Page 38 - Serpent Kingdoms

LIZARDS

LIFE CYCLE in cold water for as close to a full minute as possible. Those
The propagation of the fi renewt race is both diffi cult and who endure an entire minute of submersion without crying out
treacherous. After a female has produced a clutch, her eggs are are deemed worthy to enter the clergy of Kossuth. Those who
taken to a heavily guarded hatching ground. There, they are endure less than half a minute are sacrifi ced to Kossuth, and the
placed near lava vents or other sources of heat to ensure that rest become warriors in the service of the overlord.
they remain warm. Once an egg begins to hatch, the baby fi re- Unlike most of Kossuth’s faithful, fi renewts do not divide
newt must tear free within 1 minute or it is deemed too weak to their clergy between the tendrils and burning braziers. Instead,
survive. Such a failure to hatch is viewed as a sign that Kossuth one single group called the Chalices of Brass is entrusted with
is displeased with the tribe, so the attending cleric sacrifi ces the tending to the needs of the fi renewts and leading them in faith.
hapless young fi renewt to the god. Such killings are rare, but These priests are responsible for torturing and preparing food
clerics actually engineer hatching failures on occasion to end the for the tribe, ensuring that the eggs are properly hatched, and
bloodlines of their enemies. leading the fi renewts in prayer and sacrifi ce.
Each fi renewt tribe has a golden idol in the shape of Kossuth.
Magic of the Firenewts Strangely, while most believe that Kossuth is a fi renewt made
of living fl ame, the golden idol always resembles a great lizard.
As a race, fi renewts have no particular talent for arcane magic, (The fact that the fi renewts were the last to look upon the god’s
so they almost never become wizards or sorcerers. Because they form during the Time of Troubles suggests that he might in fact
are devout followers of the god Kossuth, however, clerics are an normally assume this shape.) The golden idols of Kossuth vary
important element of their society. Firenewts rarely create new in size from one tribe to the next. In general, the overlord evenly
magic items, although their clerics do have some spells that are distributes the gold acquired from raiding among the members
unique (see erupt, lava missile, and lava splash in Chapter 11). of the tribe, although the clerics are normally given the largest
portion. Once they have acquired a large enough supply, they
Deities of the Firenewts melt it down and reforge it into a larger idol of Kossuth.
Fiewnewts also play a role in the greater church of Kossuth.
The fact that fi renewts worship Kossuth instead of some aspect Several hundred years ago, three prominent fi renewt mercenary
of the World Serpent provides further support for the theory bands approached the human-led branch of the church to offer
that they were not created by the sarrukh. In fact, the fi re- their services. The Church of Kossuth accepted their help, using
newts are among the oldest and most faithful devotees of the them as temple guards as well as escorts for their traveling
Flamelord. Though cults of Kossuth are plentiful in Faerûn, clergy. This arrangement continued until the fi renewts were
the god truly seems to favor the fi renewts. Their clerics teach indoctrinated into the religion as guardians and living examples
that Kossuth imbued fi renewts with fl ame when he freed them of Kossuth’s mastery over fi re. At that point, they became a
from the dominion of the World Serpent in the depths of the much more important aspect of the church. Now a typical
Burning Rift. temple of Kossuth is protected by more than one hundred fi re-
During the Time of Troubles, Kossuth appeared in the newts and roughly half that number of giant striders. Some of
Burning Rift beneath the Peaks of Flame and chose a fi renewt these fi renewts are bred in the church, and others are recruited
blackguard named Chassan, overlord of a local tribe, as his from the outside. Firenewts wishing to leave may do so freely at
avatar. Kossuth/Chassan led the fi renewts into a brutal war any time.
with the pterafolk of the Chultengar, and the confl ict lasted
until the Avatar Crisis had ended. Kossuth returned to the Firenewt Characters
planes, leaving the charred corpse of Chassan in his wake, but
the god later rewarded Chassan’s loyalty by allowing him to Firenewts are not often found living among other races, and
return to his tribe as a deathfl ame (a version of a death knight; they are almost always hostile when interactions do occur.
see Chassan, below). Chassan, who still leads the Ack’ta tribe by Should an entire fi renewt tribe be slaughtered, the survivors
the Flamelord’s decree, is one of the few fi renewt overlords who may join local mercenary groups in the region, since they are
also holds sway over the clerics of Kossuth. not normally welcome among other tribes. Given a choice, such
Firenewts follow most of the traditions practiced by Kos- fi renewts typically join evil groups that raid civilized areas.
suth’s followers elsewhere in Faerûn. They believe that their Rarer even than survivors of lost tribes are outcasts that
souls are tempered by fi re, that fi re is the cleansing force of the have turned their backs on Kossuth and fi renewt society and
multiverse, and that only the strongest survive the fl ame. Like lived to tell the tale. These rare and unique fi renewts are nor-
other followers of Kossuth, fi renewts test themselves with pain, mally good or neutral, and some of them even form alliances
but since fl ame is a part of their beings, they must choose other with good creatures. In fact, rumor has it that several fi renewts
forms of pain with which to test their mettle. Thus, fi renewts turned their backs on the tribes in the Peaks of Flame and were
often test the worthiness of their young by submerging them subsequently taken in by a couatl.

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