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| Since they are plants, they art just like Ken and Barbie, no naughty bits. Art By: Me |
Author's Note:
This is my first attempt at making a race/monster that isn't out of a
surrealist hallucination or a Clive Barker novel. I present to you
the Xochi, named after the Aztec god Xochipilli, the patron of
fertility, homosexual men, and male prostitutes. He is thought to be
the patron of entheogenic mushrooms, due to certain interpretations
of a statue devoted to him. While the background of this race can be
dark, depending on what the GM chooses, they are, for the most part,
more fantastical/whimsical than my normal creations. In this post I
have included stats for: a new piece of equipment, two new kinds of
armor, and a form of resurrection with a murderous origin. I used
Pits & Perils for the game system of this post, though I have
included other systems in other versions of this post. As always, I
am keen to see your thoughts, critiques, and suggestions for this
post. The drawn art is of my own creation, the photographs are not.
Background of the Xochi
Spore children, spread through the world by
ever-striding titan mothers after decades of gestation. Born fully
grown, they crawl from their spore pods fully capable (in theory) of
interacting with a harsh world as would adults of other species.
However, this world, or yours, can be far more dangerous than their
in-born capabilities can adapt to.
As with many other plant species, it is a question of
quantity over quality when it comes to the production of young that
might mature to propagate the species. The passage of five centuries
is needed for a Xochi to run the full course of life to reach
maturation. At the end of their journey to maturity is a hulking form
the size of a small fort, striding through the world to fill it with
more of its kind. After twenty years of gestating hundreds of spore
pods, this titanic mother will expel a cloud of pods that travel
miles on organic chemical rockets.
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| Ghost-Pipe Mushrooms |
Once landed, or more precisely after an impact with the
ground, the Xochi will emerge from their pod clad in leafy clothes,
or armor. From that point on, they are to wander the world with the
hope that they will survive the five centuries to eventually mature
enough to become a nigh-invincible hulk. Their in-born knowledge
comes from their mother, imperfectly copied into their minds. While
whimsical and fantastic, such creatures could not come about through
natural means. So, how did these wonderfully mad creatures come
about?
Artisanals, creators of living art, gods from one
perspective, mad artists from another. Whispered about in salons
where the occult is in fashion, mentioned in books that are best left
unread, they are beings who have played at being creators for
centuries in search of a mad esthetic. Whether they are gods, or
mortals risen to such heights of power, their powers are undeniable.
Numbers unknown, they each have their own 'style', and
apply it to the creation of entire species. Some create species of
one, be they god-like creatures who live for centuries or fragile
beings whose lives can be measured in days, they are crafted for some
unknowable purpose. Others create limited populations that thrive or
fade in a particular area of a world. What all the creations share in
common is that they are soon abandoned by the creators, lacking the
ineffable quality the Artisanals search for in their creations.
Who these Artisinals are is purely within the realm of
rumor, with no concrete facts available. What is known is that they
have banded together in the past to create species towards similar
goals.
Rumors
of Origin
- Powerful Mages: A group of mages, obsessed with both biology and art, who gained a level of power through knowledge and arcana.
- Children of Men and Gods: They are a group of demi-gods/goddesses, who through shared interests in life and art, banded together for mutual empowerment and creation.
- Empowered Artists: A force of nature, a god(ess), or even an empowered concept has chosen a group of artists and given them an immense amount of power to fulfill their creative whims.
- Art as a Natural Force: Strange, but just as possible, is that the Artisinals are forces of nature that create life based upon baroque/arcane esthetics. Perhaps, they are the manifestations of a universal mindscape shared by artists?
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| Latticed Stinkhorn Mushroom |
The Xochi Themselves
But, what of the Xochi
themselves? Who are they? How do they act? More over, why do the vast
majority of them die before reaching their five-hundredth year?
Their general
personality can be summed up in two words: innocently naive. They are
born with a host of vague memories that might explain the world in an
academic sense, yet they are devoid of the hard won instincts a
brutal world ingrains in its residents. This lacking is often the
cause of a young Xochi's demise. As with any innocence, it can spur
them on to acts of altruism or casual cruelty.
Needing little in the
ways of creature comforts, they can survive on the nutrients found in
the dirt of any world. As with so many creatures, they need roughly
eight hours of sleep, which they often fulfill by sleeping partially
buried in the ground. After four hours, they have taken enough
nutrition from the soil that surrounds them, allowing them to 'binge'
for the remaining four hours.
Xochi culture has only
a vague existence, without a set of rituals or language, merely a
host of shared vague memories. They tend to avoid one another, a
natural proclivity to spread out as far as possible in the hopes of
maturing to a final form. This avoidance also acts as a form of
population control for the mother-titans, since a banding survival
strategy may result in the creation of more mother-titans than an
area could handle.
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| Mycena Interrupta |
As to why the majority
of these creatures die off before maturing, there are two options
open to the possible GM using this race:
Adventure Genre: To
reach this final form they must gain a great deal of experience with
the world they live in. These experiences drive the maturation
process, forcing certain changes on the body that spark the final
maturation process. While the five-hundred year mark is a given way
of reaching this end, an adventuresome Xochi might reach it sooner
after a long career (though much shorter than 500 years) exploring
the far reaches of the world. Most Xochi take this avenue towards
their final maturation, which means that most die in deep dungeons or
in the jaws of an angry monster. Those few that survive can willing
enter into the metamorphosis for their final form.
In
Game Terms: Once
a character reaches the highest level possible for their class/job,
their player may retire the character with the knowledge that said
character will live on as a nigh-invincible titan roaming the world.
Dark
/ Gritty Genre: The
Xochi are hunted. Either a purposeful choice by the Artisanals, or by
mere happenstance, has made it so that the body parts of the Xochi
are highly valued by drug manufacturers and back-alley healers. The
majority of their organs can be used to create powerful, and highly
addictive, illicit drugs that have similar effects as those of
opioids. Only a small amount of these drugs are needed to send
individuals into a high that can last for hours, meaning they can be
cut (the real-world term: stepped on) many times and still retain
their potency. Their hearts, referred to as Seed-Hearts, can actually
resurrect someone who has died recently, making them a highly valued
commodity; though they can also be rendered through the use of
alchemy to rejuvenate the body of an ailing/aged individual. This
rejuvenating ability is the most often used, since it is usually aged
monarchs and merchant princes who are capable of paying the high
price that is demanded. Finally, and most horrifically, are those who
exploit the Xochi's regenerative abilities. A Xochi can regrow a lost
limb after a month of healing, these limbs can be easily grafted onto
any other race simply by removing the skin of the stump and pressing
the new limb to it. Many Xochi have been captured and put into
'Pruning Houses', large warehouses where their limbs are removed
periodically to fill the orders of back-alley doctors. In this way,
these poor souls are forced to live through years of a nightmarish
existence, only to succumb to one of the many 'natural' deaths that
plague so many other species. More often than not, and perhaps
mercifully, the Xochi are quickly killed for the incredible amount of
money a single Xochi body can be sold for.
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| Phellodon Sinclairii |
Xochi
Physiology
On average they are
shorter than humans, though not by much.
Their skin in smooth,
and ranges from darker yellows to olive greens.
They lack any form of
sex, being truly androgynous, though they may take on a particular
gender as an affectation.
While they are plants,
they share a number qualities with animals that gives them a similar
functionality to the more common races of sentient beings.
As with all fungus they
don't do well with bright light as well as extreme heat.
If at least half of
their body is buried in fertile dirt for at least four hours, they
can gain as much nutrients as they need for a full day.
As with other plants,
they have a highly efficient digestive system, which allows them to
consume both plant matter and meat.
They have no need for
waste elimination, so they lack the organs and orifices to do so.
There are rumors of some Xochi who have sought out certain bio-mages
to modify their bodies so as to fit a particular gender affectation
they take on.
They are a hearty race,
more so than average humans, but moreover they are also rather quick.
They are semi-cephalized, having a 'brain' that acts as an organizing
organ for other sub-brains throughout the body. These sub-brains,
allow for the Xochi to react quicker than normal to external stimuli
do the the shorter distance between the effected area and the system
that controls it.
Pits & Perils
So, I am still a
neophyte when it comes to home-brewing for this awesome system. As
such, I am unsure how to make this race into a class, since the game
has taken a race-as-class old-school route. I, however, present to
you folks some new treasure!
Xochi
Equipment
If a Titan-Mother senses that its 'children' are being
killed off due to a particular environmental hazard or predation, the
next generation will be born with certain items that will help with
their survival. Even if the Titan-Mother doesn't sense a persistent
danger to its 'children' often they emerge from their pods with a
random bit of equipment. These pieces of equipment will at times be
sold by their owners, or sold off as swag by those who murdered them
for their body parts.
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| They can call you Edward/Edna Mushroom-Hands (Waka-Waka!). Art By: Me |
Fungal
Climbing Gloves
Cost: 1,350 gp
These living gloves have strong hair-like protrusions
that give the wearer a much surer grip. At base they grant a +1 bonus
to all climbing-walls checks, a +1 bonus to for all grapple attempts,
and a +1 against all disarm attempts. By sacrificing 1 HP to the
gloves, these bonuses are doubled for an hour.
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| Funky Fungus Clothes! Art By: Me |
Light Fungal Armor
Cost: 3,625 gp
This living armor is made from small plates of fungus
and layers of tough grass. While this armor is made for medium sized
creatures, a small or large creature may sacrifice 1 HP
to the armor once to make it grow or shrink to their size
permanently; this sacrificed HP may be healed normally. This armor is
considered masterwork for the purposes of enchanting it. The main
draw to this armor is its ability to absorb a small amount of damage
before it reaches its wearer. A character may sacrifice 1 HP for the
armor to absorb up to 3 Hits worth of damage the wearer would
normally take; in essence, this works as 3 temporary hit-points that
are subtracted first before normal HP. This bonus protection lasts
for 1 hour, once the 3 temporary hit-points are gone due to damage,
this ability may not be reactivated for a whole hour from the time
the damage was taken.
Armor Bonus: +1
Hit
Weight: 7 lbs
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| This armor doesn't make you hallucinate, you really are seeing a dragon coming at you. Art By: Me |
Medium
Fungal Armor
Cost: 7,500 gp
This living armor is made from large plates of fungus
and layers of tough grass. While this armor is made for medium sized
creatures, a small or large creature may sacrifice 2 HP
to the armor once to make it grow or shrink to their size
permanently; this sacrificed HP may be healed normally. The main draw
to this armor is its ability to absorb a small amount of damage
before it reaches its wearer. A character may sacrifice 2 HP for the
armor to absorb up to 6 Hits worth of damage the wearer would
normally take; in essence, this works as 6 temporary hit-points that
are subtracted before normal hit-points. This bonus protection lasts
for 1 hour, once the 6 temporary hit-points are gone due to damage,
this ability may not be reactivated for a whole hour from the time
the damage was taken.
Armor Bonus: +2
Weight: 15 lbs
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| Grow your own resurrection! Art By: Me |
Seed-Heart
Cost: 2,700 gp
The Seed-Heart is a heart of a Xochi, meaning one was
killed in order to get it. In very rare cases a Xochi will
willingly give up their life so that another may live. This
Seed-Heart is roughly the size of an adult's fist and has a teardrop
shape.
Resurrection
Use
The thin portion of the seed must placed in the mouth,
or body, of creature who has been dead for no more than 6 months and
that body must be buried in fertile soil. If these criteria are met,
after 1D10+1 days a green pod will grow out of the soil, the pod will
be the same size as the creature buried. Moments after the pod
reaches full sized, a green tinged perfect copy of the buried
creature bursts forth. The copy has all the same memories of the
original, as well as the same number of hit-dice and class levels as
the original. The GM may decide that the copy also has the same
amount of experience points as the original. The copy will have an a
nagging feeling that they are merely a copy. There is no game
mechanic to describe this, but players are encouraged to role play
out this new personality quirk. Finally, the copy is incapable of
digesting meat, so must adjust their diet accordingly. The original
body is destroyed in the creation of the copy, making it completely
impossible to resurrect it.
Revitalizing
Use
A single heart may be broken down by an alchemist and turned into a potion that returns an
individual to perfect health and to the prime age for their race
(late teens to early twenties for humans). Drinking the potion
removes all diseases, magical and natural, as well as the effects of
all poisons. In theory a person could live forever provided they
periodically drink these potions. With an indefinite shelf life, a
very rich individual could buy multiple potions to ensure that they
are prepared for multiple lifetimes.
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