Eberron: Insect Daelkyr and its Minions

[VariSami]

Hi.

So, in a fortnight or so I will start a new campaign, the basic premises of which have been modeled by my three players after my last, story-driven campaign ended in a TPK:
1. Everyone is a Warforged.
2. They are exploring Xen'Drik.
(3. The point of the expedition is to serve Merrix d'Cannith either by setting up camp for the transportation of his illegal creation forges or by unearthing ancient Xen'Drik artifacts for him.)

The campaign will start at lvl 5, and at the moment I know one player will make a Psychic Warrior and another an Artificer. The third player's character might be a Crusader. They will be aided by ~10 Warforged Scouts (Scout 2) and ~5 basic Warforged (Fighter 2) who will take care of the party's headquarters and repair them between adventures (as long as the NPCs survive, that is).

I would like to make the antagonists insectoid aberrations led by a Daelkyr from the Dragon Below in Xen'Drik. However, help is much appreciated.

First, the Daelkyr: I am open to suggestions regarding his name, title and motives. I have been toying with "Locust made Man" as the title and making some references to Kyuss (The Worm that Walks) but that is all at the moment. Since the Daelkyr embody madness, alien but unnervingly rational motivations would be ideal in my opinion. Maybe something like making everything in Eberron share a common hive mind?

Second, the minions: I own basically all 3.5 material and some 3.0 material as well. There are quite a few interesting insectoids and insectoid aberrations available within that library. However, something of a scale for what I should use at which point of the adventure would be welcome (Besides the scaling of their CRs, of course. I hear CRs are not exactly uniform through the books.). At the moment I am thinking of having the first boss be a Zern (MM4), probably with the Insectile template (SS). Since the CR would be 7, on MM4 standards, will this have too great a chance to overwhelm a party of three lvl 5-6 characters with only one Tier 1 or 2 member? Also, the Zern still needs its minions, probably at least one Zern Blade Thrall (MM4). Other that, I have been thinking of Kythons (BoVD). Would that be overwhelming? First traces would be encountered during the setting up of camp and the actual dungeon would be found later on. Also, I suppose that the Drow of Xen'Drik also make a logical minion in this case since they worship scorpions. What do you think?

I prefer making combat preparation- and insight-intensive by there being some non-obvious way to make things easier for the actual dice rolling. If there are any insectile monsters which facilitate that, I would be enthralled.

Thanks in advance.

[avr]

Some drow might fall for a Daelkyr impersonating the minions of their god. I think most wouldn't, which leaves open the possibility of allies for the players at some point. Some might fall for it initially but have second thoughts later.

Thinking about it, if the drow are forced to remain loyal/join the hive mind by some sort of insectile grafts which are more fragile than the drow themselves, the players might be able to gain an advantage in combat by targeting the grafts. This might meet your preference for insights aiding in combat.

[mabriss lethe]

Homebrew some symbionts (or use the stock symbionts) and tack on an ability that anyone bound to one is linked to a hive mind. Maybe treat them as having a really high ego score. They stalk both the wilds and the communities harvesting fresh recruits for the Daelkyr against their will.

You could also use some material from the Mindflayers of Thoon in MM5. (Thoon infiltrators and thralls come to mind for starters, but a lot of the oddball construct creations from that section could be the work of an avatar of madness.)

[VariSami]

Hey, great stuff! I would never have thought of using the Thoon for this since I did not remember their infiltration methods. The idea avr has about the grafts is great but I shun homebrew for the most part due to balancing issues. So I will just go with refluffed Thoon Infiltrators and Thralls.

Hey, idea: The very first adventure will include a group of pariah Drow who are suspicious of the leader of their settlement and would welcome any allies in bringing him down. There might be some skirmish between the characters and the pariahs due to them threatening the Warforged Scouts during headquarters construction but establishing communication will hopefully end it (or the drow will retreat since there is nothing to gain from the melee). In case the drow are wiped out before opening their mouths... well, they were just non-pariahs from the settlement (retcon), and the pariahs will arrive later. (I might make the encounter like that in any case - we will see.)

The leader has been converted into a Thoon Infiltrator with the intention of testing this hive mind project and providing the Zern in charge with resources from the surface. The Zern is cultivating Kythons since the graft used to make Infiltrators is an emergent kind of biograft (as in, Kython weaponry) among them (with no need to stat, though).