No. Appearing: 1
Armor Class: 2
Movement: 1, Fl 12
Hit Dice: 17
THAC0: 3
No. of Attacks: Special
Damage/Attack: See Below
Special Attacks: Heat Drain
Special Defenses: None
Magic Resistances: None
Size: L (12' width)
Morale: Elite (13)
XP Value: 1,110
Le boern is a group entity; a swarm of insects that store heat energy by endothermic reactions in their probosces. The 'swarm' as its often called tends to attack only mammals, and will ignore intensely hot sources, such as fires, and cooler sources, such as ectothermic animals. Each individual in the swarm gives off its own soft, golden light, giving le boern the appearnce of a single creature. Travelers learn early that simple protection spells against insects keep the swarm at bay, though chemicals that prevent traditional insect attacks are useless.
Combat: The swarm attacks as a group entity, with different individuals scoring different hits at any given time. Ten individuals in a swarm can drain a single hit point. Roughly 2d4+1d20 hit points will be drained from a victim, each round that the swarm manages to make a successful attack roll.
If a prey item is asleep or hibernating (which le boern prefer), then all members of the swarm are assumed to attack at once; the swarm steals one point of energy for every hit point of the swarm. Because the damage is a stealing of energy, few mammals wake during the process -- unless its too late.
Each point of damage to a swarm kills ten individuals in a swarm, though hitting individual members (and harming them) in such a mass is difficult. For every hit point of the swarm, there are ten individual members of the swarm.
Habitat/Society: Le boern are typical of higher mountain areas, where the snow fall stays year round. After a swarm absorbs about one-hundred hit points worth of energy, they become satiated, mate, lay eggs, and then die. The eggs do not hatch for a year, and then the process repeats.
Ecology: Few airborne insectavores exist in the climates that le boern favors, and thus they have few natural predators in their adult state. Their eggs are subject to predation by a number of things, including rodents. Le boern usually attack an animal while it sleeps or rests or hibernates, ensuring a kill.
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