That moment when your party figures it's a false hydra and make specific preparations... only to discover that it's not, in fact, a false hydra and they're *outnumbered*
Got to the part where you started introducing plot hooks. Got interrupted by a S'mores commercial. When you started to saying "how to use them in your game with some" *interrupted* "ooey, gooey, crunchy goodness."
Ran a very casual game in which the party came fleeing through a mockery bug town followed by a hydra. The brewery and home of the monarch somehow caught fire, looking at you wizard, killing the hydra. The party seeing the destruction kept running. Months later they came back that way and found the drones had gained some sense of individuality and a bit higher intelligence. It was a nice call back.
A cool idea would be like, if the mockery bugs kinda "shed" their host body as they got bigger, like hermit crabs do. Like, the party sees a rabbit with blood on its mouth/face, then later on encounters the body of one with the head missing. Then they encounter a cat, or pig with the same blood markings and/or dead body. Then a deer/sheep/cow/horse. Until ultimately the bug gets full grown and takes over a human.
You gave me a weird dream about these guys. I was a mockery drone, and I ended up in a monarch's village. Since it wasn't _my_ monarch, the other drones had no idea I was ALSO a drone. But I knew. It was kinda funny but sadly that's all I remember. Also this comment took the time of the entire video to write
Let's do some crossover: "Hey! Long time no see! How long's it been?" - "Two weeks." - "Yeah right, heard you were sick. How're you feeling today?" - "Two weeks!"
Why do I have an urge to make a version of this where, if its victim is particularly intelligent, the resulting drone is able to think and reason to some degree - and if given long enough it can mature into a monarch itself. Could have one that sees some adventurers coming and elects to aid them - as it wants the opportunity to mature into its own monarch stage but can't do that as long as its chained to the current monarch. They can't directly help in the fight - its loyalty to the monarch would kick in - but it could set them up with forewarning, or ensure their weapons are nearby if they got captured, so that they have a good chance against the monarch. Could even make for a fun NPC for the party, them all thinking its the only survivor of this remote village who's a bit strange after the experience but generally a good guy. But really said NPC is looking for a safe spot to ditch the party and mature into its Monarch stage.
I have been a huge fan of all types of horror since I was a little kid, growing up first with ghost stories and the darker side of Greek Mythology, then jumping pretty quickly into Edgar Allen Poe and pretty much every other type of horror before eventually finding my true love in both psychological and cosmic horror (Lovecraft's work). All that said: my sense of fear is pretty much non-existent, but one of the few things that would honestly creep me out is the idea of a species of parasitic insect like these things. I found the Roach Thrall (D20 Modern) just as terrifying as they completely wear the bodies of their victims and even use standard procreation methods to spread their species to other hosts. My first true introduction to these types of creatures in roleplaying, however, was the Sea Spawn (one of the 2E Ravenloft Monstrous Compendiums, I think 1 & 2). However, just because the idea creeps me out doesn't mean I wouldn't use it in a game. ;) Being poisoned (by venomous creatures, especially by spiders), dolls, and giant monsters in the ocean or the vacuum of space about to devour me (situations where it'd be futile to do anything but accept my fate) are my biggest irrational fears, though. Mostly holdovers from forgotten childhood nightmares, but I did have a close encounter with a black widow when I was maybe five (and I knew about its danger beforehand), so that one has merit.
Having some leftover memories brings up the possibility that it could regain them and the concept of a mockery drone remembering who it was and breaking free from the queen's control is interesting, and yet still horrifying.
I think a cool encounter would be one where the party comes across an Orc tribe attacking this seemingly defenseless town goating the party into protecting the bugs and the Orcs could be speaking a foreign language trying to warn the party but ultimately failing and maybe some of the Mockery Bugs are smarter than others like a mayor or bar keep who tells the the team he wants to throw a feast for them to celebrate and for the adventures to stay a little longer encase the Orcs come back again.
As a twist the orcs could be worshippers of Eldath and possibly Ondonti too. Not a D&D player, but I believe Ondonti were introduced in 2e. It would be cool to see a video on them where Dungeon Dad goes over how to use them as enemies and PCs. Yet to build them as PCs I think using the Ebberon Orc and Half-Orc could be a way to go on that.
Love this its crazy how i look forward too the monsters you dig up and my players just hate it but in short love the work you do and cant wait too throw this one at them
I like the idea of a bbeg teaming up with the monarch to get cheap soulless bodies to control. I even have a PC idea that would make an excellent possessed drone, provided that he was a reflavored dragonborn for the acid spit, and simply didn't get the spines the other drones get. Also, my mind went straight to the deity idea before you finished the monarch description.
Man I don't know how you don't have more of a following on here. These videos and the stat blocks are incredibly helpful at mixing things up at my games. I usually have 5E veterans at the table. So to throw old school monsters that they've never gone against has been fun at keeping them on their toes. Seriously I'm a fan good shit bro.
can't wait for the variations. Beatles with immunity to non adamantium weapons. Wasp flying poison/acid spray Mantis sorcerers execution spells. ants with mass warfare. awesome I'll finally be able to Bug City campaign
@@DungeonDad bro, ypur content is nightmare fuel, which makes me want to pick up gaming again ( too long retired) .. But to see someone else mention shadowrun bugs and talk of conversation... I feel like it's 94 and gaming , wired on Jolt cola, have weekendong marathon sessions.. You BOTH rock... My new favorite gaming channel
i've been wanting to write an adventure with some focus on the hive queen from ravenloft with some emphasis on body horror. Damn those things are friggin perfect, i'll keep them in mind when i come up with.
I know this is really late but I was thinking an awesome idea would be an Oblex that copied an entire town tricking adventurers to go to a nearby town that was taken over by mockery bugs because they are directly competing with it’s food supply.
You enter a dreary town. A young man chops away at a stump for wood. A woman brings an empty pale from the well to mimic watering a dead plant in her yard. A man approaches the party. And they ask why everything is so grim. Man says such is live in Latvia. And says they work all day to try and make even one potato. The Druid casts a spell bringing a potato to live. Party is arrested and spends rest of live in gulag.
I like the idea that the drones don't know they're not the original until they get activated. Maybe some things don't add up, like other people remembering them disappearing (as they were eaten and digested) but they don't, so they're slowly figuring out that they're actually dead.
This reminds me of the penaggalen from Pathfinder. It's kinda a vampire, but it's a head that uses the body like a coffin, and when it flys off, it drags the intestines and entrails. That would be a pretty nifty monster of the week too
Imagine an injured dragon that the party has been hunting gets found and eaten. Now the there is a bug piloting a dragon meat mech flying around abducting villagers to expand the hive
Last time I was a player and not a DM, the DM hit me with some of the OLDEST monsters I've ever seen, I literally have to watch these videos to be safe now 😂
Just a note, the ch in "chitin" and "chitinous" is pronounced like a k. So, "chitinous" is pronounced like "kite-in-us". Cool video about a tremendously creepy monster. 👍
You could also modify/reflavor Ankhegs to be Mockery Soldiers and have them patrol deeper underground areas, guarding or fighting alongside the Monarch. Chances are something like this would have specialized soldier individuals that don't bother hiding, because why would they ever surface other than to fight for the Monarch?
0:57 ".. also found in the fifth edition Monster Manual" Did you perhaps meant ".. also found in the fifth Monster Manual" or ".. also found in Monster Manual five"?
If you want "a boss monster populating the dungeon with clones" thing and want them to be fully intelligent, there is a different monster specifically for that - it's in 3.5 monsters of Fearun. I don't remember the name, but it looks like a floating ball of flesh with three heads and prehensile tentacles, and it can clone devoured things under his control up to ogre-sized.
Found it. It's called a deepspawn. I used it in one of my campaign as a minion to a red dragon - he recovered a body of one of the party's old enemies (who had been a recurring boss at this point) to feed to it, and it spawned him several copies (he put numbers on their heads) to serve as sergeants for his other mooks. Also made copies of an NPC the party didn't save, so he could snack on her over and over.
I might be a little late making an observation, but you could have the Mockery Drones as dumb and intelligent at the same time. It could be a percentage chance that the Drone maintains some of its intelligence. It could also be that they Drones get smarter the longer they survive.
I think these would work well similar to a Mindflyaer hivemind to rework the bug's lesser intelligence. The Monarch who consumes the humans can retain all the creature's memories and skills serving as like a wifi hotspot for the drones, and as long as the drones are within an effective area, they can draw on that knowledgebase to "act out" that character. It may not be 100%, there may be some lag where the character may seem lethargic that the players could be tipped to. Outside of that effective range of the Monarch, the signal deteriorates, leading to the odd behavior like saying nonsensical phrases or repeating pointless tasks.
Perfect excuse to run an entire town of Bethesda NPCs Just have like two or three town guards continuously bumping into the party and saying I was once an adventure like you...
Probably the only change I would want to see is that the queen is pretty smart, but the drones are average smart, so the drones know what they have to do to mimic the person they look like but they aren't tactical geniuses. Going with that however they should also behave stiffly, like they know what to do to mimic the person but it doesn't feel natural for them so they aren't performing the actions as fluidly as a person would.
Just have it be that whenever the party gets a hair across their butt and goes murder hobo, killing villagers and whatnot, have it be the villagers were these guys all along
And as the campaign progresses, and they kill more and more villagers, pretty soon it becomes clear that everybody in the entire world is a mockery bug, even the adventures themselves
Honestly? I like one of the last ideas he brings up better - sure, some people might not think it’s as scary, but the idea of one that actually largely uses things that AREN’T people as its hosts not only makes a lot more sense to me evolutionarily/ecologically speaking, but also makes it SO MUCH HARDER TO NOTICE until it’s too late??? Because people just… aren’t as familiar with animal behavior as with the behavior of other people? Then the revelation later that they’ve started using PEOPLE actually hits a bit harder… it makes it clear that this is UNUSUAL behavior for them, and so this is a threat the local people weren’t at all prepared for. Here’s an idea for how something like THAT might be an interesting and more in-depth plot hook than just a few scary encounters in the woods: Maybe these creatures were once a horrifying but relatively benign local species in the area that preyed largely on animals like Deer and Boar and the like, and didn’t really directly bother anyone… they might even have been an important part of the local ecosystem, with only a small hive or two keeping populations of herd animals in check so that the feeding grounds for the rest of them were never overgrazed, improving the health and longevity of all the animal populations in the long run by making it so they wouldn’t starve themselves out (a thing that often happens irl when large predators are removed from an area and aren’t controlling grazing animal populations anymore). You’d have the occasional hunter getting a nasty surprise when the deer they chased down and tried to shoot or spear actually turned out to be a drone, but that was about it. But as the town grew larger, and both safe places to hide their nests and their preferred prey were being made more and more scarce thanks to overhunting and the gradual expansion of urban areas and farmlands to feed those urban areas, they were forced to adapt to the NEW most plentiful food and source of shelter in the area… *People.* That’s *why* they’re not great at mimicking us- they’ve never had to copy so many different complex combinations of behaviors before, and they’ve similarly only RECENTLY been dabbling in this “luring behavior” because their original simpler ambush techniques REALLY struggle to deal with our particular brand of tool use and communication abilities??? In a setup like This, they go from being your standard “malignant force of corruption” to instead representing a Monster the *Townsfolk Themselves Created* by not considering the ramifications of their expansion. Heck, maybe a local Druid or Shaman or Whatever tried to *warn* the Leaders of the City that converting the entire area into an extension of that City would mean that the ancient things LIVING in the area would be forced into preying on the innocent townsfolk or outlying farmers who DON’T have a fort and a whole garrison to protect them, and it’s revealed that this horrible thing only *happened* because they were more willing to sacrifice both the stability of the environment that supported them AND their people’s longterm safety before they would back down on pursuing their own interests.
Ok.. I really really want to love your channel. In that vein.. chitin is pronounced "kai-tin". Hard C. Not "chitten". So its chitinous (kai-tin-ess). 💕
Dungeon dad imagine this you explore a cave on the quest to find a bunch of "lost" miners you here a bunch of voices echo in the caverns maze of a cave you fallow the voices only to find them slowly chipping away at the walls mumbling to them selves you walk past the miners to see if you can fined more the miners quietly fallow you you can see the queen you drop your lantern and try to back away only to be stopped by the miners so you tern to them and you can see that they are insect like monsters
this creature reminds me of the oblex, but with the main difference is being that these things seem a little less adapt at hiding, with an oblex growing smarter with each creature it consumes, but more capable at combat (with elder oblex having cr of 10, but the monarch an cr of 13. and the normal adult oblex with cr 5 being weaker than the drone with cr 8). Then again, this video came out before the oblex came out, and this has more of a creepy factor, but they seem similar, but you can use them slightly differently with the difference in cr and intelligence. Now i wonder what would happen if these two try take over the same town at the same time.
No gratuitous spanish for the drones? I would have them spout "Detras de ti Imbecil", "Agarrenlos", "Te voy a hacer picadillo" y "No dejen que se escapen" Also place a shifty merchant in town. ua-cam.com/video/T0VT6M4ZD4A/v-deo.html
![The Two Headed Undead - Serpentir - Monster of the Week - Dungeons & Dragons [D&D]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Cq3EVYh6Qj8/mqdefault.jpg)
![The Two Headed Undead - Serpentir - Monster of the Week - Dungeons & Dragons [D&D]](/img/tr.png)
That moment when your party figures it's a false hydra and make specific preparations... only to discover that it's not, in fact, a false hydra and they're *outnumbered*
I love the idea of a herd of deer sidling up beside the party, eying them oddly and then exploding into masses of wriggling squirming legs and claws.
Got to the part where you started introducing plot hooks. Got interrupted by a S'mores commercial. When you started to saying "how to use them in your game with some" *interrupted* "ooey, gooey, crunchy goodness."
Is it bad that I laughed when you said “ahead of myself” while noticing the picture of the mockery bug bursting out of some poor guys head?
RearmedDreamerOld that just means you are becoming one with the D&D community. Let the puns flow through you.
Nope I did the same
Ran a very casual game in which the party came fleeing through a mockery bug town followed by a hydra. The brewery and home of the monarch somehow caught fire, looking at you wizard, killing the hydra. The party seeing the destruction kept running. Months later they came back that way and found the drones had gained some sense of individuality and a bit higher intelligence. It was a nice call back.
A cool idea would be like, if the mockery bugs kinda "shed" their host body as they got bigger, like hermit crabs do. Like, the party sees a rabbit with blood on its mouth/face, then later on encounters the body of one with the head missing. Then they encounter a cat, or pig with the same blood markings and/or dead body. Then a deer/sheep/cow/horse. Until ultimately the bug gets full grown and takes over a human.
That intro was spectacularly terrifying and well done! I am without a doubt going to use these in my next campaign.
Gusto Morph thanks! And glad to hear it! These critters are among my recent favourites. Best of luck to your players!
You gave me a weird dream about these guys. I was a mockery drone, and I ended up in a monarch's village. Since it wasn't _my_ monarch, the other drones had no idea I was ALSO a drone. But I knew. It was kinda funny but sadly that's all I remember.
Also this comment took the time of the entire video to write
Meet the spy
@@somedummyonyoutube3362I see the briefcase is secure?
8:00 Basicly part of the plot from Resident Evil 4. With the cultist and all.
Imagine a Mockery Monarch and a Deepspawn competing to take over a community.
Love the addition of the Nosk theme!
It just seemed too good not to use it in this one!
Let's do some crossover:
"Hey! Long time no see! How long's it been?" - "Two weeks." - "Yeah right, heard you were sick. How're you feeling today?" - "Two weeks!"
I think I *totally recall* that reference! 😆
Why do I have an urge to make a version of this where, if its victim is particularly intelligent, the resulting drone is able to think and reason to some degree - and if given long enough it can mature into a monarch itself. Could have one that sees some adventurers coming and elects to aid them - as it wants the opportunity to mature into its own monarch stage but can't do that as long as its chained to the current monarch.
They can't directly help in the fight - its loyalty to the monarch would kick in - but it could set them up with forewarning, or ensure their weapons are nearby if they got captured, so that they have a good chance against the monarch.
Could even make for a fun NPC for the party, them all thinking its the only survivor of this remote village who's a bit strange after the experience but generally a good guy. But really said NPC is looking for a safe spot to ditch the party and mature into its Monarch stage.
I have been a huge fan of all types of horror since I was a little kid, growing up first with ghost stories and the darker side of Greek Mythology, then jumping pretty quickly into Edgar Allen Poe and pretty much every other type of horror before eventually finding my true love in both psychological and cosmic horror (Lovecraft's work).
All that said: my sense of fear is pretty much non-existent, but one of the few things that would honestly creep me out is the idea of a species of parasitic insect like these things. I found the Roach Thrall (D20 Modern) just as terrifying as they completely wear the bodies of their victims and even use standard procreation methods to spread their species to other hosts. My first true introduction to these types of creatures in roleplaying, however, was the Sea Spawn (one of the 2E Ravenloft Monstrous Compendiums, I think 1 & 2).
However, just because the idea creeps me out doesn't mean I wouldn't use it in a game. ;)
Being poisoned (by venomous creatures, especially by spiders), dolls, and giant monsters in the ocean or the vacuum of space about to devour me (situations where it'd be futile to do anything but accept my fate) are my biggest irrational fears, though. Mostly holdovers from forgotten childhood nightmares, but I did have a close encounter with a black widow when I was maybe five (and I knew about its danger beforehand), so that one has merit.
I couldn't agree more, these kinds of monsters are so creepy!
I'm a huge fan of cosmic horror as well, definitely inspires a lot of my D&D adventures.
Having some leftover memories brings up the possibility that it could regain them and the concept of a mockery drone remembering who it was and breaking free from the queen's control is interesting, and yet still horrifying.
I think a cool encounter would be one where the party comes across an Orc tribe attacking this seemingly defenseless town goating the party into protecting the bugs and the Orcs could be speaking a foreign language trying to warn the party but ultimately failing and maybe some of the Mockery Bugs are smarter than others like a mayor or bar keep who tells the the team he wants to throw a feast for them to celebrate and for the adventures to stay a little longer encase the Orcs come back again.
As a twist the orcs could be worshippers of Eldath and possibly Ondonti too. Not a D&D player, but I believe Ondonti were introduced in 2e.
It would be cool to see a video on them where Dungeon Dad goes over how to use them as enemies and PCs. Yet to build them as PCs I think using the Ebberon Orc and Half-Orc could be a way to go on that.
I’m getting real Resident Evil 4 vibes from these
Love this its crazy how i look forward too the monsters you dig up and my players just hate it but in short love the work you do and cant wait too throw this one at them
jeffrey kieffer thanks so much man! I love making these videos so I'm glad you enjoy! Best of luck to your players!
So basically it’s the Plagas from Resi 4…nice
I like the idea of a bbeg teaming up with the monarch to get cheap soulless bodies to control. I even have a PC idea that would make an excellent possessed drone, provided that he was a reflavored dragonborn for the acid spit, and simply didn't get the spines the other drones get.
Also, my mind went straight to the deity idea before you finished the monarch description.
Man I don't know how you don't have more of a following on here. These videos and the stat blocks are incredibly helpful at mixing things up at my games. I usually have 5E veterans at the table. So to throw old school monsters that they've never gone against has been fun at keeping them on their toes. Seriously I'm a fan good shit bro.
This reminds me of the Chimera Ants from Hunter X Hunter, using the bodies eaten from other creatures in order to birth more of its kind.
Oh yeah 10000%
Thank you so much I've been converting Shadowrun for 5e and needed a creature close to insect spirits.
can't wait for the variations.
Beatles with immunity to non adamantium weapons.
Wasp flying poison/acid spray
Mantis sorcerers execution spells.
ants with mass warfare.
awesome I'll finally be able to Bug City campaign
You are so welcome! Glad to be of help! (That sounds awesome by the way)
@@DungeonDad bro, ypur content is nightmare fuel, which makes me want to pick up gaming again ( too long retired) ..
But to see someone else mention shadowrun bugs and talk of conversation... I feel like it's 94 and gaming , wired on Jolt cola, have weekendong marathon sessions..
You BOTH rock...
My new favorite gaming channel
I don't know if it just me or what but I am deathly afraid of when the kythons and this creature will team up
i've been wanting to write an adventure with some focus on the hive queen from ravenloft with some emphasis on body horror. Damn those things are friggin perfect, i'll keep them in mind when i come up with.
I love the idea of a mockery village planted around a night twist.
This makes me think of the opening of Resident Evil 4
I know this is really late but I was thinking an awesome idea would be an Oblex that copied an entire town tricking adventurers to go to a nearby town that was taken over by mockery bugs because they are directly competing with it’s food supply.
You enter a dreary town. A young man chops away at a stump for wood. A woman brings an empty pale from the well to mimic watering a dead plant in her yard. A man approaches the party. And they ask why everything is so grim. Man says such is live in Latvia. And says they work all day to try and make even one potato. The Druid casts a spell bringing a potato to live. Party is arrested and spends rest of live in gulag.
I like the idea that the drones don't know they're not the original until they get activated. Maybe some things don't add up, like other people remembering them disappearing (as they were eaten and digested) but they don't, so they're slowly figuring out that they're actually dead.
Oh man you can totally have them talk like oblivion npcs to get that uncanny valley feel, I love it!
I can only imagine scene this thing with five or four blood Hunters from each subclass
and have you ever played with a Bard band in a campaign
Kenneth Baptiste I have yet to do the bard band game, but it's something my group has wanted to do for a while!
This reminds me of the penaggalen from Pathfinder. It's kinda a vampire, but it's a head that uses the body like a coffin, and when it flys off, it drags the intestines and entrails. That would be a pretty nifty monster of the week too
IS THAT NOSK'S THEME FROM HOLLOW KNIGHT YOU SIR HAS EARNED MY RESPECT
It sure is!! It seemed appropriate.
Ngl. Was half expecting some kind of bodysnacher clip. XD
Ko the face stealer looking pretty fresh today
Imagine an injured dragon that the party has been hunting gets found and eaten. Now the there is a bug piloting a dragon meat mech flying around abducting villagers to expand the hive
Last time I was a player and not a DM, the DM hit me with some of the OLDEST monsters I've ever seen, I literally have to watch these videos to be safe now 😂
Five words: Resident Evil 4's Las Plagas.
straight out the thing. I love it!
I get Las Plagas vibes
Just a note, the ch in "chitin" and "chitinous" is pronounced like a k. So, "chitinous" is pronounced like "kite-in-us".
Cool video about a tremendously creepy monster. 👍
You could also modify/reflavor Ankhegs to be Mockery Soldiers and have them patrol deeper underground areas, guarding or fighting alongside the Monarch. Chances are something like this would have specialized soldier individuals that don't bother hiding, because why would they ever surface other than to fight for the Monarch?
This reminds of the Chimera Ants from Hunter X Hunter or Las Plagas from Resident Evil 4 . Weird. *shudders*
I would love to see a video on myconids (mushroom people)!!! Please do one!
Bagboy 4000 the fungus among us will definitely be something I talk about real soon!
Dungeon Dad :D
@@Bagboy-kj3jy I am sad to learn the Mushroomates weren't already in 5th ed. Never realized they were absent.
Another great video
0:57 ".. also found in the fifth edition Monster Manual"
Did you perhaps meant ".. also found in the fifth Monster Manual" or ".. also found in Monster Manual five"?
Tiax Anderson I sure dude! 3.5 5th monster manual haha whoops!
Worst video; 1 star :P
If you want "a boss monster populating the dungeon with clones" thing and want them to be fully intelligent, there is a different monster specifically for that - it's in 3.5 monsters of Fearun. I don't remember the name, but it looks like a floating ball of flesh with three heads and prehensile tentacles, and it can clone devoured things under his control up to ogre-sized.
Found it. It's called a deepspawn. I used it in one of my campaign as a minion to a red dragon - he recovered a body of one of the party's old enemies (who had been a recurring boss at this point) to feed to it, and it spawned him several copies (he put numbers on their heads) to serve as sergeants for his other mooks.
Also made copies of an NPC the party didn't save, so he could snack on her over and over.
And now it has an episode of its own.
I might be a little late making an observation, but you could have the Mockery Drones as dumb and intelligent at the same time. It could be a percentage chance that the Drone maintains some of its intelligence. It could also be that they Drones get smarter the longer they survive.
imagine "a false hydra, a night twist, Mockery Bugs, and a Murska, walk into a village.)
Mockery Bug + House huters = entire town that's monsters tricking people.
Nice music in the video
I love the phantom behaviors
So they just sit there and repeat shit like a real Skyrim NPC...truly creepy😂😂
They make for a GREAT Halloween party 💯
I think these would work well similar to a Mindflyaer hivemind to rework the bug's lesser intelligence.
The Monarch who consumes the humans can retain all the creature's memories and skills serving as like a wifi hotspot for the drones, and as long as the drones are within an effective area, they can draw on that knowledgebase to "act out" that character. It may not be 100%, there may be some lag where the character may seem lethargic that the players could be tipped to. Outside of that effective range of the Monarch, the signal deteriorates, leading to the odd behavior like saying nonsensical phrases or repeating pointless tasks.
I'm getting some serious Gemini Home Entertainment vibes from this O-O
Perfect for a horror campaign
They had an epasode like this in the Ducktels reboot only it was a plant.
Noice video, deff gonna use this in a barbarian town, maybe trick people into thinking they barbarians are just stupid and not all mockery bugs
Perfect excuse to run an entire town of Bethesda NPCs Just have like two or three town guards continuously bumping into the party and saying I was once an adventure like you...
Missed opportunity to name the town Bethesda
Its like a Deepspawn turned up to 11
Looking for Insect Monsters to make Drow & Unseelie Spirit Warriors, thanks for the Horror Combo
It could be very creepy depending on the tone you set with it.
Loving it
Probably the only change I would want to see is that the queen is pretty smart, but the drones are average smart, so the drones know what they have to do to mimic the person they look like but they aren't tactical geniuses.
Going with that however they should also behave stiffly, like they know what to do to mimic the person but it doesn't feel natural for them so they aren't performing the actions as fluidly as a person would.
Chimera ants meets Resident Evil 4
The perfect monsters
Just have it be that whenever the party gets a hair across their butt and goes murder hobo, killing villagers and whatnot, have it be the villagers were these guys all along
And as the campaign progresses, and they kill more and more villagers, pretty soon it becomes clear that everybody in the entire world is a mockery bug, even the adventures themselves
Note: in the real world, creatures who're swallowed whole actually die from suffocation well before the acid would've killed them.
Cowabunga it is. 0:30
Honestly? I like one of the last ideas he brings up better - sure, some people might not think it’s as scary, but the idea of one that actually largely uses things that AREN’T people as its hosts not only makes a lot more sense to me evolutionarily/ecologically speaking, but also makes it SO MUCH HARDER TO NOTICE until it’s too late??? Because people just… aren’t as familiar with animal behavior as with the behavior of other people?
Then the revelation later that they’ve started using PEOPLE actually hits a bit harder… it makes it clear that this is UNUSUAL behavior for them, and so this is a threat the local people weren’t at all prepared for.
Here’s an idea for how something like THAT might be an interesting and more in-depth plot hook than just a few scary encounters in the woods:
Maybe these creatures were once a horrifying but relatively benign local species in the area that preyed largely on animals like Deer and Boar and the like, and didn’t really directly bother anyone… they might even have been an important part of the local ecosystem, with only a small hive or two keeping populations of herd animals in check so that the feeding grounds for the rest of them were never overgrazed, improving the health and longevity of all the animal populations in the long run by making it so they wouldn’t starve themselves out (a thing that often happens irl when large predators are removed from an area and aren’t controlling grazing animal populations anymore).
You’d have the occasional hunter getting a nasty surprise when the deer they chased down and tried to shoot or spear actually turned out to be a drone, but that was about it.
But as the town grew larger, and both safe places to hide their nests and their preferred prey were being made more and more scarce thanks to overhunting and the gradual expansion of urban areas and farmlands to feed those urban areas, they were forced to adapt to the NEW most plentiful food and source of shelter in the area… *People.*
That’s *why* they’re not great at mimicking us- they’ve never had to copy so many different complex combinations of behaviors before, and they’ve similarly only RECENTLY been dabbling in this “luring behavior” because their original simpler ambush techniques REALLY struggle to deal with our particular brand of tool use and communication abilities???
In a setup like This, they go from being your standard “malignant force of corruption” to instead representing a Monster the *Townsfolk Themselves Created* by not considering the ramifications of their expansion.
Heck, maybe a local Druid or Shaman or Whatever tried to *warn* the Leaders of the City that converting the entire area into an extension of that City would mean that the ancient things LIVING in the area would be forced into preying on the innocent townsfolk or outlying farmers who DON’T have a fort and a whole garrison to protect them, and it’s revealed that this horrible thing only *happened* because they were more willing to sacrifice both the stability of the environment that supported them AND their people’s longterm safety before they would back down on pursuing their own interests.
Las plagas?
D&D's RESISIDENT EVIL 4?..
Ok.. I really really want to love your channel.
In that vein.. chitin is pronounced "kai-tin". Hard C. Not "chitten". So its chitinous (kai-tin-ess).
💕
Trinston was here.
How would one go about tweaking this monster for lower level encounters, or more of them per encounter?
Hey Dungeon Dad, will these be appropiate to use with the "Fear the old Gods" Lord of the print miniatures?
Dungeon dad imagine this you explore a cave on the quest to find a bunch of "lost" miners you here a bunch of voices echo in the caverns maze of a cave you fallow the voices only to find them slowly chipping away at the walls mumbling to them selves you walk past the miners to see if you can fined more the miners quietly fallow you you can see the queen you drop your lantern and try to back away only to be stopped by the miners so you tern to them and you can see that they are insect like monsters
Can u convert the moon dragon and/or the Zebranaur
I will add it to the list!
Thanks my players love 2nd edition but wanna use 5e rules in our spell jammer game. Their ship is the SS Morgan Freemen
That's an amazing name for a ship.
So... Resident Evil 4 adventure?
Hear me out: combine this with a city corruptor
The way they repeat the same phrases reminds me of video game NPCs.
Hold the mayonnaise.
MIB 1 refrance
These are in the Monster Manual?
Noximus Jamaicanus right?! So hard to believe. Surprisingly gory for a regular MM.
You could just make the town into one you would see in a RPG.
The worst part is that they're easily mistaken for JRPG NPCs.
This might just be how I twist Strixhaven.
It’s a village of Oblivion NPC’s! Run for your life!
So... Chimera ants?
Wtf is a mockery bugs?
Atleast they don't go full dead space and try to decapitate players and crawl into the neck stump.
this creature reminds me of the oblex, but with the main difference is being that these things seem a little less adapt at hiding, with an oblex growing smarter with each creature it consumes, but more capable at combat (with elder oblex having cr of 10, but the monarch an cr of 13. and the normal adult oblex with cr 5 being weaker than the drone with cr 8).
Then again, this video came out before the oblex came out, and this has more of a creepy factor, but they seem similar, but you can use them slightly differently with the difference in cr and intelligence. Now i wonder what would happen if these two try take over the same town at the same time.
No gratuitous spanish for the drones? I would have them spout "Detras de ti Imbecil", "Agarrenlos", "Te voy a hacer picadillo" y "No dejen que se escapen"
Also place a shifty merchant in town.
ua-cam.com/video/T0VT6M4ZD4A/v-deo.html
Yeah yeah I watches hunterhunter i know whats up.
Re4 encounter
Resident evil 4 Dndmake
schizophrenia villagers
T
Red eyes lol