I wanted to try something different with the Drop-In NPC today. Instead of having a NPC that was the creature that was posted Monday, I decided to create one that fits within the theme of the week. Well, the theme of the week is bugs and pests, so I thought why not have a socially awkward kid that has a supernatural sense for bugs. Have fun with Todd, The Pest Master.
Introduction
There is legend of a man that commands the swarms of the night of the dark. He has a cloak of flies, clothes of larvae, and bags and containers of the most deadly, creepy, and poisonous bugs of the world. But, under the pests is just a really big bug nerd named Todd, who named himself The Pest Master (Which is really just sad if you ask me).
Info
- Appearance:
- General: Todd is a mess of a man. He’s disheveled, smelly, and frankly not that good looking, with all the bug bites and stings that constantly cover his face. He lets bugs lay eggs in his dark brown hair and is never without at least a couple pests crawling over his rather pale skin.
- Clothes: Todd wears darker clothes. A dark green shirt covered by a brown trench coat and pants. He doesn’t wear shoes, wanting to be closer to the ground. The clothes used to be nice, a present from his mother, but with Todd’s recent adoption of moths the clothes are filled with holes.
- Personality: Despite Todd’s weird obsession he is a rather sweet kid. He doesn’t want to hurt others and doesn’t want people to hurt his bugs either. He does what he can to help others, even if they don’t care for his bugs.
- Quirk: If it wasn’t obvious from the rest of this post, Todd really likes bugs. It’s like his whole thing. He cares for bugs and lives his life based around this obsession.
- History: Todd, a human, was born in a common village in some empire he never connected to.
- Weird Child: Todd was always weird. There was no real reason, but he was, and the other kids did not like this. They made fun of anything they could, his glasses, his sickly nature, etc.
- Comforting Larvae: To hide from the torture the other kids subjected Todd to, he would run into the woods. Here he found his passion for bugs. They didn’t run, they didn’t hit, they didn’t hate.
- Forming Obsession: Todd just visited the bugs at first, he then kept some, and eventually had a horde of creatures under his care. This didn’t help the bullying. If anything, it gave the other kids a real reason, in their eyes, to make fun of him. That was until the death of one such bullies.
- Angry Mob: While making fun of Todd the other kids went into his room and ransacked it. This led them to find his horde, which weren’t happy about the intruders. As they fled one kid got bit by one of the more poisonous bugs and eventually died. This led to outrage and the town eventually burned down the room and made Todd watch as the creatures died.
- Bugful Quest: With the funding of his always supportive mother, Todd went out into the world when he turned of age. He wants to protect the bugs of the world and help others to show that bugs aren’t so scary.
Drop-In
As Todd is always traveling, you can easily make your players run into him. Just make sure that there are some bugs for Todd to be interacting with wherever you plan for players to meet him, so that it makes sense why he is there other than you just wanting your players to meet him.
Plot Hooks
Todd is not above asking for help; he just usually doesn’t get it. Some things that he could ask adventurers for help with could be:
- Track down a rare bug before some poachers kill it for rare parts.
- Protect some bugs from some loggers that are going to destroy their habitat.
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