Mythic Ancestries

Taken from mediaeval bestiaries, myths, and legends from around the world, these are new ancestries for player characters in your Shadowdark campaigns.

Chaneque (Ancestry)

The Chaneques are a fey race about half the size of a human with wizened, wrinkled faces. They are known for loving jokes and pranks, gambling, drinking, and crafting. They typically live in deep forests and mountainous terrain.

Chaneques speak Common, Sylvan, and their own native language.

Furry Form. A Chaneque can turn into a furry forest animal such as a badger, rat, or fox of equal or lower level once per day for 1 round per level.

Cynocephali (Ancestry)

Furry humanoids with canine heads, the Dog-Headed People live in packs and dwell on the fringes of civilization, usually working as peaceful hunters and farmers, but in times of famine or plague they can become predatory and have been known to kill and eat other humanoid races.

Cynocephali speak Common and a language of their own composed of barks, yips, and howls.

Natural Trackers. Cynocephali have a keen sense of smell and gain advantage to track by scent or detect any specific odour they have smelled before.

Menehune

Tiny but burly folk, half the size of a normal human, with dark, reddish skin and black hair who dwell on tropical islands, in dense rain forests, the Menehune are stealthy and shy, but excel as stoneworkers.

You know Common and the native Menehune language, which includes many sounds like those of jungle animals.

Shy and Cunning. All Menehune receive a +2 bonus on all checks to use stealth in jungles and to craft stone. They can craft an item of stone in half the normal time.

New Magic Item

Menehune Love Arrows

Only the menehune know the secret to creating the enchanted heads of these arrows. Each one has a crude looking obsidian head with sharp edges, and has been given an especially distracting enchantment.

Benefit. These +1 magic arrows can be switched on command to “love arrows” that do 0 hp damage but require any target struck to make a DC 12 WIS check or fall madly in love with the next creature seen and seek to immediately consummate this new romantic desire.

Nûñnë'hï (Ancestry)

Slender, red-skinned fey inhabitants of the deep woods and underground, the Nunnehi are mysterious and subtle, with a deep knowledge of medicine and the spirit world. They seem immortal to the ordinary humans around them, being naturally long lived and not appearing to age.

You speak Common, Sylvan, and your native Nunnehi language .

Blend into Nature. Nunnehi gain advantage to hide and sneak checks when they are lightly obscured by foliage, heavy rain, falling snow, mist, and other natural phenomena.

New Weapon

Weapon Cost Type Range Damage Properties

Tomahawk 6gp M/R C/N 1d6 F, Th

Trollborn (Ancestry)

Trollborn are half human and half troll, making them larger (up to 7 feet tall) and burlier than normal humans, but giving them an ugly and fearsome countenance. They are cunning, secretive, and rebellious. Their bad temper and fearsome appearance makes them intimidating and people avoid upsetting them when possible, but they can be slick liars when necessary. They are known as both mighty warriors and shrewd arcanists.

You know the Common (or Norse) and Trollish languages.

Fearsome and Cunning. Trollborn gain a +1 bonus to either mêlée attacks or casting checks or receive a +1 on Charisma checks to intimidate and deceive others.

Wakyambi (Ancestry)

Ebony feys of a tropical rain-forest, the Wakyambi a petite and limber, have slightly pointed ears, and possess fleshy tails. An arboreal people, they dwell in treetops and can be seen leaping from branch to branch and tree to tree, avoiding the ground. They are typically compassionate and nurturing, but sometimes in a way that strikes other races as patronising. Strict vegetarians, they cannot digest meat.

You speak Common, Sylvan, and the indigenous Wakyambi language.

Arboreal Dweller. You gain advantage on checks to climb or jump if you have no armour and less than half your gear slots full.