Homerbrewing Crap Yet Again

A few projects on the go...Seem to be dabbling with the finishing of my worlds of hell for my setting
-seven hells and then six in between worlds you can do your best to never enter
-when I write these up will be possible to play with very little dming hopefully and different each playthrough
Plus thinking of revising my own pantheon I have lazily used mythology for years
-possibly graphic depictions of the pantheon
Dabbling with Elfmaids monster book again

Revising my homebrew system
-added to my character sheet boxes to record class changes an option I want more of in my system and boxes by stats you can fill if you have any enhanced save based on your class/race or any skills you choose. I could envisage a graphic for senses too, eye box if you have a spot skill ear for listen tongue. Possibly next revision
-did a sheet with notes on the character sheet above. I need to proof this better and reread a few times and have page numbers to the final book sections
-few layout bugs and typos I'm finding
-have done generic "builds" of character in my system based on old classic classes and need to rename some
-monster forms might help too for groups of mooks and boss or legendary monsters need a sheet with rooms for skills and powers
-if I did more detailed builds or kits I might include something on how you got the equipment
-party form with marching order and initiative offer marked and flunkies and a company name good for NPC parties too

Hope to have a bunch of "builds" planned out so you can make a npc of a class and level and use charts to know all of the character's skills and abilities.  Fast for NPCs or late players or making a pregen for higher-level adventure. It is very list based and might finalise my ruleset first before too much of this. Possibly some generic monster add ons for monster bosses or elites too. I like in Temple of Elemental Evil PC game the ninja bugbears used a trip attack then all dogpiled the fallen victim. Useful forme anyhow. These kits are examples of starting equipment (and weight) skill and spell selections for a fast-starting character. By plotting out to what they get level by level say 20th level should make it fast. I'd like to do 5-12 of these for each class. I don't want to overcommit just cos I like things in fours or by dozen. I have 16 core classes so 12 sample builds of each maxed out might be painful. I might do this with some players. Possibly priests might vary the most if I include power alternates to turning and bonus spells.   

A system of generating magic items for NPCs of high levels or new PCs might help. I used fiend Folio for these lots as a kid.

Anyway here are some alt builds based on classes
-each class in my book has a sample build of spells and skills and starting equipment which is 1 on these lists
-my naming schemata I'm still playing with and while id like to do a witch or alchemist class ill save that for some future edition as I still have plenty to do on this incarnation of the game I wrote in bed from memory when sick 12 years or so ago and got back to and ish stuff.
-priests I'm split between having to base on cults or as jobs....
-priests id like to have alternate turning powers or some extra spells or something like i had earlier versions but priest by job approach seems not as useful and perhaps all priests engaged with the struggle of life and unlife and everyone hopes to be buried on the hallowed ground or at least get a cantrip cast on their grave lest they arise which has tempting possibilities....possibly the gods & alt powers could be a later thing to do (even though I'm thinking cosmology again). I like the idea of being a healer of the bright healing gods vs a healer of darkness or a bright templar vs a templar of a love goddess too. This many alt powers might be too hard for now too so will go with what I have now and all clerics involved in war between living and dead

Priests built on religions                                     
1 - Light (solar and law cults) turning undead repels or destroys                 
2 - Darkness (night and underworld cults) turning undead makes obedient or slaves             3 - Love (beauty and fertility cults) fascinate or mass charm            

4 - Death (war and pestilence cults) improves troops morale or go beserk        

5 - Sage (scholar and scribe cults) question ancient spirits for knowledge              

6 - Air (sky and storm cults) influence weather    

7 - Earth (fertility and nature cults) pacify plants and animals    

8 - Fire (war and craft cults) burning aura

9 - Water (sea and river cults) draw water d12 litres/Lv once per day per level sea or pure

10 - Trickster (chaos and luck) temporary random mutations 

or
Priests built on Jobs 
1 - Cleric (workhorse fighting order) turn or destroy the undead
2 - Exorcist (hunt evil spirits, undead and shapeshifters)  

3 - Friar (wandering rural commoner order) pacify animals

4 - Flagellant (frenzied fighting order) beserks 

5 - Shamen (spirit seers of savage peoples) spirit sight and travel 

6 - Prophet (missionary and divination order) fascinate 

7 - Hospitalar (medical fighting order) healing miracles

8 - Templar (fighting crusader order) protection from evil 1 area circle 

9 - Inquisitor (hunting heretics and the unholy order) detect lie 

10 - Hermit (wilderness contemplation order) hide in limbo 

Rogue
1 - Thief (criminal gang member)
2 - Hunter (hunter, scout or often bandit)
3 - Assassin (killer for hire or cause)
4 - Sailor (mariner and sea traveller)
5 - Merchant (scheming traders and travellers)
6 - Diplomat (spies and negotiators)
7 - Bounty Hunter (hunter of criminals)
8 - Acrobat (athletic performer)
9 - Charletan (sleazy con artists)
10 - Beggar (spies and dealers)

Warrior1 - Mercenary (professional soldier for hire)
2 - Knight (aristocratic cavalry)
3 - Gladiator (combat athlete)
4 - Yeoman (landowner farmer and warden of the forest)
5 - Viking (barbarian sea raiders)
6 - Berserker (frenzied savage warriors)
7 - Houseguard (household bodyguard of noble)
8 - Hoplite (farmer artisan armoured spearmen) 
9 - Amazon (nomad horse archers)  
10 - Musketeer (specialists in black powder) 
Wizard
1 - Enchanter (control minds and craft magic)
2 - Conjurer (summons things and creatures)
3 - Illusionist (influences mind and dreams)
4 - Necromancer (animates undead thralls and streal souls)
5 - Alchemist (makes potions and golems)

6 - Air Elementalists (air elementalist)

7 - Earth Elementalists  (earth elementalist)

8 - Fire Elementalists (fire elementalist)

9 - Water Elementalists (water elementalist)

10 - Diabolist Elementalists (black magic taught by hell with low low tutorial fees)

Bard1 - Minstrel (travelling entertainer and performer)
2 - Jester (foolish entertaining simpletons)
3 - Seducer (gigolo, courtesan or professional lover)
4 - Mystic (holy acrobatic dancers)
5 - Demagogue (rouses rabble and spreads slander)rune master

Druid (the same issue as priests really but I'm probably going for the easier option for now)1 - Green (plants and animals stuff)
2 - Red (sacrifice to nature with blood and fire)
3 - Black (death stuff)
4 - White (healers and diviners)
5 - Dun (elemental stuff)

or 

1 - Forester (care for forests and wilderness)
2 - Gardener (holy herbalists of temple gardens)
3 - Beastmaster (animal tamer and friend)
4 - Soothsayer (divination and blood sacrifice)
5 - Sage (wandering teachers and healers of old faith)

Monk (a similar problem I could design weird orders or this)
1 - Mendicant - (wandering holy folk sworn to poverty and self-defence) 

2 - Archer (specialist marksman)

3 - Duelist (wandering sellsword)

4 - Executioner (ordained punisher) 

5 - Guardian (temple and monastery defenders) 

Sorcerer (a good variety of sorcerers is a must, powers from blood link or an oath)
1 - Magus (powers granted by esoteric entities)

2 - Witch (powers granted by ancient spirits)

3 - Nymphamancer (powers granted by faerie and sylvan beings)

4 - Dracologist (powers from dragons)

5 - Demonologist (powers from demons)

6 - Pyromancer (powers from air elementals)

7 - Geomancer (powers from earth elementals)

8 - Pyromancer (powers from fire elementals)

9 - Hydromancer (powers from water elementals)
10 - Umbramancer (powers from shadow entities)

NonhumansI put a troll breed on quite a few of these lists to show how the races can be reskinned.
You could make a bunch of faerie folk like this too.
Abhumans used to be just beast-men but I expanded it to a variety of other humanoid beefcakes

Dwarf

1 - Mountain Dwarf (love treasure, mines, war)

2 - Forest Dwarf (love nature, animals and plants) 

3 - Hill Dwarf (love trade and craft) 

4 - Dark Dwarf (cruel dwarves who hate the surface)

5 - Tunnel Troll (savages from the underground)

Elf

1 - Wood Elf (earthborn common elves replacing worlds woodlands)

2 - Wild Elf (feral earthborn elves from hidden wild places)

3 - Bright Elf (otherworldly dwellers of elfland serving bright spirit lords and gods) 

4 - Dark Elf (otherworldly dwellers of elfland serving dark spirit lords and gods)

5 - Arcane Troll (gloomy and melancholic mystic race long thought extinct)

Gnome 

1 - Forest Gnome (live with animal chums in woods)

2 - Deep Gnome (gloomy steam-age mechanists from the underland)

3 - Blood Gnome (vicious murderers and brigands) 

4 - Knocker (magic crafty mining goblins)

5 - Barn Troll (shy protectors of barn and farmyard)

Halfling

1 - Scout (halfling professional militia)

2 - Cook (cooks latest dungeon monsters and steal recipes)

3 - Sherrif (guardian of law and common folk)

4 - Wanderer (restless curious travellers)

5 - Hedge Troll (small shy trolls live under bushes)

Abhuman

1 - Goat Folk (Common beast folk)

2 - Eath Folk (Rock elemental humanoids)

3 - Barbarian (Humans bred by ancient evil wizards for war)

4 - Orc (tortured dead elves reborn to serve wizards now free)

5 - Cave Troll (large troll warriors, mostly wiped out long ago)

Changeling

1 - Cat (mischievous cat spirits)

2 - Fox (thieving cunning fox spirit)

3 - Cambion (demon human hybrids)

4 - Dryad (lascivious tree spirits)

5 - Faerie (insect winged nobility of elfland)

Giant (any of these would eat a human, just saying)

1 - Mountain Giant (common giants who most rely on humans to live among as young)

2 - High Giant (lawful civilised remnants of giant civilisation destroyed by gods)

3 - Cave Giant (savage stone age giant simpletons who mostly hunt and gather)

4 - Formarian Giant (mutated hideous freaks who serve chaos)

5 - Cyclops Giant (one eyed farmers and wine makers)

Tako (i considered having squid, nautilus, cuttlefish, ammonite etc types instead)1 - Octopus (explorer of the surface world from undersea faerie land ruled by dragon kings)

2 - Nautilus (armoured knights of the sea a warrior caste with a shell helmet)

3 - Squid (commoners of the undersea kingdom who gather food from sea) 

4 - Ammonite (pointed or spiral shells show interested in magic and lost knowledge)

5 - Cuttlefish (scouts and messengers of the undersea kingdom)

Psychon Versions
Priest - Programmer (typical priests of psychon who commune with AI gods)
Rogue - Scrapper (salvage expert at looting ancient ruins)
Warrior - Astronaut (often found in stasis in crashed ships)
Wizard - Astromancer (hack global teleport array for miracles)
Bard - Rocker (travelling musicians of psychon mostly guitarists)
Druid - Mutantmaster (aids the toxic mutant evolution of psychon)
Monk - Agent (trained operative for secret society or AI)
Sorcerer - Cultist (powered by pyramid scheme of outre beings)
Elf - Eldren (space travellers returned from the stars)
Dwarf - Morlock (cannibalistic machinist dwarves who breed humanoids as cattle)
Gnome - Gremlin (small mischievous humanoids)
Halfling - Podling (gene adorable hacked humans for ultra-dense survivor habitats)
Abhuman - Android (synthetic humanoid of the ancients or aliens)
Changeling - Alien (grey-skinned outsiders from the outer void prefer psionics)
Giant - Behemoth (a race of revolting snotty drunken bullies who don't know it)
Tako - Octoborg (synthetic body with jacked in mind or android brain)

+ new classes in psychon book
Cyborg - living human using robot spell list but might be better as sub type of robot)
Psionicist - like the idea of this but I might just build from bard and use my psionics spell list
Mutant (Psychon Mutant, others like necromutants, techno mutants, or mutants)
Robot (Service Robot, cyborg, farm robot,

-----------------------------------------
Test with above character raised as high as he can go my system with stats
So above stats on the example sheet above have no HP
so I will roll and got 2 and as 1st lv gets min of 7 + 1 vigor bonus
total of 8HP so if solo id probably get job in town or join some outfit

Lv 2 HP 13 hit bonus +2 Cleve
Lv 3 HP 17 hit bonus +3 Improve Expert +1 sword to +2 Master, Riding, Read Common
Lv 4 HP 23 hit bonus +4 +1 STR (16 increases bonus by +1)Tough
Lv 5 HP 26 hit bonus +5 Frenzy
Lv 6 HP 34 hit bonus +6 2x attacks round, Power Throw, Track, Speak elvish
Lv 7 HP 37 hit bonus +7 Opportunity attack
Lv 8 HP 42 hit bonus +8 +1 STR (17) Extra rank of a Critical hit (x2)

Lv 9 HP 52 git bonus +9 Improve master sword to Specialist +3, First Aid, Speak gnomish
Lv 10 HP 55 hit bonus +10 Damage dice bump by one, Extra rank of a Critical hit (x3)
Lv 11 HP 58 hit bonus +11 Armoured Attack
Lv 12 HP 61 hit bonus +12 3x attacks round, +1 STR (18) Running blow, Running
Lv 13 HP 64 hit bonus +13 Running charge 
Lv 14 HP 67 hit bonus +14 Armour optimise
Lv 15 HP 70 hit bonus +15 Parry, Fortitude 
Lv 16 HP 73 hit bonus +16 +1 STR (19), Rage 
Lv 17  HP 76 hit bonus +17 BerserkLv 18  HP 79 hit bonus 4x attacks round, +18 Running Charge, StewardLv 19  HP 82 hit bonus +19 Quick load hand axe
If I was to comment on this guy Id say had lowish HP for a long time and might easily end up a second-tier fighter

But I better finish my draft before I get committed to doing these...
while the project is handy its sort of thing rendered useless by say a later edition

Im gonna put up some spreads on my FB group for a final going over and discussion too
I mostly don't constantly discuss anarchism on the Elfmaids & Octopi group on FB  

Stone age shenanigans

 

Stone Age Sorcery Game Session
So some new characters made and only one person bailed over medical stuff (sniff). Party now includes

Fighter hunter and executioner wields a stone axe and spear (Dallas)
Halfling baker, an expert with throwing rocks and  copper hand axe (Matt)
Tattooed cave wizard and healer mostly terrible at fighting (Hugh)
Pterodactyl abhuman warrior fisherman with a copper headed magic spear (Doug)
Elf from faerieland with incredible archery skills and mentalism magic (Richard)

Not everyone together yet but we had 3 out of 5 because getting everyone's schedule even monthly is hard.

So Halfling staying with Gnomes village met pterodactyl and cave wizard also alone among the gnomes. All became friends. Granny, halflings slave and the older hunter were ok with the new friends scouting the mysterious valley of giant trees, dinosaurs, elves and cannibal cave dwellers. So found a good looking cave and had a peek inside disturbing a young spotty sabretooth cat. Drove it off and chased into the cave to finish it off. After butchery, a meal and some animal skinning had a peak around the cave. I'm using a 3fold adventure i did called Cave of Fate. Found a cave gallery of hunter rites and a shamans cave with several items of jewellery, drums, magic antler spear, antler hat (now Mr Pteradactyl), Shamans bag +1 saving throws, ochre and a bunch of awesome drugs (STR, alertness, mild poison and one causes hours of visions about lizard men worshipping Tsathogua.

Halfling sneaked ahead found a tunnel with a well. Went plashing about and a giant eel tried to grab him and pull under. Others rushed in to help, wizard making pterodactyl grow big for a fight. Decided to all go home for the night as sabretooth and eel fight hurt.

Returned and explored several other chambers of art and petty trade goods. Found some destroyed mummies of dead humans from long ago. Found a shrine of a dragon cult with dragon tooth and a smallish two-foot burned dragon skull. A rubble blacked tunnel got them exited. Tried to catch eel with bait but new it went under a rock lip and good current. Halfling experimented with swimming and wizard said try like a frog which somehow works. Found lots of branches and a hidden chamber with a dimly luminous serpent cult healing pool. Swam away as the giant guard smake looked like it would eat a halfling.

Moved the rubble in the dragon shrine and crawled into the tomb of lizardfolk. A stone lidded sarcophagi amazed them with it's unheard of stone excellence. Pushed open lid a bit and decorated serpent mummy inside awoke and tried to open the lid. Gang held the lid down and covered it in rocks from rubble heap. Found stone tablets of a spell in serpent folk script so wizard had to touch it and awoke lizardfolk zombies. Was a tough battle. Wizard lucked out with an elemental blast of sparks and helped friends with first aid. Wizards raven familiar used its cauterise cantrip which was handy, also was able to speak now. Found a wight lizardfolk thankfully using its macuahuitl and managed to beat it. Found some lady serpent folk graves and looted copper armbands and coral necklaces.

Found the other way into snake healing shrine and killed the snake. Were pretty battered so blocked the entry tunnel and waited as they heard cannibals searching for them. Waited two days then fled back home. Chased by four cannibals and managed to wound two who sat back to hurl darts back at wizard and halfling while pterodactyl battled two unharmed ones. One tried to run and halfling chased him down while others did first aid stuff. Managed to find blood trail and exposed hiding cave hooligan and smashed in his brains with rocks.
Back home party celebrated their luxury trade goods and discussed needing wives and considered buying them off the semi-human cave cannibals. Also started getting too comfortable with gnomes who the traded jewellery and drugs for a copper "coin" each. The sharpened copper coin was a fire starter, animal skinner, scraping pocket knife wonder tool every stone-age James Bond wanted. This made them all have social status with gnomes. I was a bit worried here and two games before I had party marry gnomes and being gnome pals and felt a bit over it. So now party accepted, the gnomes let down their hair around guests who helped stopped cannibals hunting gnomes. So gnomes who were all shape-shifters were seen fornicating with their pets in animal form. And party and npc decided to move out of this place fast and didn't even want a miracle domestic pet dog from the gnomes. They couldn't get out fast enough after levelling up.

Then into the next valley which was barren but looked like a canyon had opened and closed in a rubble-filled wasteland. Found friendly tribe with miracle wood wall stockade and were offered delicious gobs of meat to eat.

What meat is it? Oh, that's ground meat we mine.
What? It comes from the flesh of our god the beast beneath, wanna see?
Er sure.
Village in the walls of huts of god bone and god leather tents. Inside a sacred sweat lodge in the centre was a passage to inside the great crack. Here was where ancient gods-ancestors of human tribes arrogantly struck down and imprisoned their sacred behemoth two ages ago. The cult hopes to awaken the behemoth to judge the gods and punish them.

People mined meat from sleeping league long kaiju. Heroes didn't wanna see bum or head end but saw meat chunks hacked out by axe. The tribe used ribs and flesh and sinew for everything and were very welcoming. 

Wanna join us forever your welcome to be one with us?
Oh, yea fascinating we gonna leave now.
Sure you don't want to trade for reptilian mutagenic neural peptide juice?
Yeah, we can hang a bit to try some.

Though halfling abstained. Noticed some older people had od features and apparently some fully transform and flee to the dark hill caves to join their hidden kin. So anyway wizard got cool eye membranes that act like goggles and doesn't need to close eyes or blink. Pterry got a dislocating jaw so he could swallow something size of a cat whole. He seemed fine with calling of reptile kin mutations.

Party moved into the valley of mystery a lush foggy highland moor haunted by signs of recent abandonment by tribes. Nobody knows why or where all went.Mechanics Wise
Wizard learned written serpent folk script and learned spell of charm undead which is one of those evil necromancers spells your grandma warns you about. Pterodactyl was a great barbarian maniac with lots of awesome plusses stacked up.

Elf can shoot into melee or shoot at point-blank while in hand to hand so only have a bow and a knife and makes arrows on the road. Elf is using my psionics spell list as "mentalist" caster and has bizarre skills for faerie style grifting humans using illusionary disguises, hypnosis and infiltration skills.

My version of halfling class, I had to tone down a bit since my earlier version. Now makes second rank fighters and skirmishers and have best-saving throws and diplomacy. Halfling is a sneaky rock-throwing ninja machine too. Has baking skills which impress everyone they stay with.Pterodactyl abhuman was able to glide when he hit third Lv in session will be able to fly at 6th. First-person who taken advantages to have no penalties with non-proficient weapons so can snatch any weapon found.  Normally abhumans are basicly super barbarians made by ancients for war or by the gods in the begining as animal ancestor guardians. In case of this character his ancient reptilian lore makes him a scholar who can talk to wizards. 
Was funny wizard using growth so 7-foot Pterry grew to 10 foot 6 inches but halfling grew from 4 to 6 foot high. Actually, a giant halfling throwing rocks turned out pretty good.

I'm pretty generous with a level per session if I can now as lucky to get three straight games in a row but seems to be happening and new players as well. I prefer longer campaigns and character commitment but more and more in my recent gaming, my dnd has been a bunch of mini-campaigns. 

I'm making morale lower and animals and people more willing to run away. The urge to live and survive is the ethos of the setting. Skirmishing and fleeing if injured is normal warfare. Fighting to exterminate is rare the domain of evil tribes and cannibals who prefer to attack enemies at their homes. Most decent enemies fight on borders mostly as skirmishers to wound and insult rather than murder. Accidents do happen and some kind of ceremonial trial where the tribe who kill compensate their enemies and things go back to abuse and throwing stuff at long range till blood is drawn is a normal fight. Players did chase and kill fleeing cannibals and kept following till all dead but I guess with cannibals you know you can never just live with them (chaotic evil).  

My oath and gifts system is hilarious alignment-dialled-up-to-11 big fun and player making new character was gonna try live without alignment found self swearing oath to chaos to graffiti lots and deciding wasn't so bad I want more oaths to chaos. Got a magic bow and a fancy bow skill just for becoming a cosmic fanatic to inhuman powers. I had gnomes help produce the magic oath items in play. Normally I assume a temple or a cult would help you get it mostly whatever uses the least of the planar powers own effort. I like the idea of when sufficient level to get a better item the powers just upgrade your old one that is linked to your item. Losing item probably require a quest to recover. If destroyed perform quest to get new one waiting in some terrible place to collect. 

Planning to finish the half-page left of my second rulebook shortly (just recovering fonts) then merge them both into one and set up with hardcover on lulu.

Tribes of the Tundra

Stop looking if you're playing this (Dallas & Matt & Richard)
Poll on my Patreon anyone can do too....about future content & formats

Tribes of The Tundra tribes the players will meet need a bit of prep and I'm enjoying running this. Players enjoyed thinking food is a treasure so the survival angle worked. Some of these tribes explore the mountains and valleys most only dimly aware of the sea to the south past the mountains. Salt is in high demand which players might capitalise on.

When entering a new territory local can spot border stones and totems and will if on at least neutral terms will wait for owners to arrive. At this point, those wishing to pass will make a gift and state their intent. If on reasonable terms this is enough. More often the visitors will be taken to the chief and expect to negotiate further. Aggressive meetings usually result in name-calling, taunting and shouts. This escalates into throwing rocks then spears and arrows and sling stones. possibly more. Usually when someone is hurt both sides scatter and await legal actions. The wounded tribe will send a message demanding compensation such as several pigs or a chance to make the culprit run a gauntlet of clubs or dodge volleys of spears. 

The player's tribe have no clans or totem and might want to adopt something to announce themselves. No clan totem is a sign of evil false spirits who eat babies and steal souls.

Despite population sizes most only gather once a year or seasonally for festivals.

Druidry is very common
Shamen are a type of priest who deal with spirits instead of undead/turning(Oriental adventures 1st ed has lots of good spells for this)
Priesthoods and organised religion and temples are rare but growing

1 Ice Clan - White Ape Tribe
A clan of man-eaters who ruled here when glaciers covered the land and they resent other races. They fear demihumans but actively hunt other tribes for meat. They are bestial, barley speaks except through grunts and howls and seldom few tools or fire. Seasonally they travel to a secret pass where shamen in glacier caves worship ice devils they say live deep in the glacier. They wish the world was frozen over and unchanging. When they take humans they may enslave them and breed with them and eventually eat them. Other clans are more chaotic worshipping cold demons, elder gods and evil wind and cold elementals. The chaotic ones live in smaller groups and never unite.

pop300 Lawful Evil
Specialisation: cannibalism, diabolism, slavery
Customs: fear demihumans eat other races, devil worshipers

2 Pine Clan - Elf Tribe
Wood elves are on a mission to spread forests and have been successful on the coastal mountain range. On the tundra, this is harder and soil below a certain depth is frozen. They do spread grasses shrubs with berries. They are haughty and superior despite as earthborn elves they are not respected by their kin in faerieland as highly as they do themselves. They are superior at woodcraft including bow and spear and javelins and darts. Their plant food gathering is also superior and they do not like meat. They wish the world would freeze over and never change. There are occasional visits by the swan clan or the unicorn clan to the tundra who look down of the Pine clan and come to see their progress. Elves often employ goblin slaves and use them as scouts. Many escape and some become hobgoblins and even bugbears.

pop120 Chaotic Neutral
Specialisation: woodcraft, planting food crops, archery, druidry
Customs: haughty and superior to non-demihumans, always planting

3 Rock Clan - Dwarf Tribe
These dwarfs scour the tundra seeking iron star stones from the sky that fall rarely in the north. Only then will they be admitted to the great dwarf mountain forts of their kind and live lives of advanced luxury safe from the elements till they die. These dwarfs are always desperately grubbing about in the mud and others mostly pitty them. They always complain about their miserable lives. Their stonework is impressive and they use axes and slings mostly. They mostly shun magic but some make some potions, crude smoke bombs and firecrackers. They dread humans stealing their secrets and guard them jealously. Other dwarves in the deep and mountains use metal and black powder and golems but they shun the surface and pity those dwelling there. Rock dwarves are primitive by choice to stop others from stealing dwarf secrets. They fully comprehend advanced ancient technology only the hidden ones utilise it frequently.

pop80 Lawful Neutral
Specialisation: stone carving, axes including battleaxes, some crude alchemy 
Customs: seek meteorites, always moaning and filthy, shun magic, secretive

4 Moss Clan - Halfling Tribe
These shy peoples live in burrow nests that are very comfortable. They are experts at all kinds of food storage and even grind seeds and make bread. They are the best cooks and mostly fend off enemies with thrown rocks ambush. They have fine handicrafts but shun war and dangerous creatures. They are not unfriendly and will trade especially for meat and furs and ivory they struggle to get themselves. They like good humans and demihumans and may live with them for a time. They dislike crude and violent orcs and goblinoids and white apes. There are mulberry, lichen and shrub clans who sometimes visit. Most races leave halflings alone and don't even know where they live.

pop150 Chaotic Neutral
Specialisation: baking, cookery, food preservation, burrowing, camouflage 
Customs: fear demihumans eat other races, devil worshipers

5 Ground-squirrel Clan - Gnome Tribe
These grubby gnomes live in burrows with their furry squirrel friends. Many other animals eat them and gnomes help them and some even shapeshift into squirrel form. They grow tubers and eat seeds and store them in burrows for winter. They do make high quality sewed clothing and use tiny scraps of copper called coins for starting a fire, skinning hides, as a craft tool and status symbol. They are friendly but seldom seen by non-demihumans because they are shapeshifters. Other clans include weasel, owl, fox and hare.

pop90 Balanced Neutral 
Specialisation: copper, sewing, burrowing, slings and darts, druidry
Customs: shy with non demihumans, cohabit with squirrels, mostly underground

6 Snake Clan - Human Tribe
These mean spirited humans claim they ruled the world and they preserve old bloodlines with scaly skin, snake eyes and forked tongues. The worship serpent people of old and seek their relics to study and guard. They seek any elder ruins for knowledge in the hope of finding a serpent person to rule them. They are united under the rule of an evil wizard who is expansive and plans to enslave the plateau humans and kill the demihumans. They dislike the cold which is their main hindrance on the plateau. They are constructing new monolithic structures dedicated to the serpentine cult. They use darts and daggers but also use poison. Some say degenerate albino kin live in deep caves or some have more extreme serpentine features making them inhuman monsters.

pop200 Lawful Evil
Specialisation: poison, building, slavery, ancient forbidden lore, pet snakes, wizards
Customs: serpent cult, superior, inbred 

7 Mammoth Clan - Human Tribe
This tribe follow and worship woolly mammoths hunting them and living in huts with stone foundations, tusks for beams and hides one top. They are devoted to hunting and their herds and wary of older races and strangers. They just want to look after their own kind and keep living the same way. Mammoths are their kin and they love them dearly, performing funeral rites for them when they kill the weak. They mostly use simple technology and spears and javelins. They prey off weak and sick mammoths only which is plenty. There is a wolf clan who sometimes follow the herds but they do not get along and avoid each other. Mammoth clan accuse them of being werewolves.

pop400 Neutral
Specialisation: building, hunting, spears and javelins
Customs: worship mammoths, follow the herds and protect them

8 Eagle Clan - Human Tribe
Eagle clan watch from their mountain caves and dwellings on rocky outcrops. They hunt all kinds of the game but hate the snake clan who they frequently fight. They seek to exterminate snake kind based on some ancient grudge. They also dislike white apes and undead but are not as fanatic about killing them. They are very serious and pious and wear feathered capes. A few keep pet eagles that assist them in hunting and finding enemies. They are also traders who often negotiate between tribes. They use spears and javelins and darts preferring to ambush from a height advantage. They are effective skirmishers and they are experts at harassing much larger forces. They have helped kept snake tribes to the south. There is a lesser hawk and owl clan also but they meet infrequently. They have organised priesthood and build sun altars and shrines in high places. Shamans are secondary in importance after priests which has other tribes wary.

pop120 Lawful Nuetral
Specialisation: hunting, exploring, trade, domestic eagles, skirmishers, priesthood
Customs: strict code of honour, hate white apes and snakes, sun worship

9 Elk Clan - Abhuman Tribe

Elk headed humanoids that follow their reindeer herds through seasonal migrations. They dislike any who harm their herds but they do eat meat in winter, preferring to graze on grass and hallucinogenic lichen in warmer months. They worship a lord of beasts and the underworld who they call upon to protect their herds and reincarnate them back to the mortal world. They practice Druidry and have some adopted humans living among them. Mostly use spears and javelins and seldom use fire. They are protective of nature and suspicious humans want to over hunt. They especially fight orcs and sometimes work with elves. There are other tribes follow arctic herd beast to like musk ox, bison, yak, sheep and goat.

pop120 Balanced Good
Specialisation: herding deer, druidry, herbalism
Customs: shun wizards, protect and follow herds, ritualised drug use 

10 Sabretooth Clan - Abhuman Tribe

This tribe are fearsome hunter warriors who are assured of their own greatness and prowess. Many spend years alone honing their skills and some will travel far and even live with other peoples for a time. Others shun company even of their own kind. Small family groups mostly gather for raising children and such groups often separate when children are old enough. They live harsh lives and elderly prefer to die in battle and will leave a family on a death quest to meet their end. They are enemies of hyena folk, the white apes and orcs and will fight them for gifts of food or craft goods. They eat raw meat and only use daggers or spears. They barley carry any possessions other than weapons and food and perhaps a hooded fur cloak.  They don't even use flint or stone or fire. Most humans respect them and beware their wrath. They are vindictive and kin will seek to avenge any slain. This is the source of their war with orcs and apes and hyena. Some have sabretooth tiger allies.

pop40 Lawful Neutral
Specialisation: mercenaries, hunters, spears and daggers
Customs: shun technology, hate hyena people, white apes and orcs, solitary, code of honour 

11 Hyena Clan - Abhuman Tribe
Hyena people follow the herds and predators to kill the weak and steal others kills. Everybody hates them too. They are notorious for murderous cruelty, will stalk victims for days by night cackling frighteningly with joy as they approach victims. The cannibalism of their own kind and others leaves many with laughing sickness and they cannot stop giggling insanely.  Mostly use spears and big spiked clubs to fight but they use very little technology other than hiding cloaks and tents, shunning fire and limited stonework on tools and weapons. Hyena claim this land is all there's left to them by the vulture men wizard kings of old. Some guard ancient sites of demon worship. Sometimes they keep live humans as food and rarer still some of these slaves become demon-worshipping cultists who help their masters hunt and kill humans through betrayal and infiltration. 

pop200 Chaotic Evil
Specialisation: cannibalism, demonology, thieving, slavery, treachery, pet hyena
Customs: all races are just food, shun technology and fire

12 Red Eye Clan - Orc Tribe
The orcs are great rivals of humans and hate their elvish kin. They also hate wizards and old races of evil who once enslaved the world. The snake and hyena tribes they see as remnants of this. While they see elves as arrogant and former slave masters, they are happy to dominate goblinoids. Many leave tributes such as food for orcs to bribe them away. Orcs while often unfriendly and vindictive, they can see a reason to unite against worse enemies and sometimes will protect their tributary thralls and income. They are brutal savages but have a custom of taking tribute and slaves rather than wipe out humans. hey themselves hate being enslaved and bear grudges from old times when they were created by elves and wizards for war. They have many resentments against the world and other peoples. Humans are rivals they respect and they were both thralls of the same masters in the age of black magic. 

They prefer spears, hatchets, daggers and use shields and leather armour. TOrcs know lots of lot lore about the previous age other young races forgot. Demihumans remember but shun this lore. Most orcs are almost as large as a human due to their stance and bow-legged gait but a small amount of greater orcs exist often as champions or leaders. As orcs know of the ancient order they sometimes pillage strange weapons like metal swords their heroes wield. Individual orcs can be allies or even friends if they respect your strength. Some human and orc tribes once worked together to end the previous age. The world broke and is ruined but all are free now.

If they are saved from enemies or helped they often feel obligated to return aid or treat as equals. Most orcs worship ancestral heroes who freed them or the first mothers as orcs had no women once. Their shaman serve a great one-eyed great patron orc ancestor spirit. Some worship devils for power. Some distant clans are thralls to evil wizards and chaos demons as orcs did for aeons. The eye tribe orcs try to free them or kill them if they cannot accept the gaze of the great one-eyed spirit. Orcs know there are great realms under the earth where ancient evils still lurk and orcs have own lands.

pop360 common orcs 40 great orcs (as abhuman) Lawful Evil
Specialisation: shields, leather armour, spears, hatchet, tributary thralldoms, forbidden lore
Customs: Code of honour, bitter with many grudges, destroy wizards 

Stone Age Mountain Pass Point Crawl

Anyone playing this look away! (Dallas, Matt, Richard, etc)

So I rolled up these with my Stone Age Sorcery Book and made it into a mountain point crawl. When they get to the plateau there will be more tribes they can interact with and a more homogenous culture with less remnants of elder ages and old races. It is where humans and orcs are the dominant people and technology is very simple. I rolled a d4-1 for how many paths diverged from the first and from every room.

Ice Valley - icy glacier caves where white apes worship ice devils. A gate to the frozen hell is in the deepest cave guarded by an ice devil and other creatures.
Elderwood - Giant forest where elves, gnomes and cave folk fight. Elves live in trees, gnomes hide in secret places and humans live in cliffs around the valley. Elves here are working on expanding forests over all the mountain ranges.
Valley of Xor - Strange land of living flesh and strange hairless tribe and folk with no heads!
Monster Eaters - a kaiju was pinned under a mountain by a god. A tribe mine it's an immortal sleeping body to get meat which mutates devourers who increasingly worship the thing and seek its freedom.
Mystery Valley - the valley where tribes living well here all fled or vanished. Vampires and creatures of the Underland preyed on the people who eventually had enough and fled.
Spider Zigguratt - wizard giant spiders live here, their queen beneath a ziggurat built by human slaves. The old and sick and weak are devoured. Loyal spider cultists kidnap more human cattle
The city of the old ones - a strange city of the evil monster kings from the last age, steeped in black magic and cobwebs. (will use one in my book)
Dragon Bone Valley - dragons and giants had a war here leaving their bones scattered. A clan of wizards study the bones and seek dragon knowledge of magic.
Vampire Burrows - Burial mounds everywhere with many undead but several vampires rule this land, servants of the age of night

Hopefully, party will see resources on plateau in need like salt and want to return through the mountains to the coast. They can find alternate paths and end some of the menaces. Some places best to scout and flee. Also, some of these valleys might be rushed through for later adventures. Being a sandbox there is a trick of knowing when you are too low level.

Will roll up dozen or so tribes and for the plateau soon. For now .....

Hill Gnome Tribe (Dog Clan)
pop20 plus 40 odd dogs Neutral Good
Specialisation: sewing, copper use, trade domesticated dogs, fire, slings and hatchets, pictographs
Customs: gnomes turn into dogs to make love dog pets

Wood Elf Tribe (Pine Clan)
pop60 elves 3 dryads Chaotic Neutral
Specialisation: tree cultivation, short bow, human slavery, domestic deer, dagger, pictographs
Customs: dislike young races, haughty and arrogant, slavers

Kobold Tribe (Flint Clan)
pop20 plus 40 odd dogs Lawful Neutral
Specialisation: flint, mining, fire, traps, slings, clubs
Customs: afraid of open outdoors, forests and sunlight

Cave Folk Tribe (Skull Clan)
pop 40 Chaotic Evil
Specialisation: cannibalism, club, dagger, hatchet, dart, net
Customs: betrayal is virtue, cannibalism, shun fire

Stone Age Sorcery Play & Planning

So we wrangled a public holiday and a few ppl arrived same time to start this elaborate mini-campaign. All arrive in frozen north on a raft from the flooded south lands gone under a tsunami forever. Each had a loincloth and a random thing. Two elders Karan the Hunter (Fighter3) and Granny (Druid 3) accompany the two players. Hope to get more next game and at least 2 games this month and more if we like it. Special skills the players start with are the tribes technology. The elders saved them as youths and got them this far but most of the mongrel clan died on the way.

Dallas player made Boron the warrior a hunter who was raised to be a warrior executioner with a stone battle axe but he lost it on the trip. Such a weapon has never been seen by most and is to kill humans. He is also a hunter and animal handler who caught animals and fattened up their captured young. He only has a  full sewn hide suit worth +1AC and a special d4 healing herb left.

Matt played a halfling named Buns as he knows secrets of grinding grain and making flour and yeast and baking. Also a herbalist, first aider, singer and preacher. He hopes to change class in the future to a bard. He is really good at throwing rocks and knows how to use a tomahawk but lost it. He also has a friend a former slave now a tribe member, named Bars. He knows how to spread seeds around camps and on trails and cultivate tubers. He has a staff and 3 darts. He used to get the grain that Buns made. Buns has named a portable meat stuffed bread snack after himself.

Landed on the beach and pulled apart raft to make a cliff lean-to shelter for granny. Boron climbed a cliff and tore off a gull head and stole six eggs and Buns killed a gull with rock making them all hide. Granny warned them not to eat too many or they would suffer. Boron, Buns and Bars went for a walk next day well-fed and found a bunch of edible kelp they took home and used some as part of their shelter. Kagan and Granny saw a dozen terrorbirds patrol the beach looking for edible flotsam and jetsam surmising they did this often. So while the young went exploring more in hills above the cliff could see the forest to the north, swamp to the west and a frozen-over inlet about a mile wide to the east. Went east and found a delicious fairy penguin colony and then found a tasty dead dolphin. Returning home all feasted and granny buried some whale blubber for a treat next year. Kargan had mad Boron a huge stone axe, not the best but it would kill.

The next trek they went to the swamp and Boron caught a crafty trilobite. On way back, a 4-meter wingspan eagle scratched Bars and knocked him out. Sawa walrus out at sea from hills. Buns drove him off with rocks. Found a cave but smelled burned food and feces so fled home. Heard screeching and flapping in the night but no idea what caused it.

Next, a trek into the new forest that they later learned elves planted only a few years ago and is growing every year. Found a cave with a stone table inside and a stone witch knife they left out of fear. Told Granny and Kargan back home and they wanted to see the cave. They had mostly gathered food and granny wove grass carry bags and mats for the shelter. There was some rope from raft left and firewood too. All packed what they could and headed for the table cave. Granny nudged the knife into a hole and buried it and was satisfied this cave was ok but might have seasonal visitors. Had found human and elf rock carvings but so far had seen neither. Spent time hunting and had a bad accident with a boar that Buns killed after it downed his brothers Boron and Bars. Tusks and leather and meat were good. Granny found some arrowheads but she didn't know what they were for. Found good food and creepy elf fetishes. Granny warned them all about dryads and was sure she had heard one singing in the woods one night. One phantom beast in the woods turned out to be a giant sloth which they knew to avoid and was fairly harmless if you kept away.

Visited the cave they fled before and got closer and aw tiny scaly footprints they realised were kobolds/ Buns sung a kobold welcome song and gave kobolds a penguin offering which they accepted. Swapped some flints for more food and all now had a good firestarter and didn't need to rely on granny's arson skills. Kobolds traded boar tusks for a flint axe head for Buns and a spearhead for Boron. Kobolds offered magic flint if the tribe would kill the huge eagle that could snatch two kobolds a swoop. Boys decided this probably kept kobolds manageable and claimed they were not up to this.

Finally got more food and found remains of big predator meal and found camp where something also shaved wood Boron kept for tinder. Exploring above forest against the imposing mountains they found a huge stone reptilian head with more buried underground. Once out with Kargan found a beast tracking them so they set an ambush. A savage battle with a dire wolf followed and Boron earned its heart and skin to make a wolf cloak and hat. Found a mountain trail and on one of two paths was an icy valley. Found a glacial cave with a strange evil horned face carved above it in ice. Exploring in dimly lit interior found a block of ice with meat and nuts and a wolf pelt, offerings by the looks. Went down a passage and attacked two sleeping white apes on a fur rug. Boron got great edea to skin them as marvelous fur winter suits for the mountains. Another room they found a shaman huffing hemp seed smoke and killed it too. They stole everything they could and fled home.

All the skins they had mad facing a mountain trek possible. Had stocked up on food and were ready to go through the mountain pass to the plateau tundra the kobolds spoke of beyond. Had grown from ordeal and become tougher than their soft southern land life had provided them. Their fur suits were ready and all was packed. Herbs were gathered, nuts and berries and dried meat were packed. Bunz made his hatchet and had improved his sneaking skills and got into throwing multiple rocks. Boron had his new spear and trained more with his huge awesome axe.

This time they took the other path but on way found a cavern enterance full of fungus and mushrooms and saw goblins around a fire so left. Found a new valley this one with huge hundred metre tall trees! The could see and hear distant dinosaurs and streams. Six handsome young men with spears confronted them. They were oiled with pine-scented unguents and seemed urgent. They demanded Boron and Bars come with them and the rest leave forever. Bunz pretended that he saw something fearsome and the fools turned to see. Bunz threw a rock in the leaders head and granny threw a burning pinecone that exploded injuring several in a cloud of smoke and sparks. The tribe all attacked and crushed the handsome youths and bound them all. Bunz saved one from blood loss. Bunz was impressed with this new trick of shouting "look over there!", then attack was another of his great new tricks. Then they heard singing in elvish and Bunz replied in song. Granny warned them it was a dryad and those men were her thralls so they all fled in terror.

As came to another end of valley they saw stone monuments and rock art of elves, gnomes and savage backward humans. Camped under a fallen tree and ate tasty wood grubs. By night heard dogs and a band of gnomes had discovered them. Bunz traded with them and the gnomes invited them to follow. Gnomes wore fine clothes with buttons and offered a thing called a coin, a sharp scrap of metal good for cutting tool or fire starting. This was a special gnome gift. The gnomes had a secret gully through a crack in a rock and the tribe stayed with them. Heard of the constant feuds with elves who were colonising new forests across the mountains. Also of the fearsome cave folk who ate gnomes and other peoples. Gnomes were sure tribe not gnome eaters. Boron liked the gnomes dogs and made friends with them. Gnomes offered humans more copper they helped deal with terror birds....

to be continued...

Working on my games bestiary

My current dream is a book of basic monsters that are mostly animals and will be about packing in creatures in groups by type on same spreads - like undead, elemental, faerie, demons etc A later monster book will have a spread per monster with stats, variant types and reskins, adventure seeds and will be for more high level more magical monsters. One benefit of my abhuman character class in my sorta bx game is it can replace a whole lot of beast races into one entry with paragraphs on basic types.

Originally my abhumans were beast folk but I wanted to have rock folk and ice folk and tree folk. Later I have allowed barbarian races and some orc races as abhumans also. I'd like to have lots of variations so each tribe with a different culture and technology. So keeping stats simple, letting them have weapons or tactics or alignment as you please makes them interesting too. So I can replace many dnd monsters from bcmei and 1st ed with abhumans which saves lots of time and does not dictate how they all act or even look like exactly. I can add new ones on the fly easily. Most recently I realised that abhumans make good androids. Magen in basic dnd seem possible fit for abhumans i will think about.

Frequently in my games, smarter abhumans within first four levels change class to a spell caster. Cat monk sword expert, snake wizard, orc priest, rogue rat folk, druid goat, all kinds of options really. It is a good HP and combat skill starts to life and makes for weird beastfolk spell users. Usually, with two squads, they get some kind of spell caster expert. No reason you can't have ten fish folk races with various alignments and visual differences. The point of this a basic stat block will let you make lots of monster races and have them at various levels and possibly some specialist leaders with a second class.

Sick of saying folk yet? 
suffix instead of folk + lots of beast folk change class early to do magic
-knight/warrior/wizard/priest
-lord/lady or brother/sister or man/maid or wife
-spawn
-people
-kin or kindred or kinfolk 

-blood or blooded 

-tribe or clan 

-breed 

-people 

-horde or herd 

-abhuman 

-morph 

-animen 

Beast Folk & Abhumans in my EMO Monster Manual 

DnD to EMOverse 

Gnoll=hyena folk 

Dire Corby=bird folk 

kenku=bird folk 

flind =hyena or cat fok? 

firenewt=newt folk 

ettercap=spider folk 

dakon=gorrilla folk
crabman=crab folk
cifal = ant colony folk??? sound awesome
bullywug=frog folk
aarakocra=bird folk
frost Man = frost folk
Githyanki=astral knights use psionic spell list
Githzerai=limbo knights use psionic spell list
kua-toa=fish folk
lava children=lava folk
needleman=plant man increasing petty missiles is kinda cool power
mongrel men=mongrel folk (might make better mutants)
ogrillion=orc ogre hybrid like boxing
quaggoth=ape bear hybrids
qullan=a tattooed human-like variant fit very well into my setting barbarians as a tribe
          -early 80s warhammer parthenogenic punk amazons would be a cool tribe too sandman=sand folk
tabaxi=cat folk
gyerian=bird folk
hivebrood=insect folk
kna=fish folk
lupin=wolf folk
nagpa=vulture folk
rakasta=cat folk - im using horrible Hindu rakasha in my setting
rock man=rock folk
tortle=tortoise folk
snapper=turtle folk
cayman=croc folk
gator man=gator folk
chameleon man=chameleon folk
hutaaken=jackal folk
shark kin=shark folk
centaurs=will try to write up as an option
lizard man=lizard folk + dragon folk and dinosaur folk
minotaur=bull folk
sahuagin=fish folk lots like in Anderson's Stingray tv series, lots of types
dryad= tree spirit folk in my setting or tree folk (I like narnia and asian tree folk)
cat lord=minor deity of cats but lots of spirits like him and beast spirit folk changelings grippli=frog folk
myconid=fungus folk
thrikeen=mantis folk
triton=fish folk
locathah=fish folk
dark sun has a pterodactyl race? great to cross with psionics

dnd needs = rat folk, bat folk, weasel folk, lamprey folk, lion folk, cat folk, wolf folk, frog folk, fish folk, badger folk, fox folk

Subhumans = gibberings, grimlocks, cave folk, white apes, close relatives of humans from ancients or wilderness or degenerate isolated humans of a lost tribe, could all be abhuman

Goblinoids = dark creepers, dark stalkers, meazel, nilbog, norker, gremlin, mite, snyad, xvart, thoul, tasloi

Smaller Folk diminutive beast folk using reskinned halfling as base have -ling suffix after the species they are kin too usually. Faun make fine halflings too though a bit taller phanaton=racoonling geonid=rockling vegepygmie=shrubling or fernling

For shapeshifting magical spirit folk, I use a changeling my class.

12 Abhuman beastfolk I would develop in detail 
1 Dog folk (reskin as wolf or any canine)
2 Cat folk (reskin as lion or any feline)
3 Rat folk (reskin as weasels, shrew, mink)
4 Goat folk (reskin as bull or stag or kangaroo or horse)
5 Frog folk (reskin as newt or any salamander or prehistoric amphibian)
6 Fish folk (reskin as shark, eel, catfish, coelacanth, angler, barracuda)
7 Lizard folk (reskin as dragon, dinosaur, chameleon, gila, iguana or any reptile)
8 Snake folk (reskin as various types like cobra, adder, python, mamba)
9 Crab folk (reskin as lobster, isopods, hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, trilobites)
10 Mantis folk (reskin as ant, bee, wasp, termite, scarab, type of beetle)
11 Worm folk (reskin as lamprey, maggot, blood worm, tiger worm, centipede, leach)
12 Squid folk (reskin as octopi, Kraken, nautilus, cuttlefish, ammonite)

12 Other non beast abhumans I would develop in detail 
1 Orc (superior hybrid orcs, organic recon and combat units)
2 Barbarian (mighty human maniacs)
3 Amazon (women warrior race)
4 Wild folk (prehistoric wild naked hairy folk live in forests and caves or mountains)
5 Toy folk (toys of ancient giants living in cloud kingdoms)
6 Machine folk (androids, golems, replicants, clone soldier, bioaugs)*
7 Mushroom folk (toadstool, shroom, mould, slime, fungus folk)
8 Tree folk (fruit tree types, oak, cacti, eucalypt, ash folk, moss, algoid)
9 Rock folk (granite, obsidian, flint, crystal, jade, metal folk)
10 Lava folk (magma, fire, brimstone folk)
11 Ice folk (snow, sleet, frost folk)
12 Cloud folk (storm, wind, typhoon folk)
*i have a robot class too

For Xor I want abhumans to include wierd roman era distant races with no head but chest in face or one leg for hopping, two heads and other strange things. A Flesh folk, bone folk, blood folk, animus folk (brain nerves and senses). A race of men with invisible skin look horrible.

For Psychon and SF I would have androids, replicants, clone trooper, bioaug (biologically augmented human treatment). Changing your class to robot would let you go cyborg rather than be non living like someone starting play as a robot. Changing your class to mutant is good too. There are technological mutants.

My cave or bronze setting would mostly have some different animals but sand folk or more ape types might be good in some settings.

In my fantasy setting, ancient giants who rivalled the gods and built sky lands in magic clouds left lots of golem construct toy people around as servants and playthings. Most greater giants are dead, imprisoned or sleeping now but lots of their toy-filled wonderlands and castle playrooms left toys with magical food and treats. So as these toy people I can stat as abhumans in my game toys can be a playable race. Now you could be a clown doll, a skittle, a humpty doll, a tin soldier, china doll, a nutcracker, a dancing ballerina, a fat policeman, a plush bear etc. But hey would be tough as brutes in a fight.

Marine Folk Revised

Revision of item I spat the dummy on so last few added here
https://elfmaidsandoctopi.blogspot.com/2019/01/return-of-beastfolk-marine-peoples.html

Marine Folk
1 Oyster 

2 Anemone 

3 Starfish 

4 Walrus
5 Urchin 

6 Dolphin 

7 Octopus 

8 Penguin
9 Pelican 

10 Stingray 

11 Seahorse 

12 Manatee

Oyster Folk
Are thick stone like shelled folk with squishy grey flesh and mucous within. While well armoured they peek from an opening in their shell but will seal themselves if threatened. They are kin with an array of sea mollusc folk like clam, muscle and others. Some have bristly hair like cilia that move tiny marine plankton into their mouths. While their bodies and faces are armoured while using their thick muscular limbs the have to extend them from their shells to act as a humanoid. Some have quite colourful flesh but most are green-grey. Shy and peaceful humans have killed them for millennium to eat, for pearls or shells. Oyster folk are wary and suspicious, especially of humans. Humans often kill and eat their children unaware they are in fact humanoid and intelligent. They often aided other marine races war against humans as they were easily convinced of the hairless ape menace. They often swell in reef villages living simple lives in coral huts, gathering small crustaceans and seaweed they require as they are larger than their tiny kin and need more substantial food. But they often wallow in rock pools filter feeding if they cant do better. They can be hard to see among marine rocks, many have barnacles and weed or algae growing on them. Occasionally some can get along with humans but they are melancholic curmudgeons. They often use shells of fallen kin as shields or to make weapons. These are brittle but sharp and might incorporate driftwood hafts. Such weapons also blend with the marine matter on coasts.

d12 Oyster Folk Troubles
1 An evil band of elderly retired scurvy sailors have been daily scrounging on the reef and have eaten many oyster children. If not stopped the oysters will raid the fishing villagers to steal their children warns a sea-druid
2 Oyster folk live in a shipwreck that greedy adventurers want to sack, little do they know there are more oysters than they expect, after a defeat and retreat they seek young gullible adventurers as cannon fodder to help them
3 A former fish folk sunken temple has been disturbed in a storm releasing a sea demon forcing oysters to move into a river mouth where human fishermen are horrified by them. If spoken too oysters will help adventurers destroy the demon and loot the temple
4 An evil wizard has oyster children kidnapped to make pearls which torments them. Oysters want their children back
5 A famous gourmet hires adventurers to catch young oysters for a royal feast. Some rich believe they are aphrodisiacs and demand them. Oysters want revenge
6 Walrus folk and Oyster folk have been battling on a stretch of coast and fishermen are now avoiding it and going hungry
7 Oyster folk pirates have been attacking ships on the rocky coast and have even seized a lighthouse to misuse and wreck ships. Merchants offer a reward to stop them
8 Smugglers had a secret coast cliff base but something has taken it over and they will pay to find out who. Cave full pf contraband the state would love to seize
9 A gang of wreckers preying on the coast disappeared. All kinds of locals secretly in the gang are missing as are many ship survivors. A reward has been offered for their return and capture
10 Someone is trading weapons for pearls with oyster folk who now have become bold and aggressive when ships pass their coral reef castle
11 Fisherman gathering worms by night on beach for bait seen lights on the reef and heard music
12 A village of pearl divers has disappeared, all of them. Find out why.

Anemone Folk
These brightly coloured fleshy humanoids have thick tentacle hair and live on rocky coastlines and reefs. Some are ethereally beautiful. Their mouth is used to eat and excrete. As they can live on land they no longer depend on stinger cells to catch prey. Some older ones will affix themselves to a reef and develop stingers and become a giant anemone. Some happily cohabit with crab folk and some breeds of fish folk. They often domesticate other giant sea creatures like giant hermit crabs as mounts and use to raid coastal dwellers. They trade with many great undersea kingdoms and are famous for their great balls. Many live in great reef coral castles where they dwell and dance serenely. Mostly they avoid humans and thus seem very exotic to them. In ancient times they used their giant anemone gardens and pets to form great defences for the fish folk empire. Occasionally adventurers stumble across some ancient coastal or undersea ruin anemone folk still guard. As most do not move far from their birthplace they are very stubborn to move and might conflict with humans causing pollution or building on reefs. Anenome folk seem to not just be good at domesticating sea life they seem to be able to alter life at some basic cellular level with their alien science. They used to create giant sea monsters under commission to sea kings and fish cults

d12 Anemone Folk Troubles
1 A lighthouse building crew are being attacked by strange beautiful humanoid creatures riding war crabs and they require adventurers to talk or drive the beings away
2 City garbage scows are being sunk by night and swollen mutilated corpses of their crews are found floating in the water. Nobody knows who or why
3 Sailors have seen strange beautiful women dancing by the reef and want to capture some. Alas some sailors died but others are curious
4 A wizard runs a marine menagerie to study and has a sad anemone person prisoner. Anemone kin know and want to rescue them, kill the wizard and free all the creatures creating havoc in the harbour
5 Fish folk killed a colony of anemone people and now a gigantic anemone has blocked the harbour. Anemone will move it if the killers are brought to them as prisoners
6 A wizard has been spying on nude anemone folk with a crystal ball and wants adventurer guards to escort him as he tries to contact them
7 A colony of clownfish folk have been killed by human authorities enraging anemone allies who choke the harbour with giant anemones and giant kelp
8 A giant kelp barrier has choked an area of the sea and explorers have tried to cross the sargassum. Ancient wrecked ships have been raised by the giant kelp attracting treasure hunters. Anemone folk have been using the area to create some colossal sea beast
9 A major settlement drained the swamp where their sewerage was absorbed and now the waste goes into the sea. Increasing plagues of giant sea lice, stinging jellyfish and wood eating marine termites have been attacking the docklands and some think intelligent beings are behind the plagues
10 Pirates attacked and enslaved anemone folk and in retaliation, a merchant ship has been lifted above the sea by giant kelp. The crew and passengers are trapped aboard and adventurers are sent to free them or negotiate with the anemone folk
11 A foolish noble youth of a sea merchant clan has gone out to the reef to marry a beautiful anemone woman and the family want him back
12 A great sea monster attacked a coastal village and investigators are sent to assess the threat. A cult has paid sea anemone folk to make them a living god to let them take over the coast and sea trade

Starfish Folk
Minions of the ancient marine empire, these creatures can breed rapidly and regenerate wounds making them ideal troops and workers. They also eat anything even living coral. Many varieties exist in various colours and textures of skin. Some are smooth some are covered in spiny thorns. Even if killed and dismembered the separate parts may grow into separate starfish and may even share memories. They are not clever and often are pawns of other races especially evil fish folk clans. Fish folk know their minions are often terrible at following orders and require guidance. The various tribes often act as specialist units with varying skills and weapons. As each tribe is so distinctive they stand out on battlefields. Their demon starfish ancestor is a greedy god and some human cults even worship it keeping starfish folk in pits of sacrifice. The god offers healing for servants which attracts some desperate humans. Terrible wars in ancient times featured hordes of starfish invading the land but it was fire and burning their dead that stopped them Most humans don't know this history. Some say starfish came from the stars, banished for their evil deeds by their celestial kin to the depths of the sea

d12 Starfish Folk Troubles
1 Years ago starfish folk marched from the sea and attacked. Locals defeated them and chopped them up and threw them into the sea. Now there are even more attacking!
2 A fish folk warlock has amassed an army of starfish. Working with a local cult they wish to seize a temple now landlocked in human lands
3 A pirate crew recruited some starfish in their crew. A few years later the whole crew are starfish and menacing the coast with no restraint killing, robbing and eating humans
4 A cult has been breeding starfish in a secret cave, ready for a night they will murder the local people for the demon starfish cult
5 Something by night is coming ashore and breaking into the dried fish sores and smokehouses in the harbour
6 Fishermen drying their nets all disappeared, only a star shaped sign in the sand remained
7 A strange stone spire erupted from a reef. It seems to have star symbols on it and windows. Locals are curious
8 The local reef fisherfolk are dependent on is covered in starfish folk devouring everything. Warriors are needed to kill them when fisher folk can scoop them up
9 Cultists have been seen going to the reef by night and nobody knows what they are up to. The cult wear strange star symbols with a maw in the centre on their purple robes
10 After the last starfish folk cull in the region, alone surviving starfish priest has been raiding the graveyards of the fisherfolk by night to reanimate the dead as zombies.out of revenge. Someone must kill the zombies and catch the priest in the act
11 After the last storm, a stone ruin on the beach was exposed with strange star symbols. Some beachcombers went inside and did not come out. locals are afraid
12 Locals regularly comb the beach after the storms but this year many searchers vanished. Starfish folk have been laying under the sand to grapple and eat people

Walrus Folk
This doughy folk swim in the frozen north on rocky coasts and islands and ice flows. Feed off fish, penguins and shellfish they also hunt whales, act as pirates and adventure in the pre human ruins of the frozen north. They often battle polar bear, penguin, seal and fish folk for supremacy. They also conflict with humans who dare trespass on their territory. Many males driven from their homes wander into human lands. Some end up slaves or pit fighters, but many become pirates, adventurers or mercenaries. They make the best guides in the frozen lands. They also practise handy crafts such as scrimshaw, weaving, leatherwork and carpentry they require to survive. Long ago they helped humankind repel the fish folk conquerors and helped fight necromancers who fled into the frozen wastes. Their ships and sleds are infamous and they value imported wood and metal from the south for whale ivory. Some go viking, raiding south lands for goods they crave like grain and beer. Walrus ivory highly offends them and they claim all as theirs to bury in a funeral rite. Some call them tusk folk. They often laugh at weak and skinny peoples of the sunlit lands. They infamously stoic and tough and can swing from jolly drunks to violent berserkers in moments.

d12 Walrus Folk Trouble
1 A walrus crime lord controls drug smuggling in a town and a rival gang want him gone. Adventurers are hired as extra muscle in a hit using a midnight docklands meeting as a ruse
2 A ship of walrus viking berserks is seen on the horizon, locals in panic
3 A diary and map of a pre human ruined city in the north describing great treasure is found, walrus guides are required to find it
4 Explorers found a block of ice with a thing inside. Returning it to civilisation it thaws out a walrus cursed by his berserker axe, if free and cursed axe removed he will be grateful and helpful
5 A villain robbed a walrus burial ground of ivory offending the walrus spirits and the tribe gather to hunt and kill the criminal and any aiding them
6 A hunter has been selling walrus blubber, skins and ivory actually from murdered walrus folk. Most of the good users are outraged and want hunter punished
7 Walrus folk have guarded a stone age black citadel trapped in the ice for millennia but now they are inviting adventurers and helping them
8 A walrus shaman has found a cursed fur trapper shack in the tundra and says it is a human responsibility to cleanse the haunted place of evil
9 A walrus wizard with crystal tusks has a cursed local area with freezing blizzard winds and undead walrus warriors
10 Walrus warrior maids are having a beauty contest and will force strangers they find to judge, they are vindictive and lusty
11 A great mound of a walrus warrior king has been disturbed by looters, now an angry walrus wight stalks the night murdering locals
12 Nobody had seen walrus folk for generations till a vindictive shaman planted rune encrusted tusks which grew into a band of walrus berserks who now are on a murder spree

Urchin Folk
These hard chitinous skinned folk are covered in spiny and spikes and their frightful five toothed sphincters like orifices disgust most onlookers. They are omnivorous eating seaweed, vegetable matter and any dead flesh they can scavenge. They dwell in fortified reef forts and have aggressive defensive mindsets forming phalanx walls if threatened. Every tribe has vastly different colours, spine appearance and personalities. Some with larger blunt spines may have sponges or algae growing on them. Smaller tentacles around their mouths with suckers feed off tiny often water born organisms. The very young lack spines and many do not recognise as urchins. Some develop stinging spines or might have colonies of smaller creatures living in between their spines and might defend their host.
Many served the undersea empire of the fish folk as heavy infantry and helped invade the surface world. Some tribes still raid ashore seeking food when their numbers every few generations grow and their colonies need to expand. They do tend to feud with crab folk who delight in eating them. Otter folk and starfish folk are ancient enemies also. Colonies build coral reef forts but smaller groups and lovers find a crevice or dig a hole to lair inside. Those that use magic favour protective spells. The often herd giant amphibious urchins as pets and for defence. They will trade but humans find them hideous and often fear them

d12 Urchin Folk Trouble
1 Clan of urchin warriors march ashore and terrorise fisher folk and docklands for some reason
2 Horrible humanoids from the deep come from the sea and make strange gestures alarming locals. Someone needs to meet them and determine if they are friend or foe
3 A fish folk wizard with his urchin warriors have taken over a lighthouse and people have heard strange chants from their since
4 Crab men and urchins have been battling over the reef scaring fisher folk. Both species have made crude alien attempts to seek aid from humans who don't like either breed
5 Urchin pirates have been raiding the coast and recently took a small human village and took prisoners as slaves to gather algae and seaweed from rock pools while urchins get drunk
6 A friendly sea otter merchant seeks help capturing hideous urchin folk to take to otter land
7 A wounded sea elf washed ashore tells of how a fish folk warlock with his urchin warriors has been waging war on the undersea peoples of the area and the surface will be raided next
8 A cowardly tako octopus fairy seeks adventurers to help her rob a lair of urchin folk of their pearls from their giant oyster garden. She also likes to eat their children but won't mention that
9 Dead urchin folk wash ashore, dozens of them, locals are alarmed at the hideous corpses
10 After a storm where a ship was lost bodies and survivors wash ashore where hungry urchins try to eat dead and wounded unable to move, locals want to help but are afraid
11 An urchin merchant comes ashore seeking humans to help round up his sea goblin slaves who escaped. He offers exotic fish folk gold jewellery to any who help
12 A sea urchin princess has been kidnapped by crab folk who plans to feast on her next full moon. Her page servant seeks helpers to rescue the beautiful princess and the urchin king surely will reward them. The crabs live in a coral reef fortified tower

Dolphin Folk
These folk are often well regarded by humans and some come ashore to work on ships and coastlines. Colours can vary from grey to blue or green or even pink. River breeds can be quite small and are known as dolphinlings. They tend to live in nomadic clans who hunt together. They are cheeky, playful and can be friendly. Some of the loners that come ashore are dangerous and insane, sexually assaulting and murdering for fun. Some are charlatans playing on how humans think well of them. Some claim they have healing abilities or lead cults of gullible humans. The more useful ones often work as pilots to guide ships through reefs and other marine hazards. Compared to many beast folk dolphins are acceptable and non threatening. Dolphins adapt well to trade and money making and are willing to cheat, hustle and lie to make more. It is hard to tell if their squeaks for joy are just from being happy or laughter at human fools. While they are excellent liars they can be good friends with humans. Many live on islands hunting and fishing. some human fishermen fear the competence of dolphins and some have massacred them out of rivalry. Dolphins remember this and remain wary of humans even friendly ones. Most of all they hate shark and fish folk and they aided humans fighting them long ago.

d12 Dolphin Folk Troubles
1 A dolphin peddler comes to town in a rowboat and is selling unicorn horns, cursed fish folk gold, colourful fake healing potions and treasure maps, quick to move on as has more suckers customers to visit
2 Dolphins come seeking help as viking fishermen came to their village and murdered half their tribe
3 A peg-legged dolphin pirate needs help finding his treasure he buried on skeleton island or was it mermaid island or seahag island? One of those anyway
4 A dolphin is pretending to drop treasure maps in adventurer taverns, actually lead to lairs of his people's enemies
5 A dolphin wants revenge on a sailor who ate his dead brother's corpse. The man is now a church leader who tells of how the gods sent him the corpse when he was starving
6 Dolphins have set up a seaside carnival with gambling, sideshows, freaks from the sea in cages and athletic diving feats to amaze the crowd
7 A dolphin seeks help as fish folk with shark folk mercenaries have reoccupied a ruin on the coast for some evil purpose
8 The fine finny friends are a dolphin brotherhood who offers eternal friendship to any who aid them in destroying a fish cult rampant on the coastline. Many of the cult are respectable civic leaders and dolphins don't want to get blamed if things go wrong
9 Dolphins have come demanding sea tax from a local village and threaten to sink any fishing boats launched unless they get 10% of the catch
10 A scarred dolphin warrior wants to die gloriously on one more heist. He knows where a fish folk fortress is hidden on a reef and wants humans to help him sack the place and kill the fishy bastards
11 Dolphins have come to shore to warn of a cult of manta ray folk who worship a sea demon have moved into the area and seek to sacrifice dolphins and humans like the old days
12 A dolphin wizard offers magical seaweed of water breathing if they help him plunder the garden of a sea nymph

Octopus Folk
These humanoids octopus folk are feared by coastal folk and even disliked by tako octopus fairies. They are voracious servants of chaos with octopus heads and tentacle arms, the greater ones have more arms. While tako are civilized and cautious, these brutes are fearless savages who worship sea demons and chaos gods. Long ago they serve fish god cults but they turned on fish folk when their empire collapsed. They work with squid cults too. Octopus folk live in caves on coasts or reefs and raid enemies on land or the sea. Ever hungry and greedy for treasure and slaves they are constantly at war. Some evil powers employ them but must not show the weakness of the cunning octopus folk will turn on their masters. Often the ambush ships and sacrifice most of the crew and eat them. The unlucky ones are taken to their caves as servants and playthings. They often fight naked to intimidate their foes and often stop in the battle to eat a fallen enemy rather than chase any who flee. Most undersea races fear and mistrust them.

d12 Octopus Folk Troubles
1 A pirate had his crew eaten and his treasure stolen and seeks adventurers to help recover the remains
2 A chaos octopus gladiator has been eating mutants thrown into his fighting pit by humans and has gained new mutations. Using her new abilities she escapes into the markets to kill as many as possible and escape if she can into the sea
3 Octopus warriors have raided a village seizing all the women while the fishermen were at sea. A church offers funds to rescue the women before they are eaten or worse
4 A man covered in sucker wounds washes up on the shore and when revived tells of an offshore cave where octopus folk force human slaves to mine gold from the seafloor using strange apparatus made by fish folk wizards long ago. The man dies of the bends shortly after.
5 An octopus cult has been sacrificing gold and victims to a sea linked sinkhole for generations. Locals want the cult stopped and their false god killed. In the tidal flooded sinkhole, a kraken and his octopus minions come every full moon for treasure and victims
6 An octopus wizard keeps sending a water elemental to kidnap victims from a coastal town daily and a huge reward is offered for the fiend
7 A village troubled by octopus folk have caught an innocent tako they caught visiting fisherman's wives while washing clothes on the rocks by the sea. The villages plan to cook and eat him but he claims to know where the octopus folk lair is and tells of a great treasure hidden there from the old fish folk kingdom
8 A great octopus warrior with obsidian weapons has come ashore and will not let fishermen enter the sea unless they defeat him or give him a dozen human babies to eat
9 Sea elves come ashore seeking humans to fight octopus folk servants of an evil sea hag who wants their handsome prince to marry her
10 Strange chanting from the reef by night has been alarming locals and the tide has been rising higher than ever before. Next full moon high tide approaches and locals dread what will happen next
11 A fisherman killed a selkie who would not be his lover and now the sea king sends octopus folk to punish the humans until the villain is surrendered to him. The culprit knows why the fiend's attack but the village has no idea
12 An evil fish folk sorcerer has been kidnapping humans to turn into octopus folk servants. Predictably they have begun to attack humans when the master is not watching them, drawing attention to his evil schemes against the sea king

Penguin FolkOily flightless bird folk often living in frozen sea islands or rocky coasts. The smallest breeds are penguinlings and most think they are harmless and inoffensive other than their fishy smell. The larger breeds are often sailors and explorers joining human crews and working docks for fish. They have colonies worldwide and trade exotic seafood their preferred currency. Fish folk hate them with a passion for eating their children in their sacred spawning grounds. Some penguin folk seasonally live deeper inland to breed and some came to dwell in ruined prehuman fortresses of alien gods from pre human times. These have become dangerous albino cultists who now guard these ruins from humans. Some penguin magicians have learned the art of making iceberg citadels that wander the world and never melt. Some bring chilling blizzards with them to keep intruders away.

d12 Penguin Folk Troubles
1 A iceberg citadel of penguin folk ruled by a prehuman sorcerer in service to the evil elemental cold demon lords has been attacking coastal shipping and destroying villagers. The kingdom has offered a reward for stopping the frozen juggernaut 
2 A penguin pirate knows the way to the prehuman ruins of Ultima Thule and offers humans join him in his quest for money and forbidden lore that wizards will pay for gladly
3 A penguinling colony has grown and the curious pests now wander the streets, stinking up the place and bringing their odd customs. Locals want someone to drive off the pint sized penguin folk. If bothered they are shocked they are unwelcome and call their larger cousins to aid them
4 A penguin offer maps of far off lands unknown to humans in return for helping her get revenge on shark folk who ate her family
5 A penguin hero in magical ice armour with snow golem minions demands all fishing rights in the area belong to their race, not humans. Locals hire adventures and lie to make this penguin paladin seem less sympathetic
6 A demon whale has been eating penguins fishing in their island waters and they seek humans to kill the weird beast
7 A penguin family had children eaten by walrus folk and they want revenge. Calling on an evil relic from the deep they call a tsunami to hit the walrus colony. A minor sea deity learns of the plan and warns the local humans
8 Savage penguin chaos pirates have been seen off coast spreading mass panic
9 A penguin long lost from home has become a well liked local, somebody has kidnapped it and locals worried
10 Slavers captured the local penguin colony preventing them, from performing ancient rituals that kept a chaos kraken away from the region, now it is tearing up villages and ships
11 Penguinlings were brutally set on by dogs and rendered for oil by horrible humans. They seek killers to avenge their tribe offering to pay with pearls and treasure maps
12 A penguin islander hero comes to civilised port to find athletes for island games and they seek human contestants. Offer gold and pearls to come. The events include kraken hunting, fighting demons and avoiding the deathtraps on their island while seeking a great relic for the natives

Pelican Folk
These gruff but admirable sea folk travel seas and are experts at fishing and smuggling. Many come from Island tribes and join ship crews where they excel in all climates. Many prate crews also have them as crewmen. Occasionally get up to tricks with beaks like hiding goods, snatch severed hands on a battlefield or trip someone up with hook on the beak. Pelican corsairs roam some coastlines living like pirates, some also taken as slaves or conscripted by visiting ships. Pelicans have aided several undersea civilisations for better or for worse of various alignments. There are smaller pelicanlings too but they are more like fish scroungers or sidekicks.

1 A crew of pelicans have adopted a tavern and the owner cant dislodge them. Will pay you in free beer if you can get rid of them
2 A rocky outcrop is a base for smugglers some say but they are working with a huge network of pelican folk and a few fight with them
3 An elderly pelican man with a wooden leg tells stories and sings shanties for beer knows of lots of strange treasure islands to the south. Longs to go back with explorers and speaks islander folk languages
4 A local pelican fisher comes into market warning all about signs of the fish cult in town, almost immediately some fishy fellows follow him
5 A pelican offers a ride for hire on his golem powered tug boat he found in distant ruins on an island
6 Pelicans erected idol where they conjure a sea elemental and talk to mermaids, locals suspicious of their cult and want pelicans gone and to grab their property
7 A pelican fishing boat captain saw strange haunted treasure ship exposed on the reef in a storm in full moon and he is sure conditions will be same tonight for a fee
8 Pelican fisherman has seen a strange stone barge underwater and some stuff that looks like ruins
9 Old pelican in pub gossips about local criminal gangs and their activities around the harbour, for a few coins will name names but if the mob find out the pelican will be found dead next day
10 A gang of pelican folk have been hunting for fish men cults earnestly. Will inspect visitors to town to check for fishy friends or their finny friends. Occupationally are convinced by some trivia some poor person is a fish cultist who needs interrogating and possibly burning
11 A wicked chaos pelican sect have been holding rituals on the reef at night summoning fish to eat and ancient sea demon minions
12 A pelican wizard has erected a coral tower and has declared keep out to all locals and the law. Local tax man wants him issued with a legal summons by hand

Stingray Folk
These sinister folk from the deep served greater armies of fish folk long ago. They are notorious necromancers and evil priests dedicated to marine devils which there are plenty. They often build an underwater entrance to a reef based hidden fort or temple. Many also live in the seas of hell and thus many are called devil-rays. They are reluctant to talk o humans who killed many of their greatest tribes long ago. Some live in marine districts of cities but they often end up working as bounty hunters, smugglers, kidnappers and assassins. Sometimes they start bloodthirsty cults and try to restore the ancient terror days when all gave them offerings out of fear. They like to use spike clubs often with poison, tridents and nets. Smaller ones are shy and hide on distant islands who often don't survive meeting other races. Some are seen gliding over the sea

1 Robed cultists are seen making for the coast with a screaming person, when they reach the beach stingray folk carry them across the low tide to a rocky island with a hidden stingray tentacle to their vampire demon god
2 Missing beachcombers had local search revealing strange rock carvings of stingray folk receiving human captives from humans
3 Recently local smugglers disappeared making quality grog hard to find but then an armed band of taxmen disappeared on patrol too, nobody knows how or why
4 Lighthouse keepers report cloaked creatures running about the lighthouse rocks by night
5 Travellers near the sea find cowled creature hiding in the water peeking and following them
6 On rainy nights some cult has been seen on coast holding strange ceremonies. Once a body was found swollen and purple, punctured with thousands of tiny puncture wounds and broken bones but no blood
7 A man saw ghost like figures swimming in and out of flooded caves
8 A ship came ashore with all crew gone and the hand of a strange creature was found
9 Lights from a rock at sea have been spotted and town elders want adventurers to lead night watch to find out what is going on. Some heard some strange sounds like stone working
10 A stone circle half submerged on the coast has been seen since a big storm and some say sinister robed figures were wading around the rocks
11 Local art in the temple shows long ago strange folk from the sea lived here but were driven off into coastal caves. Stingray folk tribe are very angry and will call on their evil god and fight to the death with everything
12 A dried up devil-ray hangs from shop ceiling and owner comments they used to live here but all were killed. Mentions a bay with an underwater cave. There is a sea devil idol onshore

Seahorse FolkThese creatures are flighty and wary of strangers but are also boastful and like to sound noble and important. They like to think they are more like dragons than horses and some breeds resemble vegetation they live amongst. Some are covered in algae making them hard to see. Other are more colourful and vain holding parties and courtly games. They invite other fish to show how much better they are. Male seahorse folk mostly care for and protect babies while women go exploring and have adventures. When they gather to discus various things they fled from heroically. Smaller breeds were hunted for dried ornaments

1 Seahorse folk are being eaten by a marine dinosaur and need help or they will always perish
3 Someone is catching baby seahorse folk as pets in the city where most die, seahorse elders, need help
4 A sea druid has a location of a secret seahorse dancing place and seeks helpers to meet them. They all sobbed about a giant chaos sea turtle which the tearful druids announce you will fight it
5 A seahorse tattoo artist working on docks has been forced to ally with a thieves guild. Needs some adventurers he can dupe into starting a fight with a rival gang
6 A seahorse bard wishes to study surface adventure then go tour the undersea faerie land with new songs about funny landlubbers
7 A seahorse huckster with his burly lobster folk guards is offering money to who can beat his slave crab man in a fight. He would sell the slave for a good offer
8 A seahorse wizard has come to study the unnatural child rearing practices of the feckless surface folk
9 A seahorse man stranded with a bunch of his children living in an overturned fishing boat need food and help
10 Dazed seahorse children wash up on shore and locals grab them and put them in cages to sell to freak shows and menageries. Under the sea seahorse, villagers are preparing to attack bu night
11 A band of seahorse women adventurers would like to see some monsters up close and offer pearls for safe confrontation with monsters of the surface. They will scream in shrill voices and heroically flee until they are exhausted
12  A seahorse gladiator wants freedom and asks if adventurers could buy him and he could earn cash faster, he desperately wants to get home to his babies separated from him years ago

Manatee FolkThese placid grazers of seaweed are kin to dugongs and sea cows and other similar mammals, some now rare. They are peaceful and kind and happy grazing on weed, some labour in underwater fairyland pulling ploughs for nymphs or seagrass spirit folk. Some come ashore and work on docks using great strength and endurance. Some try and sell milk but with less success but do get be wet nurses for orphan sailors. Deluded humans sometimes mistake them for mermaids or try and eat them or worse so they avoid places humans live mostly. They are quite friendly, calm and jolly when fed and content but produce huge tears when they cry. Manatee make good sailors and wharf crew but don't really like violence mostly

1 A noble wizard likes to run down manatee in his magical boat then has his servants collect the body and spitroast them. Some locals think this could be wrong
2 A peaceful islander knows of a dugong temple where local tribe threw pearls in the sea
3 A great floating raft populated by manatee folk has been seen offshore and they trade goods and welcome strangers
4 A matinee wizard from the underwater fairyland comes to trade drugs with the surface world, offers free sea wine and kelp beer drinks to new customers, locals shocked
5 A giant castle of kelp has grown in the harbour. An evil manatee wizard and his royal guards defend it from intruders while a manatee princess in the top tower calls out for help
6 A slaver has manatees gathering pearls by holding babies hostage, boasts about it in town
7 Manatee folk are swimming around having a sing and humans with harpoons are sneaking up to them
8 A manatee barbarian is hunting humans that killed his family but in meantime needs beer money and fights
9 Sailors have found an island rocky outcrop sea castle of a manatee clan and seek warriors to help them rob the magic brutes
10 A manatee wizard uses illusions to make her sea cow gang seem like attractive maidens. They kidnap people and polymorph the most charismatic into manatee folk to be husbands forever in undersea faerie land
11 A thieves guild of manatee drug smugglers have been crashing drug prices and local guilds need someone to find who. Manatee mostly lay about with hookahs and eating seagrass and dancing
12 Manatee offers magic seagrass that lets surface folk breathe water and a chance to explore a shark infested wreck full of a treasure chest from far away