Giant Hornet

Picture an ordinary hornet blown up to a 5-foot body with wings spanning 10 feet. Glossy bands of black and yellow run across its hard shell, and a retractable stinger sits at the tip of the abdomen. Its wings drone loudly enough to be heard 150 feet off; underground, each wall or closed door in between halves that distance.

Giant hornets hunt alone and attack whatever they spot. One drops onto its target, grips with its legs, and drives in the stinger for 1-4 damage. A victim who fails a save vs. poison takes another 5-30 damage and is paralyzed for 2d6 hours.

Smoke and fire are the best defenses. Smoke dulls the insect, giving it -2 to attack. Flame terrifies it, so it attacks a defender wielding fire at -4. Any fire attack also burns its wings away in one round; this causes no injury, but the hornet cannot fly until they regrow in 2d6 weeks.

Most believe these insects came from magical experiments gone wrong. Beyond their aggression, their instincts are a normal hornet's.

Each month a female builds a nest and draws a male. The pair raise an egg chamber somewhere secluded, such as a pit, cave or ruined building, plastering its walls with mud, wood pulp and saliva that sets like stone; this takes 1-6 days by size. The male mates, leaves, and dies of exhaustion within a day. The female then paralyzes a victim, hauls it inside, glues it down with the same paste, and lays 2d8 eggs in it before sealing the chamber in 1-6 hours. The eggs hatch within hours, and each six-inch larva eats for 1 damage per turn. When the body is gone the young dissolve the wall with saliva and fly off.

There is no hoard, but a chamber may hold a victim's belongings.

Bred by tampering with nature, giant hornets wander driven only by the urge to breed. Their venom spoils fast once removed: it can poison weapons only while under two days old, and it can also go into antidotes and potions against paralysis.

Giant wasps resemble the hornets but are social, swarming in groups of up to 20 and building huge hives of thick paper wrapped around a tree or filling a great underground cavern. A hive holds 1d20+20 adults and 1d4x100 eggs, larvae and pupae. A wasp bites first for 2d4, then stings for 1-4, and a failed save vs. poison exposes the target to venom much like the hornet's. Paralyzed prey goes back to a shared egg chamber, where the hungry brood devours it quickly.