Dire Cockroach

A single specimen is the size of a pony and lives in subterranean colonies by the hundreds or thousands. While these monstrous creatures are scavengers that feed primarily on carrion and refuse, they won’t turn up the opportunity to eat a living meal. They have glossy carapace as thick as heavy armor and use their antennae and compound eyes to see in the dark. Dire Cockroaches are clumsy fliers; they are more likely to leap short distances than fly at length. Their mandibles drip with a fetid slime that causes disease, and due to their uncanny resilience, they can rise from the dead until their vital organs are fully dismembered. Dire Cockroaches thrive on filth, persisting where other creatures perish, such as ruined cities and fresh battlefields.

GMs should keep in mind that the concept of a Dire Cockroach is worse than the thing itself; when narrating an encounter with these creatures, lean into their most loathsome, familiar qualities, such as the way they skitter and flutter about. As attackers, they are tireless, swarming harriers, overwhelming through sheer numbers rather than clever tactics, but they rarely travel far outside the territory of their colonies unless driven by hunger. Design cockroach variants around the environment in which they appear, but remember that all varieties fear direct sunlight.