Mousa (3.5e Race)

=Mousai=

Summary::Mysterious spirits from the Plane of Dreams, they watch material beings with strange curiosity.

Personality
Everything is new and wonderful! It must be experienced, it must be changed!

Physical Description
As manifested dreams, mousai seem ghostly, pale in hue and translucent. However they are solid, composed of pseudo-flesh forged from the material plane and given the spark of life with their presence. As such they are not outsiders either, but rather closely tied to the material, at least in body. They appear as ill defined children, their limbs seemingly crudely formed and capable of altering in length, while their face is a white mask attached to their head. This mask is nothing more complex than two black dots for eyes and a black dot for a mouth. While they have two eyes and a mouth, which dot is acting as the mouth seems to change and the mousai has no problems rotating their face around as much as they want. The mask is not removable, it is part of the creature. From the back of the mask comes a tangle of white tendrils which act as crude hair, and appear spiky, even thought they are as soft and piable as the rest of it.

The skin is often marked with strange patterns, black tattoo swirls, stitchmarks, and odd pastel colors. Each mousai has a unique pattern and it seems how they identify each other. Mousai speak in haunting tones which always sound a bit echoed.

Relations
Curiosity, it is born within them. Experience is its own reward, and giving experiences to other is one as well. Mousai love to see things happen and boredom is anathema, they must change it at once. The mousai have thus gotten a reputation as acting as muses for many an artist.

Alignment
Born of a chaotic spirit, the mousai are almost always chaotic. Lawful mousai are near-unheard of.

Lands
It is said what is visible of the mousai is only a shell, that the real mousai are creatures without body, pure thought, residing in the Plane of Dreams. However curious and willful as they are they push their way into the material. They can be found in any place, manifesting anywhere from an artist' basement, to the forgotten ruins of some long-lost land.

Religion
The mousai do not actively worship and tend to be very quiet about their creator, but it's certain they do have one. All evidence suggest that their creator is Lord Eiji, which brings up a curious point. Some would suggest that when a plushie 'vanishes' and dies, its spirit becomes a mousa until the day that this life perishes and it once again seeks a more corporeal and physical host in a great cycle of rebirth. The mousai will not confirm this claim.

Language
The mousai speak Sylvan, and typically Common as well.

Names
The mousai name themselves after what they see their goal is. A mousai helping an artist think would be "Brush", a mousai tending to a garden would be "Leaf", and one exploring old ruins may be called "Rust". These names are rarely kept long, and they might change again when new things come to their attention.

Racial Traits

 * ,, , : The pseudobody is weak and frail, and their curiosity gets the better of them at times.  However they are nimble and confident, unafraid of what their meddling may result in.
 * : Mousa are fey born of material essence, binding a spirit of chaos.  As a chaotic being it always is considered chaotic, in addition to it's actual alignment, and bypasses damage reduction/chaotic.
 * : As a tiny-sized creature, a mousa gains a +2 size bonus to Armor Class, a +2 size bonus on attack rolls, and a +8 size bonus on Hide checks, but he uses smaller weapons than humans use, and his lifting and carrying limits are half of those of a Medium character.
 * Mousa base land speed is 20 feet.
 * Low-Light Vision (Ex): A mousa can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. He retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
 * Body Glow (Ex): The mousa shines faintly, giving off the same amount of light as candle light.  The mousa can suppress it as a swift action, but for every minute it is suppressed the mousa takes 1 point of strength damage.  These points return at a rate of 1 for every minute of rest with the glow shining, until it his Str 0 and is paralyzed.  The glow returns while helpless and the recovery will slowly begin.  While the glow is present the mousa takes a -4 penalty to Hide checks.
 * Dream Born (Ex): Mousa are treated as natives when traveling the Plane of Dreams.
 * Extended Reach (Ex): The mousa's body is flexible, allowing it to whip it's limbs out longer than they appear. The mousa has a 5 ft. reach in spite of being tiny.
 * Dreamwalker (Sp): When the mousa goes to sleep, its mind leaves its body and wanders. At any point during their slumber they may employ the effects of the following at will&mdash;dream and nightmare.  However they can only perform a nightmare once per sleep of their target, and it does not deal damage.  Caster level is equal to HD. The save DC is 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma modifier.  When they reach 9 HD, they may cast these spells even while awake and their nightmare ability deals damage, as normal in the spell's description.
 * Inspire (Sp): At will&mdash;guidance. Caster level is equal to HD. The save DC is Charisma-based.
 * Friendship (Sp): At 3 HD the mousa gains the following at will&mdash;charm person. A successful save renders the target immune for 24 hours.  Caster level is equal to HD. The save DC is Charisma-based.
 * Empathy (Sp): At 6 HD the mousa gains the following at will&mdash;detect thoughts. A successful save renders the target immune for 24 hours.  Caster level is equal to HD. The save DC is Charisma-based.
 * Courage (Sp): At 9 HD the mousa gains the following 3/day&mdash;heroism. Caster level is equal to HD. The save DC is Charisma-based.
 * Calling (Sp): At 12 HD the mousa gains the following 1/day&mdash;lesser geas. Caster level is equal to HD. The save DC is Charisma-based.
 * Automatic Languages: Common, Sylvan.
 * Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages such as Druidic).
 * Favored Class:
 * Level Adjustment: +Level Adjustment::1
 * Effective Character Level: Effective Character Level::2