Swarm of fire ants

Swarm of fire ants
Monster ID	461
Locations	The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert
Hit Points	136
Attack	142
Defense	119
No-Hit	152
Initiative	60
Meat	40-60
Phylum	bug
Elements	hot
Resistance	None
Monster Parts	ant
Drops ant agonist, ant hoe, ant pick, ant pitchfork, ant rake, ant sickle, handful of sand
Manuel Entry
refreshedit data

 You're fighting a swarm of fire ants

This is a swarm of tiny but very dangerous ants. They're angry about being native to a sweltering desert, and they plan to take it out on anybody who gets near them.

There is some debate among members of the Loathing Entomologist's Guild about what to call a group of these things. Some say "a swarm of fire ants," where others suggest that "an ow, ouch! dammit! ow! of fire ants" would be more appropriate.

Hit Message(s):

The ants march in a line between your <ear> and your <ear>, biting every spot along the way. Eek! Argh! Oof!

One of the ants bites you, raising a painful welt on your <leg>. Ow! Ouch! Ow!

Some of the ants crawl on your <knee>, distracting you while the rest bite you on the <ear>. Ow! Argh! Ooh! Ouch!

The ants go marching one by one, biting you as they go. Hurrah, I guess. Oof! Eek! Ow!

Critical Hit Message:

Several of the ants form a pile behind your feet, which you promptly trip over. The entire swarm of ants converge on your prone body, biting you pretty much everywhere at once. Argh! Oof! Argh!

Miss Message(s):

The ants march toward you, but you drive them away by singing some Dave Matthews.

The ants move toward you like some sort of aggressive, painful carpet, but you've had a lot of practice jumping over carpets, so you easily avoid them.

Some ants crawl into your pants, but you quickly do a dance, shaking them out.

The ants go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah. You step on them with your shoe (or foot) hurrah! Hurrah!

Fumble Message:

The ants start to attack again, but the fire alarm sounds in the nearby ant hill. The ants go marching one by one back to the hill to put out the fire. Hurrah! Hurrah! (FUMBLE!)

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After Combat

You gain 40-60 Meat (average: 50, stdev: 4.47)*

You acquire an item: ant agonist (21.2% chance)*

You acquire an item: handful of sand (19.8% chance)*

You acquire an item: ant pitchfork (5% chance)*

You acquire an item: ant hoe (5% chance)*

You acquire an item: ant sickle (5% chance)*

You acquire an item: ant rake (5% chance)*

You acquire an item: ant pick (5% chance)*

You gain 35-36 <substat>.

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Occurs at The Arid, Extra-Dry Desert.

Notes

• Only one of the tools can drop at a time, making them all conditional drops.
• This monster counts as a group (of size 20). It takes manifold damage from area-of-effect skills such as Wave of Sauce.

References

• "The Ants Go Marching" is an old children's song with stanzas that increment from one to ten, the first two lines ending in "hurrah, hurrah" and the third line changing to rhyme with the new number. The second stanza's rhyme refers to an ant tying its shoe, hence the miss message where you use your own shoe.
• "Ants Marching" is a song by The Dave Matthews Band, hence the one miss message.
• Having "ants in your pants" is an expression meaning that one is anxious or restless.
• The tools the ants drop are all farming tools, referencing the popular children's distraction the "ant farm."