Chirask (4e Race)

Chirask

By Jason A. Engle

Large insects that look the stuff of nightmares in the eye and spit venom in its face.

Racial Traits

Average Height: 3'3" - 3'10"

Average Weight: 35 - 55 lbs.

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

Size: Small

Speed: 5 squares

Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common

Skill Bonuses: +2 Diplomacy, +2 Stealth

Compound Eyes: You gain a +1 racial bonus to Perception when trying to spot or hear a creature using Stealth.

Antennae: When finding tracks, you may re-roll your Perception roll but must accept the new result even if it is lower.

Gaping Bite: You may use gaping bite as an encounter power.

Versatile Movement	Chirask Racial Power
You drop down and use all six of your limbs to scuttle about.
At-Will  Stance
Minor Action	Personal
Effect: You enter the Versatile Movement stance. Whilst in this stance you may not make weapon or implement attacks but gain a +1 bonus to speed and a climb speed of 4.

Gaping Bite	Chirask Racial Power
Your lower jaw splits, revealing jagged, envenomed mandibles that are eager to feed.
Encounter  Poison
Minor Action	Melee 1
Target: One creature
Attack: Dexterity + 4 Vs. AC
Hit: 1d6 + Dexterity modifier damage and make a secondary attack.
Secondary Attack: Wisdom or Charisma + 2 Vs. Fortitude.
Hit: 5 poison damage.
Level 11: Primary attack is Dexterity + 6; 2d6 damage. Secondary attack is Wisdom or Charisma + 4; 10 poison damage. Level 21: Primary attack is Dexterity + 8; 3d6 damage. Secondary attack is Wisdom or Charisma + 6; 15 poison damage.

The insect-like chirask (singular and plural) call the Underdark their home; the cavernous labyrinth gives them what they need for survival: sheer cliffs to climb, plenty of space to establish colonies, and copious amounts of food. They are scavengers, feeding upon drow outcasts as well as other meat that happens by, staying hidden until the time is right. However, chirask make for shrewd diplomats, and their knowledge of the world around them is unmatched.

Play an Chirask if you want...

• to look like an insect.
• to be able to climb and scuttle as easily as you can walk.
• to play as a race with playing differences between genders.
• to be an indispensable member of any negotiation or hunt.
• to play a race that can easily maneuver around the battlefield.
• To be a member of a race that favors the avenger, cleric, druid, rogue, sorcerer, and warlock classes.

Physical Qualities

Chirask resemble large, humanoid insects that are about half the size of a human. They have an exoskeleton made out of chitin, which is usually dark blue, purple, or black, but sometimes an "albino" chirask may be born, resulting in white chitin. From this husk sprout six angled, powerful limbs. Chirask can switch between a bipedal form and a more natural crawling one with ease, scuttling beneath enemies and avoiding attacks. Chirask have no ears, so to speak, but pick up audio vibrations through special hairs on their legs. Their heads look like that of a human head; however, nothing looks human about it. Two bulbous mounds of kaleidoscopic compound eyes jut from the sides of the head underneath two segmented antennae that are between twelve and twenty-four inches in length. They have a jaw that looks like a human’s, but chirask have the ability to unhinge their jaw and split their bottom mandible into two parts, revealing razor-sharp, envenomed teeth hidden between piles of chitin.

A chirask has six limbs. Two are always used as legs, whether for crawling or bipedal movement. The other four may be used as either arms or legs, allowing for maximum versatility for movement in battles. Each limb is tipped with three pointed “fingers”, spaced evenly around their small “palms”, that allow a chirask to climb up any rocky surface with ease; if a surface is smooth, these fingers can be used to puncture the rock and create makeshift hand holes. With hands like these, using conventional weapons is hard for the chirask, who must create weapons that offer comfort as well as function.

Although at first glance males and females look the same, females are more slender and have what look to be small, deflated balloons between their second and third limb sets. These two objects are egg sacs, and are known for their distinct white stripe down the side. Usually, females have anywhere from 100-250 eggs, but only produce up to four offspring in their lifetime, all at once. As the hatchlings emerge from their shells, they often kill each other or themselves due to their inability to control their poison glands. After the birthing process, a female may choose to either keep or discard her broken egg sacs. Some keep them for sentimental reasons; others keep them to differentiate themselves from males.

Chirask have comparably shorter life spans than humans, living for only about 35 to 40 years with maturity at about age six or seven.

Playing an Chirask

The chirask value a sharp tongue and quick wit over anything else. Anything less than that will usually get a lone chirask killed. They are insignificant beings in the eyes of most bipedal races, being insect-like in most aspects, and are treated as pests. However, a chirask that can prove him-or-herself time and time again, whether for hunting or dealing with negotiations, will gain respect from otherwise prejudiced races.

In their society, large groups of chirask form a cluster. These could be familial clusters that welcome other members, or it could be a large cluster of vagabonds traveling through the Underdark. It is rare to see a lone chirask, and even more so to see one that is still alive. In a cluster, chirask share a hive mind mentality, working together and swarming over potential prey in order to minimize losses from combat. A lone chirask may still feel that instinctual urge to swarm a target that is being attacked by an ally.

While in a cluster, chirask do not usually pay homage to any deity. This is not because they do not believe in the divine powers of the gods, but they tend to focus more on group survival than spending time asking for divine intervention. However, good and unaligned chirask clerics often turn to Avandra or Melora as their patron goddess. Evil chirask usually utter prayers to Torog, Lolth, or Gruumsh.

Some see the chirask that joins a group as a pest, always wanting attention for the small things they do, say, or know. However, a chirask never reveals too much information at one time, lest he or she accidentally betrays their group and loses their trust. Female chirask are especially fond of dripping their words with proverbial venom to get their way in negotiations and bargains.

Chirask that leave the cluster are usually killed if alone, but are smart and stealthy enough to find a group of adventurers to tag along with. If they can convince the party to spare their life, a chirask makes for a shrewd diplomat, a daring tracker, and an indispensable ally to any adventuring group.

Chirask Characteristics: Agile, crafty, curious, diplomatic, friendly, inquisitive, insectoid, rash, secretive, stealthy, unusual

Male Names: Calan, Caol Crises, Kelar, Qith, Scitur, Shir, Skyn, Xydrigh

Female Names: Celeyne, Kassir, Kira'In, Kish, Scatari, Scriiss, Skalma, Skyri, Xandis

Chirask Adventurers

Three sample chirask adventurers are described below.

Skyri is a chirask rogue who has joined a thieves’ guild on the surface. Although initially ridiculed for her appearance, Skyri has time and time again proved her worth and skill in life-threatening missions. After a botched job resulting in the death of the Guildmaster, however, she realized that life was not all about wealth and riches, and wandered off to look for other opportunities.

Crises is a chirask druid who felt his calling somewhere on the surface. He despises his insectoid form, as he believes it is a weak shell of what he really is. Crises feels an instinctual calling from something in nature, and that was good enough for him to leave his cluster. He hopes to become the first chirask who merges his essence with that of the Primal Beast. Until then, he is content with being something other than himself.

Celeyne is a chirask sorcerer that was born with an inkling of raw arcane power. Scared when bolts of arcane energy began to crackle over her skin, the cluster moved on without her; with nowhere else to go, Celeyne made her way to the surface where she was subsequently hit with a large bolt of lightning in the middle of a large storm. This augmented her powers greatly, and Celeyne wishes to improve and control her newfound power to show that she will not harm her race.

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