Hoyrall

Hoyrall are vicious and barbaric insectoid humanoids that live within a series of tunnels that they rule over with virtually no dissent.

Physical Description

Hoyrall aren’t very tall, only three or so feet in height, but they are powerfully built and possess two sets of arms. Their entire bodies are covered in a glossy, hard chitinous exoskeleton that varies in color by region.

Talons surround their fanged maws, which have three small tongues inside rather than one (making them difficult to understand when they speak Co mmon), and the uneducated mistakenly believe them to have two sets of eyes or to see through the large, gem-like stones in their faces, but in truth these were once focuses for their god to exert power through them. The arms and legs of a hoyrall end in claws as sharp as their teeth, each of their bodies patterned with different colored markings that denote to which hive-fortress they belong.

Society

The hoyrall are unfailing in their pragmatism and ruthless, with little room for emotion, a trait only introduced once their deep connection to Zagnexis was sundered by The Confluence. In lieu of familial ties, they identify with their home hive-fortresses and are cold to one another even in those social confines.

Power structures vary from subterranean bastion to bastion, but on the surface they have become deeply militarized in an effort to attain the kind of order they once knew from the influence of their patron deity.

Hoyrall rarely record the events of their past and when they do so, it is often in bizarre arrangements difficult for even their elders to interpret correctly. These sparing, primal paintings can be found in the most removed caves of the Woven Warrens, the most populated and well-known honeycombed tunnels the hoyrall call home.

Relations

While other underworlders might engender hate because of their appearance, the hoyrall inspire revulsion. Their totally alien bodies are extremely disturbing to surface-dwellers in particular, and their equally strange mannerisms rarely go over well. Still, centuries of cohabitation(albeit largely aggressive) have forced many of them to adopt behavior more suitable to their adopted home-some have transcended these potent social barriers to form extremely valuable alliances with other races and are highly valued for their otherworldly mindset and abilities.

Adventurers

Life in a hive-fortress can be a daunting experience for any hoyrall, even those with great resolve. While reticent to leave their defensible homes, when one ventures out they typically fare quite well in the wilds, taking easily to the role of barbarians, druids and rangers.

Arcane casters among them are rare, and greater honor comes to the most potent warriors of their people.

Names

Male Names: Dexx, Fargn, Kotor, Marx, Skrex, Zexis

Female Names: Agn, Darizz, Kistriss, Oxxa, Treksga, Zagness

Hoyrall Traits

Your hoyrall character counts as a humanoid (hoyrall) for purposes of race. Hoyrall are, however, similar in many ways to aberrations.

• Ability Score Increases. Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Wisdom score increases by 1.
• Age. Hoyrall mature quicker than humans, reaching adulthood at 12 years. Hoyrall can live to become up to 80 years.
• Alignment. Where hoyrall once were of a singular alignment, they nowadays do not exhibit a racial tendency per default; while most fortress-hives and hoyrall are lawful, that is a tendency and nothing more. Thanks to their alien perspective, few hoyrall possess the empathy necessary to be called ‘good.’
• Size. Hoyrall average about 3 feet and 34 pounds. Your size is Small.
• Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet and you have a climb speed of 20 feet.
• Alien Mind. Your strange psychology render you resistant to being charmed. You have advantage on saves against spells or effects that inflict the charmed condition.
• Carrion Sense. Your antennae can pick out corpses and corporeal undead rather easily. You have advantage on scent-based Wisdom (Perception) checks to notice corpses and corporeal undead.
• Darkvision. You are well-adapted to seeing in the dark thanks to your odd sensory organs. You can see in dim light within 60 ft. of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
• Light Blindness. Abrupt exposure to bright light blinds you for 1 round.
• Multi-Armed. You have 4 arms you can use when making attacks. When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to also attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in another hand. You may attack with an additional number of hands beyond your first of up to your Dexterity modifier or 3, whichever is lower. You don’t add your ability modifier to the damage of the additional attacks, unless that modifier is negative. If either weapon used has the thrown property, you can throw the weapon, instead of making a melee attack with it. If you attack with more than 2 weapons this way, melee attacks against you gain advantage until your next turn. You still cannot benefit from more than one shield. You may not wield more than one two-handed weapon and two-handed weapons count as two separate weapons wielded for the purpose of this ability. Abilities and feats that usually enhance your capability to wield two weapons instead apply their benefits to all your arms.
• Hoyrall Poison Blood (Ingested). The blood of hoyrall is poisonous to almost all species and hoyrall have limited control over it, allowing them to temporarily increase its toxicity. A number of times equal to your Constitution modifier per day, you can envenom a weapon your blood as an action that deals at least 1 point of damage to you. A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a Constitution saving throw with a DC equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + Constitution modifier or take 3 (1d6) points of poison damage and become poisoned for 1 minute. This damage increases to 6 (2d6) at 3rd level, 9 (3d6) at 8th level, 12 (4d6) at 13th level and 15 (5d6) at 18th level. At each of these levels, you also get an additional use of your poison. The creature affected must repeat the saving throw at the start of each of its turns. On a successful save, the poison ends. As a reaction to being bitten by a foe, you can expend one use of your poison to poison the creature who attacked you with a bite attack. Your poison quickly spoils when exposed to air, preventing you from harvesting and selling the poison. Your body produces new doses of poison on a long rest.
• Social Pariah. Most races consider hoyrall to be disturbing at best, kill-on-sight material at worst. You suffer disadvantage on all Charisma (Deception), Charisma (Performance) and Charisma (Persuasion) checks against non-hoyrall.
• Strange Anatomy. Hoyrall anatomy is strange to other races and there are significant variations between the different hive-fortresses. Wisdom (Medicine) checks made to treat you suffer from disadvantage unless made by a hoyrall from your own hive-fortress or by someone who has studied your anatomy for more than 1 year. (Subject to GM approval.)
• Stonecunning. Whenever you make an Intelligence (History) check related to the origin of stonework, you are considered proficient in the History skill and add double your proficiency bonus to the check, instead of your normal proficiency bonus.
• Sunlight Sensitivity. While in sunlight, you have disadvantage on attack rolls as well as on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight.
• Languages. You can speak Common and speak, write and read the clicking, pitched, chittering language of Hoyr, nigh indecipherable to other races.