Summary
A Gargoyle is a type of Halfling. In particular, the Gargoyles of Tullach Port are descendants of a troll named Keja, who have inherited her Stonefolk heart and her promise to protect the city. They pass for human normally, but they turn to stone when exposed to sunlight.
Full Story
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Trolls
Trolls aren't just big ugly oafs, though they are one of the largest types of faeries. The term 'troll' is offensive to them, and they prefer to be called the Stonefolk.Feeling sorry for the little girl, the man returned to the cave after sunset to find her weeping feverishly in the corner, comforted by -- what do you know -- the lost dog.
His friends and neighbors thought he was crazy for bringing a troll into the town, but there was a hole in his heart left over from the passing of his wife, so he took her in and raised her.
Little Keja grew up big and strong and smart and became a valuable asset to the little community she was raised in. The captain of the guard believed in her and took her into his ranks. Though she was a head taller than him, she idolized him, and did her best to keep her adoptive community safe.
Then one day, while she was resting peacefully as a hunk of stone, there was a horrible flood. Fearing that Keja would drown if she woke up and couldn't find her way out of the mostly underground chamber she called home, the captain of the guard sent in a rescue party to drag her out.
Keja awoke pinned under the part of the wall of the building, which had collapsed from the force of the wind, waist-high in water, and tangled in the ropes that had been used to drag her. She managed to pull herself out and get to safety with minimal injuries, but soon found out that her adoptive father had been killed when the building had collapsed as they were trying to pull her out.
Grateful for the heroism of those that had helped her, and grieving for the loss of her adoptive father, Keja made a promise, in the honest tongue of her people, no less, to honor him and his sacrifice by protecting the town until every pebble of her stone heart crumbled to dust. And that she did. She even fell in love with a human man and raised a son. Well, if you've ever been a parent, then you know that children are what happens when you take a sliver of your heart and let it walk around outside of your body. Apparently, as far as Keja's promise was concerned, this was literal, for her promise was passed to her son, and then it was passed to his daughter, and so on. Each generation since then has had one or two of such halflings that inherit Keja's gifts and her obligation, and those halflings have come to be known as Gargoyles.
Race: Gargoyle. [6]
The following will appear on your character sheet when you select the template.
- You have a fae ancestor somewhere in your linege. Describe this fae, even if your character doesn't know about it. [0]
- Those with Feth Fiada are never invisible to you. If you have reason to believe someone is under a Seeming, you can blatantly squint at them and roll Sight opposed by Disguise. If they are under a Seeming and you win the opposed roll, then their disguise flickers whenever you squint at them and you get a glimpse of their true form. [1]
- You have an incapacitating supernatural reaction to an ordinarily innocuous substance. If you are exposed to it, you must immediately make a Pain Tolerance roll every minute. On a failure, your attributes all have a -5 penalty. Contact with the substance might also sting or burn you, weapons made of it might hurt you more, etc. [-4]
- Your True Name hits you at +2. The severity of your True Name is determined by your race, this feature can only be purchased as part of a racial template. [-2]
- You get +1 to Stealth. [2]
- You get +1 to Surival. [2]
- You get +1 to Tracking. [2]
- You get +1 to Taste & Smell. [2]
- You get +1 to Hearing. [2]
- You get -1 to Technology. [-2]
- You get +1 to Resist Influence. [2]
- Sylvan [0]
- Whether it's on purpose or not, when something someone else says or does reminds you of how much you wished you weren't such an oddball, gain Leverage on each other. [0]
- You get +2 to Bravery. [4]
- You can see perfectly well in complete darkness, just not in color. [4]
- You can only be active when the sun is below the horizon. This represents more than a preference for night over day! As soon as dawn starts to break, you become lethargic and sleepy. If exposed to sunlight, you turn to stone, and you are stay that way until the sun goes down. Clouds don't help; there must be a barrier between you and the sky that doesn't let light come through. [-5]
- Because of a pact made by one of your ancestors, you have a duty to protect Tullach Port from evil. You feel you have a calling to do so, but you also have a supernatural compulsion. In order to do something that you know would endanger the city, you have to succeed on a Self Control roll. You can leave the town with no consequences, but only if you feel it's necessary for protecting it. Otherwise, you need to succeed at a Self Control roll to leave for more than a week, and another every week you're away. On a failure, you feel guilty and try to make reasonable arrangements to return. [-5]
- You reverse letters and symbols in your head. You can read and write, but it's slow. Your proficiency levels in other languages can never exceed Broken. Even in your first langauge, your proficiency level counts as Broken for the purpose of reading and writing. [-5]
- You get +1 to Body Language. [2]
- You get +1 to Intimidation. [2]
- It takes more damage to stop you. Your maximum HP increases by 1. You can stack this as many times as you wish. [4]