Behind the Dark Fist - Salzarians

And just for fun...

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Salzarian

Clime/Terrain: Any (Salzar)
Frequency: Very rare (around 600 are known to exist)
Organization: Commune
Activity Cycle: Any
Diet: Unknown
Intelligence: Genius to Supra (17-19)
Treasure: Nil
Alignment: Neutral
#Appearing: 1 or more
Armor Class: -9
Movement: Fl 3 (A)
Hit Dice: Unratable (individuals possess 1d3 x 1000 hit points)
THAC0: 3
#Attacks: 1 per 4 rounds
Damage: 6d20, or 1d12 hull points
Special Attacks: Their normal attack is special enough
Special Defenses: Thousands of hit points isn't specially defensive  
enough for you!?
Magic Resistance: 100%
Size: Really Freaking Huge (500' diameter)
Morale: Unreasonably Easily Spooked (1)
XP Value: Hit point total x 20

The Salzarians are the native inhabitants of the world of Salzar, in  
the sphere of Salzarspace. They are quite possibly one of the prime  
material plane's most powerful life forms, at least on an individual  
basis. However, their small population and bizarre idiosyncrasies  
(pacifism!? non violence?! wtf!?) render them generally worthy of  
only passing mention, totalling perhaps little more than a paragraph  
in the appendices of a book about conquering space werewolves.

In appearance, the Salzarians resemble 500' diameter spheres of  
water. They are not actually made of water, however; they are a non- 
elemental life form that closely resembles the most basic of single- 
celled organisms blown into ridiculously giganimous proportions.  
Their outer layer is a viscous, mucus-like membrane that protects  
them from diseases and smaller parasites, while the inner layers are  
filled with plasm-like fluids and transparent vital organs. Trillions  
of small (relatively) cilia cover their outer layer, serving as the  
creature's sensory organs, thus allowing a Salzarian to hear, smell,  
feel and see for miles out from its body surface.

In all their long history, only one Salzarian is ever known to have  
died. This Salzarian's name was Bleesh, and it was killed by a  
massive horde of Vodoni Marauders, at the cost of many Vodoni's  
lives. Still, concepts of death and mortality are thoroughly alien to  
the Salzarians, and when word spread that Bleesh's existence had been  
ended by the strange little creatures from space, they felt they had  
no choice but to capitulate to the Vodoni. (I will grant you that  
this is not typical behavior for genius-level intellects, but  
intelligence and naivete are not always proportionally relative)

The anniversary of Bleesh's death is a day of mourning across the  
world of Salzar. On Bleesh Day, Salzarians gather in small groups to  
reminisce about things they remember about Bleesh before he was  
ended. Sometimes Salzarians make things up about Bleesh just so that  
they'll have something to say on Bleesh Day, since a lot of  
Salzarians didn't know Bleesh as well as others. This has lead to a  
small but growing body of Bleesh-related folklore on Salzar. Many of  
these tales speculate that Bleesh somehow lives on, perhaps as a  
guardian entity of sorts, watching over the remaining Salzarians. For  
some on Salzar, it is the only way to cope with the idea that a  
Salzarian can simply stop existing.

Combat: Salzarians are completely immune to magic. Being so immensely  
huge and of unratable hit dice, Salzarians make saving throws on the  
item saves table as an Oil. However, since they are naturally immune  
to magic, they are rarely ever compelled to make saving throws to  
begin with. It should be noted that any attack which calls for a  
saving throw that does not easily fall into one of the item saving  
throw categories should be considered ineffective against the  
ginormous Salzarians. Note that dragon breath, should it ever be used  
against a Salzarian, is not covered by the creature's magic  
resistance. Thus, it could be said that these otherwise sturdy and  
invulnerable creatures have some fairly glaring (but difficult to  
exploit) weaknesses.

When Salzarians attack, they do so with a lumbering, ponderous swing  
of a pseudopod. This enormous extension does either 6d20 hit points  
of damage, or 1d12 hull points, depending on what is being attacked.  
Because of how slow and cumbersome they are, Salzarians can attack  
only once every 4 rounds. Salzarians are also capable of using all of  
the Psionic attack and defense modes, using their Intelligence rating  
as a power score. In this way they can either engage other  
psionicists in psionic combat, or else inflict minor damage against  
other creatures with their natural telepathy. For all level-based  
concerns, consider Salzarians 10th level psionicists with no powers  
beyond their attack/defense modes, and the appropriate number of PSPs  
for their abilities. In psionic combat, a Salzarian always uses the  
best possible defense mode automatically to counter an incoming  
attack mode.

Background: Salzarians move by way of natural floatation, which in  
their native environment is effectively swimming. They possess the  
ability to float up and away from their world's gravity pull, but  
they move so slowly that unaided interstellar travel is highly  
impractical. For their size they are surprisingly maneuverable, being  
able to stop and change direction at whim, but they are very very  
slow to move. Salzarians communicate by way of innate telepathy; they  
have no language of their own and find the practice of vocal  
communication either quaint, vulgar, unfortunate or imperfect,  
depending on which Salzarian you are talking -- err, thinking with.

It's not known what Salzarians eat, though it is suspected that they  
either absorb microscopic organisms, or somehow derive nutrition from  
the briny water of their homeworld itself. Vodoni scholars note that  
the Salzarians inhabit only the topmost 2 miles of their watery  
world's surface, perhaps because they also require the light of  
Salzarspace's eight suns in order to remain healthy. There is  
speculation that the core of Salzar is comprised of twin portals to  
the elemental planes of Salt and Water, though the absence of  
elemental creatures on Salzar suggests that if this is true, there  
must be some screening mechanism that keeps planar beings from using  
said portals.

There is no leader among the Salzarians. The six hundred or so that  
exist do so communally, sharing what few resources the Salzarians  
require for survival and generally getting along together all the  
time. Disputes are usually handled with non-fatal matches of psionic  
combat, with the loser (that is, the first one contacted by a  
successful psionic attack) forced by the collective to relent his  
position in the conflict. Physical fighting is almost unheard of, and  
is only used in defense of the community. Twice thus far have the  
Salzarians been forced to engage in combat: the first time when the  
Illithids attempted to invade the sphere in antiquity, and the second  
when the Vodoni arrived. The Vodoni invasion is considered a horrific  
loss to the Salzarians, who are still coping with the death of Bleesh  
four hundred years later.