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Grippli

Excitable and energetic, grippli are frog folk known for their skill in nearly all manner of scientific disciplines.

Although they have a reputation for being comely, grippli are fiercely alert and quick to take action when they feel that they or their comrades are being taken advantage of, making them large proponents of justice throughout the planetary systems in which they live.

Ability Adjustments: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, –2 Str

Hit Points: 2

Racial Traits

Size and Type

Gripplis are humanoids with the grippli subtype and are Small. They have a base speed of 20 feet and a climb speed of 20 feet, which allows them to climb without needing to make Athletics checks checks and grants them a +8 bonus on all Athletics checks to climb.

Camouflage

Gripplis gain a +2 racial bonus on Stealth checks made in natural terrains.

Darkvision

Gripplis have darkvision, allowing them to see with no light source at all to a range of 60 feet in black and white only.

Powerful Leap

Gripplis gain a +4 racial bonus on Athletics checks made to jump, and are always considered to have a running start when making Athletics checks to jump.

Toxic Skin

Gripplis secrete a deadly contact poison, and as a swift action they can sweat one dose of this poison from their skin. (Any armor or spacesuit custom fit for a grippli is designed to allow this to pass to the outer layer of the armor.) The next creature that makes a melee attacks a grippli after it uses this ability is affected by the poison. The poison loses its potency after 1 hour, and gripplis are immune to their own poison. In addition, gripplies can smear this poison onto a melee weapon as a standard action, changing the poison from a contact poison to an injury poison applied to the chosen melee weapon. Gripplis can use this ability once per day.

Grippli Poison: Contact or injury—save Fort DC 10 + 1/2 the grippli’s level plus its Constitution modifier; track Dexterity; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; cure 1 save.

Physical Description

Barely standing over 2 feet in height, grippli are short, squat humanoids who are colloquially called frog folk because of their frog like physical traits, including large eyes and tongues and webbed hands and feet. A grippli’s body is lithe but spindly, their bodies lacking much of the muscle development seen in similarly sized races. Although most grippli are green-brown in appearance, their skin tones run the gambit of coloration, and can include tropical, exotic colors such as vivid blues or fiery reds. Furthermore, gripplis are extremely sensitive to corruption in their environment, especially magical or spiritual corruption, and they have been known to develop strangely proportioned limbs and unnatural colorations when exposed to such forces for long periods of time.

Home World

Even before interplanetary travel in the Azan-Ra System became commonplace, gripplis were the first race to successfully colonize multiple worlds within the system, though conquest was never their intent. Instead, grippli legends claim that their people scattered amongst the stars as part of some grave cosmic mission to find and contain evil wherever it has contaminated. For grippli are naturally sensitive to the presence of evil—not mere mortal sinning, but cosmic evil plain and true, such as the presence of vile fiends or the corruption that tends to seep wherever they tread. As a result, each habitable world in the Azan-Ra System is home to at least several dozen grippli tribes, each of whom work to keep their home world and the surrounding planet as guarded against corruption as they can manage. Even after untold centuries, including the occurrence of terrible tragedies such as the Regicide and the resulting Nova Age, grippli throughout the Azan-Ra System remain steadfast in their stand against the forces of evil, and are often among the first into battle against those suffering corruption, especially those tainted by horrors of Blood Space.

Society and Alignment

Often accused of being backwards and brackwaterish, grippli society holds firm to many of the traditions that their people have brought with them to world after world for hundreds of centuries, staunch in their unending vigil against evil. Of course, that isn’t to say that all grippli or good or that all grippli remain terrestrially locked to the planet of their birth. Instead, grippli society expects its members to defend habitable worlds from corruption, and it is a task that even the most aloof and socially distant grippli keep dear to their hearts, of only because any interests one might have are ultimately dependent upon the existence of free and healthy planets. For this reason, grippli who succumb to corruption and embrace wicked powers to taint the land are simultaneously the most tragic and reviled characters imaginable to a grippli, and they are quick to put such threats down as quickly as possible to avoid any chance that their enemies might learn grippli secrets for abating and cleansing such corruption. The most secret of these rites is known as the Aluva’Akhel, or “Through Flesh, Purification,” a ritual in which the grippli coat themselves in sacred oils and ointments while chanting words of power to the spirits. In doing so, grippli believe that they draw corruption from the world around them through their breath, and ultimately secret it back out of their bodies through their skin as poison. As a result, equally important are poison-milking and pore cleansing rituals designed to keep their hide healthy and strong while preventing their poison, which they believe gains its toxic properties from absorbing corruption, from corrupting themselves from within.

Relations

Gripplis get along notoriously well with catfolk and kitsune, who share similar views and charges in regards to defending planetary ecosystems. They also tend to be exictable and bouncy, making them ideal companions for gnomes and ysoki. Finally, they tend to get along well with other poisonous races, especially the vishkanya and nagaji, though their beliefs about their own poison colors their reactions to these races, which may cause for a degree of comfortableness between them. Grippli tend to be cold towards the deoxyians, as all of the grippli tribes dwelling upon the moon Uramesh died as a result of the deoxyians’ strip mining of their home world, and distrust tieflings for their twisted, corrupted-looking appearances.

They tend to see humans as being eager but unwilling to listen, and view kasatha and vesk traditionalism with admiration and respect, although they don’t always agree with the practices those races keep.

Adventurers

Although most gripplis are skittish, to say that they lack the courage to adventure would be inaccurate. A history of being exploited by humanity and larger foes has steeled the grippli race against the cruelties of the world, giving many the motivation necessary to fight both for their rights and the rights of others. As a result, most grippli adventurers champion some cause that they seek to benefit, be it personal or civic. This legacy has left gripplis skilled at all manner of diplomacy and communication, which lends itself well to the envoy’s skill set. Gripplis are just as likely to put their dexterity and drive to work as mechanics, and their sensitivity to environmental magic send many to embrace universal connections and stem the tide of corruption as mystics.

Names

Grippli names tend to be abbreviations of longer titles and ideals—a grippli that calls itself “Po” might simply be shorting its name from “Pochurin Magra-si,” which roughly translates to “The Voice that Soothes the Waking Spirit.” All traditional grippli names translate similarly.

Some examples of grippli names are Agung Shu-sai-sai, Angkadiredja, Baruuch’chlai, Brahmanalo, Dwi Susansi, Eko, Elah’Sinhole, Huan-huan, Huifi’roleinro, Jair’angi, Lastari, Lusandi’elihu, Qingsheshi’lo, Setiadlai Hop, Suripto Halimkusii, Tirzah’lien, Utama’muu. Widyawati, Yuliaman, and Zyzzdari

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Starfarer’s Companion. © 2017, Rogue Genius Games, LLC; Authors: Alexander Augunas and Matthew Morris. Developed bt Matt Manach and Owen K.C. Stephens. Published by Owen K.C. Stephens.