Lifeforms · Fauna · Underground
Sieka
Named for a type of tick found in the wastelands of Acheron, it is extremely tiny, barely the size of an ant or ladybug and, due to its bright blue coloring and segmented, mite-like body, it is often taken to be a strange insect. It is not, however, a harmless bug.
The sieka(named for a type of tick found in the wastelands of Acheron) is extremely tiny, barely the size of an ant or ladybug and, due to its bright blue coloring and segmented, mite-like body, it is often taken to be a strange insect. It is not, however, a harmless bug. These tiny creatures usually live alone in tiny burrows until they can find a host body to inhabit. They fly on tiny wings and bite into the flesh of a creature, usually a humanoid or animal. Their teeth are so fine that the bitten creature rarely notices..
Once it has latched on, they begin to burrow into the body, working their way to a vein or artery and from there to an organ. The sieka will then attach itself to the wall of the organ, slowly growing a cucoon and feeding off the blood of the host via small tendrils inserted into the organ's lining. The host has no symptoms to give away its miniscule passenger. The sieka's cucoon slowly grows larger, becoming the size of a golfball, then as large as an ostrich egg. Once it grows to this size, a transformation which takes months or even a couple years, during which the host suffers no ill-effects until near the end, the creature spontaneously bursts from its host, rupturing the organ and exploding through flesh. The sieka then flys away on much stronger wings, the creature now as big as a pair of human fists.
After this metamorphosis, the sieka becomes as a locust, though with a lust for blood, rather than crops. It will seek out others of its kind and then in a massive swarm, they will descend upon an area, wipe it clean of all animal life, then continue to somewhere else. These swarms of sieka are rare, since the creatures don't usually live very long. Peasants and nobles alike know to kill one as soon as they see it, but every few decades, a large population of the sieka will form and leave only ruin and devestation in their wake.
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Nice and icky. I can image that a swarm of sieka would be the literal death of a great host of animals and humans when they burst forth. For some odd reason I cannot shake the idea of someone eating a smoked or fried adult sieka with a bit of horseradish for flavor.
Very dangerous indeed.
The good ol' burst from the victim routine! Nasty little critter.
Ah, yes. Another parasite. :)
It is hard to believe that something of this size will not be eventually noticed by its host - if nothing else, it would undermine its health, so it is more likely to succumb to one disease or another. But I agree, it is suitably icky.
You'll have to excuse Scrasamax, Strolen. He doesnt know the first thing about Sieka-eating! Its always chutney, preferable fruit, never horseradish. Strong condiments take the Sieka's sublime taste away.
For some odd reason, these bugs remind me of 70's porn icon, Seka.
Okay, now for something half-way useful...I can see a variant Sieka bug.
Once the golf-ball sized egg forms, the body immediately begins the process of expelling the invader. Soon, the victim, will begin to poop golf-balls, which, once left on the ground to their own devices, continue growing to Ostrich egg size, having stored enough blood and nutrients inside its shell.
Trolls find these expunged, golf-ball morsels the absolute height of delicacy! They will even follow adventurers around from a safe distance, awaiting the inevitable 'passing' of the Sieka bugs. In fact, one particular group of trolls, the Trolls of Gory Pass, have taken to collecting sieka bugs and letting them 'loose' on unsuspecting adventurers, who have hunkered down for the night, around a campfire, in the Gory Pass territory. The first clue that may alert perceptive PCs, is that the trolls never seem to attack, but hide out, awaiting the adventurers dinner hour, and growing more and more excited, as they watch PCs take turns excusing themselves to head for the bushes. *
* Sieka bugs never seem to invade the trolls themelves, something about the trolls' anatomy turns off the Sieka bug. Instead, the wretched, gangly beings have to resort to waiting for passers by to get infected, then poop.
okay, maybe I should have just voted and not commented :P