Harpies: hands are overrated
Aug 21, 2018 16:47:18 GMT -6
Post by ScrapyardDragon on Aug 21, 2018 16:47:18 GMT -6
Harpy
Harpies. A word synonymous with annoying wenches, and for good reasons. The actual species is one that mostly spends its time lazing about insulting people before stealing their belongings. While halflings at least have their own communities, the most social interaction a harpy will usually have with another is perching on the same cliffside, building, or power line for an hour or two until one of them gets bored or annoyed with the other. Harpies rarely have anything resembling a culture or organized society. Usually a few might flock together for practical reasons, but once whatever subject of interest that they came for leaves, they'll disband practically overnight. Sure, not every harpy is a rude scavenger not above theivery, it's just that those are the sorts that travel around enough for the other races at large to notice them.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.4-1.8m
Average Weight: 30-40kg
Languages: Trade, Avian
Common Personality Traits: Cruel, Crafty, Sly, Lazy, Flighty
Common Physical Traits: Technicolor hair & feathers, Lean build, Shrill or beautiful voice, Scaled legs,
Example Names: Papi, Harpus, Pet Shop, Iago, Jacques
Racial Stats
Size: 3
Characteristics: +1 to Dexterity or Strength
Skills: +1 to Acrobatics & Larceny
Racial power: Featherpunk: Rather than arms, you have wings. As long as you have room to unfurl them you can flap your wings to hover just above the ground & ignore difficult terrain, but you can't perform most tasks with them that people with hands take for granted. On the plus side, your legs are just as capable as other races' arms, and you gain a talon natural weapon (2k1 R, Melee, Brawling).
Racial feats:
Roadrunner: Your dexterity is counted as 2 higher for calculating movement speed and actions with the movement subtype.
Siren: As long as you can unfurl your wings you gain flyer, at your normal speed.
Seabird: You gain amphibious and a free raise to athletics tests.
Alkonost: You gain a singing specialty in performer, and once per scene you may cast confusion using Performer+Fellowship in place of the normal magic test. At levels 3-4 you may do this twice per scene, and at level 5 three times per scene.
Wind robber: You may use larceny in place of weaponry for disarm tests, and if you suceed a disarm test you may take control of the weapon.
[Paragon] Feather duster: You may spend action points to increase the focus power TN of a spell cast within Excellence*5m by 5 per action point spent.
Physical Qualities:
The most obvious difference compared to other intelligent races that sets a harpy apart is that they don't have hands. They instead have wings, vestigial or not. Some scholars have claimed that this is the major reason they never formed their own large societies. Others have gone on to point out that most of them can't stand each-other enough to want to become organized. Regardless, they have compensated for this weakness by developing highly dexterous talons instead. While the average Harpy can at least get off the ground enough to make use of them, most find they just don't compare to the real thing.
The line between bird and humanoid varies between individuals due to intermingling with the other races over the years. Some appearing as oversized hawks with human heads; others resembling ordinary people, if ordinary people's arms transitions to wings at the shoulders or biceps. While most Harpies are able to achieve true flight, there are some who can only maintain a pathetic hover. These harpies however have other evolutionary benefits going for them. Most of these cases have developed much stronger legs, being fast enough to escape danger without use of the Y axis. A smaller percentage however have instead evolved to maneuver underwater.
Playing a Harpy:
Most Harpies are thieves, scavengers, or both. If they can get someone else to do most of the work for them, they will. Partly because most tasks are rather difficult for them anyways, and partly because most of them are just lazy and prefer perching up on some high place and making sarcastic remarks on whatever passes by. Some of them will also sing from wherever they choose to roost, but even then half the time it's to lure some poor berk into a trap for easy pickings.
If there is one thing that Harpies can collectively agree on, it's that they don't like Kenku. Their logic is usually along the understandable lines of "Why do those jerks get arms AND wings?", though the more skeptical folk would claim that if they had arms then the average Harpy would be three times as annoying.
Among the occasional flock of Harpies, their relationship varies based on why they're even together in the first place. The most common case is among mating pairs, in which case they'll usually stick together at least long enough for the hatchlings to be able to fend for themselves, which usually takes 5-6 years. The second most common reason is simple convenience. If enough of them take to hunting in a particular spot they'll start to stay relatively close to each-other when roosting for simple safety in numbers, and the occasional shot at finding a mate. In these cases, the strongest will usually keep the in-fighting to a minimum but otherwise most will do as they see fit. The rarest case for a Harpy to stick with another is simple friendship. These are the sort of groups to actually worry about. At best it's just two or three sarcastic jokers to deal with. At worst it's an organized group of thieves out to steal whatever shiny trinkets are in their mark's hands.
Harpy Heroes
Zazu's family has been serving the local Rakasta lords for as far back as any of them can remember. While he cares deeply for the kingdom, Zazu worries for the young prince he's been tasked to tend to, both for the boy's capacity to lead justly, and whatever the king's brother may be planning to do.
Phoenix Person is one of the many rebels up against the Tau empire. While the many long years spent fighting them alongside his Spark friend have slowly taken their toll, he at least has his upcoming wedding to look forwards to.
Kass is a traveling singer, roaming the wheel learning the songs of various legends. Those who have listened to him have claimed that every song he sings bears truth, though the man himself always denies it. Strange though, is that he always seems to know just what song then is relevant to wherever he is.
Harpies. A word synonymous with annoying wenches, and for good reasons. The actual species is one that mostly spends its time lazing about insulting people before stealing their belongings. While halflings at least have their own communities, the most social interaction a harpy will usually have with another is perching on the same cliffside, building, or power line for an hour or two until one of them gets bored or annoyed with the other. Harpies rarely have anything resembling a culture or organized society. Usually a few might flock together for practical reasons, but once whatever subject of interest that they came for leaves, they'll disband practically overnight. Sure, not every harpy is a rude scavenger not above theivery, it's just that those are the sorts that travel around enough for the other races at large to notice them.
Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.4-1.8m
Average Weight: 30-40kg
Languages: Trade, Avian
Common Personality Traits: Cruel, Crafty, Sly, Lazy, Flighty
Common Physical Traits: Technicolor hair & feathers, Lean build, Shrill or beautiful voice, Scaled legs,
Example Names: Papi, Harpus, Pet Shop, Iago, Jacques
Racial Stats
Size: 3
Characteristics: +1 to Dexterity or Strength
Skills: +1 to Acrobatics & Larceny
Racial power: Featherpunk: Rather than arms, you have wings. As long as you have room to unfurl them you can flap your wings to hover just above the ground & ignore difficult terrain, but you can't perform most tasks with them that people with hands take for granted. On the plus side, your legs are just as capable as other races' arms, and you gain a talon natural weapon (2k1 R, Melee, Brawling).
Racial feats:
Roadrunner: Your dexterity is counted as 2 higher for calculating movement speed and actions with the movement subtype.
Siren: As long as you can unfurl your wings you gain flyer, at your normal speed.
Seabird: You gain amphibious and a free raise to athletics tests.
Alkonost: You gain a singing specialty in performer, and once per scene you may cast confusion using Performer+Fellowship in place of the normal magic test. At levels 3-4 you may do this twice per scene, and at level 5 three times per scene.
Wind robber: You may use larceny in place of weaponry for disarm tests, and if you suceed a disarm test you may take control of the weapon.
[Paragon] Feather duster: You may spend action points to increase the focus power TN of a spell cast within Excellence*5m by 5 per action point spent.
Physical Qualities:
The most obvious difference compared to other intelligent races that sets a harpy apart is that they don't have hands. They instead have wings, vestigial or not. Some scholars have claimed that this is the major reason they never formed their own large societies. Others have gone on to point out that most of them can't stand each-other enough to want to become organized. Regardless, they have compensated for this weakness by developing highly dexterous talons instead. While the average Harpy can at least get off the ground enough to make use of them, most find they just don't compare to the real thing.
The line between bird and humanoid varies between individuals due to intermingling with the other races over the years. Some appearing as oversized hawks with human heads; others resembling ordinary people, if ordinary people's arms transitions to wings at the shoulders or biceps. While most Harpies are able to achieve true flight, there are some who can only maintain a pathetic hover. These harpies however have other evolutionary benefits going for them. Most of these cases have developed much stronger legs, being fast enough to escape danger without use of the Y axis. A smaller percentage however have instead evolved to maneuver underwater.
Playing a Harpy:
Most Harpies are thieves, scavengers, or both. If they can get someone else to do most of the work for them, they will. Partly because most tasks are rather difficult for them anyways, and partly because most of them are just lazy and prefer perching up on some high place and making sarcastic remarks on whatever passes by. Some of them will also sing from wherever they choose to roost, but even then half the time it's to lure some poor berk into a trap for easy pickings.
If there is one thing that Harpies can collectively agree on, it's that they don't like Kenku. Their logic is usually along the understandable lines of "Why do those jerks get arms AND wings?", though the more skeptical folk would claim that if they had arms then the average Harpy would be three times as annoying.
Among the occasional flock of Harpies, their relationship varies based on why they're even together in the first place. The most common case is among mating pairs, in which case they'll usually stick together at least long enough for the hatchlings to be able to fend for themselves, which usually takes 5-6 years. The second most common reason is simple convenience. If enough of them take to hunting in a particular spot they'll start to stay relatively close to each-other when roosting for simple safety in numbers, and the occasional shot at finding a mate. In these cases, the strongest will usually keep the in-fighting to a minimum but otherwise most will do as they see fit. The rarest case for a Harpy to stick with another is simple friendship. These are the sort of groups to actually worry about. At best it's just two or three sarcastic jokers to deal with. At worst it's an organized group of thieves out to steal whatever shiny trinkets are in their mark's hands.
Harpy Heroes
Zazu's family has been serving the local Rakasta lords for as far back as any of them can remember. While he cares deeply for the kingdom, Zazu worries for the young prince he's been tasked to tend to, both for the boy's capacity to lead justly, and whatever the king's brother may be planning to do.
Phoenix Person is one of the many rebels up against the Tau empire. While the many long years spent fighting them alongside his Spark friend have slowly taken their toll, he at least has his upcoming wedding to look forwards to.
Kass is a traveling singer, roaming the wheel learning the songs of various legends. Those who have listened to him have claimed that every song he sings bears truth, though the man himself always denies it. Strange though, is that he always seems to know just what song then is relevant to wherever he is.