The Dragon's Bestiary Never forget, never forgive: the wang-liang by Sylvia Li Wang-Liang FREQUENCY: Very rare NO. APPEARING: 1 (see text) ARMOR CLASS: 4 (improved by armor) MOVE: 12" HIT DICE: 6 +3 to 8 +3 (see Table 1) % IN LAIR: 10% (see above) TREASURE TYPE: Variable NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 claws DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-10/1-10 SPECIAL ATTACKS: Magical devices SPECIAL DEFENSES: Regeneration, detect invisibility, psionic invisibility, limited spell immunity, polymorph self, magical devices MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard INTELLIGENCE: Exceptional to genius ALIGNMENT: Lawful evil SIZE: L (10') PSIONIC ABILITY: See text The wang-liang are closely related to the ogre magi, being exceptionally intelligent and long-lived, with their own unique brand of magic. They are implacably hostile to human beings and rarely pass up a chance to kill, injure, humiliate, or frighten them. Toward humans, their behavior is destructive; among their own kind, there are no known instances of cruelty to each other. The wang-liang pay their debts and keep their promises. Other nonhuman races are treated as humans if they are accompanied by humans. If nonhumans are encountered without humans, the wang-liang do not initiate hostilities. There is good reason for their hatred of humans. Wang-liang have a long lifespan - about 2,000 years - but with a corresponding low birthrate. They are intelligent enough to extrapolate the human ability to multiply and the human disregard for long-term consequences, and so have long been able to predict their own extinction. They are not charitable enough to forgive humanity and go quietly. They are bitter. Physically, they are tall (10'), carnivorous beings with soft pelts of lustrous dark brown or black hair. Their eyes are wide and large, having black irises rimmed with luminous, fiery red. They have the sharp, pointed teeth of a carnivore (doing 1d4 hp damage if needed), but biting is not their natural attack form. The teeth are set in a protruding and delicate muzzle. Wang-liang are very strong (each with 18-percentile strength) and have good natural armor class and weaponry. The retractable claws don't cut like swords; instead, they operate with a scooping action that tears off chunks of flesh. Their home territory is among forested mountains, but single individuals may be found anywhere - on a country road, in towns and cities, even ranging as far as the lands of the gajin. Wang-liang are not savages. They have their own civilization. They wear clothes or, if going into battle, various kinds of armor that modify their armor classes as appropriate. They can use the full range of swords, spears, bows, and pole arms available to human bushi but in a larger size. They do not use iron or steel, but they have a method of hardening bronze to make it nearly as hard as low-grade iron. Despite the larger weapon sizes, the quality of the metal limits damage to standard by weapon type, with strength bonuses. Weapons and armor used by these creatures should be determined by the DM as desired. There is no difference in strength or fighting ability between adult males and females, but individuals encountered may range from 6 +3 HD to 8 +3 HD depending on fighting experience (use Table 1). Wang-liang do not have classes and do not advance in levels with experience but gain hit dice instead. Wang-liang know the human passion for gold, silver, and gems, but they do not share that passion. In fact, they find greed to be repulsive. They are, however, quite willing to use this human weakness as a tool for manipulation, and for that reason they sometimes carry gems or other items that would be valued by humans. Amounts carried should be determined by the DM. Like their better-known relatives the ogre magi, wang-liang are not considered "persons" for the technical purposes of such spells as charm person or hold person. Their innate abilities are similar to those of the ogre magi, though not quite as powerful. They can regenerate wounds at the rate of 1 hp per round while conscious; they can polymorph into any human or humanlike form (4-12' tall); they can easily see creatures and things rendered invisible either magically or psionically; and they can become psionically invisible at will to certain total numbers of hit dice of creatures (see Table 2). These abilities do not require concentration to begin or to maintain. The wang-liang also have a limited telepathic ability that functions only between members of their own race. This has a range of about 33 miles outdoors but is blocked by stone walls. This telepathy requires concentration. In addition, they nearly always carry various magical items of their own. These are of two sorts: items bestowing useful magical abilities for the wang-liang's own use, and cursed magical items for "trade" with humans. One useful magical item common among wang-liang is a straw hat that bestows magical invisibility, just like the ring in the DMG. (This lets them combine the effects of magical and psionic invisibility to become extremely hard to detect.) There may also be some fairly powerful offensive magical items, some of unique design. Any item of useful wang-liang magic is subject to one serious inconvenience: The wang-liang will not permit anyone other than a wang-liang to keep or use such an item. They will always try to recover a lost or stolen item, and they will not give up until they have succeeded. The DM should feel quite creative in designing such items, using those from the DMG as bases to work from. The other category is of "trade" magical items, designed for the specific purpose of being palmed off on unsuspecting humans. To call them cursed would be like saying that Juiblex is ugly: While true enough, it doesn't quite cover the full scope of the situation. These are highly ingenious, vicious, and imaginative practical jokes, no two of them alike. DM fiendishness is encouraged. Think of it from the wang-liang point of view. Suppose you have a lifetime of a couple of thousand years in which to wander around a world infested with stupid, greedy, treacherous, despicable scum who don't deserve to take over the world but are going to do it anyway. There's really no point in killing them. Humans do a better job of killing each other than you possibly could, arranging battles that slaughter hundreds of thousands - yet 50 years later, they're just as numerous as they were before. No matter what you do, it won't help in the long run. So you amuse yourself by selecting individuals to torment. You don't really care whom you choose as your victim; they're all humans. Maybe you'll dismember one here or there, but there's not much satisfaction in that as they die much too easily. Besides, a physical attack lays you open to physical retaliation, and you aren't suicidal. So you distribute booby-trapped magical items. Whether lethal or otherwise, they are designed to embarrass and humiliate or else to terrify (and possibly to kill). You're getting even, either way. For example, here's an item adapted from an actual folk tale: a magical boot which, the victim is told, can make the wearer feel as rested and refreshed as though he had just had a full night's sleep. However, when this is tested, the victim finds that the boot transforms into a coffin enveloping him. Not only that, but within a single round, the coffin sinks 6' underground. If the victim is alone, this is the end of him. If friends dig him up and break open the coffin, they find him in a state of suspended animation that cannot be distinguished from death except that the body does not decay. The spell can be broken only by destroying the coffin. Meanwhile, the victim's spirit wanders the lands of the dead somewhere on the outer planes, where he may meet influences either kindly or malevolent. If one of these spiritual encounters proves fatal, his body also dies. The parameters for designing a "trade" item are as follows: The item must be something the wang-liang can easily carry without danger or inconvenience to himself; there must be a way to activate it or (preferably) to trick the victim into activating it; lethal results are okay, but nearly-lethal results are better, and humiliation is best of all; the more flashy and flamboyant the better; and the device should not be reusable. (Some jokes are only funny once.) A few individuals among the wang-liang may be prepared to admit that humanity is only 98% scum, and that very rare humans might have one or two redeeming qualities. That's about as far as they'll go toward friendliness. If a wang-liang finds himself unavoidably obligated to a particular human (e.g., saved from a fate worse than death), he may repay the obligation, by his own standards, by telling the human some of the above information and warning the human not to accept magical items from his people. The biological fact that has ensured the eventual extinction of the wang-liang under the ecological pressure of expanding human populations is very simple: No wang-liang female can give birth more than once in her lifetime. Normally, there are two young born at this time, a male and a female. Very rarely, about as often as identical twins occur among humans, there are four infants instead. The time from birth to maturity is about 40 years. However, a female may not be ready to mate and give birth for hundreds of years after she reaches maturity. While their young are immature, a mated pair is impelled by instinct and tradition to live in seclusion in the wild, using only their natural abilities to survive and to care for the young. This early experience ensures that every wang-liang is at home in the wilderness. They are invisible during most of this time. A family grouping of four (or, rarely, six) individuals, called a "pod," is under the fiercest protection of every member of the race. Harm done by any human to wang-liang in this most vulnerable phase of their lives will be avenged in a ratio of 100 human deaths for each wang-liang killed. The period of caring for the young in the wilderness is apparently viewed by wang-liang as the happiest time of their lives; a short, idyllic interlude of perfect intimacy. Once the young have reached adulthood, they join wang-liang society. The young adults band together for mutual protection and live in remote areas in groups of 50-150. Here, they build structures, engage in handicrafts, make weapons and tools, raise domesticated deer for food, and provide the broad structural base of the wang-liang civilization. The average intelligence of wang-liang is very high, and they are able to adopt human devices or invent their own. The apparent simplicity of their lives does not mean that the wang-liang are primitive. The time a young female spends in this village environment varies from one individual to another. In extreme cases, it may be as short as 20 years or as long as 1,300 years. The average period is about 400 years. When her time comes to mate, the female knows it instinctively, and she chooses a mate from among the young males in the village. (There is a recorded instance in T'u Lung of a sorcerer who, out of curiosity, managed to kidnap and imprison a young female wang-liang just as she entered this phase. According to his notes, she appeared to suffer greatly over a period of several months, pleaded incessantly for release, and was on the verge of expiring when his notes abruptly ended.) A wang-liang male remains in the village until he is chosen by a female. Parents still have many years of life ahead of them after their offspring have been placed in a suitable village. They do not remain together. The talent to learn magic is present in the race only among some of the older females. These retire to an Elder Circle where they are supported by all the villages in their efforts to learn, preserve, and expand the body of magical knowledge available to their people. Only 1-4 wang-liang mages may be found in a village, each mage being of level 1-20. The Elder Circle is the source of all magical items used by wang-liang. Older males and older females who do not possess any talent for magic are free to engage in any pursuits that take their fancy: arts, history, music, gardening, social planning, or personal vengeance. These last become wanderers who enter the human scene, invisibly and alone, observing with contempt and cold hostility the rabble destined to extinguish their race. They carry with them the items made by the Elder Circle. Most encounters with wang-liang will be with a lone traveler, one of these older individuals. This is an occasion for the Dungeon Master to exercise his ingenuity in devising a magical "trade" item. Remember that the wang-liang are intelligent and will have devised ways to ensure their own personal safety before starting any trouble. Unless the player characters are either very clever or very lucky, the wang-liang should get away. A resourceful wang-liang may be the brains behind any number of unpleasant schemes. He may devote a few decades to the construction of a classic trap-laden dungeon baited with the usual rumours of danger and immense treasure. Or he may encourage a bandit gang, masterminding raids of ever-increasing audacity until the final, most daring job turns out to be a carefully prepared trap leading to a bloody battle and the capture and execution of the bandits. The wang-liang will be nowhere to be found; it was he who tipped off the authorities! He may supply a crime lord with generous supplies of a viciously addictive drug. He may induce shape-changing goblin rats to act as front men to foment trouble and eventual war between two human political factions. If a wang-liang is using evil humans as his tools to cause trouble for humanity, the joke is liable to be on them in the end. He holds nothing but contempt for any beings who are willing to turn upon their own kind, as witness the previous example of the bandits. There is no recorded instance of a wang-liang bargaining in good faith with a human. If the wang-liang has some scrap of respect for the human, he will refuse to negotiate at all. Otherwise, he will spin a clever and elaborate deceit which does not bind him in the slightest. However, if a wang-liang voluntarily offers an actual promise, it can be relied upon absolutely, for then his honor is engaged and he will die sooner than break his pledged word. Only in their remote forested mountain homelands will wang-liang ever be found in groups - a 5% chance at best. If adventurers encounter a pod (60% likely out of the multiple-being encounters), the wang-liang flee immediately using invisibility; if this is not possible, the adults will sacrifice their lives to ensure the escape of the children. Remember that wang-liang warriors will avenge any harm done to a pod, not only upon the offenders but also upon the nearest humans at hand, innocent or otherwise, in a ratio of 100 to one. Young adult wang-liang in a village (40% likely to be encountered) do not engage in offensive warfare but will defend themselves if attacked. Villages typically do not have much magic lying around. The call will go out, however, and any older wang-liang in the area will come to the assistance of a village under attack. If the threat is serious enough and there is time, any village can also call upon the Elder Circle to send help. This will be a spell-caster of power appropriate to the level of the threat, which gives the DM a chance to use spells of his own invention since wang-liang magic cannot be learned by anyone outside the Elder Circle. An encounter with the full force of the Elder Circle should be avoided unless you are trying to end your campaign by slaughtering the entire party in a blaze of nonstandard magic. In that case, you're on your own. This NPC race will not work as a player character race, for reasons evident in this article. It does provide the DM with an opportunity to challenge the players with a clever and unpredictable opponent. Table 1 Wang-Liang Hit Dice 1d100 Hit dice 01-60 6 +3 HD 61-90 7 +3 HD 91-00 8 +3 HD Table 2 Wang-Liang invisibility HD Invisible to total levels or hit dice 6 +3 21 7 +3 28 8 +3 36 Copyright � TSR, Inc. All Rights reserved.