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The Mar have fought the Drakes for resources for centuries, but even the wizards fear those rare times when the Drakes organize an invasion. To better understand why, read the book.

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OTHER PROJECTS

HANGOUTS

COMICS

Imp guer

Imp guer are the smallest known guer race, seldom growing taller than knee-high to a Mar. They are unusual in how much they vary in size for creatures of such small stature, and some scholars believe they continue to grow throughout their lives. Newly hatched imp guer are little larger than the joint of a Mar thumb, and members of this race as small as four inches high have been observed laying eggs. Imp guer are cold-blooded, humanoid guer with six-fingered hands and opposable thumbs. Imp guer make and use tools and exhibit behaviors that betray an intelligence almost as keen as that of kobolds. They have an identifiable spoken language and have even developed a simple pictographic written language. They have excellent night vision.

These small guer thrive in many areas with few large predators, especially favoring wooded areas where they can build communities out of the reach of most ground threats. They are omnivores, hunting and foraging for food (mostly berries and small reptiles) near their communities. Imp guer hibernate in subterranean nests during the winter. If this is impossible, they will lay several dozen eggs per female imp guer before dying of the cold. These eggs can survive the hardships of winter to hatch when the weather warms.

(Introduction contributed by Nightfire Tradition)

Tactics

Fighting imp guer is little different from killing several dozen large frogs. They forge spears and knives, but these weapons are too small to inflict any serious damage to any Mar over the age of 10. What is more, despite their cleverness, imp guer seem incapable of grasping the concept of using missile weapons or brewing poisons. They don't throw their spears or coat their blades in venom, so they have to get really close before they can even attack you. A swift kick will send one of these guer sailing through the air and will usually kill it. Imp guer seem to recognize their relative frailty, as well, and I have never heard of a massed attack by these Drakes against any Mar.

This does not make them completely harmless, however. Imp guer have a reputation for stealing boots to use as nests for their eggs, and they certainly deserve it. In fact, boots are only the most obvious targets of their larceny. Imp guer are small enough to slip into a Mar community by night without being noticed, which they often do to steal food and tools while the Mar sleep. These thefts often go unnoticed, usually being blamed on forgetfulness or other Mar. When boots disappear, though, everyone immediately suspects imp guer are behind the theft, because no Mar would imagine stealing or misplacing a boot.

A large enough community of imp guer can strip a town of most of its small goods in a matter of weeks. Some tribes of imp guer have actually built their communities inside the walls of a Mar town, hiding in low-traffic areas by day and collecting valuables and food from their unwitting hosts by night. These infestations are difficult to eradicate completely, but destroying the larger nests in an area is usually sufficient to convince the majority of the imp guer to go elsewhere. Unless the imp guer are rapidly driving the town into poverty, it is often worthwhile to wait until winter before exposing their nests and exterminating them, as they cannot endure intense cold at all. Even then, it is imperative to find and destroy any imp guer eggs, as these will hatch in the spring.

(Tactics contributed by Weard Girdag Langat)