Walktapus - Definitely not Octopus people

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One of the least imposing races in the wheel, Walktapi are mostly land dwelling human sized octopi that jump at the chance to stay in the back. Descended from amphibious brachiating mollusks, Walktapi had the poor luck to develop on a certain extremely feral death world. With every other animal and plant in the sphere being incredibly deadly, these land squids developed an incredible natural ability to blend in and disguise themselves to adapt. When explorers came to their sphere to see what lurked inside, the curious Walktapi disguised themselves members of the crew and snuck aboard. By the time they were discovered it was too late to turn back, let alone the difficulty of returning to such a horrible crystal sphere.

Since their self-shanghai so long ago, Walktapi have spread throughout the wheel due to their natural inclination to blend in and aversion to making waves allowing them to serve as a background element in the trials and tribulations of other races. It’s easy to meet one and never even notice that the individual in the street is a 2 meter tall walking octopus person. It’s just as well that Walktapi go unnoticed in their daily lives, as their ability to blend in so well often leads to paranoia and prejudice against them, compounded by the fact that when their curiosity gets the better of them they often turn up in places they shouldn’t be.

Physical Characteristics
Average Height: 1.5-2.0m
Average Weight: 50-80kg
Languages: Any Two of Trade and the Racial Languages (Taking Trade recommended)
Common Personality Traits: Curious, Unremarkable, Territorial, Short sighted
Common Physical Traits: long legs, large eyes, slick skin, burbling voice, fluid form
Example Names: Antonius, Thauth, Aurian, Steve, Snorrig, Autumn

Racial Statistics
Characteristic Bonus: +1 to Dexterity or Fellowship
Skill Bonus: +1 to Acrobatics and Deceive
Power: Nobody Suspects a Thing: You are able to almost perfectly disguise yourself as pretty much anything or anyone. This functions as the Disguise spell as a Spell-like ability using Level + Dexterity in the place of the normal Focus Power Test and removing the Material and Social keywords.
Size: 4



Racial Feats

Dastardly Decapode [Walktapus]
It's easy to overlook a Walktapus when they don't want to be noticed, and they always seem to know just what to say to get out of trouble. It's almost suspicious. You gain +1k1 to Stealth and Deceive rolls.

Inkredible Ink[Walktapus, Cecaelia]

Few have an inkling of just how creative Walktapi can be. You may produce Ink of whatever colors you desire to use as you would paint or dye: marking territory, making graffiti, dying clothes, etc. Beyond that, once per scene you may spray your Ink as a natural weapon following the profile of a Smoke Grenade.

Tentacle Tangler [Walktapus]
With unusually strong and twisting tentacles, you are a terror in a grapple. Opponents in a grapple with you take a check to their tests. When you use the Push Opponent grapple option, you may throw opponents beyond your half move distance and deal Xk2 damage when doing so, X being equal to the number of meters the enemy is moved.

Tidewater Tentacles [Walktapus, Cecaelia]
Walktapi are adapted for life on land, but you are equally at home beneath the waves. You are able to freely breath underwater and gain the Amphibious trait.

Hid Squid [Walktapus]
Disguising is second nature to a Walktapus, but it's first nature for you. When using your Nobody Suspects a Thing ability, you do not need maintain concentration to keep your disguise active, instead automatically continuing your Disguise until you choose to drop it.

Master Mimic Mollusk [Walktapus, Paragon]
Your ability to disguise yourself goes beyond the already impressive talents of your race and into the realm of the truly incredible, fully becoming another person for a brief moment. You may spend an Action Point to perfectly copy the actions and rolls of someone since your last action. If that person flew through the air and then cast Energy Ball, you would do so as well without needing to make tests or rolls, simply using their results. How you use these actions however is up to you, not requiring the exact same targets they had. Any resource expenditure needed for the copied actions uses your Action points instead.



Physical Qualities
Walktapi, when examined closely, look about like what you’d expect an Octopus or Squid to look. They tend to have at eight or ten or more tentacle legs, which they use in combination to act as their arms and legs like those of other races, devoting two tentacles for each leg and two for each arm, with spares being used for various different jaunty or dashing "hair"styles. This lends them finesse and flexibility at least par with races possessing more bones and fewer limbs, if not more so. Their original habitat is moister than most, allowing Walktapi to make the leap from aquatic to terrestrial life and they still have vestigial gills that can be used to breath underwater if necessary, likely as a defense mechanism to escape various predators that were a constant threat to the race before the accidental uplifting. Walktapi also have glands that can produce inks ranging from colorful to inky black, used for a variety of purposes such as marking territory, leaving messages or even dissuading a pursuer if necessary. This leads to rather passive aggressive tendencies to leave large swaths of ink on walls to show their presence in the area even if an Walktapi would hesitate to verbally espouse such things. The However these physical traits are rare to actually observe on a modern Walktapi due to their most impressive ability, their ability to near perfectly disguise themselves, although such a word barely begins to describe it.

Far from a fake nose, wig and change of clothes, a Walktapi pretending to be someone else really does seem to become someone else, fluidly adjusting their bodies to take whatever forms are necessary including hair, skin tone, limbs and clothing. This inkredible shift in appearance can allow the these octopodes to appear as specific individuals or things, but most often is just used to approximate the Walktapi’s idea of a generic individual of another race, usually a race prevalent in the area. As impressive as their disguise is however, it remains only skin deep. Although they may pretend to possess things such as wings or claws or hair, they’re purely for show and nonfunctional, something that is at times used to root out Walktapi infiltrators. Scientists and sorcerers still debate the exact function that allows Walktapi to perform this trick. Although it does not detect as inherently magical, magitech studies suggest it is actually a form of illusionary shrouding or subtle mind manipulation that makes the Walktapi’s ability to adjust their general form and enhances it to the level for which they are known.

Scientists instead point to their unique cellular and genetic makeup, which seems to be extremely malleable, allowing their bodies to gently distort to appear as something else and then relax back to normal, like tensing a muscle. Some even hypothesize that each cell is actually a small, unique individual that works with their specialized comrades in order to make up the entire Walktapus body and needs. This same cellular distortion and fluid genetics is thought to be the reason why Walktapi are able to reproduce with all known species normally capable of reproduction, however unless their partner is a Walkatapi the offspring is always 100% racially the other parent. Humans are the sole exception to this rule, and it has not gone unnoticed by members of the greater wheel that still harbor distrust for Human upstarts.

The final thing about Walktapi that is certainly to their displeasure, a closely guarded and poorly kept secret, is that they are rumored to be absolutely delicious. They always taste exactly like or better than the favorite food of whatever devours them, perhaps as a cruel twist of fate through their own ability to mimic and trick the senses of others. Of course, the Council strongly condemns preying on any species recognized as sapient in the greater Wheel, but Sasquatch are rumored to be able to acquire *anything* edible if given a little time and black markets pay a high price for the supposed miracle matter.

Playing a Walktapus