Deep crawler

Deep crawlers are large insects living deep inside the Stone Giant cities. Stone giants use their meat and eggs as a general food source, although they prefer to feast on human flesh or lifestock. They also produce sweet nectar that the giants produce into an alcoholic beverage.

Discovery

The deep crawlers haven't been seen outside their nests, and thus all descriptions of them are based on the descriptions of the few survivors that have been in the stone giants' caves and escaped. Well-known descriptions are included in Ásinnar's Journey to the Underworld.
The discovery of animal domestication by the giants was a suprise to many academics. The stone giants seem to have a surprising amount of high culture, compared to the better known forest giants who travel alone, hunting wild game or raiding human settlements.
Based on how well adapted the giants and the crawlers are to each other, the relationship between the two species seems to be ancient.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Deep crawlers are about the size of a large dog, six-legged armored creatures. They come in two types, the queens that produce eggs, and common workers.

Additional Information

Domestication

The species is domesticated by the stone giants. They are used for producing two main products: eggs and meat which the giant eat, as well as sweet nectar-like secretion, that can be fermented to produce alcohol, which the giants enjoy immensely. The crawlers feed on the organic remains produced by the giants, thus also working as an essential waste management system in the caves.

No insect of the same proportions has been observed elsewhere, which suggests that the species has been bred careful to fulfill the needs of the giants.

by Tuisku with Craiyon

Giants getting drunk of deep crawler nectar

Conservation Status

After the Giant Wars the number of giant settlements has diminished, and they are only rarely seen. It is unknown if there are still stone giant cities hiding deep within the mountains, or if the stone giant culture has already died out. It is unknown if the crawlers are capable of surviving without their masters.

Related Ethnicities

• Stone Giants

Related Materials

• Deep crawler nectar