The Swarm Comes

MacFawkes

MacFawkes

Apprentice
To the people of New Acarthia, I bring you greetings, although they come with ill tidings.

During this last gathering of the courts, an adventurer-turned-farmer resurrected within the Healers Guild. She claimed that she had been attacked by strange, large insects. She mentioned that, although she was once able to disarm a foe with a clever twist of her blade, she no longer felt as if the skill remained, as though something had been lost upon facing these creatures.

We have now encountered these insects, insects of the Swarm, for ourselves. I seek to inform the people of New Acarthia of this threat, that we may better prepare to face the Swarm.

Thus far, we have seen the following species of insects, working together under the aegis of the Swarm:
- Praying mantises: These creatures are unnaturally strong, and possess the capability to fell an individual with a single swipe of their claws, which ooze a paralytic agent.
- White beetles: Possessed of a thick chitin, these creatures must be faced by a proficient warrior to be injured, and have the innate ability to mimic a wizard's Fortress spell
- Flies: Although not especially strong, the Swarm's flies are incredibly agile, able to evade spells and blows adeptly while biting with diseased incisors.
- Spiders: These spiders are capable of entangling their targets within sticky webs, rendering them helpless. Like so many of their kind, they are unable to be captured within basic binding magic.

The most potent of the Swarm's host, however, are those to which we are currently referring as "brain bugs." These insects are bipedal black-and-brown creatures, who emit a fairly distinctive "ch-ch-ch" sound. Brain bugs are intelligent, employing tactical maneuvers and seeming to respond to the common tongue (although they do not appear capable of speaking it); worst of all, they have the ability to dig into the mind of an incapacitated foe, stealing the abilities of their hapless targets. This ability takes only a matter of seconds.

We have confirmed that the stolen abilities return with the refreshing of the tides, but that the brain bugs are thereafter able to make use of stolen abilities as their own. They are also capable of magically paralyzing targets, inflicting magical slumber, and felling an opponent with a single, eviscerating blow of their paralytic claws; were that not dire enough, it seems as though they can summon and control the other insects, making them the greatest threat of the Swarm.

The Swarm is a dangerous foe, one which will only grow more deadly the more often we face them, unless we fight them intelligently. The brain bugs have already learned several potent abilities from our defenders, and will continue to do so if they are given opportunities to incapacitate us.

Squire Klonoah Kona of Rivervale is conducting an investigation as to the abilities already gained by the Swarm, and will be transmitting them shortly so that we may be as prepared as possible for our inevitable future battles against this monstrous foe.

If anyone else has information about the Swarm, I encourage you to post it here. Forewarned is forearmed, and we shall need to be as well-armed as possible...
 
Your Excellency Baron Rivervale,

Thank you for collecting this information in one place. I learned much from its reading. I have another, important, point of information, and a question for you on your report:

Some bugs have red eyes. If you but look into their nasty insectoid faces, you can clearly see the red girdle around what I can only call "eye sockets," although that description is not wholly accurate. The red-eyed bugs continuously discharge acid over their exoskeleton which is harmful to ordinary weapons. When you strike one of these red-eyed things, its acid coating will eat through your weapon quickly, rendering it effectively useless within the span of a single engagement. Watch closely toward their creepy faces for this tell-tale sign.

My Lord Baron, I have a question about the praying mantises, which I have not yet faced personally. Is their great strength such that a very skilled warrior might be able to parry the blow of its creepy striking forearms? Or is its strength so massive that any sort of defense, even putting up one's shield, will not truly avail a warrior against it?

Thank you for providing this address, Your Excellency.

In service to Acarthia,

Dame Katherine Albright
Knight of the Ducal Court of Acarthia
 
Dame Katherine Albright,

The strikes of the praying mantises may be negated either through a parry or a magic armor spell. A shield may temporarily stop the blow, but they will try again afterwards. I hope this helps.

-Squire Graham Wolsey
 
As one of the personages that had its mind read, the way that they read my mind is something that is similar to what I have seen before. Usually when creatures share a group mind such as this, it makes them immune or at least incredibly resistant to Command like my sleep spells. While I cannot confirm whether it is true, during the attack on the Deepjug Tavern on Sunday, one of them seemed to be immune to my sleep spell.

By my hand,
Squire Kendrick Eisenhal
 
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My Lord Baron,

I would like to know more....

Dame Katherine Albright
Knight of the Ducal Court of Acarthia
 
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Me and some others faced these "brain bugs" as you call them last November. A farmer's cart was stuck in a hole. We found to be a tunnel and cave. I shared this contact with others at lunch on Saturday and was told they were called the "brood". No one seemed to care at the time. After we slew some spiders and flies in that tunnel, all of which acted just like you say, it opened up into a cave. A large blackish figure broke through the cave's roof and fled. It left us to deal with some of these same brain bugs. They struck with acid, though they did not seem to have acid skin. Many bugs have some kind of brood mother. I say we start looking into caves and other underground places to find theirs and kill it.
 
(OOG NOTE: NO ONE HAS EVER CALLED THEM BROOD IN GAME. PLEASE STOP DOING SO. This is considered possible metagaming)
 
(I know its been incorporated by various games... but 'brood mother' just infers generic 'mother of a group'/'mother tending group of offspring' a chicken has a brood of chicks for instance, one that is constantly hatching chicks one clutch after another is called 'broody'- or another example is how a wasp broods over its eggs. Its a common term/use in mundane language. )
 
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Yeah but he said:
"I shared this contact with others at lunch on Saturday and was told they were called the "brood".
 
((FWIW this actually was an IG comment. Perhaps it is something that shouldn't have been used in-game, but it was. If we're effectively retconning the word out of the lexicon for these purposes, that's fine. I was simply using a term I'd heard from another PC in game.))
 
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