Assassin bugs are already gifted with a great name. But they’re also perfect for fantasy
role-playing for more National Geographic-y
reasons: they live in caves, suck blood, and have a nasty venom-packed
proboscis or rostrum. Coming in giant
and great varieties, Pathfinder’s assassin bugs are a nice new option when you
need an ambush predator.
Trapped in a cave by
giants, adventurers have only one option for escape: dig through a caved-in
section of tunnel and hope it leads to an exit.
It does—but the rockfall hides giant assassin bugs as well. Lucky adventurers may also find the skull of
the unlucky gray who triggered the avalanche, cutting short its otherworldly
expedition.
Minotaur slaves are
difficult to control at the best of times.
Worst yet, they attract pests: giant assassin bugs, who seem to delight
in feeding on the bovine humanoids. Down
on their luck, an adventuring party has no choice but to accept a job at a
plantation clearing out a nest of assassin bugs. Unfortunately, that means that when the
minotaurs stage a revolt, they see the adventurers as simply more overseers to
be slain.
Great assassin bug
eyes glow for several hours after death.
After getting on the wrong side of some duergar in a bar, adventurers
must defeat they gray dwarves in an assassin bug race—essentially, a
steeplechase where the racers must slay a great assassin bug and return with
the still-glowing eyes. This being a
duergar game, the adventurers should expect ambushes, deadfall traps, psychic
attacks, and myriad other underhanded schemes, particularly on the return
route.
—Pathfinder Adventure
Path #81 82–83 & Pathfinder
Bestiary 5 36
Apparently the assassin bug in D&D dates all the way
back to early White Dwarf and the 1e Fiend Folio. Not a bad pedigree, though the Pathfinder
version sticks much closer to the real thing.
Looking for the ghoran?
We covered her waaay back here…but damn, she got an art upgrade in Bestiary
5. Props to Aleksey Bayura for
making this plant PC race look properly badass.
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