Berserker Wasp

Medium swarm of tiny beasts, unaligned

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
3 (-4)	18 (+4)	8 (-1)	2 (-4)	10 (+0)	2 (-4)

Armor Class 14
Hit Points 56 (16d8 – 16)
Speed 0 ft., fly 60 ft.
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing
Damage Vulnerabilities cold
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained, stunned
Senses blindsight 10 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages –
Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Special Traits

• Pheromones. When a swarm of berserker wasps finds prey it calls more of its kind. 2d4 rounds after a scout finds prey the first swarm arrives, with another arriving each round thereafter until a total of 1d4 + 2 swarms have arrived.
• Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny insect. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.

Actions

• Stings. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature in the swarm’s space. Hit: 14 (4d6) piercing damage, or 7 (2d6) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer. The target must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or become paralyzed and poisoned. At the end of each of its turns it may make another saving throw, but on a success only the paralyzed condition is ended and the poisoned condition remains. A creature that is stung while already poisoned makes its next saving throw with disadvantage.

Tactics

Berserker wasps are drawn to the smell of blood, so the first scouts will often arrive during or at the end of combats, and if food is found they quickly summon the swarms. A swarm will attack injured targets, will keep attacking those it paralyzes, and then feed once a target is dead, but will immediately switch to any creature that attacks it. As long as berserker wasps have a target, uninjured creatures that do not attack berserker wasps will generally be ignored.

Description

Berserker wasps are six-inch-long insects with red bodies and double sets of shiny black wings. Appearing by the hundreds in an angry cloud, the deep, raspy buzzing of their wings produces a bone-shaking drone.

Fair Weather Fiends. The berserker wasp does not build nests, instead using large animals as living hosts for its eggs. The wasps are dormant in the winter, emerging from burrows in the earth early in the spring to travel through the forests and grasslands, looking for creatures in which to lay their eggs.

Long Range Hunters. Berserker wasps are drawn to the scent of blood, and their sensitive olfactory bulbs can sense a wounded person or animal at surprising distances. When a victim is found, the swarm envelops it, stinging it repeatedly to keep it paralyzed. Then the queen burrows into the still-warm body to lay her eggs. After the eggs hatch the young feed on the host body, then fly off, leaving nothing but a skeleton.

Invasive Species. Although the species originated in equatorial rain forests, their swarms have made slow but steady progress northward, encroaching into more densely populated lands.