I was thinking that I would do one letter a day in this series initially, but that has not turned out to be the case. Eight of twenty-six so far, so we are progressing! I see from the helpful blog stats that I am exceeding five views a day. Verily, this series has struck a nerve!
Today we pick up the alphabet again like a fine sword, which we point to the letter I.
Insects.
Creepy and often disgusting, they are a nuisance to be destroyed! But a faction? Really?
Well, they could be. The interaction with them will probably be violent, and they certainly will not have esoteric goals. But a colony of insects on one or more levels of the megadungeon will provide a great challenge, and thus be a faction by default.
There are a number of basic forms they could take, such as the ant, roach, spider, or mosquito. The dungeon master could choose one or develop something unique and more Alien-like. The form chosen will certainly have game effects on their combat abilities as well as their locomotion. In constructing their physical bodies, care should be taken not to make them too powerful individually on the whole. They will be numerous. There should be a more powerful Warrior-type insect, but the mass should be less powerful Worker-types. The Queen might be helpless or very powerful. Her primary function is to lay the eggs.
The main question that will direct their actions in the megadungeon is this: are they an established colony, or new?
If established, their societal structure and routines will be set. Their function will be to defend the colony, primarily defined as the queen. Secondarily it might be to expand their territory, if they are generating new Workers to the point they are exceeding their current boundaries.
The party will come into contact with them as they either seek access to a certain area or level, or the colony has in its possession artifacts the party is seeking. If the latter, the insects might not care about the artifacts – why would they want a Tome of Martial Puissance? However, if the objects are bright and shiny, the queen might like them. This is not to say that the queen and the colony is stupid, just that their way of thinking should be alien to the party’s mode of thought. There might be some room for negotiation here, but the concept of bargaining is unlikely one to the understood by the colony, much less honored.
If the colony is a new one – say, a newly queen recently departed from another colony or an old queen driven off – the question is now: have they found their territory, or are still searching for it?
If they have just found it, they will be very aggressive in establishing it, and they might chase PCs a good distance down the dark halls to drive them away. Other than that, they would not be much different from the established colony. But a colony in search of a place might be the most dangerous of all. They might be formed into a swarm, and the PCs would be ill advised to get caught in it. This might be a mechanism the DM can use to shake up an existing megadungeon that has been much explored, the arrival of an insect swarm and their queen. Old enemy factions might be forced to ally out of necessity, with perhaps the PCs as mediators. There would be counter-strikes and last stands.
The more I think about that last scenario, the more I like it! So instead of a random table today, I’ll create an adventure template for the arrival of an insect swarm into the megadungeon. The letter D here represents the first day, and D+1 for example would be the following day.
Invasion of the Rochaisas
D+0: First solitary scouts seen in the dungeon, as the colony searches for a new home.
D+5: Vanguard of the swarm arrives, targeting a large area of one level: either a large cavern, or a series of closely connected rooms. They will kill everything they can and then start preparing the area. Mostly workers, but a significant number of Warriors.
D+8: The rest of the swarm arrives, with the queen. They inhabit the area prepared, or try to take it if the vanguard did not.
It is unlikely the imminent threat was identified on D+0 or immediately after, but by the arrival of the vanguard residents of the complex should know a new player is coming to town. Whether the vanguard succeeds or fails, there will be parleys among the nearby factions of the megadungeon; maybe a joint defense pact is reached, maybe not.
After D+8, things might calm down, as the colony settles in and gets into baby-production mode. There might be alliances made among the other factions at this time, too: do they really want these creepy-ass neighbors here permanently?