Rilkan adventures can involve escapades of classic heroism such as rescuing a damsel in distress, but they can also enjoy scenarios such as investigating a forged business contract or recovering a shipping coster’s cargo from the bottom of a frigid bay. • A skarn sage claims that he has traced the failure of the mishtai to one particular rilkan bloodline. To test his theory, skarn raiders kidnap all known female members of the bloodline. A PC rilkan must rescue the distaff side of his family before they are subjected to hideous experiments. • A long-lost wartime contract surfaces, and a six-fingered halfling is making claims of ownership against a PC rilkan’s business. Is the contract real or a nefarious forgery? If forged, was it for simple profit or a more insidious purpose? • An early winter storm sank the Ocean Dove to the bottom of the city’s deepwater harbor. Unfortunately, the Dove was carrying a cargo of caskets bound for ritual burial at sea. Now, the undead grow restless under the waves. They will surface soon unless the PCs—who might own a share of the Dove—dive to the floor of the bay and end the threat.
Skarn are strong, sophisticated warriors of intellect. Like the rilkans, they are descended from the vanished mishtai progenitor race, which long ago infused all mishtai with incarnum in an attempt to achieve “perfection of form.” Skarn appear human except for the five or six vertically aligned reptilian spines that project from the anterior of each forearm, posterior of each calf, and the upper back. Skarn society is insular and demands both mental and physical achievement. They are a proud race—some would say arrogant—and they boast soulborns, paladins, rangers, and fighters of other “hybrid” classes that exemplify perfection of both mind and body.
RACES
RILKAN ADVENTURES
SKARNS
“Nothing’s perfect. But a skarn is close.” —Ogava Basa, skarn incarnate
CHAPTER 1
seducers and seductresses. They enjoy business and creating wealth, both for the satisfaction of accomplishment and the style and pleasures that those riches afford them. Roleplaying Application: If the party is facing a risky situation and there is a reasonable chance of survival, you should be the first to volunteer. You believe in being a Hero with a capital H, and heroes don’t wait for a cohort to try the rope bridge first. When you meet someone who you find attractive, make sure that he or she knows you are eligible (or, if you are spoken for, be flattering but honest). You should have “lines” prepared to use when approaching potential paramours. Above all, develop your own personal sense of style. Perhaps you always end a fight by dropping the plume from your hat onto your fallen opponent, or perhaps you are known for sinking a gold piece in every hundredth bottle of ale at the tavern you own. Behavior: Rilkans are at ease almost wherever they go. The only haunts likely to spook a rilkan are cemeteries or places with a large undead presence; the utter lack of hope in such places is anathema to them. Roleplaying Application: In cities, pay keen attention to the business climate. Never miss an opportunity to invest in a sure thing. Use your travels as an adventurer to learn where goods are in supply and where they are in demand. In combat, name your maneuvers, issue witty soliloquies, and add swashbuckling flair to every strike. Language: Rilkans love to talk. In a culture of bards, rogues, and traders, language is a specialty. Rilkan poetry is exquisite, and even nonbards memorize a number of their favorite passages. Rilkans delight in attaching belittling epithets to their nemeses and promulgating the use of these epithets across the land. Roleplaying Application: When you encounter a recurring villain, make sure that you have an insulting nickname ready for him. Spread that nickname far and wide in the courts, trading houses, and taverns of the region, so that your enemy hears laughter whenever he introduces himself.
SKARN RACIAL TRAITS Skarns are about as tall as humans, but they are much more solidly built. They average 6 feet tall and 210 pounds. They appear human save for their most salient feature, their spines. These spines grow to six to twelve inches in length and range from turquoise and aquamarine in females to navy and sapphire in males. The spines are not retractable, but they can be held flush against the skin with little effort. At social occasions, the spines are layered with chiffon or gold chains. Spine jewelry and grooming are as important to a skarn as beard braiding and knotting are to a dwarf. • +2 Strength, –2 Dexterity: The hulking skarns are extraordinarily strong, but tend to be slow. • Medium: As Medium creatures, skarns have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size. • Skarn base land speed is 30 feet. • Humanoid (Reptilian): Skarns are humanoids with the reptilian subtype. • Natural Weapon (Spines): A skarn can make one attack with his arm spines each round, either with his primary hand or with his off-hand (taking the normal penalties for fighting with an off-hand weapon). This attack deals 1d6 points of piercing damage; if it is used as an off-hand weapon, the skarn may add only one-half his Strength bonus to the damage roll. A skarn can’t attack with his spines and a weapon wielded by the same arm in the same round. If a skarn makes a spine attack with an arm carrying a shield, he loses the shield’s bonus to AC until the start of his next turn. If the skarn has a soulmeld bound to his arms chakra, his spine attacks are treated as lawful-aligned for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. See Chakra Binds, page 51, for details. • +2 racial bonus on Intimidate and Climb checks: Skarns learn quickly how to use their spines to create a display of ferocity. These same spines aid skarns when they climb. • Automatic Language: Common. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Elf, Celestial, Abyssal, and Infernal. Because skarns consider themselves slightly improved over the average mortal race, they learn the languages of those they consider to be their approximate equals. • Favored Class: Incarnate.
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