These vicious and crafty foes have a surprising agenda!
Simulacrum Hornets are mostly indistinguishable from regular hornets, except for their size (about thumb thickness), and the faint image of a screaming face in the iridescent shell of their thorax. They are fiercely territorial and will attack foes up to Giant-size without fear. However, their actual goal is far more insidious- they were spawned by a wicked wizard who sought to cheat death, spreading his consciousness across a hive of insects. The hornets seek to make copies of the wizard, building crude replicas of a human form in their nests until it becomes fully assembled. Then, the swarm hibernates within the dummy for a season, and when a new swarm is able to be spawned, the ‘old’ hive animates and becomes a Simulacrum of the wizard who fathered then all. Statistics: Treat these as a Challenge Rating 5 swarm of hornets (3d6 damage per round for anyone enveloped). They will occasionally form a ‘face’ of sorts and try unsuccessfully to speak. When the swarm animates their hive, it becomes a Simulacrum (as the spell) of a 15th-level Neutral Evil Wizard. How you can use Simulacrum Hornets in your game: • Hearing rumors of a hornet swarm that chased someone into a river and formed a face screaming at them makes a frightening adventure hook. • Coming across inert hives (which have not yet animated) will be challenging enough, battling the swarm. Finding the incomplete Simulacrum within their hive will be scary, but not yet dangerous. • Finding an animate Simulacrum Hornet swarm, with an active Simulacrum or two, and several distinct swarms, will be a very threatening encounter, especially if unable to run away or find shelter somehow. (Originally posted on Game Masters Stash on 26 February 2019) Comments are closed.
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