Mark Chance
Boingy! Boingy!
DUVARCI (dove-ar-sigh)
Medium-size Aberration (Earth)
Hit Dice: 3d8+6 (19 hp)
Initiative: +1 (Dex)
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 20 (+1 Dex, +8 natural, +1 small steel shield), touch 11, flat-footed 19
Attacks: Heavy pick +3 melee; or sling +3 ranged
Damage: Heavy pick 1d6+1/crit x4; or sling 1d4+1/crit x2
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: See in darkness, immunities, stonecunning
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +6
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 16
Skills: Concentration +7, Craft (stonemasonry) +7, Listen +8, Move Silently +6, Scry +6, Search +7, Use Magic Device +8
Feats: Great Fortitude, Quicken Spell-like Ability (passwall)
Climate/Terrain: Any underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, company (4-7), or troop (8-18 plus 1 leader of 2nd-5th level)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: By character class
Duvarcis are vaguely humanoid monsters with an innate, magical affinity for stone.
A duvarci walks upright on four slender yet powerful insectile legs. Both of its arms are long and powerful, ending in four-fingered, dextrous hands. Its head is a disturbing mix of ant and star-nosed mole: chitinous head, fleshy nose, mandibles, and shiny black multi-faceted eyes. Rather than flesh, a duvarci is covered with a stony chitin of exceptional resilience. Coloration on the front ranges from dull orange to scarlet, growing darker toward the monster's back, head, and extremeties.
Duvarcis speak Terran, and most speak two other languages as well.
COMBAT
Duvarcis are dangerous foes. They usually open combat with a combination of deeper darkness and spike stones to confuse, delay, and harm enemies. Since the deeper darkness does not impair their vision, the duvarcis next use their slings to hurl magic stones from a safe distance. Clever use of stone shape followed by animate objects creates golem-like soldiers to hammer on foes in melee. Walls of stone can close off escape paths and divide enemies while the duvarcis, with their quickened passwall ability, are not hampered at all by such obstacles. Passwall and meld with stone provide a convenient means of retreat for duvarcis. The former ability, which a duvarci can dispel at will, can also provide a nasty surprise for pursuers who suddenly discover the path they are following no longer exists behind them.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will - clairaudience/clairvoyance, detect scrying, passwall. 1/day - animate objects (stone only), deeper darkness, flesh to stone, magic stone, meld into stone, soften earth and stone, spike stones, stone shape, stone tell, wall of stone. As cast by a 12th-level sorcerer. Save DC 13 + spell level.
See in Darkness (Su): Duvarcis can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by deeper darkness spells.
Immunities (Ex): Duvarcis are immune to poison, sleep, petrification, and stunning.
Stonecunning (Ex): Stonecunning grants duvarcis a +2 racial bonus on checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn't stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A duvarci who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a check as if he were actively searching, and a duvarci can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A duvarci can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up.
DUVARCI SOCIETY
Duvarcis live in troops deep beneath the earth's surface. With their amazing powers over stone, a duvarci lair and the chambers therein are typically accessible only via magical means, such as passwall. Inside the lair, maze-like tunnels connect private and public areas. All duvarcis are females capable of voluntarily reproducing by means of parthenogenesis only two or three times during their lifetimes. At the center of the community is the egg chamber. Here the next generation of duvarcis gestate for nearly fifteen years before hatching as fully-formed adults. Once the size of a troop doubles, the younger duvarcis are forced to leave the community in order to found a new lair.
A duvarci troop is ruled by a single leader who maintains power by cultivating alliances and encouraging rival factions within the troop. Duvarcis, being extremely long-lived and eager to avoid boredom, devise "artistic" projects revolving around acts of terror, kidnapping, and sabotage against other subterranean denizens, especially gnomes, of whom the duvarcis seem to share an instinctive hatred. Because of their evil nature and choices of "artistic" expression, duvarcis are not well-loved. They sometimes ally themselves with medusae and have been known to keep basilisks as pets, but other creatures tend to avoid or seek to actively harm the duvarcis.
DUVARCI CHARACTERS
A duvarci's favored class is rogue. Most duvarci leaders are rogues.
Medium-size Aberration (Earth)
Hit Dice: 3d8+6 (19 hp)
Initiative: +1 (Dex)
Speed: 30 ft.
AC: 20 (+1 Dex, +8 natural, +1 small steel shield), touch 11, flat-footed 19
Attacks: Heavy pick +3 melee; or sling +3 ranged
Damage: Heavy pick 1d6+1/crit x4; or sling 1d4+1/crit x2
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: See in darkness, immunities, stonecunning
Saves: Fort +5, Ref +2, Will +6
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 12, Con 15, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 16
Skills: Concentration +7, Craft (stonemasonry) +7, Listen +8, Move Silently +6, Scry +6, Search +7, Use Magic Device +8
Feats: Great Fortitude, Quicken Spell-like Ability (passwall)
Climate/Terrain: Any underground
Organization: Solitary, pair, company (4-7), or troop (8-18 plus 1 leader of 2nd-5th level)
Challenge Rating: 4
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually neutral evil
Advancement: By character class
Duvarcis are vaguely humanoid monsters with an innate, magical affinity for stone.
A duvarci walks upright on four slender yet powerful insectile legs. Both of its arms are long and powerful, ending in four-fingered, dextrous hands. Its head is a disturbing mix of ant and star-nosed mole: chitinous head, fleshy nose, mandibles, and shiny black multi-faceted eyes. Rather than flesh, a duvarci is covered with a stony chitin of exceptional resilience. Coloration on the front ranges from dull orange to scarlet, growing darker toward the monster's back, head, and extremeties.
Duvarcis speak Terran, and most speak two other languages as well.
COMBAT
Duvarcis are dangerous foes. They usually open combat with a combination of deeper darkness and spike stones to confuse, delay, and harm enemies. Since the deeper darkness does not impair their vision, the duvarcis next use their slings to hurl magic stones from a safe distance. Clever use of stone shape followed by animate objects creates golem-like soldiers to hammer on foes in melee. Walls of stone can close off escape paths and divide enemies while the duvarcis, with their quickened passwall ability, are not hampered at all by such obstacles. Passwall and meld with stone provide a convenient means of retreat for duvarcis. The former ability, which a duvarci can dispel at will, can also provide a nasty surprise for pursuers who suddenly discover the path they are following no longer exists behind them.
Spell-Like Abilities: At will - clairaudience/clairvoyance, detect scrying, passwall. 1/day - animate objects (stone only), deeper darkness, flesh to stone, magic stone, meld into stone, soften earth and stone, spike stones, stone shape, stone tell, wall of stone. As cast by a 12th-level sorcerer. Save DC 13 + spell level.
See in Darkness (Su): Duvarcis can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by deeper darkness spells.
Immunities (Ex): Duvarcis are immune to poison, sleep, petrification, and stunning.
Stonecunning (Ex): Stonecunning grants duvarcis a +2 racial bonus on checks to notice unusual stonework, such as sliding walls, stonework traps, new construction (even when built to match the old), unsafe stone surfaces, shaky stone ceilings, and the like. Something that isn't stone but that is disguised as stone also counts as unusual stonework. A duvarci who merely comes within 10 feet of unusual stonework can make a check as if he were actively searching, and a duvarci can use the Search skill to find stonework traps as a rogue can. A duvarci can also intuit depth, sensing his approximate depth underground as naturally as a human can sense which way is up.
DUVARCI SOCIETY
Duvarcis live in troops deep beneath the earth's surface. With their amazing powers over stone, a duvarci lair and the chambers therein are typically accessible only via magical means, such as passwall. Inside the lair, maze-like tunnels connect private and public areas. All duvarcis are females capable of voluntarily reproducing by means of parthenogenesis only two or three times during their lifetimes. At the center of the community is the egg chamber. Here the next generation of duvarcis gestate for nearly fifteen years before hatching as fully-formed adults. Once the size of a troop doubles, the younger duvarcis are forced to leave the community in order to found a new lair.
A duvarci troop is ruled by a single leader who maintains power by cultivating alliances and encouraging rival factions within the troop. Duvarcis, being extremely long-lived and eager to avoid boredom, devise "artistic" projects revolving around acts of terror, kidnapping, and sabotage against other subterranean denizens, especially gnomes, of whom the duvarcis seem to share an instinctive hatred. Because of their evil nature and choices of "artistic" expression, duvarcis are not well-loved. They sometimes ally themselves with medusae and have been known to keep basilisks as pets, but other creatures tend to avoid or seek to actively harm the duvarcis.
DUVARCI CHARACTERS
A duvarci's favored class is rogue. Most duvarci leaders are rogues.
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