TEXT: Q
  Quuiicckklliin
  nggss
  FFoorrggootttteen
  n LLoorree AAbboouutt
  TThhee D
  Daarrkk AAn
  nd
  d TTw
  wiisstteed
  d
  
  Author: Denis Faupel
  Pictures are out of the public domain and adapted by the author
  Compatibility with the 13th Age Roleplaying Game requires the 13th Age Roleplaying Game from Fire Opal
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  Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No
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  permission.
  Quicklings
  Forgotten Lore About The Dark And Twisted
  
  Quicklings
  5
  Possible
  Origins
  of
  the Quick and Deadly
  Distorted Fey
  Quicklings are denegerated fey, reduced to
  their dark instincts. When the fey wandered
  the land to seek peace in the forests and
  groves of the realm, some of them were
  attracted by strange stones circles. Casting
  aside the warnings and sinister legends of
  their people, they chose to investigate them
  further. The magic of the stones has drawn
  them in a dark world, the Between. They soon
  forgot how to sing and read and began to prey
  on weaker creatures, becoming incredibly fast
  hunters.
  Mysterious Travellers
  Quicklings are but one more riddle of the fey
  realm we don't understand yet. They travel our
  world but they behave like they never fully
  cross the threshold. They're walkers between
  worlds, not now and then, but permanently
  changing and shifting, blurring and fading.
  Their delicate, fast and incredibly nimble, but
  their
  minds
  are
  ghastly
  and
  full
  of
  malevolence. They're eager to destroy, though
  they're not brave and will avoid a deadly fight
  if
  possible.
  Ambushing
  and
  sandbagging,
  that's the tactics they like.
  The Last of their Kind
  Deep in the woods were the sun never reaches
  the soil lies the territory of the last Vash'ee, as
  the quicklings call themselves. They're few and
  dying. Something in their genes can't cope
  with the world as it is. Withering and aging,
  the last tribes cling to existence in a last final
  battle. They're not evil, not really. But strongly
  distrustful of strangers. We don't know if it's
  true that they never talk. They never talk
  before they attack, that's for sure. Maybe if
  someone finds out their secret, they will
  confide in them. But until then, they tend to
  attack at first sight.
  Mutagenic Experiments
  Environmental
  influences
  or
  mad
  experi-
  ments, we don't know. But there's surely weird
  blood in the veins of the quicklings. Their
  blueish skin tells the tale. They can move fast
  like nothing else but on the other hand, they're
  weak of body and mind. They're narcissistic
  and craving for validation. They feel certain
  that the best way to outclass others is by killing
  them.
  Agents of the Great Beyond
  The creatures known as quicklings enter our
  world through primeval gates in wild forests.
  Sent out be their masters, to do their dirty
  work of
  stealing and murdering. They're
  agents of the Great Beyond, where gravity is so
  different that they can move incredibly fast
  when in our world. They kill for sport, for lust,
  for pleasure, but they're most loyal servants of
  their masters, pursuing their tasks untiringly.
  
  Quickling Runner
  A blueish shape rushes towards you with unnatural
  speed, leaving you baffled and puzzled. Wait, where is
  it now ...?
  4th level troop [HUMANOID]
  Initiative: +10
  Stealthy short sword +11 vs. AC (2 attacks)
  – 5 damage
  Natural even hit: The quickling runner can
  pop free.
  Natural 16+: The quickling runner can pop
  free and can make a free move action.
  Fizzing blades +11 vs. AC – 4 damage
  Natural even hit: The quickling pops free and
  can make a move action and another
  fizzing
  blades
  attack
  as
  a
  free
  action
  against a different enemy (every enemy
  can only be targeted once).
  Natural 18 or 20: Enemies can now be
  targeted twice (but not consecutive).
  Delicate runner: A quickling that becomes stuck,
  grabbed, stunned or otherwise slowed down
  also becomes weakened until the triggering
  condition ends.
  Nastier Special
  Lightning speed: Once per battle when the
  quickling is not engaged and becomes the
  target of an attack roll that targets a nearby
  creature, the quickling can choose to be far
  away instead.
  Quickling Striker
  This humanoid figure with light blue skin moves
  similar fast as its companions, but it looks like it's
  going to to stop moving from time to time ... to aim at
  you with its bow.
  3rd level wrecker [HUMANOID]
  Initiative: +9
  R: Darting arrow +10 vs. AC (one nearby
  or far away enemy) – 11 damage if the
  target has a lower Initiative, 7 if it hasn't.
  Natural 16+: One ally engaged with the
  target can pop free from it.
  Slashing blade +10 vs. AC – 13 damage if
  the target is engaged with an ally, 8 if it isn't.
  Natural 18+: All nearby quickling runners can
  use the escalation die on their fizzing
  blades attack until the end of their next
  turn.
  Delicate runner: A quickling that becomes stuck,
  grabbed, stunned or otherwise slowed down
  also becomes weakened until the triggering
  condition ends.
  Nastier Special
  Lightning speed: Once per battle when the
  quickling is not engaged and becomes the
  target of an attack roll that targets a nearby
  creature, the quickling can choose to be far
  away instead.
  AC 23
  PD 13
  HP 37
  MD 16
  AC 22
  PD 14
  HP 38
  MD 16
  
  Quickling Witherer
  This one looks like it's alive for ages. Wrinkled and
  tired but nonetheless tough and relentless. It's a
  gruesome sight.
  5th level caster [HUMANOID]
  Initiative: +7
  Withering touch +8 vs. PD – 13 negative
  energy damage
  Crit: The target loses a recovery.
  C: Song of infinite blight +8 vs. MD (1d3
  nearby enemies) – 7 psychic damage as the
  target views images of
  the end of
  all
  existence
  Natural odd hit: The crit range of all quickling
  witherers in the battle expands by 1
  (cumulative, max 16+).
  Crit: Decrease the escalation die by 1.
  C: Hex of despair +8 vs. MD (all engaged
  enemies) – 8 psychic damage
  Natural 16+: The target pops free and is
  stunned until the end of its next turn.
  Limited use: When the escalation die is 3+.
  Fear aura: While engaged with this creature,
  enemies that have 25 hp or fewer are dazed
  (-4 attack) and do not add the escalation die
  to their attacks.
  Nastier Special
  Watch me wither: As a quick action, the
  quickling witherer can willingly lose 5 hp and
  in exchange increase its fear threshold by 10.
  Quickling Witherers are old and near the thre-
  shold of death. They are of a tough and long
  living race, though, making the process of
  dying a matter of decades not weeks or
  months. The witherers turn more grey from
  year to year but every single day they find out
  more about their accursed lives, learning not
  to cure their sickness but to use it against
  enemies. Their curses and hexes inflict terrible
  dehydration, bleakness and black despair upon
  AC 21
  PD 14
  HP 75
  MD 18
  their foes. Or what they believe their foes to
  be, what includes more and more, if not all,
  creatures with each day of
  their doomed
  existence.
  Quickling Survivor
  This must not be, it's just not right.
  3rd level mook [HUMANOID]
  Initiative: +2
  Cold hands +8 vs. AC – 5 cold damage
  Natural even hit: If the target chooses not to
  attack the quickling survivor on its next
  turn,
  it
  is
  dazed
  until
  the
  quickling
  survivor is dead.
  Ice-cold grabs: An enemy engaged with 3 or
  more quickling survivors is stuck.
  On the threshold: Although not really dead nor
  yet undead, the quickling survivor is half way
  between those things. It is still a humanoid
  but counts also as undead for effects that
  target it.
  Mook: Kill one quickling survivor mook for
  every 11 damage you deal to the mob.
  Quickling survivors are the parts of quickling
  society that should have perished by now but,
  for
  unknown
  reasons,
  haven't.
  Something
  keeps
  them
  here,
  forces
  them
  to
  exist,
  although they're far from enjoying it. They're a
  slow and creepy lot, shuffling around the area,
  mostly ignored by other quicklings. They're
  quick to engage strangers, but it's more like a
  fascinating touch with their unnatural cold
  hands, than a real attack. When they grab you
  by your wrists, it's like their eyes scream at you:
  help us, kill us.
  AC 18
  PD 16
  HP 11 (mook)
  MD 11
  
  Adventure Hooks
  Late
  Revenge—Strange
  creatures
  are
  attacking the magic academy lately. The
  magicians call them "quicklings" because all
  they now of them is that they are moving
  quite fast. Turns out they're older than it
  seems and many years ago the academy did
  now more about them. A group of wizards
  (in search of a potion for speed) is in fact
  responsible for the piti- and hateful creatures
  existing in the first place. As the experiment
  went awry, they dropped the bodies in the
  woods – not knowing the creatures survived
  ... and found out what happened.
  The Curse of Eternal Life—Deep in the
  wild woods, where the trees meet the moun-
  tains at the sea, lives the folk of the Vash'ee,
  cursed with eternal life. An unknown might
  forces them to live on. It's a cruel life, full of
  ennui and cadaverous suffering. A life not
  worth
  living.
  The
  Vash'ee
  keep
  to
  themselves, attacking strangers with hate and
  disgust, not knowing anything but loathing
  for
  those
  cherishing
  life.
  Lately,
  those
  creature have heard of a powerful artifact
  that might end the suffering of their people,
  freeing their minds and lead them to eternal
  peace. Unfortunately the artifact is dear to
  the Bone Lord ... and has just fallen into the
  hands of the PCs.
  A Town in Trouble—The village of Ember is
  told to have problems. Things went missing
  only to reappear in different locations. It
  started funny but it soon got dirty when
  villagers attacked fellow people, calling them
  thieves. Then, a child fell into the well and
  almost died, dogs ended up in chimneys and
  food was poisoned with strange substances
  causing the people to turn green and laugh
  all the time.
  Nobody has a clue what happened, but with
  the PCs investigating it becomes clearer and
  clearer that a quickling is behind all this,
  tormenting the village with its pranks. But as
  the PCs find more and more clues, an even
  darker secret arises: the village elder once
  sold his soul to the Queen of The Great
  Beyond and now it is time for him to pay the
  price for his annaturally long life. He refused
  and know it's a choice for the PCs to make:
  give the major to the Queen's agents like he
  once promised or defend the village against
  them.
  Dying Forest—The once so green forest is
  changing. Stone circles are vibrating with
  strange energy which even the local fey can't
  understand. Fear arises that the forest is in
  danger of a so-called breach, a wound in the
  fabric of nature that might eventually lead to
  sprawling portals spilling creatures of the
  Great Beyond all over the woods: dark spirits,
  shadow trolls and – most feared of all – the
  quicklings, the enforcers of the Dark Queen.
  A Quick Note on Quickness
  A good attack bonus, several attacks and high
  AC plus the ability to pop free and make
  additional move actions should be enough to
  represent the creatures' quickness.
  The Delicate runner Special is meant to balance
  this, if the conditions for speed are not met.
  Feel free to rule this as appropriate, it's also up
  to the creativity of the players when and how a
  quickling is affected by a "slow" effect. Maybe
  it's a ritual from the wizard or a terrain effect
  from the ranger and maybe they combine so
  well that the quicklings are also vulnerable or
  hampered (making only basic attacks will
  hinder them effectively of popping free all the
  time).
  However, if you want to go a bit further with
  the qicklings being fast, go with the following
  Special I discarded for simplicity's sake:
  Fast and elusive: The quickling gets a +2 bonus
  on AC against opportunity attacks, ranged
  attacks and disengage checks as long as it is
  not stuck, stunned or hampered.
  
  Quicklings and the Icons
  The Fey Queen has certainly a complicated
  relationship with the quicklings, especially
  when you go with the Distorted Fey origin
  option. In any case, here agents are supposed
  to fight the quicklings where they can find
  them - a favor they gratefully return.
  The
  Trickster
  has
  a
  great
  interest
  in
  quicklings. They stand for a lot of things
  precious to him: fast, elusive with a talent for
  backstabbing and – given appropriate reward –
  ready to kill without question and moral.
  Finding this reward turns out to be the hardest
  part,
  but
  the
  Trickster
  is
  not
  above
  blackmailing the creatures into doing his dirty
  work.
  The
  Magician
  may
  have
  uncomfortable
  truths about quicklings, at least when you
  consider the Mutagenic Experiments origin to
  be true (see also the Late Revenge hook to the
  left). If
  nothing of
  this is true in your
  campaign,
  the
  mystery
  of
  the
  quicklings
  should be quite attracting to a wizard anyway.
  The Bone Lord is not happy about creatures
  roaming the threshold of life and death and a
  world beyond. That's his domain after all. See
  also the Last of Their Kind origin and the
  hook about The Curse of Eternal Life to
  envision an even more furious Bone King.
  To The Wild Lady the quicklings are a threat
  to equilibrium. They're not natural, mocking
  the roots of the world, the foundation of all
  that is sacred.
  The Black Knight hates portals and all that
  crawls through them. He is eager to send his
  troops to besiege and neutralize them. If
  there's a way to bring war to the other side of
  those things – so be it.
  But, maybe, in another time, another universe,
  the Black Knight himself is an agent of the
  Great Beyond where his dark god resides and
  waits for the day when the world is cleaned of
  demons and devils - his archfiends - waiting to
  cross the threshold and sieze power in the
  realm.
  
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  System Reference Document. Copyright 2000, Wizards of the
  Coast, Inc.; Authors: Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams,
  based on material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
  13th Age. Copyright 2013, Fire Opal Media; Authors: Rob
  Heinsoo, Jonathan Tweet, based on material by Jonathan Tweet,
  Monte Cook, and Skip Williams.
  13th Age Bestiary. Copyright 2014, Fire Opal Media and Pelgrane
  Press Ltd; Authors: Ryven Cedyrlle, Rob Heinsoo, Kenneth Hite,
  Kevin Kulp, ASH LAW, Cal Moore, Steve Townshend, Rob
  Watkins, Rob Wieland.
  13 True Ways. Copyright 2014, Fire Opal Media, Inc.; Authors:
  Rob Heinsoo, Jonathan Tweet, Robin D. Laws.
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  LLC; Author: Jason Bulmahn, based on material by Jonathan
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  Davis Chenault, Mac Golden.
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  Wieland.
  Quicklings, Escalation Press 2017. Author: Denis Faupel
  www.escalationpress.com
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/13th Age/3rd Party [Non-Pelgrane]/Escalation Press/Quicklings.pdf