CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Urban areas and/or wealthy estates

FREQUENCY: Very rare

ORGANIZATION: Family clan

ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any

DIET: Omnivore

INTELLIGENCE: Very high (15-16)

TREASURE: Special

ALIGNMENT: Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil

NO. APPEARING: 10-20

ARMOR CLASS: 8

MOVEMENT: 9

HIT DICE: 3

THACO: 18

NO. OF ATTACKS: 1

DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1d2

SPECIAL ATTACKS: Poison

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Immune to poison

MAGIC RESISTANCE: None

SIZE: M

MORALE: Elite (13)

XP VALUE: 1200

Toxicorans are among the most elusive and mysterious races that sages classify as “societal parasites.” So little is understood about them, in fact, that many who profess to study and research this topic will hotly debate whether or not toxicorans even exist. They are frequently lumped into the same category as doppelgangers because they do not appear to have their own cultural structures as much as they will borrow from whatever human societies that they have infiltrated. The exact nature of their motivations continues to elude those that would seek to understand them because unlike the doppelganger a toxicoran will go to great lengths to earn their keep and work hard. However, this is rarely enough to get them what they want, and that is when they become dangerous. In appearance toxicorans look like tall, somewhat gaunt and pale humans. Their hair color can vary but is usually black, red, or blonde but never brunette. Males never have facial hair.

Combat: Toxicorans will never start a fight with anyone, and if threatened will back down immediately and seek to placate their opponents with diplomatic words or even offers of gifts. One should never take them up on these offers, though, because the toxicorans have one tremendously deadly trait. Toxicorans are naturally toxic as their name suggests and they can control this ability to deliver poison to anything or anyone that they touch. The type of poison dispensed depends wholly on the desire of the toxicoran doing the poisoning. It might cause one to fall into a deep sleep, become violently nauseous, or simply drop dead. This ability increases over time, and those toxicorans that attain rank within their family clan become even more adept with poisoning outsiders that get in their way. This can cause a victim’s saving throws to be made with significant penalties, and because the toxicorans do not have to do anything but touch the victim or an item that will be held or ingested by the victim the attack may come as a complete and devastating surprise. The more powerful toxicorans are also able to somehow control when the poison begins to take effect, delaying it by hours or even days, so that the toxicoran who delivered the poison can establish a viable alibi if need be.

Habitat/Society: Toxicorans are extraordinarily devoted to their family clans. In pursuance of their goals to enrich these clans and to ensure their well-being the toxicorans will adapt to specific roles in order to be deemed useful in human society. One of the more common methods of achieving this is to become household servants to a wealthy or influential person. If one toxicoran can secure such a posting it doesn’t take long for them to create job openings among the other staff (generally fatal in nature) that can then be filled by members of the toxicoran family clan. For this toxicorans are extremely well suited. They are superhumanly dignified, seemingly devoted, and singularly perfect for the life of a professional domestic servant. Their cooking prowess is without equal, even among halflings, and for this alone a noble family might engage a toxicoran as the chef for their estate. Slowly but surely the toxicorans then secure themselves as utterly necessary to the function of the household, eventually to the extent that they will in some way be included in the landowner’s will. If this means poisoning the true heirs, so be it. Toxicorans are never about murder if it secures for them more money and greater security. There is however one rule that toxicorans never break, and that is to kill the landowner. Toxicorans may murder an entire family except for the one person that controls the fortune, and as long as the toxicorans are in line to inherit some or all of the estate that person will live a long and full life. But if the toxicorans are not so included then all bets are off, and they may well poison their master or mistress and vanish into the night with whatever loot they can grab on the way out the door.

Ecology: There is so little known and understood about toxicorans that nobody can say for sure how long they live or how exactly they reproduce. Nobody has ever reported seeing toxicoran children and while they have clear familial titles such as uncle, aunt, father, and mother nobody can be completely certain that these are to be taken literally. While they do not themselves produce or create anything of real value other than the occasional feast that gains them and their masters fame and notoriety toxicorans are keen to hoard great sums of money. Rather like dragons they do not seem to spend it on anything, preferring to be kept as servants who do not need to possess their own homes and livestock. This might not strictly be true, but thus far all observations lead to this conclusion.