D’ziriak

These glowing termite-like beings are among the more interesting races in the Bestiary 2—and that book also highlights their unusual talent with light, so strange for creatures of shadow.  Like aranea, d’ziriaks face the PCs as strange insectile beings who could as easily be allies as foes.

A renowned dwarf runecaster and scholar disappears from his mountain home.  After some false starts in giant country, the trail unexpectedly leads to the Plane of Shadow.  He languishes in a prison cell in a d’ziriak hive, accused of changing d’ziriak malcontents’ caste markings.

Neutral the d’ziriak may be, but they protect their own interests.  When a trade war breaks out between the merchants of the Plane of Shadow and the merchants of the stars, the witchwyrds, human societies get a disturbing reminder of how much their economies (and fates) are influenced by strange beings they know little about.  Even more disturbing is that the merchants of madness, the denizens of Leng, seem to be profiting even more than ever.

Not all d’ziriaks confine themselves to the Plane of Shadow.  Reports have surfaced from deep below the earth of a hive city of insectile artists positioned near an umbral rift.  News of any city in the deep not peopled by morlocks, drow, and worse would ordinarily be considered a blessing.  But these artists are said to be unusually fond of darkmantles (as pets, pigment ingredients, and canvases for their work) and trade primarily with the quite mad cloaker nests that dot that network of caverns.

—Pathfinder Bestiary 2 113

Following up on yesterday’s post, people seemed to like my thoughts over at Geekdad, but on Slog I’ve apparently roused some troglodytes.