Assassin Bug

D&D 2024 monster: Assassin Bug. Source: Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio Volume 1: Toil and Trouble. challenge rating 3, creature type Monstrosity, Medium size,... Assassin bugs plague the frontier and the wilderness, where they seek to hatch their voracious maggots within incapacitated hosts. Resembling giant bluebottle flies, these insectile terrors bear stunted humanoid limbs hinting at the bizarre ceremonies that created them. Dangerous Cultivation While the exact origins of the assassin bug are uncertain, rumors speak of an ancient sect of druids (possibly in service to Malar or Talos) who cultivated the first of these creatures. However, it remains unknown whether their intent was to create a benign means of breaking down monstrous corpses or a more insidious means of ridding the wilderness of growing humanoid populations. Little information survives regarding this sect, but the assassin bugs' unsettling humanoid-like limbs and limited language ability suggests that the druids might have engaged in self-sacrifice to achieve their creation. Horrific Egg Layers An assassin bug attacks with a paralytic bite to first incapacitate its prey, making it easy to infect that paralyzed victim with eggs. However, they are able to infest any target as needed, and will do so to eliminate threats. Given their need to lay eggs in a living host, assassin bugs generally flee from constructs and undead. Once deposited within a living host, assassin bug eggs immediately hatch into assassin bug maggots that burrow toward their victim's heart, consuming it and killing the host unless they are quickly destroyed. After gorging themselves on the host's body over several days, the maggots emerge as juvenile assassin bugs, ready to continue their horrid life cycle. An Unnatural Plague Whole settlements along the frontier have been wiped out by plagues of assassin bugs. Without a quickly organized defense, even a single bug can infest and overwhelm an unprepared population. Desperate rul...