Voidwasp Swarm
The Voidwasp Swarm was my first published piece of work. Wayfinder fanzine, which has sadly ceased publication, was a labor of love for many who adore the Pathfinder roleplaying game. I am privileged and gladdened that I was able to join the all-star list of writers, artists, and designers who love the same things I do.
Please note that the Voidwasp Swarm was published under the rules of Pathfinder’s first edition, and so it will differ in a lot of ways from the agradaemon you may have already looked at, and some of the terms may be out-of-date. Reading blocks of statistics- or “stat blocks- like these take a bit of practice, so if you like, you can skip down past it to the narrative ecology below the stat block.
Voidwasp Swarm CR 5
XP 1,600
CE Diminutive magical beast (swarm)
Init +3 Senses darkvision 60 ft.; low-light vision; Perception +9
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DEFENSE
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AC 17 touch 17, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +4 size)
hp 49 (9d10)
Fort +6, Ref +9, Will +4
Defensive Abilities swarm traits; Immune weapon damage; Weakness
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OFFENSE
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Speed 5 ft., Fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee Swarm (2d8 plus poison plus distorting venom)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 14), poison (DC 14), distorting venom (DC 13)
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STATISTICS
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Str 1, Dex 16, Con 10, Int —,Wis 12, Cha 9
Base Atk +9 CMB — CMD —
Skills +13 Fly , +9 Perception; Racial Modifiers +8
SQ swarm traits
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ECOLOGY
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Environment temperate forests
Organization solitary, pair, fury (3–6 swarms), maelstrom (7–12 swarms)
Treasure Value none
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Poison (Ex) Swarm—injury; save
Fort DC 14; frequency 1/round for 4 rounds; effect 1 Dexterity damage; cure 1 save. The save DCis Constitution-based.
Distorting Venom (Su) Any creature that fails its save against the swarm’s poison ability must make an additional DC 13 Fortitude save or be distorted, inflicting one of four penalties below, determined randomly. A creature that successfully saves against distorting venom cannot be affected by it again for 24 hours, however it may still be affected by the voidwasp’s poison ability. These penalties last for 1 day. This is a curse and polymorph effect. The save DC is Charisma-based.
D4 Result
1. –2 penalty to one ability score (minimum 1)
2. –2 penalty on attack rolls
3. –2 penalty on saving throws
4. Land speed reduced by 5 feet
Voidwasps were once normal wasps that had their hives tainted by abyssal influence. Whether by building a hive near a planar rift inside the Worldwound or by simply constructing it with demonically tainted materials, the corrupting energies strongly affected the wasps. They grew slightly larger, and their typical yellow and black coloring changed to mottled greens and blacks.
Like their mundane counterparts, voidwasps are carnivorous and work together to take down prey. The increased potency of their venom makes them devastating hunters, and large hives can terrorize entire settlements.
Unless something can destroy their hive, a swarm of voidwasps quickly depletes an area of everything they consider edible, which is nearly anything with flesh. Once they run out of food, the wasps move on to build a new hive.
Voidwasps are highly territorial and aggressively fight other species, even other voidwasp hives, to keep an area. A single female gains control of the hive by killing and eating all other competition, triggering her transformation into a queen. A queen can choose the gender of her offspring, and generally only births another female near the end of her lifespan or when the hive is at risk of imminent destruction.
Demons, being immune to the wasp’s poison and venom, enjoy using voidwasp hives as traps, placing them at the bottom of concealed pits or suspending them in tree branches and rigging them to fall on hapless travelers. In situation where the demons are actively engaged in conflict, they also use the hives as lobbed weapons.