• +50 to Mentalism
• +50 to Poison
• +50 to Disease
• +50 to Fear

Description: These creatures seem like a giant variant of the well known Dwarves, with some small variances. They are between 6'7'' and 7'10'' tall, very sturdy and with deep set eyes.
Their hair is mostly deep blue or purple, their beards are braided into dozens of differently colored strands. They are quite large and extremely heavy (about 900 kg). This is caused by the nature on their homeworld, a ultra - heavy world with high gravity and pressure. Their tough skin prevents them from exploding in lower pressures (including space) due to high inner pressure. This pressure causes their hemophilia. Imagine a water hose filled with water under a high pressure. As long as the hose is sealed, nothing happens. Upon receiving a rupture, lots of water will be pressed through the hole. Is the pressure high enough, you will not be able to seal it with your hand or a bandage. As long as they are in an environment suitable for humans, their suffer from hemophilia and only extensive Second Aid measures, spells or items can stop the bleeding. In their own environmwent, they do not have this deficency.
They favor dark leather and metal armor, which they rarely remove. Their weaponry tends to be oversized, studded with ridges and edges and magical.
In my campaign, they appear on spaceborne varieties of the Sky Whale, one Darkendwarf on one Whale, always more than 5 of them, making up a strike force of at least 20 fighters.
Their Sky Whales are of the Orca (Killer Whale) type, making their steeds rather deadly combatants. For the Sky Orca, use the stats given above.

Lifestyle: Darkendwarves are a nomadic race of raiders, always planning attacks, plundering or killing. They are carnivores who often eat their fallen opponents.
Due to an electrochemical disturbance in their system. they constantly lack salt and certain amino - acids and can not store large amounts of these within their bodies. Thus feeding on dead opponents gives their system a boost, actually providing them a +10 for 2 hours on all maneuvers after each successful fight / feast.
Around this effect, they constructed a religion based on collecting power by eating their opponents bodies.
They loathe warm climates, since they don't function well over 80°F.
With their innate "Tunneling" ability, they dig lots of tunnels into great glaciers, mountains and - in space - asteroids, used as mobile bases for their raids.
Both sexes, if you can call them thus are equal in powers and rights. Every five years, two Darkendwarves mate and create two cocoons which then remain inert for a maximum of 10 years. After 10 years living in their present body, a Darkendwarf dies and transfers his essence / mind / soul into one of these cocoons, only to emerge after 10 days as a fully grown adult with all memories and abilities he / she had in their former life.
Should a Darkendwarf die before that time, he remains in the cocoon for 10 weeks, losing 5d10% of their experience and capabilities in the process of accelerated growing. After both Darkendwarves of the aforementioned pair have entered their respective cocoons, all other cocoons with their DNA dissolve into dust.
The reduction of abilities due to untimely death effectively limits the probability to find a high level Darkendwarf, since they tend to die rather often due to their fighting style.

Spell - users are mostly creators of healing - potions and magical items, both permanent and temporary. Use Alchemist, Royal Alchemist, Thaumaturge, Theocratist, Shamainc Alchemist, Grand Vizier, Arcane Spell User, etc. Elementalists are used as well. Fire - based spells are not used.

The use of fire - based spells and temperature - raising spells causes them severe discomfort, thus making spell - casters their prime targets. They hate any fire - based creatures, including fire - elementals and red Dragons, but they're often allied with other dragon types.
When allied with Cthugans (C&T II, p.47) [the classic 'Mind Flayer' from AD&D] they sometimes employ a flying variant of the Kraken - Drakes (C&T II, p.47) instead of their Sky Whales.

Combat: Darkendwarves have the unique ability to split themselves into four separate creatures, all with the same abilities (not magical) and equipment (no quality or magical abilities).
They often employ this tactic after they have passed their prey on their magnificent Sky Whales once, showing that they are not numerous enough to threaten them, only to return in far larger numbers and surprise their opponents. To have the advantage of magical armor and weapons on their side, the Darkendwarves often carry spare weaponry and use magical armor such as bracers of AT 17+, which they distribute among their duplicates. The armor they normally wear is AT 17 and more, and they employ non - bladed weapons with serrated edges (additional Tearing - Ripping Criticals, or substitute TR crits for normal ones) like morningstars, maces, hammers and flails. Since they suffer from hemophilia, they believe bladed weapons to be cursed and shun away from their use if possible. They have no fear attacking an opponent wielding such a weapon, since they feel absolute confidence in their abilities.
Since the damage sustained in split - mode is transferred onto a Darkendwarf after reunification, they sometimes die due to shock or massive concussion hits, when no longer able to uphold the duplication. To prevent this, they often use potions or items to heal themselves or refresh their exhaustion point account.

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