Grippli

## Overview

Grippli are deeply spiritual swampfolk who live in the warmer climes of Gleam. While grippli settlements are usually reclusive hunter-gatherer societies, those who live in the wider world lose none of their tendency to see great signs in small things or their sensitivity to minute changes that would otherwise go unnoticed. The world of grippli is one where life and death are inescapable parts of a larger whole, as insects and fish must perish for the grippli to survive, just as unlucky grippli are often hunted and killed by larger predators within the swamp. All these parts flow together - insects, fish, mud, water, sky, and grippli - and the frogfolk hesitate to limit cause and effect between them. The scent of wind may foretell a storm and the texture of mud may help predict a dry season, which grippli see as spirits of the land and ancestors making themselves known and giving aid. This tendency to assign meaning and connect events doesn't lessen in proper civilization as grippli see the influence of spirits in cosmopolitan social interaction and urban construction. Though their displays and rituals become less public, especially when the Inquisition is near, grippli find it extremely difficult to avoid seeing the allusions and messages conveyed to them through seemingly mundane situations.

## Mechanics

### Standard Racial Traits

* **Ability Score Racial Traits**: Gripplis are nimble and alert, but spindly. They gain +2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, and –2 Strength.
* **Size**: Gripplis are Small creatures and thus gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
* **Type**: Gripplis are humanoids with the grippli subtype.
* **Base Speed**: Gripplis have a base speed of 30 feet and a climb speed of 20 feet.
* **Languages**: Gripplis begin play speaking Grippli. Gripplis with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Boggard, Draconic, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, and Sylvan.

### Feat and Skill Racial Traits

* **Camouflage**: Gripplis receive a +4 racial bonus on Stealth checks in marshes and forested areas.

### Movement Racial Traits

* **Swamp Stride (Ex)** A grippli can move through difficult terrain at its normal speed while within a swamp. Magically altered terrain affects a grippli normally.

### Offense Racial Traits

* **Familiarity**: Gripplis are proficient with nets.

### Senses Racial Traits

* **Darkvision**: Gripplis can see perfectly in the dark up to 60 feet.

## Society

Grippli society is relatively equal, with most in grippli settlements hunting, gathering, building, guarding, smithing, and engaging in other roles necessary for function. Elders, shamans, alchemists, spiritual mediums, and seers hold authority among the reclusive grippli and direct each settlment towards the proper allocation of roles and resources in order to survive and thrive in their subsistence lifestyle. Grippli who live in mixed, more civilized settlements are no less talented, and thus often become hunters, explorers, scout, herbalists, alchemists, blacksmiths, or diviners as they offer their services. However, perhaps due to the perceived spiritual power of royalty, grippli who are raised outside of racial enclaves often gravitate to aristocratic responsibilities and roles, taking on noble mannerisms despite their common blood. Though usually disregarded by actual nobles, such refined grippli often make up a curious middle class of skilled workers whose eloquency and professionalism elevate them above their peers.

## Religion

Racial enclaves of grippli rarely venerate any gods at all due to ignorance of their existence, and those that they are aware of are simply considered especially influential spirits. It takes a converted effort by Inquisition evangelists to alter this perception, and many grippli villages revert back to their traditional ways after placating them. Grippli who experience the wider world almost always venerate Basang Ba, whose godhood is a testament to the truth of the spirits and their power. Many also worship Ketar Mozog's Apparition, who they believe aids them in gleaning meaning from the world, as well as Alessandra Juntoso and Masik, who naturally mediate the crossing-over of life into death. Those grippli who find aristocratic mannerisms attractive often worship Dowager Empress Kyouko, occasionally to idealized and unhealthy degrees.

## Relations

Grippli rarely have a common relationship with deities, so aasimar, aphorites, tieflings, and ganzi are either very grateful to meet them as the grippli will treat them independently of their divine parentage, or find them grating due to their rather mundane and disrespectful treatment of the gods.

Changelings enjoy the authority given to them by the spiritual grippli, but some grow tired of being treated as constantly supernatural when they would rather just fit in.

Grippli-descended dhampir live among the frogfolk with ease, but any other type is driven away without mercy.

Drelmans and parmans value grippli more for their potential as trading partners or vassals than anything else, as drelmans find their spirituality threatening and parmans interpret it as a performance.

Drow, kitsune, and ghorans are so strange to grippli that they are treated as spirits instead of people, which the drow find pitiful, the kitsune find hilarious, and the ghoran just find disorienting.

Duergar with no prior experience tend to mistake grippli as monsters or food and treat them as such.

Dwarves and vanara pity grippli for having to rely on an oral history, with dwarves attempting to trade permanent objects and writing materials to them, and vanara seeking to convince them to let go of their history altogether.

Gnomes and elves are both welcome guests to a grippli, although an elf's incorrect assumptions about their spiritual traditions often raise their ire over time without the notice of the elf, leading to a rude awakening.

Fetchlings and ganzi enjoy speaking with grippli to share tales and trade, although their settlements usually lack new things to learn or experience so fetchlings rarely stay longer than necessary.

Halflings and oreads love having the perceptive and reliable grippli as neighbors, with halflings introducing new luxuries to the frogfolk while oreads quietly extend their patrols and defenses to ensure that both groups benefit.

Hobgoblins view grippli as a source of bog iron and nothing else.

Ifrits, sylphs, and orcs all tend to not think of grippli at all, finding them relatively boring, but orcs tend to be able to hold a conversation with grippli about spiritual matters competently.

Lizardfolk and grippli are some of the closest allies one can find, and though they live their lives at different paces, the two are always able and willing to understand and relate to each other.

Kobolds and suli tend to find the grippli either completely uncivilized or sycophantic, as the presence that kobolds command comes off as noble to grippli who don't know better, and the mannerisms of suli seem noble to the grippli that do.

Nagaji tend to find the bulging eyes and spiritual messages of the grippli reminiscent of their naga masters and dislike being around them as a result.

Ratfolk and tengu both consider grippli to be savages, but ratfolk use this as an excuse to trample on grippli settlements, while tengu take it as an opportunity to romanticize grippli life and history.

Skinwalkers are often dismayed by the uncanny ability of grippli to know about their true nature, but are just as quickly disarmed and gladdened by the frogfolk's easy acceptance of it.

Grippli are occasionally able to see through the stoic face of undines with as much ease, although the reaction in that case is not friendliness, but rage and offense at them for having invaded the undine's privacy.

Grippli welcome goblins among their number with ease - like other races, they bring news and trade. Unlike other races, no comedy is better than a goblin's enthusiastic impersonations and no goods are more interesting than their random odds and ends which are brimming with spiritual power more often than not.

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