Related Topics: Boggarts | Fairy

Brownies are small, benign humanoids who may be very distantly related to Halflings. Peaceful and friendly, brownies live in pastoral regions, foraging and gleaning their food. They typically are no taller than 2', and are exceedingly nimble. They resemble small elves with brown hair and right blue eyes. Brownies prefer not to engage in combat, but angry brownies avoid melee combat, relying instead on their magic.

Since their senses are so keen, it is impossible to surprise brownies. They are superb at blending into their surroundings and can become all but invisible when they choose. Brownies live in rural areas, making their homes in small burrows or abandoned buildings. They often live close to farms, as they are fascinated by farm life. Traditionally they live by harvesting wild fruits and gleaning grain from a farmer's field. Being honest to the core, a brownie always performs some service in exchange for what is taken.

Some brownies have even been known to live in a house. If a family meets their high moral standards, they will secretly enter the household. At night, while the residents are asleep, they perform a variety of helpful tasks from spinning wool, baking bread, repairing farming equipment, keeping foxes out of the hen house, to mending clothes, and other such household tasks. If a thief were to creep silently into the house, they would make enough noise to wake the residents. Watchdogs and other domestic animals consider brownies friendly, and would never attack or even bark at them. If the residents were to boast about the presence of a brownie however, the brownie vanishes, as etiquette demands that no notice be taken of them.

Brownies (Quicklings):

Once, Quicklings were like any other race of brownie, but that was until they sought out dark and dangerous magical powers. It may be that they intended to do good with their powers at one time, but the evil magic was too strong for them and they were corrupted. When the ancestors of the Quicklings began to experiment with the dark forces that eventually corrupted them, they had no idea what the effects would be. Where once they were a gentle race of woodland beings, Quicklings are now savage hunters and cruel killers. They regard all other humanoids as enemies to be hunted down and killed.

Quicklings are small and slender beings, looking much like miniature elves with very sharp, feral features. Their ears are unusually large and rise to points above their heads. Quickling eyes are cold and cruel with a tiny spark of yellow light. Their skin is a pale blue to blue-white and their hair is often silver or snowy white.

They speak very quickly. To those unfamiliar with it, their speech is nothing but a meaningless stream of noise with individual sounds and words passing so quickly that no human can follow it. If Quicklings wish to communicate with other beings, they must take care to speak very slowly.

Quicklings are completely invisible when not moving, and are all but invisible when they are moving. In areas where they can move rapidly from cover to cover, like a forest or boulder-strewn field, they can use their speed to make their chance of invisibility 100%.

Quicklings are far more dangerous in combat then their minute size would lead opponents to believe. This is due primarily to the great speed at which they travel and their tremendous agility. In combat, a Quickling can dart about so rapidly that it attacks three times before the average fighter could make one attack. In addition, they are visible only as blurs when moving, making them almost impossible to hit. Quickling leaders have been known to employ poisoned blades that cause unconsciousness

Most live in extended family units. Quicklings dwell in places that are dark and evil. Adventurers have reported encountering them in groves of twisted and wicked-looking trees, near poisoned or cursed springs, and in overgrown areas once ruled by powerful chaotic beings. As a rule, Quicklings avoid contact with the outside world except when it promotes their own evil ends. In some cases, they have been known to deal with other evil races of magical nature (such as imps) or powerful evil wizards and priests. On these occasions, the combination of such forces is a great danger to all good being in the area.

Because of their greatly accelerated metabolism, Quicklings are the shortest lived of any sylvan race. They mature less than one year after birth and are fully adult by the age of two. Old age sets in at ten years and they often die before they turn 12.