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Description
Dog-sized insects from the Shadowfell. Despite the influence of the dark magicks of that place, these creatures are relatively harmless carrion scavengers. Their bodies are almost totally lacking in exoskeleton, being supported by a series of pressure bladders, but with tough, rubbery skin. They are eusocial insects who live in caves they dig with their razor-sharp beaks, which double as a defensive tool, and for picking apart bodies. They have hives of about 500-1000 members, one producing queen, and have a simple hierarchy. They are quite stupid, not much smarter than ants, but defend their nests and queens ferociously if provoked. Dirgebugs feed on already decomposing corpses, never seeking out living prey to hunt. This is because they cannot process fresh kills into ichor, their main food source that fuels their impossible flight. To create ichor, dirgebug scouts will seek out dead creatures with their acute sense of smell. If it is small enough to carry in their spindly limbs, they will take it back to the hive, but if not, they will use their beak to pick soft tissues out of the decaying flesh, where it will be stored in their rear sac, quickly disintegrating into a bloody sludge. A full dirgebug is the most vulnerable to attack, since one weighed down with a full corpse will be unable to fly, or even lift its obsidian gossamer wings off the ground, which drag behind it like a tattered cloak. Once back at the hive, it will deposit the remnants of its findings into one of the many holes that worker dirgebugs will later process into ichor, a red substance not dissimilar to blood that channels powerful necromantic magic, and is prized by alchemists everywhere. Dirgebugs have been known to set up hives near graveyards, sometimes digging up recently buried humans and animals, but are considered a nuisance, and are rarely a threat to anyone.

Description
Dog-sized insects from the Shadowfell. Despite the influence of the dark magicks of that place, these creatures are relatively harmless carrion scavengers. Their bodies are almost totally lacking in exoskeleton, being supported by a series of pressure bladders, but with tough, rubbery skin. They are eusocial insects who live in caves they dig with their razor-sharp beaks, which double as a defensive tool, and for picking apart bodies. They have hives of about 500-1000 members, one producing queen, and have a simple hierarchy. They are quite stupid, not much smarter than ants, but defend their nests and queens ferociously if provoked. Dirgebugs feed on already decomposing corpses, never seeking out living prey to hunt. This is because they cannot process fresh kills into ichor, their main food source that fuels their impossible flight. To create ichor, dirgebug scouts will seek out dead creatures with their acute sense of smell. If it is small enough to carry in their spindly limbs, they will take it back to the hive, but if not, they will use their beak to pick soft tissues out of the decaying flesh, where it will be stored in their rear sac, quickly disintegrating into a bloody sludge. A full dirgebug is the most vulnerable to attack, since one weighed down with a full corpse will be unable to fly, or even lift its obsidian gossamer wings off the ground, which drag behind it like a tattered cloak. Once back at the hive, it will deposit the remnants of its findings into one of the many holes that worker dirgebugs will later process into ichor, a red substance not dissimilar to blood that channels powerful necromantic magic, and is prized by alchemists everywhere. Dirgebugs have been known to set up hives near graveyards, sometimes digging up recently buried humans and animals, but are considered a nuisance, and are rarely a threat to anyone.