Stone Termite

Stone termites are a bane to castle-dwellers everywhere, greatly feared for the damage they can do to the mightiest of fortifications. Unlike their mundane, wood-eating counterparts, stone termites subsist solely on rocks and minerals.

Other than their size and coloration, stone termites look like normal termites. There are four types: the king, queen, soldier, and worker. Soldiers have disproportionately large heads equipped with sharp mandibles and are light gray. Workers are cumulalighter(almost white in many cases), with smaller heads and pincers. The king and queen are darker, ranging from a charcoal gray to almost pure black. Physically, the king is built much like a worker while the queen sports an enormous abdomen from which she lays her numerous eggs.

Combat: All stone termites bite in combat, although the damage inflicted varies among the different types. The soldiers cause the most damage (1-3 hp). In addition, soldiers can squirt a stream of acid from their mouths. This add has a range of 10 Feet and causes 1-2 hp damage. Workers also produce acid in their mouths but are unable to spit it at enemies (the 1 hp damage done by a worker's bite is a combination of sharp mandibles and acidic saliva, so half of all damage caused by worker stone termites should be considered acid damage).

Combat with a stone termite colony is rare, for they do not prey upon other creatures (their diet is exclusively stone). Even "creatures" of stone, like galeb duhr or stone golems, seldom tempt a stone termite into attacking - being rather slow-moving creatures, the termites prefer a diet of unmoving stone. They defend themselves aggressively; worker and soldier stone termites often give their lives in the defense of the colony.

Habitat/Society: Stone tennites are usually found underground, burrowing their nests into solid rock. They are a nuisance in castles and cities, where they eat stone foundations and buildings. An active colony can cause a stone building to collapse after several months. For each month after the first, the DM should roll a saving throw against "giant fist" for the building (see Table 52: Structural Saving Throws on page 76 of the Dungeon Master's Guide). This save is made at a cumulative -1 penalty to the die roll each month, so the first month no save is necessary, the second month the roll is made normally, the third month the roll is at -2, the fourth month at -2, and so on. Specific ramifications of a colapsing building are left for the DM to determine.

Like monst insect colonies, stone termites are led by a queen. She is responsible for laying the eggs that hatch into the colony's next generation. The king, as the primary reproductive male (others are groomed into this role when the king dies) is also important; thus king and queen live in relative luxury.

Ecology: Stone termites are believed to be magically altered versions of the standard termite colony, specifically designed by wizards to be introduced into enemy fortifications. While this might have been a good idea at the time, the creatures have since spread to other areas and are considered terrible pests by most intelligent races. They are generally inedible, due mostly to the extreme hardness of their exoskeletons as a result of their diet of solid stone. Occasionally a colony of stone termites falls prey to osquips or other creatures able to eat and digest stone.

Stone termite exoskeletons, when ground into a fine powder, can be used to make the magical inks necessary to create scrolls of protection from acid, as well as those needed to inscribe the spells Melf's acid arrow and stoneskin.