Climate/Terrain: Any, space
Organisation: Tribal/ship (1-8)
Challenge Rating:
Treasure: Standard goods (usually gems)
Alignment: Usually Lawful evil
Advancement: 6-10 HD
Combat
Neogi (2ndEd)
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Any, space
FREQUENCY: Rare
ORGANIZATION: Tribal/ship
ACTIVE CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Highly (13-14)
TREASURE: Q each
ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil
NO. APPEARING: 1-8
ARMOR CLASS: 3
MOVEMENT: 6
HIT DICE: 5
THAC0: 15
NO. OF ATTACKS: 3
DAMAGE/ATTACKS: 1-3/1-3/1-6
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Slowing poison
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Nil
SIZE: S (3' high)
MORALE: Steady (12)
XP VALUE: 270
Great Old Master
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Any, space
FREQUENCY: Very rare
ORGANIZATION: Solitary
ACTIVE CYCLE: Any
DIET: Carnivore
INTELLIGENCE: Low (5-7)
TREASURE: Nil
ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil
NO. APPEARING: 1
ARMOR CLASS: 5
MOVEMENT: 3
HIT DICE: 20
THAC0: Nil
NO. OF ATTACKS: 0
DAMAGE/ATTACKS: Special
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Young
SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below
MAGIC RESISTANCE: 10%
SIZE: H (20' high)
MORALE: Unsteady (6)
XP VALUE: 500
The neogi appear as a cross between a wolf spider and a moray eel. The short, furry, eight-limbed body is topped by lithe, bare, fleshy neck with a serpentine head, its mouth filled with needle-sharp teeth. The ends of its limbs are tipped with small claws. The fur of the neogi is a light tan, but dyed a variety of colors to signify power, rank, accomplishments, and warnings to other neogi. The older a neogi is, the more colorful its hide becomes. A neogi with a bare pelt has no status.
The neogi are hated throughout the Known Spheres, and their spiderships are often attacked without giving them the chance for provocation. The reason is that neogi are ruthless slayers and plunderers to the last being, and think nothing of eating their enemies, servants, or fallen comrades. In all the variety of the universe, one truth remains: the Neogi are a hateful, xenophobic race that has no friends.
The neogi can communicate in their own language and in common as well - this is the language that they use to command their umber hulks and other slaves. Many speak 1-4 other languages to help facilitate their slaves taking orders correctly. A slave that does not understand its orders is good for nothing except the next meal.
Combat: With the universe against them, the neogi have a number of defences. The first, and most obvious, is their enslavement of umber hulks (see Monstrous Compendium 1 for umber hulk stats). Each neogi has a personal umber hulk slave that he rates over all other slaves, who is a combination bodyguard, manservant, and useful set of hands. A neogi without an umber hulk does not survive long, and the profusion of umber hulks on many worlds is ascribed in part to their spreading at the hands of the neogi.
Second, the bite of the neogi is a slowing poison. Those bitten and failing their saving throw vs. poison will be affected as by a Slow spell. This lasts for 1-8 rounds, and multiple bites will extend this period by an additional 1-8 rounds per bite.
Third, 1 in 10 neogi has some magical ability, equal to human spell use of levels 1-8. This ability is used by the neogi to gain an advantage in combat against opponents.
Habitat/Society: The neogi are apparently a spaceborne race; no viable colonies of them have been found on any planet larger than a small asteroid. Their lives revolve around their ships and their slaves.
The neogi have hairy, ugly bodies that they dye with colorful pigments. These cause them to look at times like exploded rainbows. The colors signify rank, achievement, and power within the neogi organization. The most colorful neogis are usually (but not always) captains and/or overmasters of neogi ships.
The neogi also tattoo their slaves with symbols of ownership, usually on the left shoulder in the front and back. These tattoos identify the individual as property, and should a slave survive to have more than one master, an additional tattoo will be placed below the first. Any tattooed creature is considered property of the neogi. If found wandering alone, it will be claimed and its immediate return to the owner demanded.
The neogi are a slaving race with an inborn sense of property; everything is either owned or owner, slave or neogi. Even neogis are slaves to other neogi, but these slave-neogi may have their own slaves and eventually establish themselves as full masters in their own right.
The most important slaves (from the aspect of the neogi) are the umber hulks. These creatures are trained from birth to follow their "small lords", caring for their every need. They provide the strength, the combat ability, and even the raw muscle power and dexterity that the neogi lack. Each neogi has at least one personal lordservant, though any neogi can command another umber hulk (the effect of this command is akin to those of the charm monster spell).
A neogi who loses his only umber hulk slave(s) is considered an outcast, and must regain such slaves or be in danger of losing all status and becoming a full slave himself. A captain or overmaster losing his personal slave can still call upon the slaves of his neogi followers, choosing a replacement from these numbers. For this reason, the neogi on a ship are inclined to see that the captain's umber hulk is kept in relative safety, since its loss would likely lead to the loss of one of their own slaves.
All other slaves are just so much dross, fodder for battle, extra sets of muscles for heavy tasks, and, ultimately, food. Their lives are brutally short in the hands of the neogi, but as a result, the "small lords" are constantly seeking to replenish their stocks.
The neogi world-view of "own or be owned" has resulted in a paranoid outlook that borders on xenophobia, and their relentless attacks on any ships result in their being hated throughout the crystal spheres. Neogi ships are attacked on sight when possible, and evaded otherwise. Even the Arcane, who will deal with the most scum-ridden space nations in the universe, will only deal with the neogi through intermediaries. The only "normal" race with extensive ties is the mind flayers, who make a fat profit on the neogi slave trade.
The neogi have no nation per se, though ships of the race will cooperate under certain circumstances. This cooperation is hindered by the fact that in any neogi gathering, there can only be one overmaster, to whom all others are slaves. Determining the overmaster for a limited objective can be done through negotiation, but is most often the result of a trial by combat held in the cargo pits of the ship. The contending neogi, each with his personal umber hulk slave, battle for domination. The losers are eaten. In a similar fashion, if the overmaster of a ship dies, those neogi interested will fight to determine who is the new overmaster.
The most common ship is the neogi deathspider, a huge hulking craft powered by a major helm. The ship contains blessed few neogi for something of that size. In space the deathspiders will attack smaller ships using their grappling rams, and the umber hulk servants will scramble across, ripping holes in the opponent's ship and carrying off slaves and the bodies of any they slay.
A new ship making its appearance is the mindspider, and indicates a new approach to ownership, in that a fleet's overmaster does not have to be physically on board any of the deathspiders he controls, but instead works from a central command post. The mindspider has only appeared in the last 50 years, but is becoming more common in neogi space. The mindspider operates from minor helms and lifejammers supposedly acquired from the Arcane. The Arcane themselves are at a loss to explain this new development.
Ecology: The neogi live according to an ugly life cycle that is characteristic of their race. As a neogi grows older and his mind fades, his orders become confused and his slaves become disobedient. His fellow neogi may then choose for him to become a Great Old Master. The "small lords" then poison the older one at once. The different poisons moving through its body overload the old neogi's system, and begins its change into a Great Old Master.
The neogi making the transformation swells to a 20-foot height and a similar girth. Its legs and arms become useless, and the last of its intelligence fades: it lives now only to eat.
During this time the other neogi begin to hunt exclusively for the new Great Old Master. Slaves, captives, anything that comes across their path and can be captured is fed to the master. Live flesh is preferred, but dead will sustain it. A Great Old Master will inflict 1d12 hit points of damage per round to any creature fed to it.
After two months of such activity, the skin of the Great Old Master bursts and a new crop of mature neogi spill forth. These are unmarked and barely sentient upon their birth, and for the next week the brood area resounds with combat as the young neogi kill each other for food. Of the 20-40 neogi that eat their way out of the master, only about 3-6 survive. These are considered slaves of the entire ship, to be killed or risked in combat, until such a time as they claim and command an umber hulk as their personal slave. At this point they are officially part of the neogi community.
If a Great Old Master is attacked and its flesh pierced, it will release 2-6 neogi to defend itself. These are taken from the future brood, and if slain, will not be replaced. Blunt weapons will not pierce the skin and therefore will not bring the young forth. Edged or piercing weapons, or magical spells that pierce or bum, will produce this defensive reaction.
The remains of the Great Old Master are consumed by the surviving young. Most neogi consider this fate to be the equivalent of a human dying of old age.
Reaver
These are rogue neogi that have rebelled and are seeking to escape the other neogi and their poisons that will transform them into Great Old Masters. These rogue neogi are little better than their fellows, and are if anything more desperate, due to being pursued by their former fellows, all eager to start the process of producing more neogi.
(c) Dreamer Publications, 1980 - July 2006
Permission granted to use for non-profit making purposes