Cave Hornets

Deep in the bowels of caverns and holes can sometimes be heard the thumping of incessant wing-beats. If one were to turn on the light, they would see hundreds of massive person-sized insects constructing city-like hives on ceilings and stalactites.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Cave hornets are giant, gray vespid insects with small eyes and large, complex antennae. They have long stingers on their ends that pierce targets and inject a weak paralytic; an evolutionary holdover from when the hornets weren't yet big enough just to skewer a target to kill it.

Dietary Needs and Habits

Cave hornets have evolved over time to thrive in a subterranean environment. When possible, they feed off of other subterranian creatures, but such a diet can rarely sustain a large hive. Instead, they usually send drones to the surface in nocturnal hunting parties that ravage the land until the hive's hunger is sated.

Biological Cycle

Most cave hornets are drones; the spend their lives solely in service of the hive. The first female born into a hive becomes the queen, whereupon she will release pheremones into the nest that stunt the growth of further female eggs so they only grow into drones. A queen is blessed with greater intelligence than the average hornet, sometimes even learning enough language to negotiate terms with local civillizations. A queen will usually spend her life laying eggs and delegating tasks to her drones. Once a hive is prospering, a queen can order resources allocated to constructing another hive that will hatch a new queen and the cycle will begin anew.

Additional Information

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

Cave hornets have evolved the capability of sensing cave walls and prey by sensing how the air around them reacts to wing-flaps. They also have fantastic hearing ability through their advanced antennae. Their eyes are dull from thousands of years of unuse, so a good way to remain undetected is to stay still to avoid making sound or stirring up the air around you.