Anubis is not much visited, as the Yu-Tsa-Ai have a tendency to experiment on visitors if they catch them, but a few surviving victims of the Yu-Tsa-Ai's mind swap ability have reported a world of high mountains, glaciers and ice fields, lit only by the distant light of the stars and the glare of the rare volcano. No exact count of Yu-Tsa-Ai cities has ever been made as they are hard to spot, being composed of squat mushroom-like buildings of native stone, and completely unlit.
Strange monsters, some fungoid and some partly immaterial roam the lands between the cities. These include Shriekers, Violet Fungus, Phantom Fungus, a fungal version of Shambling Mounds, a more nasty version of the Selene Mushroom Monsters, Shadows, Shadow Mastiffs, and Mist Giants (see below).
YU-TSA-AI, the Masters of Anubis
Medium Aberration
Hit Dice: 2d8+2 (11 hp)
Initiative: +2
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares), fly 30 ft. (poor)
Armor Class: 20 (+6 natural, +2 Dex, +2 Deflection), Touch 14, Flat-footed 18
Base Attack/Grapple: +1/+1
Attack: Crushing Nipper +1 melee 1d8 (20/x3) bludgeoning or Cutting Nipper +1 melee 1d6 (19-20/x2) slashing or weapon
Full Attack: Crushing Nipper +1 melee 1d8 (20/x3) bludgeoning and Cutting Nipper -1 melee 1d6 (19-20/x2) slashing, or weapon
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Possibly spells, Mind Swap
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., Blind sight, resistance to cold/10, wings, force cocoon, telepathy.
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +5
Abilities: Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 17, Wis 15, Cha 6
Skills: Concentration +6, Disable Device +10, Hide +6, Knowledge (any 1) +8, Move Silently +6, Search +7
Feats: Multiattack(B), Fly-by Attack
Environment: Any, including Wildspace
Organization: Solitary, pair, work gang (2-7), research group (1-4 scholars, 2-5 protectors, 2-8 workers) or city.
Challenge Rating: CR 2
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually Lawful Evil
Advancement: By character class
Level Adjustment: +2
A hideous cross between a crustacean and a fungus, a Yu-Tsa-Ai looks rather like an upright, man-sized white lobster shell stuffed overflowing with spoiled whipped cream, and topped with a mass of constantly waving thin black tentacles. Their minds are no nicer than their appearance, being vast, powerful, and totally unsympathetic to the goals or purposes of any form of life other than their own. The one overriding goal of Yu-Tsa-Ai society is the accumulation of knowledge.
Yu-Tsa-Ai are sexless, and reproduce via sporation. The young form in sheltered spots near Yu-Tsa-Ai cities, and are collected by workers when old enough to be taught how to communicate telepathically. Yu-Tsa-Ai do not have voices, and do not need to breathe, being essentially fungi and not animals. They do need to eat, and prefer flesh but can subsist on practically anything organic. The Yu-Tsa-Ai are a long-lived race, typically living to over a 1000 years in age.
The Yu-Tsa-Ai are an ancient race, whose origin lies in a alien sphere far distant from Maj Space. The Yu-Tsa-Ai of Maj Space are an exiled faction, who fled across the spheres in metal and crystal spelljammers, settling on Anubis and the far side of Selene after long wandering (although they have since abandoned Selene, leaving behind their puzzling stone cities and perhaps the mushroom forests). They are believed to have taken a few alien artifacts of great power with them into exile. One of these was possibly used to move Anubis to its current orbit.
The Yu-Tsa-Ai have little commerce with Men or Elves or Scro, seizing any visitors to their cold world for experiments. However, they are known to buy slaves as experimental subjects and for menial labor from the Neogi and the Mindflayers (with whom they have little cause for conflict, having no distinct separate brains, their intelligence being evenly distributed throughout their body), and it is entirely possible that they deal from time to time with the Mercane.
Special Abilities:
Wings (Su): All Yu-Tsa-Ai can create wings of pure force as a full-round action. The wings are somewhat awkward, and a Yu-Tsa-Ai on the ground with their wings manifested has its dexterity reduced by 2. With their wings extended, Yu-Tsa-Ai can fly as described above. These wings may also be used to move them through Wildspace at spelljamming speed. In tactical mode they have a SR of 2 and a Maneuverability Class of A. Their wings do not, however, function in the phlogiston, forcing them to use spelljammers for travel between the spheres.
Force Cocoon (Su): Yu-Tsa-Ai can project a force cocoon to protect them against the rigors of Wildspace. This cocoon also gives them the +2 deflection bonus to their AC noted above (this aspect works at all times).
Telepathy (Su): Yu-Tsa-Ai can communicate telepathically with any intelligent creature within 100'.
Castes:
The Yu-Tsa-Ai are divided into a number of specialized casts.
Workers: The bulk of the Yu-Tsa-Ai fall into this category. Workers do not usually have levels in addition to their aberration hit dice or additional special powers. They are, however, quite intelligent.
Scholars
This is the Yu-Tsa-Ai's ruling caste, and a Yu-Tsa-Ai scholar only lives for knowledge. They typically have levels in expert or wizard (and if your campaign uses psionics, psion is possible as well; if your campaign uses Heroes of Horror, then archivists are also reasonable). They have the following additional special power which they use to gather information:
Mind Switch (Su): A Yu-Tsa-Ai scholar may switch minds with a helpless or willing intelligent creature that they are in physical contact with, for up to 8 hours at a time. During this time, the Yu-Tsa-Ai's body with the subject's mind in it is paralyzed and helpless. When the 8 hours are up, the minds switch back to their respective bodies, regardless of the distance. If either the subject or the scholar's body is killed while the switch is in process, then either the subject is permanently trapped in the Yu-Tsa-Ai's body, which becomes unparalyzed after the 8 hours is up, or the scholar is permanently trapped in the subject's body. While trapped in the Yu-Tsa-Ai's body, the subject has access to some of the creature's memories -- this is how most knowledge of this race has been obtained (the reverse also applies to the scholar).
Priests
These are priests of the Yu-Tsa-Ai's unnamed god, and thus, as you might expect, have levels in cleric. The domains of the Yu-Tsa-Ai's god (referred to by some GLU scholars as "The Great Fungus") are Law, Evil, Magic, Knowledge and Force.
Protectors
Protectors are the elite fighting force of the Yu-Tsa-Ai. They usually have levels in fighter, monk or rogue (and, if you use psionics, psychic warrior), or a combination of these. Protectors are more likely than other Yu-Tsa-Ai to use manufactured weapons.
Giant Protectors
Rare and semi-legendary, giant protectors are large instead of medium (with the usual increase in the damage of their natural weapons for size), have a BAB/Grapple of +3/+11, Str of 18, and an Int of 12. They will usually have levels in Barbarian, and are Neutral Evil instead of Lawful Evil.
Special Equipment: Yu-Tsa-Ai can not easily wear armor, but they can have their carapace enchanted as if it were armor. Similarly, they can have enchantment placed on their pincers.
Mist Giant
Gargantuan Outsider (Incorporeal)
Hit Dice: 10d8 (45 hp)
Initiative: +0
Speed: 40 ft. (8 squares)
Armor Class: 13 (-4 size, +5 deflection, +2 Dex), touch 13, flat-footed 11
Base Attack/Grapple: +10/-
Attack: Incorporeal touch +10 melee (1d6 plus 1d6 Str)
Full Attack: Incorporeal touch +10 melee (1d6 plus 1d6 Str)
Space/Reach: 20 ft./20 ft.
Special Attacks: Strength damage
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft., incorporeal traits, sunlight, powerlessness, unnatural aura
Saves: Fort +10, Ref +12, Will +15
Abilities: Str 0, Dex 14, Con 0, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 20
Skills: Intimidate +12, Knowledge (The Planes) +13, Listen +13, Search +13, Spot +13
Feats: Weapon Focus Touch Attack, Weapon Finesse, Quick Recovery, Greater Weapon Focus Touch
Environment: Anubis
Organization: Solitary, gang (2-4)
Challenge Rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always neutral evil
Advancement: ????
Level Adjustment: -
Odd glowing giants, almost 40 feet in height, but not much thicker than a piece of paper, these curious creatures resemble nothing so much as giant, misty, paper cutouts. They wander Anubis in small groups, draining the strength of any corporeal life forms they encounter. It is unknown where they came from, but it is theorized that the Mist Giants had actually been sent to hunt the Yu-Tsa-Ai by the enemies the Yu-Tsa-Ai had fled, but they had been trapped on Anubis by the powerful magics the fungal creatures had brought with them.
Combat
In close combat a Mist Giant attacks with its numbing, strength-draining touch. It makes full use of its incorporeal nature, moving in and out of hills and cliffs, or even sinking into the ground, as it attacks.
Strength Damage (Su): The touch of a shadow deals 1d6 points of Strength damage to a living foe. A creature reduced to Strength 0 by a Mist Giant dies. A mist giant gains 2 temporary hit points per point of strength drained; these hit points last for 1 hour. This is a negative energy effect.
Unnatural Aura (Su): Animals, whether wild or domesticated, can sense the unnatural presence of a Mist Giant at a distance of 60 feet. They do not willingly approach nearer than that and panic if forced to do so; they remain panicked as long as they are within that range.
Sunlight Powerlessness (Ex): Mist Giants are powerless in natural sunlight (not merely a daylight spell) and flee from it. A Mist Giant caught in sunlight cannot attack and can take only a single move action or standard action in a round.
God Fungus
At the core of Anubis's moon Anput is a modified Thermo Fungus, which generates a Sun Web, an invisible immaterial effect which spreads out into a big area of wildspace around Anubis, incidentally reducing the temperature over quite a large volume, gathering in about 50% of the sun's energy. This energy is emitted as warmth by Anput, and is the thing which prevents the world completely freezing.
The spores from which this fungus grew were stolen long ago by the Yu-Tsa-Ai from another race, and by planting this in Anubis, while it was still a moon of Aegir, the Yu-Tsa-Ai hoped to be able to use it as a source of power, and fly the moon around Maj Space as they pleased.
Unfortunately they did not understand what they were meddling with, and as the fungus matured, and the Yu-Tsa-Ai started implanting their taps into it to draw off power for their own use, a dryad-like being with access to all the immense power that the Sun Web provided came into existence. She was pained by even the weak sunlight as far out from Ra as the orbit of Aegir, and wrenched Anubis away, into its current strange orbit. In the process Anput was ripped out from Anubis, and became its moon, but parts of the fungus stayed behind, allowing the Yu-Tsa-Ai to continue to draw power indirectly from the Sun Web.
Exactly what happened next is unclear to even the greatest sages of the Yu-Tsa-Ai, as if they land on Anput, even hiding in a stolen body, they die. Other beings seem to be able to land there without harm, unless they disturb the fungus, in which case they die of sudden and complete loss of all forms of bodily energies, leaving behind a fine dust.
However, the Yu-Tsa-Ai suspect that the strain of moving Anubis (and Anput) threw the new intelligence into a death-like sleep. By one theory the Mist Giants and other immaterial beings that roam Anubis are dreams of this intelligence, normally just referred to as 'Anput'. Occasionally a bronze-coloured humanoid woman, with dark hair, in a dark red dress, who is more or less immaterial has been seen on Anubis. The Yu-Tsa-Ai are very careful not to bother her, but are a bit concerned that she seems to be slowly, over the millenia, becoming more solid, and more aware of her surroundings.
GMs should note that the senses of Anput reach out through all Maj Space, tasting the life experiences of the peoples, though this knowledge is not organised in any really useful way, and the dreams of an artist are far more likely to be considered important than the plans of a king. If she ever properly awakes then how she is treated could be very important for the future health of anyone who wants to visit Anubis, though even then the Yu-Tsa-Ai will likely be able to defend themselves and their cities from all but her direct attention.
(c) Dreamer Publications, 1980 - July 2006
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