BX Monsters A to Z: Cave Locust

There are a handful of monsters in B/X D&D that I just love for beginning adventures. The cave locust is one of those.

Cave locusts are big (2-3 feet long) stone grey subterranean-dwelling grasshoppers. I imagine them with extra-large compound eyes and a mottled color pattern, rather gangly legs compared with standard grasshoppers, and wings unfolding to reveal some brighter color like yellow or red to startle light-bearing intruders in their feeding grounds.

Why do I like these guys so much? Because they're great "training wheels monsters" --  opponents which can be engaged by newbie players/characters with interesting consequences but without a strong threat of a TPK if things go a little sour. They're fairly tough (AC 4 and 2 Hit Dice) and they have some cool auxiliary abilities without being major damage-dealing threats. They're skittish, preferring to flee rather than fight, but are clumsy and have a 50% chance of blundering into characters, dealing out 1-4 points of damage (probably with their flailing, spiny legs as well as from sheer impact.) That's not a huge amount of damage, which makes it fairly unlikely to kill many characters, and then the locust will probably panic and flee in the opposite direction, so the PC isn't going to have to endure round after round of attacks until he manages to kill it. Interestingly, if a locust actually chooses to attack, it only does 1-2 points of damage with its bite, meaning they're more dangerous when in a panicked tizzy than in a truly aggressive mood. 

Besides that, the insects make a shrieking noise when alarmed, which has a 20% chance per round of attracting wandering monsters to investigate. Players have a strong incentive to wrap up the encounter however they can and get out of Dodge before things get really hairy. It makes what might otherwise be a ho-hum encounter with relatively non-threatening creatures a tense and nerve-racking affair. And if a wandering monster does appear, the locusts themselves will likely be inadvertently running interference, possibly allowing the party to beat a hasty retreat in the midst of the chaos. What a great learning experience!

Finally, when cornered, the locust will spit a gob of foul-smelling brown goo, requiring an attack roll against AC 9. If the target fails a save vs. poison, it is overcome by the stench and can't do anything for a full turn. This is a fantastic example of an ability that is significant but not deadly in and of itself. The target will get used to the smell in a turn, but it continues to affect others who get too close until the goo is washed off. Do you use up a skin of water, or can you remember where that stagnant pool you came across earlier is? It's a minor but interesting choice and some colorful detail to boot. 

As if all that isn't enough, we're told that cave locusts feed on fungi, including yellow mold, and are thus immune to it. It's not a detail that's likely to come into play often, but luring a swarm of cave locusts to deal with a pesky patch of yellow mold or a room full of shriekers is a pretty cool option for clever players.

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