Mudcrawler (5e Race)
Mudcrawler
| “ | Curious little muck-swimmers, those mudcrawlers. One second, they look like nothing more than piles of dirt, and the next, they look like blobs of flailing mud. | ” |
| —Derrick Halfelm, human spy. | ||
Physical Description
Mudcrawlers look like moving piles of mud. They usually have only a mouth to speak with and two arms to manipulate their environments if they want or need to, usually to make members of more humanoid races more comfortable with their presence, but among their own kind, they usually take their natural forms. If they really need to, however, they can take a vaguely humanoid appearance, resembling a hairless human child with no eyes. If a mudcrawler spends enough time in this form around humanoids or feel like they need to, they can learn subtle things, like slightly shifting their bodies to give the illusion of breathing. Their voices usually sound like mud impacting with a stone wall, but, if they try, they can sound more like humans.
History
Legends are told of the first mudcrawlers, mud mephits that destroyed a temple dedicated to a powerful god. In the god's wrath, all the mephits were transformed into mundane puddles of mud, but one was different. It had swallowed a sacred artefact and its magic coursed through the mud, giving it new life. The creature remembered nothing of its former life, and as it inched towards its former companions, they were also transformed, but they too had no memories. Seeing the ruined building they were in, they worked together to rebuild it, and when it was done, the god, surprised at the actions of those that destroyed the temple, appeared before them and told them that he would make their kind immortal. They did not understand this, so the god imbued them with intelligence, and spread them all across the multiverse, to survive. The mudcrawlers now revere this god, whose name they have long forgotten, as each mudcrawler knows him by a different name, perhaps the god's wish the entire time. However, they believe that each other god is just another form of their god.
Society
Most mudcrawlers form groups numbering into the hundreds, appearing as a moving swarm of mud puddles. When two groups meet, they usually combine and move in the same direction as the largest group. Sometimes, mudcrawlers split into smaller groups in their migrations, though groups of mudcrawlers rarely meet twice.
Mudcrawler Names
Mudcrawlers have no genders, and find the concept alien and somewhat amusing. They tend to take names related to dirt, earth or mud.
Mudcrawler Traits
Creatures born of mud, that can occasionally animate other mud puddles.
Ability Score Increase. Your Constitution score increases by 2, and your Dexterity score increases by 1.
Age. Mudcrawlers are thought of as adults when they are 20, and live for about one hundred years before the magic that animates them wears off, but they never truly die, as they travel to the Elemental Plane of Ooze to become one with the mud.
Alignment. Most mudcrawlers are lawful neutral, seeing no point in good or evil, but forming large groups with a powerful social order.
Size. Mudcrawlers tend to stand at a bit over 3 feet. Your size is Small.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet, and you have a swimming speed of 25 feet.
Muddy Nature. Mudcrawlers are most at home in mud, and have a movement speed of 35 feet when moving in or through mud, as well as ignore any difficult terrain caused by mud. As an action, you can also merge with mud, gaining advantage on any Dexterity (Stealth) check to hide. In addition, you can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.
Elemental Origin. Mudcrawlers were born of elemental surges in energy, and as such, do not need to eat, breathe, drink, or sleep.
Mud Sense. Mudcrawlers have no eyes, and are immune to the blinded condition, but you can "see" by emitting subtle pulses with faint amounts of elemental energy, gaining blindsight out to 60 feet. Beyond this radius, you are blind.
Muddy Influence. Whenever you complete a long rest, roll a d20. If the roll is equal to or lower than your level, you have animated a mud puddle. The new mudcrawler acts independently of you and uses the statistics of an awakened shrub except it has all the racial traits you have.
Languages. You can speak Common and Primordial.
Random Height and Weight
| Base Height | Height Modifier | Base Weight | Weight Modifier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 ′ 3″ | +1d4″ | 40 lb. | × (1d4) lb. |
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