The Sulak: Lurkers in the Dark

"Hanging these things is so much harder these days," she says, retrieving a bronze clasp from the two dozen in her bowl. She reaches upwards to pin the strip up to smoke.

"You are carrying more these days. The little one isn't getting any smaller!" He stuffs another bundle of straw into the kiln; having left his torc on the flat, sparing it his sweat. A child coos softly in a sling, softly sleeping, rocking suspended from over her shoulder. She retrieves another one of her sixteen bronze clasps.

"He is; he needs to get tall enough to hang them himself!" She stretches her back as he steps out of the smoke-hut, walking to the moist bundles, kept distant to protect the kindling. 'He will one day wear a torc like yours,' she thinks, 'Where did you leave that thing?' putting down the clasp she had been holding back among the twelve in her bowl. 'Did it fall beneath the kiln?'

Bending down, peering under the kiln...

A rat! A horned rat's head the size of her own - snapping; leaping out - sandy fur and a curved knife leading furious eyes!

The front door explodes open. Screaming.

The back door slinks. Closes.

Under the outhouse, a short - but thick - body splats into the muck; its satchel clanking, metal against metal inside. Two rat-faces in the darkness watching. "You were careless," their language - shrill and grating - yet a whisper, "You should have killed them!"

The slinking rat face snaps its teeth; snarls. Its helmet slinks to one side. 

It extends a claw. The two fat rats reach down and hoist it - and its satchel - onto a ledge. The three start into the tunnel - west. "See what you've gotten," chittering in the growing dark, "When we have gotten back in the Underway. When we are back in the Underway..."

They Make their Home in the Crags

The Sulak are small in stature - no larger than a child - but mothers use them to scare their children into being careful in new places: and many a Caanish will sleep at mooring rather than enter an unfamiliar town for fear that they might be lurking. They are thick set, with almost feline features, sandy colored fur resembling that of a rock hyrax, and knees that bend backward. They make their home in dark places - hiding in cracks and crevices - guardians of an underway hidden in the rocky badlands allowing them to sneak into and out of land-bound communities.

In dark places, in places where a man might be vulnerable - there, the Sulak wait: their eyes on his coin, their eyes on his jewelry - with prejudice, they will claw and hoard: returning to where ever it was they came from, having crippled their target and made off with more that glitters.

Encountering the Sulak

Sulak are light of foot and preternaturally quiet. They lurk in dark places, in rocky places, and in infrequent corners - avoiding direct sunlight (it makes them sleepy).

Sulak
Armor Class:	7	No. Appearing:	1-8 (8-64)
Hit Dice:	1-1	Save As:	Normal Man
Move:	90' (30')	Morale:	8
Attacks:	1 weapon	Treasure Type:	Q (C)
Damage:	1-6 or by weapon	Alignment:	Chaotic
Frequency:	Common	Chance In Lair:	10%

Sulak are between 33 and 39 inches in height, tending to weigh around 40 pounds. Their fur protects them somewhat - though they rely on stealth for the majority of their safeguards. Preferred weapons tend to be ranged - crossbows, thrown weapons - but in a close fight, they are known to carry kris-styled daggers.

As a whole, the Sulak tend to be greedy - they take more than they need, they steal from those who have more and those who have less, and they hoard what they have behind traps, locks, and other deterrents. They prefer to sneak around rather than engage in a fight - but if they do, they will engage on terms as unfair to their adversaries as they are capable of arranging. After all, you can't eat your stolen tart if you're gutted in the stealing.

Backbite - the Sulak, knowing their size limitations, work diligently to avoid a fair fight. Representing this affinity, a Sulak which attacks from surprise deals double damage and, when withdrawing from a melee, may roll a Save vs Death to move at their full speed. Additionally, pads in their feet make them preternaturally quiet when the move - increasing their chance to surprise an enemy to 4-in-6.

Cave Climbers - the Sulak are expert climbers and benefit from the Thief's Climb Sheer Surfaces skill, of level according to their hit die. Additionally, they benefit from infravision out to 60 feet.

Spoiler Alert!

The Deeper Lore section contains some notes to help a GM (me) to run the Sulak in a way consistent with the archetype they are supposed to fill and some of the inspirations behind their creation. If you play in (or want to play in!) a game GM'ed by me, beyond this point will ruin some of the mystery for you for both Sulak and for most of the sentient races: having some impact in the game world that isn't immediately available outside of player character discoveries.

Deeper Lore

Being called a "lurker" by the Caanish is somewhat of a mistaken understanding - in that they don't tend to lurk and wait for a human to ambush. Instead, they are most commonly encountered by accident: when they are in the middle of some other misdeed.

The natural life span of a Sulak is much shorter than that of a Human: reaching full maturity at 6 years and rarely living past 30. They reproduce in litters of 3-12 and, though they do care for their young - said young being seen as an extension, property in a sense, of the parent - the survivability is lower than other races. Sulak are untrustworthy and routinely betray one another in pursuit of personal gain. Their loyalties are based on blood - so, a sibling or offspring is closer than a cousin or clan-mate, which is in turn closer than a non-clan colleague in simple proximity or association: but at the end of the day, the individual Sulak is still number one.

The Sulak are a Vice Race - an embodiment of Greed. They are thus conniving and covetous, moderately impatient - always looking for ways to obtain more for themselves and their own. They are natural thieves and will avoid conflict, if possible, unless their odds are totally overwhelming and said conflict would serve their interests more quickly than stealth. The Chaos Seed of the Sulak was bestowed by the Rabisu - a semi-corporeal demon which feeds on the life-blood of living beings as a vampire to survive and a peer of the Akhkhazu in the celestial order, but bound to the Peccata Clamantia of Fraud, or Defrauding. They were charged with the corruption of mankind by a Lord of Chaos, Namar - who seeds plague where he steps.

A Sulak may, as a Vice Race, be redeemed - unbeknownst to the larger world, as usual. If such redeeming occurs, the Sulak - regardless of its own life-stage (youth, adulthood, decrepitude, etc.) it will return as a Human of the same age. Thus, a Sulak of an established adult age - say, 9 - will morph into a mere child.

 

Public domain artwork respectfully pilfered from OldBookIllustrations.com on or about 9/23/2020 and edited for thematic use. Attributions in alt text.