DWORGS of Midnight

[The Hive Mind]

Dworgs are perhaps the most unfortunate race in the history of Eredane. These bastard children are the misbegotten fruit of orc raids against the dwarves and are very rare. Those that are not murdered at birth suffer a lifetime of abuse as outcasts from their own kind. Most are killed in fights with their clansmen by the time they reach adulthood. Those that survive are usually banished from the clan and forced to make their way alone.

Many of these unfortunates find their way to the Durgis clan of the Kurgun. This alienated, half-wild clan of surface dwarves has a long reputation of accepting any dwarven outcast from other clans. The kinship dworgs find among the Durgis instills them with a rabid dedication to their adopted clan that few full-blooded dwarves can honestly claim.

Dworgs combine the strength of their orc fathers and the fortitude of their dwarven mothers and the result is the most physically imposing race in all the lands. Dworgs have the build and proportions of their dwarven kin but are almost as tall as humans. They have the wild eyes and heavy skulls of their orc parents as well as their gray skin, manelike hair, and large canines.

If any race hates orcs more than the full-blooded dwarves, it is the dworgs. They blame their orc fathers for
their lives as outcasts and seem to take a measure of revenge with every orc they kill. The Durgis sent a host of dworg infantry to fight in what became the Last Battle with Izrador. The dwarven war ballads about that war are the only ones that have ever praised the valor and ferocity of their dworg kin.

DWORG RACIAL TRAITS

• +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, –2 Intelligence, –2 Charisma: Dworgs are strong and tough, but their orc heritage makes them dull and brutish.
• Medium: As Medium creatures, dworgs have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Dworg base land speed is 30 feet.
• Weapon Familiarity: Dworgs may choose either dwarven waraxe, dwarven urgosh, or urutuk hatchets; they may treat the chosen weapon as a martial weapon rather than as an exotic weapon.
• Favored Region: Kaladrun Mountains.
• Darkvision: Dworgs can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and dworgs can function just fine with no light at all.
• Minor light sensitivity: Dworgs in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell must make a Fortitude save (DC 15 for sunlight, or the save DC of the spell) or suffer a –1 penalty on attack rolls as long as they remain in the lighted area. Dworgs are not as sensitive to bright light as their orc parents, but they nevertheless function more effectively in the dark.
• Kurgun or Clan: A dwarrow can choose either the clan dwarf stonecunning traits or the Kurgun dwarf natural mountaineer traits.
• Spell Resistant: The bloodlines of both their parents combine in dworgs to ensure that they are innately resistant to magic. They gain a +2 racial bonus on saves against spells and spell-like effects, but those with spell energy have two fewer points of spell energy than they otherwise would.
• +2 racial bonus on all saving throws. Dworgs are a rugged race and learn at an early age to be on the constant lookout for trouble.
• +2 racial bonus on attack rolls against orcs and their kind. Dworgs hate orcs even more than full-blooded dwarves do.
• Dwarf and Orc Blood: For all special abilities and effects, dworgs are considered dwarves and orcs. Dworgs, for example, can use magic items with racially specific orc or dwarf powers as if they were orcs or dwarves.
• Automatic Languages: Clan Dialect, Old Dwarven (1), Orcish (1). Bonus Languages: Other Clan Dialect, Trader’s Tongue.
• Favored Class: Barbarian. A multiclass dworg’s barbarian class does not count when determining whether he suffers an XP penalty for multiclassing.