Harpy

### Cry

From the moment harpies are hatched, they are raised to enjoy the pain and screams of their prey.

## Appearance

A harpy combines the body, legs, and wings of a bird with the torso and head of a human. Its wicked talons can crush the bones of their prey, making them a formidable threat in combat, and its eyes reflect the absolute evil of its soul. Many Harpies can actually be quite attractive. The women are slender and well built. The rare male are muscular and handsome. Some use this for good, but many for evil. With their song in hand, they lead many to their doom. Those who work to change the name tend to hide in cloaks. Contrary to popular belief, harpies' wings and arms are the same thing. They are not two different appendages meaning conventional weaponry is rarely used by harpies, but their talons and feathers vary. Some can have black, others blue; maybe even green or white. The talons grow to a malicious curve.

## Society

The harpies were once made up of many fragmented clans. In the last century the species has come together to form a single, united flock. Though individual families of this flock may live hundreds or thousands of planets away from the rest of their sisterhood, the overall leadership and management of the flock is a coordinated effort. A council made up of the matriarchs of each clan convenes each decade, presided over by the great matriarch, Talona. By combining their forces and maintaining a vast network of alliances and communications, the single harpy is backed by a million sisters.

A single harpy is a rare sight, and are more likely to be a scout for a much larger flock. Though some harpies prefer solitude to participation in the hierarchy of their warrior society.

Harpies often use Prehnite as a form of currency when trading or bartering amongst themselves, or with phantoms and demons, whom they consider natural allies.

Many harpies are evil, those who change to the neutral, or even on the rare case good sides are hated by other harpies. Any harpies going against their norms is frowned upon. Harpies also have a strong sense of pride. Be it in their looks, their fighting style, what they make, or what they kill. Trophies are common. Be it something as simple as a wood carving, or a skull strapped to their hips. In line with their sadistic nature, many chaotic harpies don the skulls of their kills around their hips.

Taking glee in suffering and death, the sadistic harpy is always on the hunt for prey. They have no interest in a fair fight, and they never attack unless they have a clear advantage. If a fight turns against a harpy, it is cunning enough to adapt or flee and pick the opponents off in rapid, sneak attacks.

When they attack, harpies play with their food, delighting in the "music" their victims make as they scream. A harpy takes its time dismembering a helpless foe and can spend days torturing a victim before the merciful end.

After a harpy has been tested in the battlefield, the new warrior will carve an intricate mask from bone and decorated with feathers to wear into future battles. They are worn to prevent identification of the individual harpy and its clan in battle, and to add to their intimidation factor, as they confront opponents with a frozen, emotionless face with nothing but the evil glint of their malicious eyes.

Harpy clutches are typically 2-4 eggs in size, and are predominantly female. A male child is a rare birth. Male harpies live a sequestered life, paradoxically occupying the highest and lowest position in the pecking order. Captive by the flock and at the mercy of clan matriarchs, and yet, a stolen male harpy is one of the few things that can stir the great Talona herself from her nest and drive the entire flock to war. Due to their rarity, male harpies are prohibited from participating in the battle or handling the mask of a warrior.

Marriage is foreign to them, as there may be only a single male for a whole flock of females, and she will more than likely leave and raise the child alone until they can talk, fly and fight. The men are there as mates and to look pretty in most harpies eyes. Subordinate to all his sisters, male harpies are frequently tasked to preserve the traditions and history of the flock, and to handle the day-to-day maintanence and cleaning. Harpy men are held separate from all ‘important’ dealings and are trained for obedience and beauty from early childhood on. Because males never leave the safety of their homes, many believe that all harpies are female.

Recently, harpies have been noted to carry packages for demon-kind. It's become a common practice for planets of the Gittish Empire to have a permanent harpy ambassador ensconced within their ranks. What this means for the rest of the universe remains to be seen.

## The Talona

The united harpies look to their great matriarch almost as a goddess. She is a thousand times higher than any other harpy, for she is the Talona. Her merest whim is the flock's highest law. And lawbreakers are punished.

Although she imposes and enforces the flock's laws, the harpies are not extremely regimented. The Talona does not much interfere in the squabbles of individual harpies, and she leaves them impose their own internal order among themselves.

Although on occassion, a mask decorated with the feathers molted from the great Talona herself may be granted to an individual. This is perhaps the greatest protection any harpy can have.

It's uncertain what the fate of the harpies will be if the Talona dies, there is no method of inheritance in place. Perhaps one of the Talona's daughters or advisors will take over power, though more than likely, the harpies will descend into bloody civil war as they each vye for power, and split once more into scattered, skirmishing flocks until a strong enough matriarch can rise again and re-unite their people into a single flock.

The Talona is always Neutral Evil.

## Names

The first names sometimes sound like mixes of french and german, or even babylonian or greek. Because a single male is likely to father many children, the majority of harpies in any flock are related to each other in some sense. Therefore, only harpies born in the same clutch are given the same surname, they do not share the names of their parents nor their siblings born at different times. Their surnames denotes relation only to those born in the same clutch, and are typically a description of the location or conditions of their birth.

For example, Ariala Windcarve is a name for a female harpy, and she may have a clutch-mate Markkus Windcarve, a name for a male harpy.

## Racial Traits

* **Age.** Harpies reach full maturity at age 10 but live up to 600 years old.
* **Alignment.** Harpies love to torture and taunt their prey, causing them to be considered evil above all else. Most harpies tend to lean towards neutral, but many are chaotic, and some lawful.
* **Size.** 5’-6’. Your size is Medium.
* **Speed.** Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
* **Wings.** Your arms also function as wings. You have a flying speed of 40 feet. To use this speed, you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armour. While flying, you cannot cast spells, and if you do not move at least half your speed during your turn, you fall to the ground. Making an Attack with a handheld melee weapon can be done while flying but requires you to land after the attempt. **+10**
* **Monstrous Nature.** Your creature type is considered to be both Humanoid and Monstrosity. **-1**
* **Pack Tactics**. You have advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of your allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn't incapacitated. **+8**
* **Talons.** You are proficient with your unarmed strikes which deals 1d4 slashing damage on a hit. **+1**
* **Languages.** You can speak, read, and write Common and one of Auran or Abyssal. **+1**
* **Subraces.** Two main subraces of Harpies populate Kadan: Flock and Prince. Choose one of these subraces. (Talona... ehhhhhhhhhhhh mayybbeeee I'll put it here just in case)

## Prince

One of the rare males of the flock. How have you wandered away from home? Has your entire flock been killed or are you a fugitive on the run?

* **Ability Score Increase.** Your Charisma score increases by 1. **+4**
* **Keeper of the Lore.** Choose two proficiencies from History, Religion, Performance, Arcana. **+5**
* **Trained in Arts.** You gain proficiency with the Artisan tools or Musical Instrument of your choice. **+1**
* ***Score Total: 29***

## Flock

A regular ol' harpy, if there is anything regular about harpies.

* **Ability Score Increase.** Your Dexterity score increases by 1. **+4**
* **Deadly Talons.**  Your talons become natural weapons with Finesse. **+1**
* **Savage Attacker.** When you score a critical hit with a melee weapon attack, you can roll one of the weapon’s damage dice one additional time and add it to the extra damage of the critical hit. **+3**
* **Favored by the Storm.** You know the Gust cantrip. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for it. **+2**
* ***Score Total: 29***

## Talona

This is mild, expect the Talona to be quite a bit stronger, and probably with an army of harpies.

* **One with the Flock.** You have all the traits of a flock harpy.
* **Ability Score Increase.** All of your ability scores increase by 1. **+16**
* **Mighty Wings.** Your flying speed increases to 50 ft. **+6**
* **Mighty Talons.** Your talons deal 1d8 slashing damage instead. **+8**
* **Harpy's Song.** You can cast the Vicious Mockery cantrip at will using this trait. You can cast Charm Person once and Enthrall once using this trait. You regain all expended uses of this trait when you complete a long rest. Wisdom is your spellcasting ability for these spells. **+6**
* ***Score Total: 56***

## Example Harpies

Markkus Windcarve, princeAriala WindcarveNetarvah Stonewatch, princeSetinada VeilvisionCacilie MesacliffEleonora StonewatchSavyra Stormcloud, TalonaKiarah Chillwind, firstborn