Mugwumpkin

Description

Rising from the ooze is a short, humanoid creature completely covered in soft mud. Clumps of straw and grass are intertwined in the glistening muck along the extremities. A pair of beady eyes peer out through the slimy muck.

This race of elemental creatures resembles short humanoids. Their eyes are beady and small, withdrawn deep under a heavy brow. Their skin is mud-like with a ruddy complexion and is colored from red and tan to dark brown and black. They have no hair, though straw and grasses may be matted onto their hands, feet and head. A squatting mugwumpkin appears to have a spherical shaped body. Clothing may be worn but it is strictly for costume or as part of a ritual. Their bodies may be ornamented with designs smeared in thick mud on their body.

Height and social position changes each dry season for a mugwumpkin. The height of a mugwumpkin depends on how wide the six-sided plate of mud was, that they rose from, when it dried. The taller a mugwumpkin is the more intelligent he will be. (At four and a half feet tall a mugwumpkins' Intelligence would be 11).

Wisdom is carried in marbles of earth called "wumps" that they use as currency. The "wealthiest" most frugal of mugwumpkins would have a Wisdom of 18. Often the most intelligent mugwumpkins also become the "wealthiest". Wump forms along the river bank as it dries and are collected by the mugwumpkins after they awaken. Wump must be held in an empty cavity inside the chest of a mugwumpkin for it to affect their Wisdom ability.

Most mugwumpkins are endlessly curious and will go to extreme measures to gain new or novel information. This includes languages, skills, what is in that book that mage keeps reading, or anything else that would seem fresh and inviting to an inquisitive mind. New information is to their mind almost as food is to a starving person. However, the content of the information is quickly lost if not used or practiced. The act of learning though causes new wump to be created and in the following summer it will show up in the bank of the river. When there has been enough wump accumulated it will result in the creation of a new mugwumpkin.

The mugwumpkins speak a language called Gnumarii. It sounds like rolling thunder. They do not speak Common but will learn any spoken language within minutes of hearing it.

Combat

The mugwumpkin are peaceful creatures that rarely fight unless attacked. However they are more than capable of defending themselves, and an entire family will quickly team together to drive off unwelcome intruders. They fight by hurling hard lumps of mud at their opponents, before closing to hammer away with their heavy arms.

Earth Mastery (Ex): A mugwumpkin gains a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls if both it and its foe are touching the ground. Against airborne creatures the mugwumpkin suffers -4 penalty on attack and damage rolls. (These modifiers are not included in the statistics block.)

Mudball (Su): As a standard action a mugwumpkin can gather and throw a ball of mud at a target up to 30ft. away. This requires a ranged attack with a range increment of 10 feet, and inflict 2d6 points of bludgeoning damage.

Stone Fist (Su): As a move action a mugwumpkin can reduce its Initiative by +1, gaining a +2 bonus to damage on all attack blows with fists. It requires a standard action to restore Initiative to normal, thereby losing the damage bonus.

Earth Glide (Ex): A mugwumpkin can glide through stone, dirt, or almost any other sort of earth except metal as easily as a fish swims through water. Its burrowing leaves behind no tunnel or hole, nor does it create any ripple or other signs of its presence. A move earth spell cast on the area where a mugwumpkin is located, flings it back 30 feet, stunning it for 1 round unless it succeeds on DC 15 Fortitude save.

Language Aptitude (Sp): Whenever a mugwumpkin hears a language spoken for more than 1 minute he is affected by a tongues spell (caster level equal to mugwumpkin's Hit Dice). A mugwumpkin can have multiple tongues spells active at once. Complete mastery of the language is accomplished within 24 hours of regular use. The language is forgotten after 1d4 weeks without regular use.

Wumps (Su): Mugwumpkins crystallize knowledge and information in an oily slurry that then form small balls of mud. These balls are called wumps. They use wumps as currency. The accumulation of wumps increases Wisdom for one dry season.

Skills: Due to its dense body and the dormancy cycle triggered by complete submersion, a mugwumpkin has a -8 racial penalty on Swim checks. Submerged mugwumps (even those "slain" and buried in the river) will reawaken after they are allowed to dry out completely.

Mugwumpkin Culture

Each season the rains come and wash away all traces of the Mugwumps. When the rains stop the muddy earth begins to dry. As it cracks and dries, bubbles form and expand. When the bubbles of mud have fully dried, the completely formed mugwumpkins stand and greet a new dry season. This happens along several rivers throughout the savannah.

A mugwumpkin family forms along the same river, and these rarely interact with other families from different rivers. Family organization are made up of 50–100 individuals; all adults of the same age. Their height ranges from 3 to 6 feet, with 4 ft. 6 in. being the average. The height of a mugwumpkin determines both the status in the family and their intelligence. Individuals of equal height refer to each other as mug, shorter or taller family members refer to each other as mugwump. Those thought to be children are simply smaller then average adults.

Names among the mugwumpkins are transient. One day a mugwumpkin might answer to "Slurry", the next day he is known as "Bhangi". No one changes their name; it just seems that a person is called by whatever type of mud they are most like on that day.

All mugwumpkin live near dry riverbeds in open undeveloped savannahs, dwelling in dugout mud caves and hollow mounds. The lifestyle is communal with some trading in a type of money called wump, which resemble small marbles of mud. These are traded for favors and given as gifts. Some even gamble with them.

The nature of this race of artists and scientists is one of duality. A lack of understanding and voracious curiosity mark this race of reclusive creatures with a conflicted nature. They have no interest in anything familiar to them, but are fascinated with all things novel. They are artistic, and driven to discover the world around them.

The mugwumpkins are master craftsmen in clay. Much of their daily activity centers on the creation of art of varying degrees of scale. These pieces are wrapped in heavy grasses and dry wood and set on the edge of the grassland to wait for their fire God to come and devour at the end of the season. These pieces of art are fired by the natural action of the seasonal fires on the grass land and become permanent ceramic sculpture.

Mugwumpkins have no interest in acquiring wealth in gold or technology, but will trade their skills with clay for any knowledge that is new to them. Magic is both feared and revered. Stealing is never heard of because property isn't recognized. If a Mug sees something that interests him, he will take it and drop it when he loses interest.

Mugwumpkins fear fire more then anything else. Fire can turn a mugwumpkin into a permanent statue of pottery. This fear is drawn from the understanding that once fired into ceramic all the life experience and wisdom contained in that mugwumpkin will be lost to the group forever. It is the closest thing to permanent death for these elemental kin.