Nethling (Creature)

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Neths children are formed directly from the substance of the Demiplane That Lives. As such, each child is an “avatar” of Neth, going forth from its parent to search for meaning on the Ethereal Plane.
Neth's children take many forms, depending upon the particular purpose for which they were formed. Those that serve as Neth's ethernoughts have a base form and an active form. The base form is that of a pinkish circular membrane, 10 feet in diameter and a few inches thick, which abruptly thickens at the center to form a brownish fleshy bulb measuring some 1 foot in diameter. The undulations of the membrane serve to propel each child through the ethereal medium.
When confronted with other entities of the Ethereal Plane, a nethling usually takes on active form by attempting to mimic the general form of those it has encountered. First, the nethling's central bulb extmdes a rough face, then head, neck, torso, and so on, as it pulls in and absorbs its undulating membrane for material, until finally the entire mass of the creature is utilized to create the desired form. This process takes 1 round, after which the nethling roughly resembles the mimicked creature's race but not the individual. No weapons, items, or clothing are mimicked, and the child retains its pink and brown coloration. Once a nethling has mimicked a particular form, it can call upon that same form for future form shifts, if necessary.
Once in active form, the child speaks in one of the languages “programmed” into it by its parent-this language includes the planar trade tongue commonly spoken in Sigil and among etherfarers. In effect, Neth's children are extensions of Neth, and so do not recognize themselves as freefloating, free-willed entities. If they ever return to Neth, they are reabsorbed into the living demiplane for transferal of any gained knowledge. The nethling's first words to those it encounters are invariably, “Neth has questions.”
A nethling's questions include the following:
* Where am I?
* Ethereal Plane? What is Ethereal?
* There are more places than Neth and the Ethereal?
* Are you of Neth? Who are you of?
* What is free will?
Those who attempt to answer any of the questions posed by the child satisfy it to some extent, but because the child knows so little ahout cosmology in general, and even less of the possibility of whole worlds each filled with countless unique individual organisms, answered questions pose yet more questions. At some point, those being interrogated likely tire of the questioning and seek to break away. At this point, the child makes an encounter check on Table 59: Encounter Reactions in the DUNGEON MASTER Guide. Any result besides hostile means the child is happy with what it has learned, and either leaves or just stops asking questions and “tags along” with those it has just questioned. A hostile result means that the child is not yet satisfied, and thus instantly seeks to absorb one or more of those it just questioned in order to extract more answers directly.
Very rarely, a child goes rogue. It gains an independent existence beyond serving merely as an extension of Neth. Rogue children usually take on a favored active form, hone the mimicry to perfection, and attempt to make a life for themselves apart from their parent. 'Course, even selfaware children are still of Neth and must always fight the inbred compulsion to return and be reabsorbed into the Demiplane That Lives. Independent children may become player characters, as described on Nethling (Player Character) page.
==Combat==
SA - Absorption: When attempting to absorb other organic beings, a nethling can strike with an open palm (or other appendage) while in humanoid form. Foes struck suffer 1d1O points of damage from the acidlike surface of the palm. If the nethling succeeds at the attack by 4 or more, it automatically reverts to its base form and begins to absorb the victim at a rate of 1d10+4 hit points each round. When the victim reaches -10 hit points, he is completely absorbed and the nethling gains 1d10 of the victim's memories (spells count as memories). While a victim is being absorbed in this way, those who attempt to tear the nethling away physically only place their own hands into the child and are in turn absorbed. The only way to stop the absorption is to kill the creature outright
Category:Creatures
Category:Sentient Creatures
Category:A Guide to the Ethereal Plane Creatures