Abyss Ant

Abyss ants match giant ants in size and build, but their blotchy coloring of rotten pink and fish-belly white gives them away at once. They share a limited telepathy with each other out to 600 feet and have no language.

Abyss ants bite and sting, the sting's acidic venom adding the listed 2 points of damage with no save. Three times a day each can spit acidic goo up to 10 feet for 2d4 on a hit, avoided with a save vs. wand. Their telepathy alerts the whole colony whenever one ant is attacked, and the rest race to help; they can also marshal reinforcements before striking. Rather than spread their attacks across a group, they gang up on one randomly chosen victim until it falls dead or helpless, then move to the next, a method that lets them bring down even huge creatures.

They live on many layers of the Abyss and reach the Prime Material Plane only when evil casters summon them, or when tanar'ri dump an irritating colony there by gate.

A nest looks like a giant ant's: tunnels and chambers dug up to 50 feet deep, entrances marked by mounds of dirt and gravel, and the whole complex sometimes spanning thousands of square yards. It holds up to 300 worker-warriors and one queen (MV 1, HD 6), a huge bloated ant with no stinger that can still bite and spit acid. She chooses the nest site and lays eggs; workers guard her, forage, raise the brood and build the ecosystem around the nest. About 60% are aboveground at any time and 40% below, and 2d10 guards and servants always attend the queen.

These fiercely territorial ants reshape the land around them. Their territory is usually 1,000 yards across for each 50 ants, varying with terrain and food. Patrols guard the edge and kill anything inside that is not useful, and scouts in groups of 1d6+4 range 1d4+6 miles beyond.

Though not bright, the ants understand ranching. They keep herds of whatever is at hand, be it deer, cattle, horses, humanoids, demihumans or humans, while wiping out predators, wandering beasts, insects, weeds and even trees and shrubs. Sentries watch the herd constantly, and animals are slaughtered as needed and dissolved completely in acid, the resulting fluid shared by the colony. Anyone devoured this way is gone for good and cannot be resurrected or reincarnated. Their acid is a key ingredient of universal solvent.