Slugs: Psychic Slug people

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When the Eldarin made their second most grievous of errors and reactivated the Pandemonium Warp Relay, nothing could have prepared them for what lurked in the Screaming Dark. The Mindflayers and Aboleth were amongst the worst, but not all were quite so vile. Some were just trying to escape the other horrors. The Sload, more commonly known as Slugs, were natives of Pandemonium that fought along the Eldarin and other races against the Horrors in The War of the Monster’s Fall. For their assistance, they were allowed to join the other civilized races in the Great Wheel when the Mind Slavers were pushed back into Pandemonium.

The Slugs found their place in the Wheel slowly, as is their way. They eventually settled in a Crystal Sphere called Thras, filled with electric nebulae. A hostile place, the inherent darkness of the Sphere and constant booming of thunderous electrical discharges was said to make them feel a bit more at home, like Pandemonium without the constant worry of having their minds destroyed. A careful race, mainly only leaving their homeworlds as Merchants or Political visitors, the Slugs people see out of their homeworlds the most are those that didn’t fit the slug mold. Not being quite so excessive in slow calculations, these slugs ply their trade and abilities across the great wheel and often end up as pirates, smugglers or other crosstraders.

Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.6-2.0m
Average Weight: 70-100kg
Languages: Trade, Eldarin
Common Personality Traits: Slimy, smarmy, melodramatic, calculating, bombastic
Common Physical Traits: Slimy, corpulent flesh, eye stalks, uncomfortable stare, expressionless face, malodorous musk
Example Names: Tawfret, Baalzebul, N’Gasta, Wegslak, Slimer, Jabba

Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Intelligence or Constitution
Skill Bonus: +1 to Politics and Forbidden Lore
Power: Telepathy: Slugs are able to naturally communicate with others via advanced natural Telepathy. You may instantly and silently speak to willing individuals in your presence, as well as allow them to communicate with you in an identical manner through telepathically reading their thoughts.
Size: 4

Racial Feats

Snail [Slug]
Most Slugs are a bit on the squishy side, literally. Not all though, some naturally develop a hardened carapace to protect them from the dangers in life. Gain Armor Plating equal to your Composure to your Body. As normal for Armor Plating, this does stack with worn armor.

Sticky Fingers [Slug]
A Slug out of Thras is often not very popular person, what with the sticky slime trails and all, but it's not without its advantages. By weaponizing your slime, you gain a raise on all Grapple and Disarm attempts. Furthermore, when you Disarm someone you may choose as a Free Action to grab the weapon with a free hand instead of it falling to the ground.

Mental Radar [Slug]
In the inky blackness of Pandemonium, it's usually a good idea to be able to see things without them seeing you. Your telepathy is broad as well as focused, and sentient beings light up red in your mental map; you are always able to detect the presence and relative location of others in the same scene as you, as well as their general number. This ability does not work on beings with the Mindless or Machine Traits but does work through walls and without you needing to see them.

Telesend [Slug]
Thoughts are like a river to the Slugs, a constant stream of information that they can put to use. You have learned to use this to speak to even those who do not wish to listen, gaining the ability to use Whisper with your Level + Composure in place of the spell’s normal Focus Power test.

Grey Matters [Slug]
Telepathy is as natural as talking to a Slug, but you have a way of listening for things that others don't want to share. You may cast the spell Detect Thoughts at will using Level + Composure in the place of the spells usual Focus Power test.

PARAGON RACIAL ASSETS

Ooze [Slug, Paragon]
Some Slugs never really grow out of their Grub phase, only just growing larger. Just as smart and capable as a normal Slug except a bit slower physically, these slugs have their innards able to flexibly move around their body mostly at will. Your base hitpoints are doubled but all attacks strike your Body, and you gain the Crawler trait. This Asset may not be taken if you have taken the Mind Mastery asset.

Mind Mastery [Slug, Paragon]
Most Slugs are only slightly telepathic, but there are a few that develop talents over the mind of others rivaling those of the Monsters and Horrors they left behind in Pandemonium. Once per Scene you may cast Detect Thoughts without needing to make a Focus Power Test, automatically succeeding with raises equal to the target's Willpower. At level 3 and 5 you gain an additional use of this power per scene. This Asset may not be taken if you have taken the Ooze asset.

Physical Qualities

The Slugs begin their lives as tiny, amorphous, non-sentient grubs that eventually evolve into squishy, octopus-looking, creatures during adolescence, before growing into the large, corpulent bags of slime people know Slugs to be. Their eyes sit at the end of stalks which rise above their heads and swivel around independently, although these stalks can be retracted into the head if necessary. They slowly move about on their fat legs, their “tail” often seeming to absorb them entirely as it trails behind, leaving a path of slime as it goes. Their skin varies in colors ranging from brown to white to semi-transparent, and is soft and wet to the touch. Of course, getting close enough to touch a slug means putting up with their odor, which at best is bad and at worst, nauseating. A Slug abroad trying to make a good impression will often wear a full body suit to prevent themselves from oozing all over the place.

Although they’ve lived in Thras for thousands of years now, the Slugs are a race from Pandemonium and it shows. The talent many Pandemonean natives show for mental manipulation appears in the Slugs as well in what their most notable trait. Their ability is generally much more benign though, being able to skim the emotions and surface thoughts of those around them rather than control them. Every Slugs develops this ability during adolescence, perfecting it by the time they are Adults. It comes naturally to them as any bodily function, and any slug of sound health and body can listen to the thoughts of others. Perhaps a bit over reliant on this ability, their faces are very inexpressive to the point of almost being nonexistent. Beyond their eye-stalks, they have only a hole for a mouth that they use for eating and speaking, with no real ears or nose on their head although this does not negatively impact their senses. Slugs instead detect vibrations on their skin to hear. If a clueless were to ask how a Slugs smells with no nose, the answer would be quick: terrible.

Playing a Slug

Slugs are stated to have careful and deliberate personalities. They are extremely quick thinkers, but normally attempt to consider every consequence of an action, causing slow decision making; they know how to answer questions quickly, but, often times, they choose not to do so. The average Slug is said to be very self-centered and calculating, often scheming for their own benefit and interests, breaking laws when they believe there will be meager consequences. So used to simply reading the mind of others to determine their emotional state, Slug are unable to sincerely display notable human emotions beyond that of greed. Despite this, their ability to detect the feelings of others gives Slugs an impressive natural talent to act out human emotions, allowing for notable competence in diplomacy, but often do so in seemingly exaggerated parodies, such as laughing at bad jokes, or weeping at slight misfortunes. The Slug do not have any affinity with the concept of honor, friendship, or loyalty, but show a strange respect to those who are able to defeat or trick them.

Slugs live long lives naturally, with a mature lifespan at least five times that of a human on average. They live slowly, taking advantage of their long lives to create intricate and expansive plans that can last decades, or even centuries. Anger a Slug, and you might not even know it: they will laugh it off and just go on with their lives, feeling a silent schadenfreude knowing that you will die and they will still be alive. Only the most petty actually seek revenge, usually when the offender is too old to even remember the slight, let alone defend themselves or their offspring. This behavior is discouraged however, and seen as needlessly risky. Due to their slow and calculating nature, most Slugs accomplish less in their centuries than a Human does in their decades. However, they almost always get all their decades because of this; old age is the second most common cause of death for Slug. Before they left Pandemonium, being eaten was the most common, in the centuries after leaving however the most common became the machinations of other Slug.

This is what is typical for Slug, but not for what most people know of them. A Slug caught committing a crime is often exiled, a far safer punishment than to put them in a cell with nothing to do but plot for centuries. Only the most foolish of Slugs would actually make the mistake of being caught, and these are the ones the rest of the Wheel ends up dealing with. As unscrupulous as the best of slugs, they spread far and wide across the Great Wheel looking for adventure, purpose, and a place to call kip. They often fall in with bad sorts even if they aren’t bad sorts themselves, turning to piracy, theft, murder and politics.

Slug Heroes

Most slugs grow out of their grub phase in a few years. Most, but not all. Jivya simply grew larger and larger until he was the size of a full grown Sload, never growing out of his amorphous form or what would be called “Adolescent foolishness”. He was cast out of Thras, and quickly found his way into the company of Space Pirates where he developed a love of danger and challenge. He is now known as Slimebeard, a Scourge o’ the Stars that is feared across the Great Wheel. Despite this, he swears by the Law o’ the Stars and attributes his success to it.

Flamel was a Sload like any other: She schemed, she plotted, she calculated. However, she was always terrible at math and one calculation ended in one more death than she planned on: Her own. However it was then that something happened that no one could have planned for, she came back to life. Apparently immortal, most Sload would see this as a great blessing, allowing their schemes to stretch for eons rather than centuries. Flamel however was not most Slugs, and instead used this to throw herself into every dangerous situation she could, confidant that the worst thing that could happen to her, death, had already proven not to stick. She is used as a villainous warning by the Slugs, who consider her quite mad, and they are right.

Most Sload are relatively stoic naturally, but at least know to fake impressive shows of emotion for others. Not Shelle though, who is so unemotive that she actually needs to state how she is feeling with every statement for anyone to have an idea what she is feeling. Her heart empty of the desires that most Slugs feel for personal gain, she instead was drawn out of Thras by a strange desire to know the lands beyond. Saying “With burgeoning wanderlust: I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell,” Shelle left Thras, knowing the currents of fate would take her where she needed to be.

[username]

Fixed some broken images and found a rather nice new one for the lead that seems rather DtD-esque.

Took the chance to make a few changes as well. Though sload is the "technical" name in setting for their race, most know them as Slugs and so to avoid confusion I changed most of the references to Sload to Slug in the description.

From a mechanics standpoint, I did make a few changes.

• Snail now only applies the armor to your Body (which also applies to Gizzard automatically, per the rules, so don't forget!). Armor plating stacks normally by the rules but I rephrased it for clarification, and for that same reason it only protects the body to balance it against other races and in general. Still pretty handy and makes more sense for a slug shell.
  
• They get Politics and Forbidden Lore now instead of Politics and Arcana. Arcana is probably the better skill, since it is one that every characters wants, but it makes less sense for their fluff. Forbidden Lore makes more sense for unpleasant telepathics; they're kind of bad people.
  
• Tried to give some more clarification for mental radar by adding that it applies to people in the same scene as you for what good that means, but made sure to point out that it still works through walls.

As always if you have any suggestions, comments or thoughts, please share.