Scarabin, the Beetle Knights

Knights

From a distance, a knight clad in plate.  Your torchlight glints off his dusky armor.  But his footfalls are quiet, and his gait peculiar.

Closer now, and your error introduces itself.  There are no eyes behind the eye slits of that darkly oiled bascinet.  You behold not a mouthgaurd but mouthparts, a vertical scowl stamped between them.  His dusty antennae curl over his nape like pennants.  You may notice a handkerchief tucked into its belt.

This is an enormous insect, but a noble one.  Although they can only communicate in pantomime, they behave in similar ways to knights.  They always accept surrender.  They are gracious in victory, and honorable in defeat.  If you are in dire need, they will assist you.  If you appear to be strong, they will challenge you, blocking your way until you acquiesce to a duel.

Their primary business is the slaying of monsters.  They may help you in this task, or you may help them, but they always seek the corpse afterwards.

They care nothing for money, but will be impressed by gifts of weapons, women's jewelry, and horses (with home they prosper).  The jewelry is meant to be a gift for their princesses (who always appreciates a prismatic bauble in addition to the monster corpse).

And while they are excellent horse riders, those who are encountered in the Underworld (and there are many) typically eschew the beasts in favor of giant snails.

Squires

The a knight scarabin will be accompanied by 1d6-2 (min 0) squires, which are pale and pudgy and a little adorable in a grubbish way.

While some squires may remain with their knight, eventually replacing them, most squires venture out alone when they feel that their final instar is imminent.  They will seek out a new princess and a new tower, and start their own adventure.

The most noble of adventures is to seek out a dragonfly dragon, and best it.

Princesses

Each princess lives atop a tower, built from saliva and stone.  Her youngest sons build it for her.  Little, tottering things, they will eventually molt and become squires.  But until then, they are simply little scullery bugs, toddling back to the tower with stones balanced atop their flattish heads.

The princess lives atop the tallest room of the tallest tower.  Unlike the knights, the princess is capable of speech (which the knights can readily understand).  When she favors a knight, she drops a "handkerchief" to the knight, who then carries it.  This token of her favor binds him to her, and he thereafter quests in her name.

When she is brought a slain monster, she lets down her "hair" and gratefully accepts it.  Later, the scullery bugs will throw a great feast for the knights, for each princess has 1d20 knights that serve her.  They will typically meet inside the castle that comprises the base of the tower.  

The castle is large enough for the knights, the squires, the scullery bugs, as well as any guests that visit.  Princesses always welcome priests, pilgrims, ladies, and other types of knights.  Roguish types are always turned away.

Priests are especially welcome, since they are all believers in the Church, but alas, the princess is not able to travel to mass. 

If a knight does her a great service, she will implore her knight to return the "handkerchief" so that she may gift him a new one.  She will transfer the "handkerchief" to her ovipore, and the next generation of scullery bugs will be sons of that knight.

A princess is very large.  The diaphanous "woman" who appears in the tower is merely her head.  Her true body occupies her entire tower.

When a princess has grown to full size, she will allow her favorite knight to marry her, in a ceremony conducted by the most eligible priest nearby.  (Without anyone to officiate the wedding, she will never progress.)  Once married, she will invite the knight up into her tower--the first time anyone has ever been allowed into her personal chambers.  Once their, the pair will copulate with their proper genitalia (princesses have vaginas in addition to ovipores) and the princess will eat the knight.

Then the princess will molt, emerging as a dragonfly dragon and destroying the castle.  The entire household will be driven away.  Any that remain will be eaten by the newly matured queen, who is always hungry after a molt.

Dragonfly Dragons

Huge and monstrous.  They dwell in ruins, where they keep one of their daughters--a princess nymph.   Each princess nymph is clothed in finery and gold, those same gifts from knights, long ago.

Dragonfly dragons kidnap princesses.  They do this because they must have someone to teach their daughters courtly behavior.  (Although this is the traditional method, there are plenty of more modern mothers who simply hire tutors.)

And so it is that scarabin knights who hear of imprisoned princesses invariably ride to their rescue.

Against most foes, a dragonfly dragon fights to devour.  Against a scarabin knight, she fights only to test them.  If the scarabin knight is strong and brave and noble, she will retreat, and allow the knight to rescue his prize.  If the scarabin is unworthy, he will be eaten.  If the dragonfly dragon is hungry, the knight will (probably) be eaten.  If the princess is deemed to be a disappointment, she will also be eaten.

But if the scarabin knight rescues the princess nymph, they will ride off to start their own tower, and their own story.  The young couple will exchange handkerchiefs, and a new generation of sons will start to be born.

A dragonfly dragon may have more than one ruined castle, and more than one nymph at a time.  And since dragonfly dragons are intelligent and capable of speech, the challenges they give may include tests of virtue (if outside agents can be recruited).

In a way, this is not so dissimilar from other species, except the male must impress the female and her mother.

Psychology and Culture

The scarabin are all aware of this life cycle.  However, it would be unspeakably rude to speak of it in plain terms.  Not only is it boorish, but it is nearly sacrilegious--to speak of a knight's lady in terms of sperm and impregnation and such.  

Nor is there any squeamishness about marriage.  It is the highest honor to be devoured by one's wife (and the fact that human wives hardly ever eat their husbands is proof of their baseness).

Although nearly all scarabin cultures in Centerran are members of the Hesayan Church, there may be others who follow some other doctrine.  However, as a rule, scarabin are deeply religious.

Although the males are nonverbal, they understand spoken words perfectly well.  They're capable of speech, it's just considered very uncouth to do so.  If they have anything to say, they'll write you a letter.  Not to be read in front of them, of course.  They may leave it with you before departing (much to the surprise of an adventuring party that assumed that they were unintelligent).  They may also have a traveling companion who speaks for the knight.

In all other respects, they behave like chivalrous knights.

Stats

Scullery Bug: Lvl 0, Armor none, Bite 1d6

Squire: Lvl 1, Armor leather, Dagger 1d6, Sling 1d6

Knight: Lvl 3+, Armor plate, Damage as weapon, Can fly up to 30' once every minute, reflect any spell that they successfully save against.

Princess-Nymph: Lvl 2, Armor leather, Damage as weapon, can glide as feather fall

Princess: Lvl 8, Armor leather, Bite 2d6+swallow whole

    When bloodied: thrashes, which causes the ceiling to begin falling (obvious to players).  One round later, everyone except for the princess takes 2d6 damage from falling stones and the arena becomes difficult terrain.

Dragonfly Dragon: Lvl 8, Armor plate, Claw/Claw/Sting 1d8/1d8/1d6+poison(1d6), Fly as dragon, Poison breath 1/day: 50' cone poison 1d6 (recurs until successful Con save--same as sting poison).

    When bloodied: same as Princess.

How To Use Them

The scarabin are another underworld culture.  They're also a good way to put knights into deep underground areas without worrying too much about where they come from.

Because they help you if you're hurt, and block your path if you're not, they self-regulate the difficulty in a dungeon, preventing it from being too easy or too hard.

A princess can also serve as a local quest giver, or a safe haven in the Underworld.

If the party spends a few sessions with the scarabin, it can be fun to puzzle out their biology/culture.  (The scarabin will not speak of their own culture in blunt terms.) The marriage and final molt would serve as a nice capstone for a particular arc.

A princess could even send you out on a quest to "rescue" a princess-nymph from a dragonfly dragon.  

Dragonfly dragons are ravenous monsters, but they aren't bigots, and anyone who seems noble & strong & brave is likely to be deemed worthy of rescuing a princess-nymph.  They'll probably help her set up a little tower somewhere, and a knight can come by later.  Besides, it's no great loss to lose a princess-nymph, since she can always birth another.

Discussion

This post is a tribute to the Trilobite Knight, which Patrick wrote about almost exactly a decade ago.

These are the oldest notes* in my slush pile and I figured its time I finally forced myself to write something.

*basically just "Beetle Knight > Trilobite Knight, CHIVALROUS LIFECYCLE!?!?"

Links

Cool video about why dragonflies are cool.

Cool video about nymphs molting into dragonflies.