Source The Mwangi Expanse pg. 119 2.0
Gripplis are a shy and cautious people who generally seek to avoid being drawn into the complicated and dangerous affairs of others. Despite their outlook and small stature, gripplis often take bold and noble action when the situation demands it.
Reclusive and canny, gripplis are treetop survivalists who harvest their homes' bounty and defend themselves against terrible threats. Their reliance on cunning and simple tools has led to gripplis being mischaracterized as primitive, yet this overlooks their shaping of the land with hidden orchards and camouflaged causeways that allow gripplis to live in prosperous peace. Gripplis are most likely to emerge from their forest homes to trade, explore, and combat threats that would despoil the world.
You Might...
Seek out clever ways to exploit your environment when overcoming challenges.
Make friends slowly, concerned by cautionary tales of exploitative strangers.
Be fiercely protective of your home or community.
Others Probably...
Assume you dislike cities and people who live in them.
Trust in your impartial, measured approach to understanding situations and solving problems.
Give you space, fearing that touching you would prove toxic.
Physical Description
Gripplis resemble humanoid tree frogs, with oversized eyes, wide mouths, and gangly physiques. Their slight frames and large toes afford excellent grip while climbing, while their colorful skin provides reliable camouflage that varies by their home environment— green and brown for jungle-dwelling groups, blue and orange for riparian communities, and many other colors between. A grippli grows quickly, reaching adult size of about 2 feet in height about 3 years after hatching, though they're only considered adults around age 12. Gripplis rarely live beyond 60 years, though exceptional individuals occasionally live as long as a century.
Society
Gripplis lead a sophisticated hunter-gatherer lifestyle with which they reshape the landscape to suit their needs: building spillways to trap fish, seeding fruit-bearing trees, sowing cover-granting foliage for future hunts, and more techniques that often escape an agriculturist's eye. These strategies rely on community cooperation as well as dispersed populations, so gripplis commonly live in small villages, each part of a complex web of alliances and relationships. Reclusiveness has preserved grippli lives and lifestyles for millennia, yet they increasingly find themselves threatened by ancient evils and new explorers alike.
Devotion and Religion
Taught to wait, observe, and respect natural processes of life and death, many gripplis adopt Green Devotion. Those who take a more active role suppressing evils that take refuge in the jungles are often White Green, most notably those rare fiend-keepers who absorb an evil being into their soul to contain and eventually transform its villainy through virtuous acts. Nature deities such as Gozreh or Erastil often earn gripplis' respect, yet communities often prefer less prominent, more intimate divinities such as empyreal lords, psychopomp ushers, or the fey Eldest.
Adventurers
For the many gripplis who hail from remote regions, wilderness backgrounds like hunter, nomad, or scout are excellent fits. Those more accustomed to urban areas might be animal whisperers, bounty hunters, and herbalists. Hermits are common, and emissaries are critical to maintaining relationships with other peoples. Thanks to their deep cultural connections to nature, gripplis make excellent druids and rangers. Their musical traditions are a great fit for bards. Gripplis' natural agility and perceptiveness also make them capable clerics, monks, and rogues.
Names
Grippli names often include resonant vowels and chirped consonants that remain difficult for non-gripplis to vocalize properly. Gripplis that travel widely often adopt one or more names more easily replicated by their associates.
Sample Names
Aalpo'ol, Bogwynne, Ctaprak, Eegru, Gpoun, Gruoksh, Hrrauti, Iopo, Iykiki, Kyrsiik, Mhruugu, Oplugo, Quaasol, Yolkuu, Ztaal
Grippli Mechanics
Hit Points- 6
Size- Small
Speed- 25 feet
Ability Boosts- Dexterity, Wisdom, Free
Ability Flaw- Strength
Languages- Common, Grippli
Additional languages equal to your Intelligence modifier (if it's positive). Choose from Abyssal, Aquan, Boggard, Draconic, Elven, Iruxi, Sylvan, and any other languages to which you have access (such as the languages prevalent in your region).
Low-Light Vision- You can see in dim light as though it were bright light, and you ignore the concealed condition due to dim light.
Grippli Heritages
Stickytoe Grippli- Grippli particularly gifted in climbing trees
Grippli Feats
Feat-
Source Pathfinder #146: Cult of Cinders pg. 86
Frog-like humanoids who make their homes in the treetops of tropical jungles and forests, gripplis are uniquely adapted to their environment. Their oversized eyes give them keen vision in both light and dark, and their large toes allow them to easily scale the trees atop which they reside. Gripplis vary widely in physical appearance, their physiologies largely determined by their surrounding environment; those who live in verdant forests, for example, typically have bright green skin and red eyes. In contrast, gripplis who live in regions of rot and decay have mottled brown coloration, and those who dwell near lakes or streams may bear bright blue and orange stripes. Typical gripplis are just over 2 feet tall and weigh approximately 30 pounds.
Whatever region they come from, gripplis tend to be peaceful huntergatherers. Due to their modest understanding of agriculture, gripplis don’t raise crops in the traditional sense, although they do cultivate mushroom patches and gather a wide array of fruits from the surrounding wilderness. The jungle also contains rivers and lakes filled with silver-scaled fish, which gripplis harvest in a sustainable manner to ensure their future supply, as well as fatty insects that grow much larger than in other parts of the world. Some of the most advanced grippli societies capture and breed these insects, nurturing herds of giant dragonflies or beetles that are eventually slaughtered for food for the rest of the village. Particularly enterprising gripplis even seek out and tame huge flying insects to use as mounts during their hunts. The rearing of such massive insects is no easy feat, however, so gripplis who manage to do so are often heralded as local heroes.
The treetop settlements of the grippli are difficult to spot from the forest floor. Gripplis obscure their holdings with broad leaves and thick branches, and they riddle the surrounding forest with labyrinthine trails that only they know how to navigate. Their villages are usually constructed among the densest populations of trees, with thin rope bridges strung between wide wooden platforms built around each trunk.
A History of Neutrality
Grippli villages rarely get involved in the concerns of other communities, preferring to focus on maintaining relative peace within their own small societies. Legends explain this attitude with a tale of a grippli champion who dragged his people into a war between humans and charau-kas. The stories differ as to which side the gripplis took, but every version ends with the bloody deaths of the hero and his family. Since that time, village elders claim, gripplis have done their best to remain far from the conflicts of others.
Grippli Minions
Gripplis keep company with few other intelligent species, but their close bond with nature means they may be found alongside giant insects, plant creatures, and other beasts of the jungle.
Treasure for Trade
A grippli’s knowledge is often more valuable than any of the handcrafted weapons or goods it carries. However, the most esteemed members of grippli communities— alchemists, greenspeakers, and scouts—often carry alchemical creations, magic items, or valuables meant for trading with members of other jungle civilizations.
Baneback Origins
Legends tell of a grippli warlord who bargained with the demon lord Jubilex to gain a foul power over poison and become the first baneback. He and his children—all of whom bore a malignant toxin— terrorized surrounding communities before being defeated and drawn into the Abyss. This legend explains gripplis' disdain for banebacks, though it's unclear if the trait is the lingering effect of a demonic bargain or simply a rare mutation.
Rancorous Enclaves
Exiled baneback sometimes band together to form their own villages, usually under the leadership of a jinxer. Given that some banebacks are violent malcontents, these villages don't last long unless the leader keeps order, usually by violence or fear. These villages often keep monstrous vermin, such as giant cockroaches, giant tsetse flies, or giant ticks as guards or mascots.
Grippli Ethnicities
Upach-
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