Page 98 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

SA deliver touch spells; SQ improved evasion, low-light vision, LEADERS AND SLAVERY
scent, speak with master; AL NE; SV Fort +3, Ref +5, Will +10; Leadership within the neogi community is rigidly structured.
Str 2, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 2. Because they have no means of tracing parentage, it cannot be
Skills and Feats: Balance +14, Climb +12, Hide +14, Move hereditary. Neogi have no mechanism for dynastic inheritance
Silently +10, Swim +10; Weapon Finesse. of rulership or property. All neogi spawn within a tribe spring
Deliver Touch Spells (Su): The familiar can deliver touch from the same source. One might suppose that this would lead
spells for its master (see Familiars, page 52 of the Player’s to widespread feelings of equality within the community, but
Handbook). that assumption would be wrong.

Improved Evasion (Ex): If the familiar is exposed to any effect The heavily stratified nature of neogi society is built around
that normally allows it to attempt a Reflex saving throw for ownership of slaves. Although neogi are essentially tribal, the

half damage, it takes no damage with a successful saving throw question of leadership is more complex than it appears.
and half damage if the saving throw fails. In its simplest iteration, the tribe member that owns the most TAKERS CHAPTER 5
Speak with Master (Ex): The familiar slaves is the leader, also called the administrarch. Neogi-style THE SLAVE
can communicate verbally with slavery is a question of degrees. The neogi recognize four tiers
its master. Other creatures do not of slaves.
understand the communication
without magical help. The First Tier
Lowest on the scale are
slaves the neogi consider
NEOGI LIFE little more than livestock.
The glue that binds neogi society They have been captured and
together is commercial trade—at penned up but not enslaved by
least, that’s what the neogi call the neogi’s mental power. These
it. In fact, their “trade” is a unfortunate creatures are fed
three-cornered platform just enough to keep them alive
supported by traditional but weak. They serve three
mercantilism, slavery purposes: as meat on the Illus. by S. Ellis
(buying, selling, raid- hoof, as merchandise
ing, and owning), to be sold, and as a
and out-and-out resource pool from
piracy. which to fill the

All neogi, re- ranks of the second
gardless of their tier.
class or their These slaves,
interests, are trad- with very few ex-
ers at their core. They ceptions, are communal property—no
have carved a niche for one neogi owns them—because ac-
themselves over eons An adult neogi quiring them probably involved a
as middlemen who ac- communal effort in the form of an or-
quire goods cheaply where they’re plentiful, transport them ganized raid. Arranging for the (minimal)
to where they’re rare, and then sell them at high prices. The care of these slaves and managing their use is one of the ad-
neogi see themselves as the ultimate merchants. The fact ministrarch’s chief responsibilities.
that they sometimes steal the goods rather than buy them, The neogi keep adding to their pool of captives as long as
or that the goods themselves are sometimes sentient beings they have somewhere to confine them and enough umber hulk

who would rather not be bought and sold, is of no concern minions to keep them from escaping.
to the neogi. To call them amoral would be too generous.
They are unprincipled, unethical, ruthless marauders that The Second Tier
care nothing for the lives or property of anyone but them- The second tier of slavery consists of creatures that have been
selves. The fact that they are tolerated or even welcomed actively enslaved from the pool of captives or captured and
(cautiously) rather than attacked when they arrive at a mar- enslaved directly by a neogi acting on its own behalf.
ket or port is a testament to greed everywhere. In keeping with their high level of paranoia, neogi fear
Neogi trade in anything that offers the potential for profit, their slaves more than almost anything else. This is because a

whether it is furniture, food, wine, art, magical items, exotic neogi’s mind-controlling enslavement can be fought. A slave
animals, or rare manuscripts. Without question, the merchan- can break free of those mental bonds, and when it does, it’s
dise that earned them their infamous reputation is slaves. likely to be murderously angry. For this reason, neogi don’t
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