Strolen's Citadel: Observer Beetles By Aramax

Full DescriptionFound only in one location, (a very,very large virgin swamp), the Observer Beetle is a unique creature. An unassuming 1/2 inch long black bug with red markings. It feeds on anything that doesn’t move and lays its eggs in stagnant water (reproducing like normal beetles). When something unusual comes into the swamp (like adventurers)the beetles will begin to congregate near the interesting beings. When the adventurers camp, more and more beetles will gather around the camp. They normally do nothing. Normally.

If they are in the area of great good,great evil, or severely injured individuals; they act. They are in fact a hive mind with the abilities to sense good and evil as well as capable of casting moderate clerical or holy magic.
When they do spells it consumes hundreds of beetles; turning them into smoking ash.

They are fascinated by humanoids and will aid the very good and the injured who are not evil. Thousands of beetles will swarm an injured individual thereby healing him and then turn to dust. If you try to stop them more will just swarm in. Evil creatures will be attacked by spell (example the swarm will charm a deer and it would attack).They have no form of attacking otherwise.
The hive mind is very friendly to humanoids but has no real way of communicating. If the party is capable of communicating with the swarm, it will take several minutes for the hive mind to comprehend totally that it is being communicated with. It still is rather simple and has trouble w/abstract concepts other than good and evil.

It is a result of a toxic magic waste spill that connected a rare,dying out form of beetle to ambient energy of the god of nature.

You have to kill THOUSANDS of them for them to notice. Collected away from the swamp they quickly die.
It would take a HUGE disruption of the swamp for it to take action.

Adventure hooks

Start the swarm earlier in its existence when it doesn’t even know that it is good and develops its fascination with humanoids.

An evil force is trying to harness the power of the beetles -stop them. In my game, I had an evil force put them in one oz. potion of healing tubes to prevent them from dying,using them like a battery.

Try to find some way of spreading the beetles to other areas (tough to do).

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Insects (and Spiders and other creepy crawlies) By: ephemeralstability

Lifeforms » Fauna » Any

Creepy, Crawley, Buzzing, Digging, Biting, Building, Sticking, Jumping, Clicking, and all the other things these small things do.

Comments ( 11 )
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Aramax

2008-05-04 04:40 PM
Link: [5010#65151|text]

0xp

Updated: forgot something

Silveressa

2008-05-04 04:40 PM
Link: [5010#65152|text]

Very interesting, However I'm not sure about the "millions" of them part since they would imbalance the local ecology by sheer weight of numbers and food supply requirements.

A little detail behind it's creation would be nice, (by chance evolution, alchemical experimentation, or divine intervention)

Also how do they breed? Or do they just magically multiply?

(On a side note touch up the spelling/punctuation/ formatting a little bit and bold the Adventure Hooks word and it'll look a lot better.)

valadaar

2008-05-04 07:15 PM
Link: [5010#65160|text]

The idea is quite neat - but the presentation needs a lot of work. I will hold off on voting at this point since the idea deserves more then I would give it in the current form.

If the spellcheck does not work for some reason, use Firefox's built in spellchecker or use and external word processor. This should pick up some of the punctuation errors as well.

Fixer up and I'll be happy to give you a good vote!

MoonHunter

2008-05-05 12:39 AM
Link: [5010#65178|text]

A couple of things:
First: Read this, Five Best Tips for Posting on Strolen's (and Other Places). This should of stayed in your work space. Edit it, and go to the submission options (under the normal submission/codex/scroll/both open/locked and above bb translator and contributors. Click that to In Works, Request Advice. This keeps it out there so people can comment on it, but tucked away so you can work on it.

It needs editing, but I think you know that. You need to read it outloud, to clean up the issues with the language. You should also think about formatting it, with titles, extra spaces, and so on. I want you to read a few insect submissions (see below), then come back to this. This will give you an idea as how these things should go.

Once it is ready for "prime time", you go back in during an edit, and change it back to normal submission.

Oh, and you should link it to the Insects (and Spiders and other creepy crawlies) (click the underlined thing, it is a link )

Aramax

2008-05-06 04:39 PM

I'm a little computer illiterate and don't know how to add links or make it bold,I looked at the other insects and a lot of them were much,much less complete than this was in final form.

MoonHunter

2008-05-06 06:47 PM

One should not confuse short, with incomplete. Many of the short ones are "mundane bugs" with little, to no, special ability. Thus they have shorter write ups. Long or short, every write up needs to be complete, for what it is. It needs to answer the readers' questions. The further something is from the expected, the more questions need to be answered.

Linking on Strolen's is pretty easy, go to the bottom of the submission... wayyyy down there.. there is a suggest a submission link. On the top of your submission there is a number (5010). You go to the insect's submission, and enter that number in, press suggest, and there you go. There are other ways to link, but those we can get to later.

Under the Quick Links on the right hand side.. at the bottom of that list, is a linked called HTML help.

Click that and you can see how to make things bold. It is as simple as adding a bracket and a b.

Do me a favor It is word comma space: word, word. It is not word space comma word ; word ,word. It is easy to make the mistake while typing, but it will get you dinged everytime. Periods follow the same rule.

A similar thing with parenthesis. You need to put the space between the word: word (word) word; not word(word)word (no space) or word( word ) word (wrong space).

Those are two simple edits that will help clean up your sub.

Until you are ready to go release this, you really should move it over to your working space (see note above). You can then find it by going to your Strolen Homepage... go to the upper right corner of the whole webpage and click on your name. It takes you right there. You would be able to find it from there.

Aramax

2008-05-05 10:36 AM
Link: [5010#65191|text]

You are correct,I was having trouble w/spell check,will correct on Tuesday

Aramax

2008-05-06 04:22 PM
Link: [5010#65221|text]

Updated: Fixed my sloppy ,sloppy ways.

Aramax

2008-05-06 04:35 PM
Link: [5010#65222|text]

Updated: Fixed paragraghs

Wulfhere

2008-05-06 06:45 PM
Link: [5010#65229|text]

I remember my first posts here: It takes a few tries to get used to the Citadel's quirks. Please keep posting!

I could see these benevolent beetles appearing in a game, but I'd add some legends about them and their swampy home. While they might have occurred naturally, such creatures would be seen as powerful omens by those dwelling in the area. Mud-caked swamp elves would protect them as emmisaries of the nature gods, while those pillaging the wetlands' bounty would fall to the beetles' alien wrath.

Additional Plot Hooks:
"Drain That Pesthole" - Lord Fawary cares little for his estates, but hopes to wring every possible groat from the "insect-ridden" swamp on its border. He plans to dam the stream that feeds it, building a mill and clearing the land for pasturage. The arrogant noble can't understand why his simple plan isn't working...

"We Found Them in the Swamp" - Adventurers unearthed a unique treasure while exploring the great swamp: Statues of nature gods worshipped by tribes that once dwelt in the region. Purchased by Lord Fawary, these lovely statues delight visitors to his gardens. Unfortunately, swarms of tiny beetles have begun to plague the region, and Fawary's delight has turned to anger. He wants those adventurers found and his money returned.

Aramax

2008-05-06 07:09 PM
Link: [5010#65234|text]

Updated: Spaces,Spaces,Spaces (could not click on HTML help)

MoonHunter

2008-05-06 11:33 PM

Try this link:
http://www.strolen.com/inc/html_code.php

Aramax

2008-05-06 07:12 PM
Link: [5010#65235|text]

Updated: still fixing

Aramax

2008-05-06 07:29 PM
Link: [5010#65236|text]

HOO HOO I think Im done!

Misanpilgrim

2008-05-07 03:09 PM
Link: [5010#65244|text]

Why does the combination of a toxic waste spill and a species nearing extinction result in a magical effect that's beneficial to humanoids? Is the god of nature (who is, I assume, not fond of toxic waste spills and extinction) not in control of his own power?

Why does a swarm of millions of bugs need to charm a deer into doing its fighting? If a humanoid can get buried under thousands of bugs for a beneficial effect, why aren't the swarm's enemies simply swarmed and devoured?

Do the local humanoids know that the beetles are (sometimes) helpful, or would injured people panic when the swarm starts gathering around them?

If they're normally encountered in swarms of thousands (enough of them to cast spells) and they routinely congregate around humanoids throughout their vast habitat, how does this effect the swamp's ecology and nearby humanoid settlements? Is there room for other adventures in the area?

Wulfhere

2008-05-08 02:09 PM

Desiring that his humble servitors not pass from the realm, the sylvan god invested them with his power. Growing in power and wisdom, they were simple insects no longer. A fragment of the god's will possessed them, collectively making their race into a lesser avatar of the god.

I like the idea of magical effects: It's a style thing. Sure, the beetles could swarm over their foes, but bugs summoning mystical defenders of the wetlands is so much cooler (and not overdone the way swarms have been since "The Mummy").

Aramax

2008-05-10 04:49 PM
Link: [5010#65313|text]

Updated: DONE

ID:	5010
Hits:	2205
Comments:	11
Ideas:	0
Rating:	3
Condition:	Normal

3

Submitted: May 4, 2008, 4:08 pm Updated: May 10, 2008, 4:49 pm

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Submitted:
May 4, 2008, 4:08 pm
Updated:
May 10, 2008, 4:49 pm