Wednesday, September 28, 2011

"V" is for "Var-King"

Var-King

No. Enc.:  1d6 (3d8)
Alignment:  Chaotic
Movement:  75' (25')
  —Burrow:  30' (10')
  —Fly:  60' (20')
Armor Class:  6
Hit Dice:  6
Attacks:  2 or 1 (2 claws, or weapon)
Damage:  1d6 / 1d6, or by weapon
Save:  L6
Morale:  7
Hoard Class:  XVIII, XXI
XP:  1,570

The Var-King are a subterranean race of cunning, nasty, and duplicitous beings that are infamous for their hoarding and greed.  They stand 4' tall, and have long tails, long tongues, and leathery, purplish hides covered in coarse hair.  The Var-King favor arid climates.

Treachery is an institutionalized vice virtue in Var-King society.  One of their favorite schemes is to sell overpriced artifacts to remote villages, and then sneakily tunnel up from below to steal the devices back to sell all over again.  Essentially, the Var-King are the twisted reflections of the Meen'go, and the two races despise—and frequently wage war against—one another.

When venturing to the surface, the Var-King wear protective goggles and sensory gadgets to counteract their Vision Impairments.  And they keep their Psionic Flight and Teleport mutations secret, and spring them on their foes at the most advantageous times.

Racial epithets directed against the Var-King abound in the Mutant Future, including "var-cons", "aardvillains", "sand-swindlers", and "var-crooks".

Mutations:  Intellectual Affinity (Tinkerer), Prehensile Limb (Tongue), Psionic Flight, Teleport, Vision Impairment (Light Sensitivity) [D]