Cecaelia (4e Race)

Cecaelia

By Skyrore Draws

"We simply did not want to be seen. Now that we have, let it be a declaration that we are ready. Now, let us ask... is the world ready for us?"

Racial Traits

Average Height: 6'0"-6'8"

Average Weight: 190-280 lbs.

Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma or +2 Intelligence

Size: Medium

Speed: 5 squares; swim 6 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common and Primordial (Aquan)

Skill Bonuses: +2 Stealth, +2 Bluff

Tentacles: You have a +2 racial bonus to checks to grapple Medium or smaller creatures. You can also manipulate objects up to 2 squares away from you as a minor action.

Hydrostatic Skeleton: You can fit into places only a Small fits creature comfortably. You also can squeeze into spaces that only tiny creatures can fit, but take a -2 penalty to all checks while doing so. You also have a +1 racial bonus to Reflex.

Amphibious: You are an amphibious creature. You can breathe air and water. However, you have a -2 to checks to resist the effects of thirst or heat.

Specialized Seas: You gain one power from the list below, based on what cecaelia type you wish to play: Deepmurk: You gain umbris mentes as a daily power. Vastia: You gain ink cloud as a daily power. Mimic: You gain mimicry as a daily power. Tropical: You gain water jets as an encounter power.

Umbris Mentes	Cecaelia Racial Power
Your alien, deepsea mind is very different than what normal people expect and you don't lose to silly mind tricks easy.
Daily
Immediate Interrupt	Personal
Trigger: You make a Will save.
Effect: You add a +4 racial bonus to your Will save.
Level 11: +6 to Will save Level 21: +8 to Will save

Ink Cloud	Cecaelia Racial Power
You release a veil of inked darkness, creating concealment commonly used to escape predators.
Daily
Move Action	Close burst 2
Effect: The burst creates a cloud of ink that remains in place for the encounter, and you shift 1. The cloud blocks line of sight, squares within it are totally obscured, and creatures entirely within it are blinded until they exit. The cloud does not move with you. Strong currents dissipate the cloud twice as fast (save ends).
Special: When using this power outside water, it's a close burst 1 that remains until the end of your next turn instead.

Mimicry	Mimic Cecaelia Racial Power
You have learned to alter your color, body, and skin to imitate creatures other than yourself.
Daily
Minor Action	Personal
Target: You
Effect: You alter your physical form to take on the appearance of any creature of your build and size for up to 1 hour. You retain your game statistics in your new form. You gain neither the abilities or mannerisms of the chosen form, nor the tactile or audible properties of your form or gear. To impersonate a specific individual, you must have seen that individual. You may use this ability to appear bipedal, quadrupedal, or piscinoid (including fish, merfolk, cartilaginous creatures such as rays, and marine mammals such as dolphins and seals), though your movement modes and speed do not change. Maintaining the benefits of this ability after the first hour requires an Endurance check. At the end of each additional hour that you maintain the ability, the check is repeated at an increasing DC (if those additional hours are spent outside water, those repeated Endurance check are made as if you were dehydrating. Any creature can discern that your form is a disguise by making an Insight check opposed by your Bluff check. You gain a +2 power bonus to your checks.
Level 11: Endurance and Bluff +4 Level 21: Endurance and Bluff +6

Water Jets	Cecaelia Racial Power
The prey you've been stalking from a distance certainly doesn't expected you to swoop down so swiftly on them.
Encounter
Minor Action	Personnal
Requirement: You may only use this ability underwater.
Effect: You shift up to quadruple your speed in a straight line. If trying to use this power outside of water, you may only shift up to your speed.

The cecaelia are strange, half-humanoid monstrosities that take from watery dwellers. The lower half of their body tells of their cephalopod origins, but their upper bodies often resemble that of mermaids or triton. Their mysterious and esoteric attitudes obscure their true intentions, as well as their history. According to what they divulge, as well as ancient underwater ruins, the cecaelia are actually much older than their appearance dates. While they only seemed to have appeared in the world within the last few centuries, they supposedly have lived for over thousands of years, within dark depths of the sea, predating the entry of sahuagins and krakens into the natural world from the Realm of Water. It is possible that they are an early prototype creature by an unknown creator race, that kept hidden away from the world for their own purposes. Explorations of these depths that they are said to have risen from has never been done, but some say that there is a monstrous and fertile thing down there that spawns cecaelias... as well as other monstrous things.

Play a Cecaelia if you want...

• To be a member of a race told of in old seamen tales.
• To be a little more at home underwater then on land.
• To be a member of a race that favors the rogue, monk, ardent, and wizard classes.

Physical Qualities

Cecaelia are humanoids above the waist. They have tentacles that compose everything below that. They usually have six to eight tentacles, which grow thicker as they age. The girth of these allow cecaelia to efficiently use them to traverse land as legs. These tentacles can be a variety of colors and tints, from dark blue, green, pink, and grey. They are each lined within up to sixty suckers, allowing for efficient grip. The upper body of the cecaelia usually appears like that of other humanoids with minute differences. They have skin tones that range from dark to light. On touch, one will note that cecaelias are cool to the touch and sometimes have a sliminess. Cecaelias also have finned ears and large eyeballs that appear to bulge a little. Some of the coloration from their tentacles also do appear on their shoulders, back, and hands. They are known to have slimy hair like that of kelp or seaweed, but only on their heads.

There are typically four types of cecaelia, each with minute differences in there physiology. Deepmurk cecaelias have webbed hands and hair that also resembles tentacles, making them seem more alien. Vastia cecaelia have special ink sacs that allow them to obscure their movements with spurts of ink, as evolved from spending their life in open waters. Mimic cecaelias have color-changing glands located under their skin that can be consciously controlled to give them camouflage. They can also use this to appear like someone else with great accuracy. Tropical cecaelias are the fastest of the cecaelias, with a powerful siphon that allows them to propel easily towards prey.

Attitudes and Beliefs

Usually, cecaelias are seen as standoffish and self-reliant. Even though their original environments had them living in something like a swarm or school, they are all solitary individuals. If possible, they prefer to live without set social structures, as it is believed to be the truest expression for them of life. Abiding by things like laws is merely a muzzle on what is otherwise a spiral of evolution and survival. This sort of mindset not only makes them alien, but they are also seen as hardcore survivalists that will betray allies on a dime if it benefits their own life. Whether this is true of cecaelia as an entire race is unclear, considering that they are still enigmatic creatures. They do not believe in alignments at all, seeing all creatures as either strong or weak. One can surmise that the cecaelia live in a very harsh environment that brought up such an individual-versus-world mentality.

For the most part, cecaelia believe in little but two things: their own self-sufficiency, and their origin. They do not have faith in gods or pantheons of the traditional sort. Their origin, set in the depths of the fertile seas, is supposedly a font of strange and alien life. There are theories that it is some old and horrible god whose corpse is still creating life despite being either dead or dormant. Cecaelias believe in this entity's longevity and existence, with themselves as proof. They do not, however, engage in typical worship or prayer to this thing.

Playing a Cecaelia

For the most part, cecaelia can be simple people. Due to their belief in self-sufficiency, they are not one to cooperate well with others. If they have to be team players, they will prefer to be the leaders so they don't have to listen to anyone else. This also means that cecaelia may often strike out on their own at a young age than stay with their shoals. As mentioned before, cecaelia do not really believe in loyalty. To survive, they will betray and sacrifice others. They are usually selfish, with a good deal of security required before they consider to share their spot of survival with others. However, this also means they do not expect kindness or loyalty from others. They admire strength and expect the strong to step on others. They scorn the weak and expect the weak to take any opportunity necessary against the strong. This world-against-the-one mentality can make them unpopular choices for allies. Cecaelia are also usually emphatic people with their meanings and words, meaning they expect to be taken seriously all the time.

Cecaelia Characteristics: Selfish, survivalist, hardcore, extreme, intense, loner, disloyal

Male Names: Grashhr, Urshlr, Aglabr, Orgibryn

Female Names: Selthas, Grynbrs, Sibluram, Bublurem

Cecaelia Adventurers

Three sample cecaelia adventurers are described below.

Gribles is a cecaelia warlock with a dark pact. She was born in the turgid waters from the cecaelia origin with a greater affinity to the mysterious creation source. Using this connection, she has drawn great swaths of power forth and believed herself its spokesperson to lead her race. However, the others are not very taken to her brazen dream, and so she was driven away. She seeks the means to prove her power to them ... and subjugate her kin if necessary. For this, she will take any allies needed, so long as they accept her authority of the sea.

Sybrn is a cecaelia rogue who has made a name for himself among nobles, murdering at their beck and call. His specialty usually is ambushing targets in their coastal retreats. However, he recently incurred the wrath of a powerful underworld tyrant, putting an end to his hidden and cushy life. Now on the run, he finds himself in need of friends he can actually rely on in order to escape this threat.

Oglubr is a cecaelia monk that had been adopted by a triton monastery from birth, having been born weaker than many of his kin. Through this upbringing, he has managed to shed a lot of the negative, standoffish personality traits typical of his race and attained a more neutral standpoint, accepting of aid and such. He seeks, however, to reconnect with his heritage, particularly with that mysterious dark thing in the depths of the sea, which calls out to him during his meditations...

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