abstract
| - Flying Sting is one of those spells that appears to be of an age earlier than that of the human folk, or from before the very creation of the multiverse. It is even possible that it originated in a place beyond the stars. If not these explanations, how can one explain how alien it looks and the miasma of repulsion it exudes? Flying Sting turns the wizard insane enough to use it into an apparent fleshless flying monstrosity armed with a curving poison stinger that kills horribly at a touch. No cure is known for its poison, and the death throes and agonies of its victims brand burning into one's nightmares after merely reading of them. Those who know, know because they read, and have dreamed. The general appearance of the Sting is that of a chitinous bug with no soft flesh, just hard armor and tough leathery, featherless wings. It has a long, fluted, transmuted-mantis head, and makes sounds like a creaking coffin lid squeaking like hard chalk across slate. Acid pours from a lipless, jagged, and fanged hard mouth; one that can rip through flesh as a sharp blade slices through old, soft meat. Its long sting curls inward in a spring-like spiral beneath its segmented and plated belly, and between its many crustacean-like shelled legs. The sting uncurls as quick as sudden death, outward to its target spewing its ample poison in deadly drops as it does. Death comes with certainty, though neither easy nor quick. It is not a huge scorpion with wings; it is much worse. The Sting is a foul creature from beyond human's most fevered and feared nightmares. To face one is to face certain death. The Objurgation of Souls claims that it is impervious to fire and ice, and that the only possible protections against its strike are a quick reflex, a thick hide, or an armored one. It also states that very aroma of the Sting is enough to kill a human if breathed very deeply, or for very long.
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