Stingfly

Stingfly was a species of nasty insects that fed on blood, found in the western parts of the Vilhon Reach,, in the woods surrounding the Dathyl and Dathen Brook in the King's Forest, as well as used as torture implements by the creatures of the Nine Hells.

Description
These hellish insects were no bigger than a human thumb and resembled horseflies with long scorpion-like tails ending in barb stingers.

Ecology
Stingflies preferred to feed on human blood extracted from gentle areas around ears, underchins, breasts, genitalia, and necks, but never eyes nor crawled into open orifices. The insects used their barbed stingers to break the skin and then soak the blood with a large, spongy mouthpiece. The creatures injected the wounds with an agent that stopped the itchiness. Despite that, being stung by that insect felt like being jabbed with a small weapon, making it impossible to sleep through a bite. The feeding took a mere second as stingflies darted away, leaving bleeding puncture marks behind.

What made them even more devious was their breeding cycle. Stingflies injected their eggs under the warm-blooded animals' and humanoids' skin after feeding.

Stingflies were known to swarm around fields and sometimes carried diseases.

History
In the, Elminster was imprisoned and tortured in the Nine Hells by archdevil Nergal who sought to steal the Chosen of Mystra's silver fire. The devil unleashed a swarm of stinglfies on the old bound mage. The insects fed on his blood and injected their eggs under Elminster's skin.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Elminster in Hell
 * The City of Splendors: A Waterdeep Novel &bull; Swords of Eveningstar
 * The City of Splendors: A Waterdeep Novel &bull; Swords of Eveningstar