World: Midgard, Black Wastes
Diet: Omnivorous
Length: 4’8″
Lifespan: 70 years
Habitat: Caverns, Erebus, cities
Activity Cycle: Nocturnal
Report on the Avash incident:
The following text is from a letter found in the destroyed manse of Margus Kull, mayor of Avash
“Our dear lord Kull,
You may be surprised to receive a letter from one of our kind. You believe us mere vermin, and all of our previous attempts to communicate have been failures, for your language does not fit our mouths. My mother said understanding is the best cure for fear, so let me educate you on our nature.
It disheartens me to hear your “pest control” men blame us for plague in your city. This is an absurdity. How does it spread disease for us to devour your rotten scraps? Would you prefer to wallow in your own rubbish rather than let us touch it? Would you be spared from poison then, or would you die swifter than ever? You call us parasites, but are not our roles mutual? You provide us with our food, that is true; but do you not gain a service in return, a removal of your waste? A city without us is a city of squalor.
You claim our arrival brought disaster, but we were always here. Surely you realized how easily we go unnoticed when you found my letter on your pillow. In offering friendship, I offer you access to our community. We lurk under nearly every city in the world, and far beyond. We know what lies within the walls of the Emerald Mountain of the Wormblood, and walk the forgotten streets of the Black Wastes. Even the most distant, they are all part of one great clan. That knowledge, those connections, we are willing to share in part.
Should you persist in exterminating us, we will be forced to retaliate. This is our city as much as yours, and we will not leave it to one such as you. Recall that we can survive in the Black Wastes. Can you?”
Reports from survivors and soldiers sent to suppress the following outbreak put together a picture of unimaginable numbers of blattodling flooding from the sewers. Nearly the entire local armed forces present on the site were dead before the 7th legion arrived. After one fortnight’s stalemate, the blattodling swarm was pushed back with heavy use of monsters capable of entering the same routes they used to flank our own troops. It is uncertain exactly what happened at the front lines, as nobody is known to have survived at the epicenter, but when the vermin began to be pursued into their lairs, an aura of black magic flooded most of the city. 60% of the 7th legion was killed, along with most remaining civilians.
Recommendation: Blattodling have proved themselves a threat. Patrols must be sent into all potential lairs to clear them out. None may be spared.
