Abounding Inspiration and Giant Mosquitoes

 Back last year when I ran my 5e Cowboy game Ghost Town Gunfight (which did not take place in a ghost town but did feature many gunfights), I threw everything just shy of the kitchen sink into the game. Following the advice of the Alexandrian I made a 12 by 12 (or 10?) map of the wild lands of Crickscross, so named for the two rivers that converged at the center of the map where the only "civilization", a town of the same name lied. Keen on making sure every single hex had a unique permanent location in them, the kitchen sink was not enough. I think I got to maybe 100 odd locations keyed and cheated by making one region of the map devoid of encounters on purpose (my homage to the great Arnold K). 

One of my favorite things that came out of the campaign was the large beasties that appeared on the bounty board. A true sandbox, the players had a bounty board in the Red Raptor Saloon which was updated, graffitied, vandalized and shot by bandits weekly. It was also diegetic, an actual forum post updated once a week and adding to the body count and reward of several infamous beasts was one of my favorite inside jokes. 

That bastard! Boots are expensive. Tello did make it home btw. 

While Ol' Imp (bounty described above) was my favorite, a Sarchosuchus I led to the players to believe was a dragon, another of my favorites, the main character of this post, was La Mosca.

Not the main character

La Mosca, as the name implies was a fly. A giant fly. A giant mosquito even. The inspiration came from a text post I saw ages ago. I couldn't find it off hand but it was something to the effect of the "-ito" diminutive in Spanish as it is used in mosquito implies the existence of the much much larger La mosca. Some argue that this would just mean "fly" but these people have no soul, think the curtains are just blue and their poetry sucks and should be avoided at all costs. 

Inspired by post, here is one 5e Mosquito, Giant. 

I might be a bit off on the proficiency bonuses but its been a long time since I've made a monster for 5e. Its a frivolous art, and besides I've moved on to B/X. As a challenge to myself, I converted it to Basic. 

La Mosca

Mosquito, Giant 

• Armor: 3 
• Hit Dice: 6
• Move: 60 (20), 240 (80)
• Attacks: 2 claws, 1 bite. Special 
• Damage: 1-4/1-4/2-16
• No. Appearing: 1 
• Save As: Fighter 2
• Morale: 6
• Treasure Type: 
• Alignment: Unaligned 
• Special. When La Mosca bites, the target must save vs paralysis. On a success they take half damage. On a failure they take full damage and automatically take the bite damage next round unless they succeed on another save vs paralysis. 

I used the dragon section as a reference. La Mosca is at least as fast as a dragon in air but much less so if it ever lands. Which it would, to hunt players into any tunnels they might to escape through. Just imagine the horror of running into level one of the dungeon and hiding only for its 15 ft. proboscis probe in after you. That's right, they can bend. Also, the mouthparts of the female, saw their way into your flesh. At 1000th your size its painless. Scaled up to the size of Cessna and it probably sounds like a goddamn chainsaw and just tears humanoids to shreds and slurps up the viscera. 

The cartoon on the right could be its own damn monster. 

Interestingly mosquitos have preferences for prey within the species they parasitize. They prefer O type blood amongst other things and their preference for you is inheritable. The magical/mythical inspiration for this is fertile ground. Imagine your great-grandfather helped slay a legendary giant mosquito and now its spawn prefer the taste of your blood, like some kind of karmic balance. Maybe it curses you, so that when you kill it, mosquitos shall not rest until they have drank blood equivalent to what you've spilled this day. How's that for dramatic. 

Alternatively, here's a house rule I use to occasionally torture certain players. Have them add their Charisma score to their Constitution score. This is their Vitality. Certain types of monsters, at least ones who prefer to east people or drink their blood, can sense it and whoever has the highest vitality score becomes their target. Vampires and mind-flayers may exclusively choose to devour the most Vital people. For a folksier, feel add +5 for being a virgin or maiden, though sex is largely irrelevant for some monsters. Consider +/- 5 for horrid crimes the individual has committed depending on whether the monster's taste is for the innocent or corrupted. I imagine La Mosca could care less about the deeds that weigh on your soul instead sensing Vitality and the magic of life and figuring your blood give its spawn the best chance at survival. Perhaps its spawn are even pickier and prefer the blood of sinners, saints, wizards or thieves or whatever its mother preyed on the most. Ooh lets stat those...

Hunter Moscas

AC as leather, but incredibly quick

HD 1-3

Hunter. Depending on how it was bred and what its mother fed upon the hunter is extremely adept at finding a certain type of person based on what their blood has done.  Typically used to find thieves or wizards, it can track a target by smell on a 5 in 6 while within 12 miles (1 hex) of it. However, they can easily get confused and will always route towards the nearest instance of their prey, not necessarily the one you're hunting. This is an innately magical effect.

<Tangent. All things are innately magical. To quote Pratchett "And wine made out of water! A mere quantum-mechanistic tunnel effect, that'd happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes, wasn't a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time..." -Small Gods>

Bounty hunters will tie long brightly colored streamers or cloth to them and carry at least 1d6+1 moscas on them in light bamboo cages or just angrily netted up. They then release them and split up, following each bug as it splits off from the rest. They will wear salves that the moscas detest but will tolerate if starved enough. Plenty of inexperienced hunters have been found desiccated and dead, cages empty. 

They could be avoided by changing your biology or with plenty of smoke. Dehydrating yourself so you perspire less might help (-1 in 6 every day you don't drink water) as would drinking some kind of hemolytic poison (this of course causes other issues). Smoke may deter them depending on how starved or large they are. Outrunning them may be impossible without favorable winds or exhausting horses to death or both but every hex you are ahead of them contributes -1 to their hunting check. 

Mage Moscas

AC as leather

HD 1-2

Magician's Blood. Having drank the blood of a magician, the young mosca metabolizes the latent magic in potent wizards blood and gains magical effects. Choose a spell the wizard knows. It can cast that spell a number of times equal to its hit dice, though its primitive brain may not know how to use it properly, instead reflexively. If you capture the mosca and drink the blood within you gain a single use of the spell instead. If you inject the blood directly into your own system and it reaches your brain you can prepare it every day as a wizard does. However, without the mental training required to keep a spell in your mind, it tries to claw its way out. Just as well curses and other magical maladies can be transmitted via blood just like disease (a disease is after all an imbalance of humors caused by magic or demons. A disease is just a curse by another name or a demon who goes by Consumption, Anemia or Cancer). Every day you prepare the spell, save vs wands or else lose a point of intelligence. The first time you fail roll on your favorite curse/disease table. 

Some Magical Diseases. Successful saves may slow or negate progress of some maladies. (I'll add more as time goes on!)

1. Slumbering Fever. Everyday you have this disease, you require 2 extra hours of sleep, cumulative. When you reach 24 hours, you sleep forever. Chewing the leaves of certain stimulating plants or boiling them into a potion (also called tea by some) can stave off the sleep but there is no herbal cure.
2. Malcontentia. A moral disease also communicable by acts of cruelty. Causes hypersensitivity, especially to light, paleness and bouts of mania.  Every time you would take damage from a physical source, take 1 extra point of damage per die of damage. Those infected tend to make their way to dark dismal places like caves and swamps. A favorite of black dragons.