Legion

*"Want! Want bones!"*

A Lice King; a hivemind of tens of thousands of semi-intelligent lice that pilot the corpses of its victims. Its true form is a swarm of tiny insects which rip apart flesh and bone and reassemble it as a patchwork body. It cannot speak, but it can apply pressure to its borrowed vocal cords to communicate its simple thoughts. It is found inside the Soaking Valley prison, though the cells fail to contain its strange anatomy. Frederick de Bonesby names it Legion as it begins to spend more time with him.

While trying to escape the prison, Frederick is attacked by a boneless corpse piloted by Legion. It begins to demand Frederick’s bones, but he desperately offers it a pinky bone and it can come back later for the rest. Delighted by the offer, Legion tears off his hand, devours it, and uses the finger bones to manipulate its corpse more effectively.

When Legion asks for more, Frederick decides that he can use it to escape. He begins to lure guards into it, letting the swarm consume them and add their flesh and bones to its patchwork body. Legion begins to follow him out of a simple sense of gratitude/hunger, even spitting out his hand bones as a reward for his help. The party tries to outrun Legion and unleash him on the police instead, but it continues to follow Frederick. When it meets Stirfry, Frederick explains their adventure. The kenku reacts violently to the idea, jealous that Frederick abandoned him and taught something else how to speak. Legion responds with violence, trying to attack Stirfry in his cell. Frederick ultimately decides to risk losing his other hand and grabs the keys out of Legion’s mass of flesh to unlock the cell and save Stirfry. The party ultimately leaves Legion behind to its own simplistic devices.

Once the party has escaped, The Witch Hunter discovers Legion while investigating the jailbreak and interrogates them for clues.

## Trivia

* While Frederick does his best to speak and bargain with Legion, its actual intelligence is not far beyond that of an animal. It consumes flesh and bone to use as moving parts, but it can barely form words to mimic other humans without understanding the meaning. It mainly lays in wait until something edible or useful approaches it. Even eating appears to be an advanced concept to Legion; it fails to understand the word unless Frederick shoves someone into it, and when left alone it attempts to eat its own hand.

* Legion’s origins appear to be unknown. It is presumed by the Witch Hunters to just be an organized swarm of insects rather than anything truly magical. This is likely the case, given that Spilled Milk, the anti-magic pig, dampens arcane magic for the whole jail, with spillover to other schools of magic.
* Legion's name comes from The Bible. Mark 5:1–13 describes Jesus' encounter with a man possessed by a vast number of demonic spirits. *"Then He asked him, “What is your name?” And he answered, saying, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”*
* Christ is among the short list of words that Legion uses. It is unlikely that he knows the word's meaning, despite its name being biblical in origin.
* According to the Witch Hunters, Legion is what is called a "Lice King." Ant Kings are also mentioned as a related creature/phenomenon.\* It is revealed later that Spilled Milk is somehow not eaten by Legion.