Melhed/Agyrain Academy/Archive/Monster/Manual E-H
| Hollow Wasps | |
|---|---|
| Descriptions | |
| Hollow Wasps are a thankfully rare form of undead, and one of the more…Disturbing creatures I have had the dubious pleasure of writing upon. Be warned, this is not for the faint of heart, and even the name has been known to cause distress among those with active imaginations.
There are varieties of wasp that lay their eggs in other insects, using them as a food source for their larva. The wasps are, of course, wise enough to not target hosts that have become undead for this "honour", as like all living things they have an instinctive abhorrence for the curse of undeath. However. When a host becomes undead after the eggs have been planted, but before the larva have begun their grisly birth-feast, the larva consume many times their weight in undead tissue, taking the curse unto themselves. Hollow Wasps are the result. There is no mistaking a wasp for a Hollow Wasp, for while they bear the same overall shape and form, the sound of a Hollow Wasp is entirely different. As their forms are indeed hollow beneath their chitin, the buzz of their wings results in an eerie, haunting sound that all on its own has been said to drive men mad, clutching at their ears in terror. Their actual assaults are far worse. Hollow Wasps seem to have one goal, only, which is to fill the empty places inside them as frequently as possible. To this end, they will attack any living creature near their macabre nest, which is usually the skeleton of one of their kills. They burrow in to any unprotected flesh they can find, rapidly consuming all they can reach of the soft tissues. Horrifyingly, like their larval predecessors, they have an unerring instinct for consumption in a way that leaves their meal agonizingly alive for as long as possible, leaving to torments that I shudder to even consider, and will not relate. One of the few blessings of Hollow Wasps is that they do not reproduce themselves. Each one destroyed is one that will never trouble another living soul, and keeping an area clear of undead makes it vastly less likely that they will come to be. They are also as individually fragile as their living counterparts, if one is brave enough to risk engaging with them. | |
| Rumours & Second-hand Accounts | |
| According to a Davie Catrinson, an adventurer in Caligus on the East Continent, one method of dealing with Hollow Wasps is to have what he calls "swing shields", which are apparently shields attached to the hips of the foolhardy adventurer who seeks to fight them, and which can, with the proper rhythm, confuse the Hollow Wasps and prevent them from burrowing in to any unprotected areas on the flanks and rear, leaving only the face exposed to them. This, to me, seems a hideous risk still, but he claims that he is used to keeping "bugs and critters and suchlike" away from his face, and he is able to use these shields to handle the inevitable swarm after tossing a bottle of burning oil from a "sensible" distance into the main nest. | |
