are hairless, bone white, and translucent. From the egg they are about the size of a bull, and their tusks are barely pronounced.

By puberty the wyrm's tusks have grown up to a span of ten feet long. But wyrms with tusks those large are the very largest of their kind, about the size of a sperm whale. By middle age, the wyrm's hair is a ruddy red. In their eldest stages the wyrms outer flesh hardens into a gravelly and chitinous surface, and the hair turns black. Their saliva is a corrosive substance capable of breaking down stone, earth, and flesh.  Though wyrm flesh is impervious, of course. In a spiral-screwing motion wyrms use their tusks and spittle to tunnel out suitable domains. Some claim that they can "swim" through the earth as fast as a man can run.

Typically wyrms nest in colonys as they are social creatures. Various glands allow the wyrm to weave a powerful acid-impervious thread. Gnomish artisans use this thread to make a superior weave the gnomes implement into everything from insulation to armor. Wyrms use these webs to make "nests" over high chasms ussually near moisture sources. Both male and female wyrms have tusks and can secrete the acidic saliva from birth. Female wyrms are typically 20% larger than males. Once a wyrm's hair has turned fully black it retreats from it's colony in an isolated pilgrimage until death.

What is a "Caterpillar Elevator"?
Answer: Deep gnomes with wyrm companions make use of the wyrm's ability to quickly zip up and down their thread-lines. Gnomish excavators grab a ride on the furry flank of their wyrm accomplices and in minutes have sped upwards to ore-rich caverns ordinarily hours of climbing away.