RACES
CHAPTER 1
key to roleplaying a duskling is to acknowledge only those ties and obligations that the duskling chooses to accept. They rebel against anyone who tries to make them follow and obey, but if a duskling swears to follow and defend a companion, she will give up her life to fulfill that oath if need be. Personality: Dusklings are best described as wild. They feel emotion fiercely, and rarely hide their feelings—they like to make sure their loved ones feel loved and their enemies know the depth of their hatred. They dislike confinement, whether it is physical, emotional, or legal, and have a hard time staying in one place for long. Roleplaying Application: Unless a situation demands tact, make it clear what you are thinking and feeling. In situations where being too forthright could jeopardize your mission, it’s easiest to stay out of the conversation entirely—stand away on guard or just staring out the window. Your adventuring companions, at least, should never hold any doubt about what you think of them. Fight with feral intensity—you could even punctuate your attack rolls with growls or insults directed at your opponents. Should you find yourself captive, pace your cell or jangle your chains. Stand up to bullies and tyrants and don’t take orders from anyone unless you’ve promised to. Behavior: Dusklings are either moving or still. They move quickly and purposefully from one place to another, and stand very still when they reach where they want to go. The exception is when they feel confined—trapped dusklings pace and fidget in stark contrast to their usual stillness. Dusklings are more comfortable with their feet than most other races are. Dusklings do not consider it rude to prop their feet up on chairs or tables, while others hide their feet away. They enjoy going barefoot when it is practical. Duskling lovers exchange anklets as tokens of their love and massage each other’s feet as an expression of affection. Roleplaying Application: To the extent that it’s possible and practical, avoid heavy armor and items that encumber you—make the most of your speed. Don’t wander, even in combat. Move to where you want to be and stay there as long as possible. Language: Dusklings use few words but spit them out in a rapid-fire stream. They are not reluctant to offer opinions and contribute to debates, but speak their piece succinctly and then quietly allow others to speak theirs. Though they speak Sylvan, they make use of idioms that other Sylvan speakers do not necessarily understand and that sound even stranger when translated literally into Common. Favorite duskling idioms include “Let’s cut these chains” (let’s start moving, let’s get out of here), “I turned it blue” (I changed my mind), and “You smelted him” (you hurt him badly, you mortally wounded him). Roleplaying Application: Speak quickly and succinctly. Pepper your speech with unfamiliar idioms and aphorisms.
DUSKLING ADVENTURES
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Adventures involving dusklings might include an entire family facing some external threat, rescuing dusklings who are in captivity, or a conflict caused by humans (or some other race) settling wild territory frequented by dusklings. • Members of a PC duskling’s family have been captured by goblins or orcs and are being held as slaves. The PC drafts her adventuring companions to help her free them.
• A group of araneas have built a nest in the heart of a forest inhabited by dusklings and are preying on the fey. The dusklings seek help combating the araneas. • A human village experiences rapid growth and begins clearing much of the surrounding forest for farmland. The dusklings who inhabit the forest begin attacking the human loggers. The humans seek protection from these attacks, while the dusklings want their territory preserved.
RILKANS
“What’s the point of incarnum if you’re not going to have a little fun with it?” —Tarrenta Willet, rilkan bard Rilkans are rakish entrepreneurs and daredevils of fortune. They believe in drinking deep from the cup of life. Like skarns, they are descended from the enigmatic mishtai, displaying their heritage in the bands of semireptilian scales grace rilkan forearms and necks. For the rilkans, the skarn and mishtai goal of “perfection of form” is a false idol. They believe that perfection is to be found in the journey, not the destination, and they seek to relish every moment that they are alive. According to the skarns, it was this heterodoxy that thwarted the mishtai’s efforts toward perfection, and the skarns have resented the rilkans for it ever since. In keeping with their reverence for gold and song, rilkans count numerous bards, merchants, and rogues among their number.
RILKAN RACIAL TRAITS Rilkans can pass for humans if they cover their pebbly, corundum-hard scales. These scales range in color from turquoise to sapphire to ruby. In males, the scales are a single solid color; in females, they are patterned and polychromatic. Rilkan men are dashing and handsome, while rilkan women dress to accentuate their femininity. • +2 Dexterity, –2 Strength: Rilkans are naturally lithe and graceful but also physically weak. • Medium: As Medium creatures, rilkans have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. • Rilkan base land speed is 30 feet. • Humanoid (Reptilian): Rilkans are humanoids with the reptilian subtype. • Racial Knowledge: The rilkan race is linked through the power of incarnum to the accumulated knowledge of their entire people. This manifests in two ways. First, all Knowledge checks are treated as trained skill checks for rilkans, regardless of whether they actually have ranks in the skill. Even without formal instruction, a rilkan naturally absorbs learning from the accumulated knowledge of her people. Second, rilkans gain a competence bonus on all Knowledge checks and bardic knowledge checks. This bonus is +1, but increases by an additional +1 for every two soulmelds currently shaped by the rilkan, since each soulmeld contains a small portion of the collected souls of the rilkan race. • +2 racial bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks: Rilkans are talented at saying the right word at the right time. • Racial Aid: Because of the incarnum bond that knits together all rilkans, at any time that a rilkan succeeds in
