Myrmothria

Medium

Beast

CR 2

unaligned

Myrmothria

Arcane-Drawn Swarm

A seething cloud of pale-winged moths that flutters with a faint violet afterglow, Myrmothria are irresistibly drawn to ambient magic. They do not simply bite — they carpet the air with fine, glittering scales and dust that dull spells, cling to robes and skin, and seek out the humming core of arcane power. In combat they swarm like a wind-driven curtain, battering casters and disrupting the flow of magic until their quarry is robbed of focus or forced to flee.

Stat block

Armour

14

natural armor

Hit points

55

10d8+10

Speed

20ft

20 ft., fly 40 ft.

Challenge

2

450 XP

STR

6

-2

DEX

16

+3

CON

12

+1

INT

6

-2

WIS

12

+1

CHA

7

-2

Saving throws

DEX +5

Skills

Stealth +5

Resistances

bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from nonmagical attacks

Condition immunities

prone

Senses

darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages

understands Common but can't speak

Actions

Multiattack. The Myrmothria makes two Scale attacks.

Scale. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (2d6+3) slashing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or have disadvantage on concentration checks until the end of its next turn as clinging scales irritate and dull arcane focus.

Magic Lure (Recharge 5-6). The Myrmothria lashes out in a burst of glittering dust toward the nearest spell or magical item it can perceive within 60 feet. Each creature within a 10-foot radius of the burst must make a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is dazzled (disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks that rely on sight) and has disadvantage on the next saving throw it makes to maintain concentration on a spell. The dazzled condition lasts until the end of the Myrmothria's next turn.

Reactions

Drawn Step. When a creature casts a spell within 60 feet of the Myrmothria, it can use its reaction to move up to half its fly speed toward the caster without provoking opportunity attacks.

Lore

Myrmothria are believed to have arisen in places where wild magic bled into the world — places of old rituals, rifted ley lines, or rune-strewn battlegrounds. Folk tales from the river-wardens of Thalven claim the first myrmothria hatched from the husks of warding sigils struck by lightning. Scholars disagree: the mage Harvent Renik of the Ivory Collegium argues they are a faunal response to arcane pollution, insects whose life cycle adapted to feed on ambient mana rather than nectar. These swarms make lairs in abandoned shrines, catacombs around ruined towers, and the warm crevices of ancient obelisks. They are migratory when magic pulses strongly — entire roosts will shift hundreds of leagues following ley currents. The token-and-true hunters of them are the Order of Pale Threads, a guild of linen-clad wardens who harvest their scales for ritual components. Encounters are common around the ruined observatory at Aurel's Spire, where the chronicler Kes Mirelle recorded a tale of a novice who drew a myrmothria into a lecture hall by miscasting a conjuration, turning the entire audience into a coughing, magic-blinded mess.

Appearance

A Myrmothria swarm looks like a rolling, semi-coherent cloud of moths, roughly the size of a man when gathered. Individual moths are pocket-sized with translucent wings veined in iridescent silver; when many wings beat together they create an opalescent shimmer and fall of powdered scales. The core of the swarm often glows faint purple where the moths cluster around a magical source. Artists should show many overlapping wing shapes, soft feathery bodies, and a dense central mass with thinner fringes. Scale: the whole swarm should be shown filling a doorway (approx. 7 feet tall) with individual moths about 2–3 inches across. Textures: crosshatched wing membranes, stippled dust cloud, and tiny barbed scales visible at the swarm's edges.

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