Phaerimm

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Phaerimms, also known as magicgrubs and thornbacks were malevolent and highly intelligent aberrations who were natural spell-casters.

"Phaerimm? Extremely powerful magic-using creatures, nearly all teeth, claws, and tail... Then they just up and disappeared one day. It must have taken something awfully strong to drive them away."

— Jarial the Sorcerer

Description

Phaerimms were conical in shape with ovoid heads. They had barbed teeth and a venomous hollow barb on the end of their tails. Phaerimms had four arms. Their spiked, slug-shaped bodies were a greenish color covered by rough, scaly, and leathery hides.

Personality

Wholly evil and sadistic, phaerimms were ambitious and malicious creatures that worked only for their own individual causes. They delighted in bringing pain to others and would gladly erase all other beings from existence, save for the fact that they would lack slaves to torture for sport if they did so. Their thought processes and values were wholly alien to most other races, however their inclination toward cruelty had the effect of making them somewhat predictable.
Phaerimms were formidable opponents in melee combat. Their tail was strong enough to knock over most humanoids. The stinger at the end of the tail injected a powerful venom into a target, causing paralysis. They used their four arms to great effect in combat. Each arm was able to wield a weapon independently. A common tactic used by phaerimms in combat was to simply grab an opponent to drag to their tooth-covered maws, delivering a usually fatal bite.
Despite these many strengths, most phaerimms felt that physical combat was only a last resort, and to engage in it was to admit that their magic was too weak to deal with a threat.

Abilities

Phaerimms were incredibly powerful spell-casters. Not only were they capable of casting far more spells than most Human mages, they had developed their own unique spells, which could only be cast by phaerimms. They specialized in mind-controlling spells, which were so strong that they could control nearly any creature, including powerful ones such as beholders and mind flayers. A negative side-effect of phaerimm magic was that it drained moisture from the surrounding area. Extensive use of this magic led to the creation of the infamous Anauroch desert.
All spells cast by a phaerimm were done through will alone; they did not require spell components or incantations. Their magical studies mainly composed of altering spells cast by humanoids to be cast in such a way.
Phaerimms had a degree of natural resistance to nearly all effects and spells. Additionally, they also had the natural ability to absorb or deflect any spell cast on them.[4] Phaerimm also had the ability to detect any magic.

Society

Phaerimms were solitary creatures but always lived near other phaerimms, both for protection and to gain pleasure from unleashing devious schemes on one another. A phaerimm always retained a retinue of enslaved creatures.[4] On the rare occasions when a group of phaerimms were threatened, they would form a WarGather at a strategically important location.
Phaerimms communicated with one another non-verbally by varying the wind speeds around their bodies. The phaerimm language was so complex it was usually incomprehensible to other creatures. It sounded like the whispering of strange winds. With non-phaerimms, they communicated telepathically. They understood Common and knew several other languages.
They did not maintain direct relations with non-phaerimm organizations or realms, instead relying on magically-enslaved agents to do their bidding beyond their territory.
Phaerimms had a particular hatred for tomb tappers, because of their immunity to phaerimm mind control.

Habitat

Phaerimms made their homes in fortified underground caves. Since this was where a phaerimm stored its magical items and spellbooks, they were defended by powerful magical traps, slaves, and spellfields. Most phaerimm lived in the Buried Realms beneath Valês' Anvil, but small groups lived elsewehere, such as in the ruins of Abriz.

Biology

Phaerimms would always choose to fly unless prevented from doing so. Phaerimms were carnivores, capturing mammals and reptiles, sentient or not, and holding them as slaves until slaughtered for consumption. Phaerimms had to live in an area that had magic. This was a result of their unique digestive tract. Their stomach acid and intestines relied on the presence of magic to digest and absorb nutrients properly.
Despite their windbag-like bodies, the bodies of phaerimms did include skeletons.
A phaerimm reproduced by injecting an egg into a victim with the stinger on its tail. The egg hatched within the paralyzed victim, and the larva began consuming the host alive from the inside. The larva could be killed safely only with the casting of a cure disease spell.
Phaerimms were capable of seeing any astral, incorporeal, or invisible creature within 120 feet. They were also able to see with darkvision to a distance of up to 160 feet away.

Appearance

Average length: 10‒12 ft
Skin color(s): Green
Distinctions: Windsock-shaped body, ovoid head dominated by tooth rimmed maw