Bladefly

Description

Normal

These creatures appear as a normal monarch butterflies. On closer examination the wings of these creatures are revealed to be hard as steel and razor sharp. The bladefly is a carniviourus cousin to the naturally occuring butterfly. Usually they stick to small prey, (i.e., cats, rats, mice, etc) but have been know to take down cattle in times of normal food scarcity. When a group of bladeflies attack they swarm around their prey, blind it and slice at it with their wings as they sorround the prey.

A frenzy takes place much like the feeding frenzy of a shark. Once the scent of blood is in the air the bladeflies will attack until killed. There must be at least 10 bladeflies for a swarm to frenzy. This lowers the bladeflies armor class, and gives them an increase chance to hit their opponents.

If there are less then 10 to start with or a swarm is reduced to under 10 bladeflies, the bladeflies must be attacked individually. Individuals attack as frenzied if they smell blood.

Their attack method causes blindness if a save verus spell is not made due to the hymotizing effects of their colors. The blindness lasts 1d6 rounds. They are drawn to the smell of rotting flesh and will choose to scavange if there is a choice between live prey and carrion. When attacking they attack in a swarm and seek to envelope their prey one at a time. One attack roll is made for the swarm and if the result is a hit a percentage roll is made to deterime what percent of the swarm hit the prey. They will attack until the entire swarm is destroyed. They are driven away by fire, smoke, or the scent of the herb thyme which is a deadly poison to them.

Their wings are prized by ornamential armorers and will fetch a price of 1 gp per wing.

Giant

This magical variation of the normal bladefly is a highly intellegent solitary creature. Once a year the creatures gather to mate and this is the only time more than two of these creatures can be found in the adult form. Two can be found if they are mated, the creatures mate for life and are monogomus. Offspring of the adults are treated as non-combatants with half stats of the adult.

The giant bladefly attacks by slicing with its wings or clawing with its two front claws. Also due to their intellengce and their magical nature they can manipulate the spots on there back to hyptmotize any creature they can communicate with unless a save vs. spell is made. Normally they will not attack other creatures prefering to hyptmotize attackers and make them fall asleep and then move the attackers body or leave the area. If they are pressed into battle they will attempt to pick up their foe and drop them. On a to hit score of 18 or better the bladefly has grabbed its foe sinking both claws into its prey. A grabbed creature must make a dexterity check in order to take any action. The bladefly will rise at 15' a round with a max of 100', if hit they will drop their victim from the height they are at.

The giant bladefly speaks the language of all woodland creatures, common, their own language of high pitched wines, cries, and buzzes, and any civilization they have come in contact with.

There is a 15% chance that if two are found that there will be 1d4 offspring in the lair. Also there is 10% chance of there being 1d4 large gems in the lair per adult.

Often times they will be found near communites of sprites and such magical creatures and prefer their company to humans and demi-humans. They will deal with humans and demi-humans with suspicion but frienships are possible. It is possible for giant bladeflies to be ridden with the proper airbourne riding profiency with the consent of the bladefly of course.

The exact origin of these creatures is not known.