Pernicon

Pernicons resemble grasshoppers colored in a strange mix of red, yellow, ochre and blue. They live along the fringes of deserts, where nomads and other locals prize them for their talent at finding water.

Usually harmless, pernicons attack in force if disturbed. They leap onto a victim in swarms and clamp onto bare skin with pincers at the tip of the abdomen, wriggling under clothing and through armor joints, so protective gear is no guarantee. A swarm needs at least ten insects, and each ten-insect swarm attacks once per round. Up to five swarms can attack one man-sized creature; add one per size class larger and subtract one per size class smaller.

A swarm's hit deals 1d10 points of damage and drains fluids for the loss of 1 Constitution point, and the drain repeats automatically every round after. At Constitution 3 or less the victim falls unconscious; at 0 the victim dies. Raise dead restores half of a dead victim's lost Constitution and resurrection three-quarters. Survivors regain Constitution at their natural healing rate for hit points.

Blunt weapons kill one pernicon per point of damage, whereas a stab or slash slays just one per hit, and nearby insects immediately refill a swarm to ten. Area spells such as fireball kill all in range. A torch or flame tongue sword kills 2d4 per round, a pool of burning oil kills 2d8 the round it ignites and keeps them away afterward, and strong winds, including gust of wind, scatter every swarm they touch.

A colony lives in a conical mound of sand, silt and soil standing 3-5 feet high, pocked with exit holes for rapid swarming, and space them at least three miles apart; rival colonies sometimes fight over territory. At dusk the insects emerge to sip dew and moisture from rocks and plants. Whenever a lake, river, oasis or other major water source lies within 12 miles, their antennae quiver and hum, and some change color within 90 feet of any water at all. Egg-laying comes with the desert's rains, usually two seasons a year, and every 300 adults produce about a pound of eggs. Rubbing their hind legs produces a clacking that some scholars think is language, and hunters track them by the sound.

Traders peddle living pernicons as water finders at prices up to 10 gp apiece. Lamias, sandlings and brass dragons find them delicious, and more refined desert tribes treat the eggs like caviar, paying up to 50 gp per pound. A dozen raw insects give a human a meal's protein and about a quart of water, which is why nomads call them walking cactus and keep many recipes for them. Wizards and alchemists need them to craft decanters of endless water and in experimental water-finding magic.