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Nixie

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Nixies are a minor spacefaring race in the Spelljammer campaign setting.[1][2]

Overview[]

Nixies are water sprites that typically live in fresh water lakes,[2] though they do have spaceborn communities in wildspace. One such community was destroyed by the Ravager, forcing the few survivors to flee into the Hive in hopes of establishing a new home. Unfortunately, they fell foul of Grull-Ghohruh, the slow spell incarnation.[3]

Description[]

Nixies are slim and comely, with webbed fingers and toes, pointed ears, and wide silver eyes. They also have lightly scaled, pale green skin and dark green hair. Females often twine shells and pearl-strings into their thick hair, and dress in tight-fitting wraps woven from colorful seaweeds, while males wear loincloths made of the same materials. Nixies can breath both water and air, and can travel on land, though they prefer not to leave the comfort of their watery homes. Nixies speak their own language and the common trade tongue.[2]

Behavior[]

While nixies aren't particularly hostile towards humans, they delight in enslaving men and using them as beasts of burden.[2]

Combat[]

Nixies carry long daggers and javelins, which can be used as spears under water or can be thrown. Occasionally, nixies employ fishing nets in battle against opponents who are in the water with them, but it takes 10 nixies to ensnare a single human-sized target. Sometimes nixies are accompanied by their guardian fish in battle, including giant gar or pike.

If one or more humans approach within 30-feet of a group of nixies, the fey can pool their magic to create a powerful charm spell (one such spell for every 10 nixies). Once a person is charmed, but before they enter the water, there is a chance that a dispel magic spell will break the charm. However, once they enter the water, the chance of dispelling the charm drops significantly. Nixies typically keep their charmed slaves for one full year (365 days), forcing them to do all their heavy labor, but thereafter the charm wears off and the victim is set free. During their enslavement, the nixies will maintain a water breathing spell on the human captive. Nixies can cast this spell on any creature, or dispel it, once per day.

Even with their magic resistance, nixies fear fire and very bright lights, so a flaming sword or a light spell will keep them at bay. Nixies will try to negate a continual light spell by summoning a school of small fish to crowd around the light and dim it.[2]

Society[]

Nixies can be found throughout the Known Worlds, and there is a small community living in the oxywater mantle of the water world Thalassa.[4] Their dwellings are usually woven from living seaweed, providing natural camouflage and ensuring their homes can't be detected from farther than 20-feet away. Nixies keep giant fish, such as gar or pike, as guards, and these are taught to obey simple commands. Small, bright ornamental fish are kept as pets and trained to perform elaborate tricks. Trout, bass, and catfish are herded as food. Nixies can also summon up to 100 small fish within 3 minutes.

Nixie tribes are ruled by an Acquar ("water mother"), a hereditary position held by a direct descendant of the original founding ancestor of that particular tribe. She settles major disputes and chooses the most apt warrior to be the S'oquar, the warlord of the tribe responsible for hunting and defense. The Acquar is advised by a council of elders, whose spokesperson is called the L'uquar, the keeper of the tribe's oral history. Intertribal rivalries are often fierce, and females are sometimes kidnapped as brides, for nixies are polygamists, with each male having two to three wives. Birth rates in the tribes are high but many children are lost in their first years, so the overall population growth is quite slow. Nixies can live for several centuries, and worship water and nature deities.[2]

Signature Spelljammers[]

Spacefaring nixies have been known to use the Wasp-class ship,[5] a design specifically created by the semi-aquatic lizardfolk.

Appendix[]

External Links[]

References[]

  1. ↑ Allen Varney, SJA1 Wildspace, 1990, (TSR Inc.), room 9: Shell Game, pages 37 and 39-40
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Tim Beach et al, Monstrous Manual, 1993, (TSR Inc.), Sprite entry, pages 328-330
  3. ↑ Allen Varney, SJA1 Wildspace, 1990, (TSR Inc.), room 9: Shell Game, page 37
  4. ↑ Nigel D. Findley, SJR4 Practical Planetology, 1991, (TSR Inc.), Thalassa section, chapter 4 Water Bodies, page 26
  5. ↑ Allen Varney, SJA1 Wildspace, 1990, (TSR Inc.), room 5: Ricochets, page 30
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