I'm running a nautical campaign and my second adventure (following merry mayhem with the Thieves Guild in a port city) involves the pcs' ship being hired to scout out a possible route through a salt marsh.
(The basic background: there is a large river that is navigable but the port city there is well defended by two forts controlling main approaches from the coast. To the south there is a large area of salt marshes leading up to a vulnerable estuary that no large fortifications can be built upon. A general occupying another city would like to see if his enemies can be outflanked using the salt marshes.)
The salt marshes are a seemingly endless labyrinth of channels and natural canals. While regular soldiers and scouts might quail at this, a band of hardy adventurers might be able to conquer this! Equipped with a small fast ship that can hide along the wild southern coastline, and with a ship's launch to get them into the channels they will try to find an approach.
The area is known to be populated mostly by wild creatures but most particularly by tribes of runaway slaves and cannibalistic barbarian tribesmen. Caution and stealth will probably succeed over brawn, but if it comes to that great heroes have been hired who should be able to prevail.
Okay that's what I have so far. I'm trying to come up with a series of encounters leading up to the pcs discovering a ruin or lair of some kind. Ideally an npc being kidnapped (a la the Olangru encounter in Dungeon) or an elusive mystery will lead them to want to figure out what's in there.
What I was actually thinking of was a truly alien horror to be discovered here: something like an intelligent giant insect colony. Perhaps for the implication to be that a group of adventurers from a cannibal village unwittingly opened a sealed area in the temple and unleashed the awfulness, and the pcs need to put a stop to them or the giant bugs will breed so rapidly they will represent another invasion. But what kind of giant bugs would suit a salt marsh?
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But what kind of giant bugs would suit a salt marsh?
Giant roaches perhaps? The asian cockroach is often times referred to as a "water-bug" that prefers wet, damp places; entering homes via the plumbing...
Stats for the giant cockroach can be found in the Forgotten Realms "Underdark" book...
It would be easy enough to make them intelligent. You could even use the Formian as an example of intelligent insect society (ignoring their extra-planar origin)...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-
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But what kind of giant bugs would suit a salt marsh?
...insect monsters of many types, fiddler crabs, marsh snails, marsh mussels, shrimp and aquatic fish or fish-folk.... Have you thought about building your own ecology, taking some creatures and making naturalistic modifications to them...? Has anyone invented an "undead plant?" or a swimming insects?
Sounds interesting. Good luck.
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Dungeon 69-73 contains The Mere of Dead Men series. There's a large area in The Mere where wild magic has been "enlarging" all the wildlife. The first adventure is about Yuan Ti and a human cloning operation -- it's the best playable adventure in the series, "Slave Vats of the Yuan-Ti" by Jason Kuhl.
You could grab these 5 mags and read over the series, lots of tie ins to what you're trying to do. It is very FR in the last adventure, "Eye of Myrkul" by Boyd -- but that's 4/5 adventure background and 1/5 adventure; 'course, the background was enough to make it considered one of the top adventures Dungeon published.
About half of what your describing is in the series. And if Yuan-Ti or the black dragon, EbonDeath are not alien enough for you you could always use SpellWeavers and a Froghemoth with the Far Realms template. Ought to be easy enough to play with.
-W. E. Ray
Digital elf: Formians, yeah! A variant on them that was say water-bugs (Mimic, anyone?) would be perfect. I really like this idea.
Pax Veritas: I'm wondering how to go about such an ecology. Tying in with what Molech said perhaps it might simply be larger versions of creatures, but I like better the idea of creatures that feed into the notion of strangeness. I'm wondering if various symbiotic, domestic and scavenger type relationships would work well with my bug-people.
Molech: Yuan-Ti are among the background villains of my campaign, so it could be an old 'slave vat' type fortress. Froghemouth are a type of creature I like but have never used in a game; I'd like to try because I already ran this group through "Red Hand of Doom" and have already done last year the Black Dragon motiff. Otherwise I would, I quite like them.
What I'm thinking then is that the pcs perhaps come across someone (I'm not sure who, perhaps some kind of fortified trading post or something like that?) who has reports of 'strange cloaked figures' who hover or sidle among the waterways and half submurged trees of the marsh, seen sometimes not long after or before abductions have taken place. Of course these dimly seen figures in the midst of panic are really the giant bugs.
What I may also do is use an information lure, that perhaps an ancient fortress/temple/whatever marked an old road that used to pass through this region, and might still have old maps of secret ways used to get from the marsh back to the main river.
What level of party are we talking about here? I like the thought of using spellweavers, perhaps leveled as wizards or sorcerers? Or, if you really want bugs, what about aranea? Perhaps there is a whole spider kingdom in the swamp, with ettercaps and monstrous spiders ruled by aranea spellcasters. Perhaps the aranea have lost their ability to shapechange and are looking for a remedy. I would go with a curse. The ancient ruins the party hears about could have been their capital or high temple, but something happened to anger their gods (or perhaps they just lost a confrontation with a more powerful spellcaster/group of spellcasters), who cursed the colony and/or trapped them. Now they've unwittingly been released and are looking to regain their powers. The colony could be evil and a serious threat, or just misunderstood (and present potential allies to the PCs and their employer if the aranea can be swayed).
Aranea kick buttock; if you can try to find the Princess Ark article about the Kingdom of Herath from Dragon.... the number escapes me I'm afraid.
Dragon 183 - knew it was in the 180s. First issue I ever bought.
Saern: now THERE'S an interesting twist. I didn't even think of that as a possibility. I'll have to seriously consider that one. Party level is 11th-12th. Perhaps that might explain other giant bugs, say puffed up to be decent prey?
But regardless, the idea of potentially friendly bugs is very interesting.
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There could be a tribe of intelligent warrior insects, versus the tribe of intelligent spiders,
There's also Praying Mantis (Thri-Kreen), Scorpion Folk, you could use the advanced beastiary to add some cool templates to insects, like the bipedal one. The allies could also be giant stick bugs...maybe they're druids...
Hm. I'm not sure...thoughts anyone? One idea is that there be TWO intelligent races of insects in this adventure. I'm tempted but I'm also tempted by the horror idea where the insects are simply alien and strange.
If you have access to the MM III, you might consider adding Splinterwaifs and Drowned to the mix.
Splinterwaifs, while Fey, have an alien appearence and special abilities that would suit them extremely well to the hit-and-run tactics favored by salt marsh terrain. They're easy to scale and suitably nasty.
Drowned don't make for a great ecology, but rather favor one or more single encounters. They're tough opponents, but their special abilities really add to the wet and dangerous feel of any marsh. Besides, once the players realize they can't breath near the undead, it'll generally force them to come up with some new tactics.
The Drowned are pretty tough opponents! So for a 12th level party even they're heavy hitters. Certainly I could have a sunken ruin have at least one or two of them in it, great suggestion.
Splinterwaifs...it seems like they fit more the 'eater of children' idea and I very much am inspired to use some in a gloomy port city, but do you think they'd fit in an area like a relatively uninhabited salt marsh? Thoughts?
The Drowned are pretty tough opponents! So for a 12th level party even they're heavy hitters. Certainly I could have a sunken ruin have at least one or two of them in it, great suggestion.
Drowned are surprisingly durable! The only reason I think they're manageable is they are very vulnerable to concentrated ranged attacks and well-built clerics. But they make a great surprised for that party just expecting zombies.
Splinterwaifs...it seems like they fit more the 'eater of children' idea and I very much am inspired to use some in a gloomy port city, but do you think they'd fit in an area like a relatively uninhabited salt marsh? Thoughts?
I think you'd have to modify the flavor a bit, but there's no reason they can't prey on the stray fisherman and other marshdweller as they feed their cruel hate with relative isolation. Perhaps they'd recently been driven out of the city by another band of adventurers and so are now plying the waterways. Perhaps they've fallen in with a Hag who uses them as servants, of a sort.
How about mosquito-folk, like those dudes and dudettes in "The Scar" by China Mieville. You could advance stirges and change their type to vermin. Maybe make a Swarm of Stirges? (maybe 12 HD, doing 3d6 points od damage plus a Fort save or 1d4 Con damage from blood drain, plus the Fort save for being nauseated?)
In "The Scar," the mosquito females are mindless predators, but the males are scholars with round toothless mouths. Maybe they have a library in the dungeon you want the PCs to go to....including a detailed map of the Salt Marsh?
Maybe use harpy stats for the mosquito-folk, and change their song to a buzz that makes you sleepy, and add blood drain (1d6 con damage) to the bite attack.
The males could be archivists or truenamers or some other non-standard scholarly types.
I tend to use a lot of bees in my games - I love giant hornets or giant wasps! They are wicked to deal with, especially at lower levels. They could easily have a nest in a half-sunken manor in your marsh or an old overturned/overgrown tree.
As for monsters, I prefer using lizardfolk - lots of great options in the various monster manuals and The Serpent Kingdoms.
There is also an "insectoid" template from Savage Species, wasn't there? I remember a super-cool illustration of an insectoid ogre. You could play with that for all sorts of neat combos...
Fleece66
This is what I'd like:
- a race of some kind, insectoid, who are the major opponents but are not discovered until the pc group are neck deep.
- dangerous creatures who are in relationship with them as guards/scavengers/food/ etc
- local perils that are not necessarily monsters but are problems
- local people, recently terrorized by the insectoids.
I'd like all these things to fit together ideally...
OK, how about this?
The insectoids have several castes and forms throughout their life cycles.
1. Queen. She is in charge of the hive. Queens are derived from workers who ate Royal Jelly. Huge in size.
2. Drones. Male mates of the Queen. Drones are derived from warriors that ate Royal Jelly. Small in size, some magical ability.
3. Workers. Female semi-humanoid form that does the work. Medium in size, sterile. They go out, feed on blood, and disgorge it to the queen, drone, and warriors.
4. Warriors. Male that didn't eat Royal Jelly. Large in size, sterile.
5. Hatchlings. They are size Fine and act as swarms. They often escape the Hive to feed and they carry a disease that is affecting the local villagers.
6. Chrysalis-Corpse. When the Hatchlings are ready to metamorphose the first time, they converge on a Medium or Large creature and enter all its orifices, killing the creature. They can animate the corpse for a few days as a quasi-undead feeding machine. The Hatchlings then turn into Larva and burst out of the Chrysalis-Corpse, destroying it.
7. Larva. They return to the hive and feed on the blood from the workers until they seek out new hosts of their own and possess them for a while, eventually killing the host and taking on the sex of their host, emerging as either Workers or Warriors (or Queens or Drones if the larvas ate Royal Jelly before seeking a host).
Queens are semi-intelligent and can spew out swarms of hatchlings as a defense mechanism. Drones are intelligent and actually make excellent scholars, often pursuing bizarre forms of magical study like psionics, archivists, or truenamers.
Warriors and Workers are semi-intelligent. Larva and Hatchlings are true vermin, lacking an intelligence score.
A lot of my ideas here are inspired by the horror movie "Slither" and the book "The Scar" by China Mieville. Plus Aliens, of course.
Old Hives are being discovered as sinkholes in the area. Local crops are being destroyed by the Hatchlings and sinkholes under their fields. Disease from the Hatchlings are making lots of villagers sick. Some villagers are missing, or acting bizarre (possessed by Hatchlings and/or Larva).
This is what I'd like:
- a race of some kind, insectoid, who are the major opponents but are not discovered until the pc group are neck deep.
- dangerous creatures who are in relationship with them as guards/scavengers/food/ etc
I'll stick with the aranea hypothesis. Let's say that the aranea are the ruling/master race. The most obvious choice for an associated monster is therefore the giant spider. You may want to consult some other books, such as the MMII or MMIII for more spider-like creatures. The game is fairly rich in them. Ettercaps serve as an intermediary overseer caste; more bestial and less intelligent than their aranea masters, they can train and direct the monstrous spiders and serve as the expendable ranks of this society in the swamp. The party begins the adventure thinking there is a colony of the primitive bug-people, only to find out much later that the true force to be reckoned with are the intelligent aranea.
Alternately in place of one or more of the servitor creatures, try some kind of enslaved/mutated race. Perhaps the aranea have a fungus or, even better, an alternate specie of spider which deals some kind of ability damage other than Strength; perhaps Intelligence? Creatures drained to 0 Intelligence fall into a coma and undergo a transformation into some kind of mindless or near-mindless arachnid or insectoid being (enter the templates from the Advanced Bestiary). So, rather than ettercaps, the party might be up against spidery lizardfolk coming out of the swamp under the commands of the aranea. Or, the PCs might investigate several seemingly abandoned villages, wondering if a plague or the like wiped them out. Then, one nightfall, the transformed spider peasants attack! What has caused these bizarre changes is a total mystery until the party tracks down the source of the alterations and discovers, preferably when they're surrounded, that the aranea are behind it.
- local perils that are not necessarily monsters but are problems
Sounds like you need some environmental hazards! I'm a big fan of playing up the terrain in an adventure, to the point of making it almost a character of its own. People talk and feel that way in real life about the landmarks they live around: mountains are harsh, swamps cruel, forests brooding. I like build encounters which have no creatures in them at all, using the mechanics for traps to simulate a bridge over a raging river which may collapse; or simply devise my own combination of skill and ability checks needed to navigate a challenge, all without using combat. At the level range you're talking about, creating an environmental hazard which can challenge the party may be a little difficult. In that case, try constructing something rather dangerous, perhaps a quicksand bog or the like, which the party could normally overcome with ease; but then throw in some nasty monsters (perhaps chuul; I don't have my MM handy, but I think they have a paralyzing attack). Either element could be dispatched without problem by the party, but in conjunction, they are difficult and enforce the sense of the terrain as a factor which cannot be overlooked or underestimated. If they're in a swamp, feel free to throw in some diseases, too. Once again, the party can easily handle that at their level; but it still drains spells from the cleric. If the disease(s) is (are) persistent enough, the cleric might even have to use some higher-level spell slots to deal with the constant problem. Once again, the swamp proves itself a foe in its own right.
- local people, recently terrorized by the insectoids.
See the above section on afflicted commoners. The villages further from the epicenter are filled with swamp dwellers who are scared witless from the disappearances of whole neighboring villages. They whisper of a terrible new plague about.
When it comes to synthesizing this, it should be pretty easy to use the environmental elements to hamper the party as they progress through the swamp, little more than flavorful random encounters. Eventually, low on resources, the party finds their way into one of those paranoid villages on the edge of the mysterious region of disappearances, and the party is drawn in that way. Perhaps the only path leads through the afflicted area, or perhaps someone in town reaches out to them to help find missing relatives. Then it's off into the swamp again, through a few more environmental encounters, and to the "abandoned" villages and ensuing arachnoid terror... er, I mean, fun!
I really REALLY like the idea of the larva-corpses as part of the life cycle, and the general hive structure. And it also provides a sense of mystery that I really like.
Now for the actual creatures. Saern, why aranea in particular? I find them very interesting but I'm noticing you're very fixed upon them. I'm torn between this and creatures that can fly, I guess. One reason why I like aranea myself is that they are very intelligent and might be some kind of source of information. (since it is a scouting/intelligence mission this makes sense.)
I very much like the disappeared villagers as opposed to obvious slaughter. I like that idea very much indeed, it makes for more of a mystery in the situation.
Saern, why aranea in particular? I find them very interesting but I'm noticing you're very fixed upon them.
Only because I've been posting when away from my MMs for the last few days. I wanted to keep throwing some ideas out there for you, but didn't have any of my books handy to peruse a wider selection of monsters; the aranea are the only ones I could remember which seemed to fit. :)
If you want some really naty flying, larva-implanting, disease spreading monsters, what about ekolid obyrith demons from the Fiendish Codex I? Them's nasty!
I vote mosquito-people! (In case this is a democracy)
There are tons of different spider-themed monsters, so most players will have encountered them at some point in their adventuring careers. I think you should choose a different, yet recognizable, type of bug as your baseline for the Big Bug Evil Guys (BBEG).
;-)
I vote mosquito-people! (In case this is a democracy)
There are tons of different spider-themed monsters, so most players will have encountered them at some point in their adventuring careers. I think you should choose a different, yet recognizable, type of bug as your baseline for the Big Bug Evil Guys (BBEG).
;-)
That is the problem with spider-themed monsters. They are very cool, but as a consequence, tend to be overdone and thereafter loose their charm.
OK, how about this?
The insectoids have several castes and forms throughout their life cycles.
1. Queen. She is in charge of the hive. Queens are derived from workers who ate Royal Jelly. Huge in size.
2. Drones. Male mates of the Queen. Drones are derived from warriors that ate Royal Jelly. Small in size, some magical ability.
3. Workers. Female semi-humanoid form that does the work. Medium in size, sterile. They go out, feed on blood, and disgorge it to the queen, drone, and warriors.
4. Warriors. Male that didn't eat Royal Jelly. Large in size, sterile.
5. Hatchlings. They are size Fine and act as swarms. They often escape the Hive to feed and they carry a disease that is affecting the local villagers.
6. Chrysalis-Corpse. When the Hatchlings are ready to metamorphose the first time, they converge on a Medium or Large creature and enter all its orifices, killing the creature. They can animate the corpse for a few days as a quasi-undead feeding machine. The Hatchlings then turn into Larva and burst out of the Chrysalis-Corpse, destroying it.
7. Larva. They return to the hive and feed on the blood from the workers until they seek out new hosts of their own and possess them for a while, eventually killing the host and taking on the sex of their host, emerging as either Workers or Warriors (or Queens or Drones if the larvas ate Royal Jelly before seeking a host).Queens are semi-intelligent and can spew out swarms of hatchlings as a defense mechanism. Drones are intelligent and actually make excellent scholars, often pursuing bizarre forms of magical study like psionics, archivists, or truenamers.
Warriors and Workers are semi-intelligent. Larva and Hatchlings are true vermin, lacking an intelligence score.A lot of my ideas here are inspired by the horror movie "Slither" and the book "The Scar" by China Mieville. Plus Aliens, of course.
Old Hives are being discovered as sinkholes in the area. Local crops are being destroyed by the Hatchlings and sinkholes...
I like these ideas best about the bug people themselves, and I'm thinking that they have mosquito like characteristics but are maybe sturdier, not looking like the humanized bugs in "The Scar" (I've read it, very cool) but rather more like giant insects, some of whom can walk semi-upright. One thing I like particularly is that there are several LEVELS of monster here that might seem totally different, from strange zombie like creatures to big nasty bugs to BBEG bugs.
On the other hand I really like Saern's ideas about how to plot things out. I'm thinking encounters with normally very dangerous marsh barbarians who are now terrified by the unnatural things that are going on.
I also like the idea of the ruler bugs being much more intelligent, using some kind of magic, and being far more dangerous.
Finally, I like the idea of using the environment itself as a hazard for the area. The sinkhole idea is cool because it implies that the threat began a few bug generations ago, not very recently, and that it is almost too late to stop them.
Now I'm going to start figuring out:
1. Stats for the bug people. (should I simply alter the descriptions of an existing bug race like formians or bee people?)
2. stats for bug zombies (should I just use Sons of Kyuss or something and make it larvae instead of corpse worms?)
3. putting together the encounters and places. I'm tempted to create some kind of ancient temple or evil place (kind of like in "The Ruins") which is inhabited by the bugs, not by demons.
How about instead of an evil temple or whatever, it's an abandoned black marketeering manufactory of some kind. Moonshine, alchemy, purple dye (only the king can wear purple!), an old printing press of a banned newspaper, quintessence, a necromancer's golemarium, a monestary that copied heretical works, an gallery where off-color sculptures were carved, etc. etc.
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But what kind of giant bugs would suit a salt marsh?
I don't think they were ever updated for 3.x, but earlier editions had huge dragonflies that came in five flavors, corresponding with the five chromatic dragons. They even had weak breath weapons matching their reptilian counterparts. It's more awesome!-fantasy-ish than oh-s#$%!-kill-it!-horror, though.
Actually it's a clever idea, making it not a temple but some kind of other place. (but still with a reputation for being cursed)
Here are a few thoughts o' mine.
1. The drug warlords. Borrowing from Conan having a lotus flower or something like that harvested for magical purposes, only the flower in question produces sinister applications. The drug warlords are a local tribe that provides this to buyers (evil cults and such) that send agents into the marshes. They are also the number one traders in the area, providing outside goods, buying or sheltering slave traders that prey upon non-aligned tribes and so on.
2. Local oppressed tribes. These are those that the drug warlords have overpowered and demanded tribute from. They also act as spies and workers for them. They are degraded, no longer proud and fierce.
3. Independant tribes. These are those who dwell in the most unhospitable parts of the marsh, ferocious and even cannibalistic. They may however prove to be allies as even they are being preyed upon by the bugs.
4. Locomotion: I'd like some interesting types of vehicles or animals used for this. I was thinking of something that would approximate things used in the real world that magic might create, or animals that might be unusual and interesting, for example:
- airboats (maybe harnessing smaller air elementals of some kind, requiring someone capable of controlling them to use them)
One problem I have for this adventure is that it occurs to me that my pc party are very flight capable. While I could at the start hold them back for this by explaining the need for stealth and while I do know they are sufficiently noble types to pursue the adventure itself, I'm thinking that this is one reason why I definitely want flying bugs.
What about an abandoned mine shaft?
I'm envisioning a huge complex, a massive quarry excavated out of the swamp, with small waterfalls falling over a hundred feet into its depths. The drug lords made this place, and its reputation is very sinister. The substance the drug lords were after wasn't a plant; it was a mineral (or something else which comes out of the ground). They employed slaves taken from the swamps and elsewhere, brutally driving them to dig and mine. Eventually, they found what appeared to simply be the tunnels of caves running a hundred feet or more below the surface of the swamp, and stopped digging the quarry in favor of exploring the shafts. They went deeper and deeper... and then disappeared. No one knows exactly what happened to them, but most of the local swampdwellers think the gods punished the drug lords for their evil.
In fact, they stumbled into the sleeping hive. A swarm of hatchling and warriors tore through the slaves and drug lords alike, then drug the bodies back under the ground. By the time the next supply caravan came to the mine site, the rain and water had washed away the blood, and all that remained was silence. In fear, the place was abandoned and declared cursed and/or haunted.
But the hive had woken.
Maybe take a page from "The Rescuers" and have a giant dragonfly-powered airboat!!! Or maybe some kind of chariot-boat pulled by gators or water moccasins or something. And if you go with the air elemental airboat, make sure it's powered by kites. Or giant bats on strings pulling the boats.
For mounts, maybe giant flightless herons? Or a giant crocodile with a howdah and druid driver. Or just regular horses with rings (or horseshoes) of waterwalking.
... maybe some kind of chariot-boat pulled by gators or water moccasins or something. ... Or a giant crocodile with a howdah and druid driver. Or just regular horses with rings (or horseshoes) of waterwalking.
Both of these sound cool. I could imagine a swamp tribe, perhaps lizardfolk or some other non-human, which has tamed giant crocodiles to pull barges through the swamps. Merchants and other travelers through the marshes have to deal with and be diplomatic towards the tribe which supplies the dangerous locomotion.
Alternately, I could see a group of rangers who know a ritual which allows horses to waterwalk, or even walk on a layer of mist several inches or feet thick, just above the swamp (I believe horseshoes of a zephyr already do something like this). For a price, monetary or otherwise, they lead travelers through the marshes in small groups. I can see the grim riders emerging from the mists on their dark mounts, their lamp and torchlight the only thing penetrating through the haze on a starless night, the fearful eyes of their charges gleaming behind the silent guide....
Saern: I like what you're proposing so much for the complex itself that it's definitely IT. I'm actually going to make use of some of the maps of mystery along with some older modules to flesh out the mine complex and the tunnel system beneath it. It's very cool indeed.
(I may use a flower like 'code' for the substance but it's misleading, a mystery flower/plant that no one has ever found...)
I also really like the idea of the marsh paths and the water chariots; I'll work on those. The sense of mystery and magic to the marsh paths is very enticing.
I should add:
- I want to use a ranger/druid group that use an ability to see secret ancient pathways through the marshes. That's very cool.
- The giant herons are a cool idea as well. I'll make them actually the regular domestic animals of the villagers in the region, a kind of cross between a fishing bird and a riding animal.
- Crocodile pulled chariots...I think I'll make that the purview of the druids or rangers of a particular tribe living in the marsh, perhaps the more wild and dangerous ones. (In fact I think I may just have what seems to be a dire crocodile stalking or attack turn out to be the territorial approach of one of these companion beasts and leads to a possible ally in a group of the barbarians)
The Bugs:
1. Have an ability to make building materials with their saliva mixed with a combination of rock and vegetable matter. They work at 1/4 the time it takes humans to build.
2. Are basically a form of giant wasp. They use other beings as incubators for their young. There is a form of social darwinism in which the larvae colonies are driven from the colony. (the bugs don't regard their young as sentient)These larval colonies invade hosts, ideally the bigger the better but the host needs to be actually killed. As they grow bigger they need more space, so they will start to attack and divide into new hosts. (in other words, 'zombies' attack, bite and tear, and some of the larvae enter the new host.) At some point the 'zombies' start to fall apart. When they have reached this stage they are heading (by a combination of racial memory and scent) back to the adult colony, so the zombies seem to just disappear. This, incidentally, has become part of local legend.
3. They are harshly xenophobic; anything that has flesh or animal matter is regarded as food.
4. They use the same basic stats as giant wasps, but there are three more intelligent castes--intelligent males and females. The more intelligent males and females have spellcasting ability and are very smart, able to make long range plans.
5. The bugs were created by a sorcerous cult to act as a weapon. There is a way of destroying them--a kind of crystal which when touched by magical heat emits a gas that destroys insects.
6. The adult bugs are cunning predators. They avoid large obvious swarms unless their population mass becomes so huge they would dwarf human cities. While their colonies are small they use camouflage and scent alteration to hide themselves, using ambush to capture prey.