~Background~
Phineas Phillip Phogg is a Gnomish Professor (demi-bard kit), and one of the most brilliant minds that the world of Kulm has ever produced. Which is bad news for those that oppose the Dark Wrath, because he's thrown his considerable genius behind their efforts.
Where does a good gnome go so terribly, fantastically evil? Part of it is pure jealousy, as well as a festering inferiority complex and a pathological need to be recognized and praised for his brilliance.
He began his career at the Armistice Academy when it was founded sixty years ago. All his life, the Professor felt he languished among those who hadn't the capacity to recognize him for his true talents. But when he made the move to the world of academia, he thought that he would be seen for what he was, and given the respect he was accorded. There was also no small amount of patriotism in his decision to help the Armistice Academy get up on its feet: he was a proud Ghedan, more than willing to give his all for an institution that was founded upon Ghed's efforts to foster peace throughout Kulm.
He soured on his initial optimism rather quickly. He would have preferred rising to a place of leadership purely on the merits of his brilliance quickly. Instead, he found himself enduring (barely) through semester after semester of non-appreciative students, underwhelming and unqualified colleagues, and undeserving peers being promoted from beneath to above him more often than he dared believe.
Within his first few years, the Professor found he actually detested teaching. It was only the rare student who managed to catch his attention -- most of these fellow gnomish scientists or other such mechanically-minded folk.
He found, quite by accident, a lot of common ground with a pupil who graduated from his classes and went on to a career in the Elven Imperial Navy -- one Tristan Dragonbane. Tristan was not an engineer, nor a scientist, but he had a great deal of respect for the Professor, and the two continued a correspondence long after Tristan had left the Professor's tutelage. Tristan would remember Professor Phogg especially when, years later, he first started talking with Taylor Liege, Ioronius Mierlen and Zaxi McRill about forming something like the Dark Wrath.
Phogg was enamored of the idea, convinced that being a part of a new world order was the only way to win himself the respect that was long overdue. He had been fed up with the administration of the Academy (especially Charles Vincent, the Academy's Headmaster) for a long time, but did not want to resign his position for fear of losing the one outlet for his brilliance.
Now, he need not worry about leaving. If all goes according to plan... soon Professor Phogg will be the Academy's Headmaster, and Vincent will be little more than a memory.
Professor Phogg has made friends with almost no-one on the Academy's faculty in all his time there. He has few lieutenants, but those he has are listed below:
Faroth Del- A tattooed tiefling fighter-mage, and one of the only faculty members who is in on the Professor's plan. Already evil himself, he has no qualms with siding with the Dark Wrath.
"Goldy"- Professor Phogg's Gold Clockwork Horror, the leader of Phogg's clockwork sentinnels. Phogg controls most of the Clockwork Horrors with his special rod, but Goldy is mostly independent and seems loyal to the Professor.
Tsskon Dhassta- A tso, and leader of a large cadre of neogi and tso slavers who have been interested in Kulmspace for years, but hesitant to approach the world for fear of Kulm's native spelljamming powers. The Professor has enlisted the aid of the tso and neogi, in the name of the Dark Wrath. The neogi forces are to land when Phogg begins his insurrection in the Academy, and help secure the city of Armistice by way of a massive space-borne invasion.
While only one NPC faculty member is listed above as being party to the Professor's schemes, it is possible for players to assume the roles of either faculty or students who are willing to help Phogg with his schemes. These characters can belong to practically any race or class from any of Kulm's civilized regions, following the same rules as apply to characters in the main "good guy" Usurpers of Kulm campaign.
Also available as characters in Phogg's faction of the Dark Wrath are members of the tso-neogi slavers: tso, neogi or umber hulks. These PC races are detailed below.
The small masters of the Combine. Tsskon Dhassta may be the
leader, but the Neogi far outnumber him, and he would not remain
leader if he were unable to keep the Neogi broods happy.
The Neogi are one of the powerhouses of the Known Spheres. Their
fleets of spider-ships are feared throughout Wildspace.
Because of the relatively high level of native awareness of
spelljamming technology, the Neogi had not extensively broken into
Kulmspace before the rise of the Dark Wrath. Now, as a part of the
Tso-Neogi Combine, the Neogi are allied with Professor Phogg, and act
at the behest of the Dark Council.
Ability Score Adjustments: -2 Strength, -3 Charisma, +2 Constitution, +1 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity.
Class Restrictions:
Multi-Class Allowances: Thief-Wizard, Thief-Priest, Wizard-Priest.
Kit Allowances: The kits below are drawn from the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook.
Hit Dice: By class. At first level, Neogi take +5 bonus hit points.
Natural Armor Class/Move Rate: 3; Neogi move on land at speed 6.
Bonus Languages: Neogi, Umber Hulk, Common, plus 1d4 others.
Special Advantages:
•Natural Attacks: Neogi can attack with two claws (1d3
each) and a bite from their eel-like maws (1d6) in a single
round.
•Slow Poison: A Neogi's bite injects a venom that slows a
target per a Slow spell for 1d8 rounds if a save vs. poison is
failed. Additional bites can extend the duration by an additional 1d8
rounds.
Special Disadvantages:
•None. It's not half bad to be a Neogi!... Oh, except for:
•Everybody Hates You: It's true. Don't expect a warm
welcome anywhere you go, except among your own butt-ugly kind.
The Tso are a relative of the Neogi, native to the Outer Planes.
Exposure to harsh planar environments has toughened the Tso, and
embedded in the race a sense of sibling togetherness that Neogi
culture quite glaringly lacks. Like Neogi, Tso life revolves around
their spelljamming vessels, which the Tso refer to as "Broodships."
The models of Tso Broodships roughly correspond to those of the
Neogi: the common Aracheon vessel is the Tso equivalent of the Neogi
Mindspider, the hulking Arachantine is similar to the Deathspider,
and the nimble Arachea skirmisher is about the same size as a Neogi
Leech, though it lacks the Leech's ability to latch onto larger
Wildspace creatures.
Currently, the Tso-Neogi Combine fields a massive fleet of mixed Tso
and Neogi vessels. By virtue of their power and wealth of planar
magics, magical items and slaves, the Tso are the leaders of the
Combine, though only for as long as they can keep the larger numbers
of Neogi appeased.
Ability Score Adjustments: +1 Intelligence, +1 Dexterity.
Class Restrictions:
Multi-Class Allowances: Thief-Mage.
Kit Allowances: The kits below are drawn from the Complete Planewalker's Handbook and the Complete Book of Humanoids.
Hit Dice: By class. At first level, Tso take +7 bonus hit points.
Natural Armor Class/Move Rate: 1; Tso move on land at speed 9, and can climb at speed 3.
Bonus Languages: Neogi, Common, plus 1d4 others.
Special Advantages:
•Natural Attacks: Tso can attack with two claws (1d4
each) and a bite from their eel-like maws (1d8) in a single
round.
•Multiple Arms: Four of the Tso's spider-like limbs are
designated as "arms," and so the Tso has the option of wielding
multiple weapons. It can either wield two one-handed weapons (one in
each pair of arms) and two shields, two two-handed weapons, or wield
a weapon and also use natural attacks (as above). Only Tso
Thief-Mages can use shields.
•Paralytic Venom: A Tso's bite injects a powerful venom;
the victim must save vs. poison or take 1d10 poison damage and be
paralyzed for 1d4 turns.
•Enslavement: At 5th level, the Tso gains the use of this
inborn racial power, which manifests as a potent Charm ability. The
victim must save vs. spells at -2 or become the Tso's thrall, and
thereafter the victim's Intelligence score is considered halved for
determining the amount of time between saving throws to escape the
Enslavement.
•Cooperative Magic: Multiple Tso working together can
cast spells cooperatively. This cooperative spellcasting functions at
a level equal to the level of the most skillful Tso present, plus one
for each additional tso. This is also how the Tso are able to power
their Broodships: Tso Broodships have no traditional spelljamming
helms, but instead are powered as if piloted by the cooperating tso
wizards seated on a minor helm.
Special Disadvantages:
•Tso Wizardry: All Tso are mages, either single-classed
or multi-classed Thief-Mages.
•Everybody Hates You: It's true. Don't expect a warm
welcome anywhere you go, except among your own butt-ugly kind.
The Umber Hulks are enormous humanoids with beetle-like carapaces
and generally insectile features. They are found on occassion in
underground environments, and in wildspace are renowned for being the
most prized slave race of the Neogi. It is Umber Hulk brute strength
that backs up the snivelling, spider-like Neogi across the
spheres.
On Kulm, player character Umber Hulks are servants of the Kulmspace
Tso-Neogi Combine. All Umber Hulk player characters should be paired
with a Neogi player character, playing the roles of servant and
master, respectively. Neogi are most often inclined to treating their
Umber Hulk slaves well (a courtesy which is extended due to the long
history of partnership between the two races, and does not apply to
other slaves of the Neogi).
Ability Score Adjustments: +2 Strength and Constitution, -2 Dexterity and Charisma.
Class Restrictions:
Multi-Class Allowances: Fighter-Shaman.
Kit Allowances: The kits below are drawn from the Complete Book of Humanoids.
Hit Dice: By class. At first level, Umber Hulks take +8 bonus hit points.
Natural Armor Class/Move Rate: 2; Umber Hulks move on land at rate 6, and can also burrow at rates 1 through 6 (depending on soil density).
Bonus Languages: Umber Hulk, Common.
Special Advantages:
•Natural Attacks: Umber Hulks can attack with two claws
(3d4 each) and a bite from their massive mandibles (1d10) in a single
round.
•Confusion Gaze: The Umber Hulks' secondary pair of eyes
has the ability to cast a Confusion gaze 1/day/level of the Umber
Hulk.
•Infravision: 90' range.
Special Disadvantages:
•Large Size: Umber Hulks take damage as large-sized
creatures