Hello, everyone! Today’s article introduces a new monster, the Emperor Cicada. The Emperor Cicada isn’t much of a threat on its own, but its ability to disrupt spellcasters’ concentration can prove dangerous even to high-level parties, and if influenced by a certain Primordial, the Emperor Cicada may react violently and dangerously to its magical energies, though that’ll be the subject of a future article!

A wise explorer of the jungle will often keep an eye out for trees with fist-sized, perfectly circular holes. These holes will denote the hatching grounds of Emperor Cicadas, a species of giant insect native to deep tropical jungles. The Emperor Cicada is a locust roughly the size of a dog, with a wingspan of about 8 feet. Though they feed on tree sap and will generally leave other creatures alone, they can be extremely threatening when stirred into a frenzy.

It is difficult to view an Emperor Cicada’s earliest larval stages, as the somewhat skittish insects lay their eggs far away from prying scholars’ eyes, but as they grow larger, they emerge from underground in their Nymph form, only to shed their shells and become Adult Emperor Cicadas within 24 hours of emerging.