ECOLOGY

Environment any (Elemental Planes of Fire)
Organization nest (1 plus 10-40 workers and 5-10 soldiers)
Treasure none

Thermites are extraplanar vermin that dwell on the Elemental Planes of Fire. They are rarely encountered anywhere else (save the Para-elemental Plane of Heat occasionally). Once in a rare while a gang or band of these creatures stumble through a vortex and sets up their nest on the Material Plane. Such a nest is always located near a massive heat source (such as a volcano).

On their home plane, thermites build large underground nests. The bulk of the colony is maintained by the workers - whose job it is to construct the nest, forage for food, feed the queen and soldiers, and repair the nest. Soldiers defend the nest against intruders and trespassers. About a week after the nest is finished, the queen takes a king (use the worker thermite's statistics) and they construct a reproduction chamber where she lays 10-20 eggs each day over a period of a week. Young thermites are helpless and depend solely on the queen and workers for food, protection, and so on. Young become independent after several months, and the reproductives (winged thermites) fly off to form their own nests. The cycle above then repeats. (Winged thermites have a fly speed of 50 feet with average maneuverability.)

Thermites are red in color and about 5 or 6 feet long with large biting mandibles and segmented antennae. Soldiers are slightly larger than workers and have slightly larger heads with oversized mandibles. The queen can reach a length of 12 feet or longer and as she ages, she becomes bloated, resembling a giant reddish colored maggot. Reproductives resemble workers and soldiers but are slightly darker in color and have translucent reddish wings.