No one can say with certainty where the Raech-ul came from. Some scholars believe they are indigenous to Byzantium Secundus, remnants of a primitive species that survived beneath the world’s expanding cities. Others argue they are descendants of genetic experiments from the Second Republic, abandoned and forgotten when that civilization collapsed. Among the superstitious, there is a simpler explanation: the Raech-ul are trolls, demons, or some other ancient evil dwelling beneath the earth.
Whatever their origin, the people of the lowlands know that something lives beneath Drown Town. For generations, serfs have told stories of hulking creatures emerging from drains, tunnels, and flooded ruins to steal livestock—and sometimes children. Most educated citizens dismiss such tales as superstition, but the creatures behind them are very real.
The Raech-ul are a primitive humanoid people living in scattered tribal enclaves throughout the subterranean regions of Byzantium Secundus. They are particularly numerous within the enormous network of sewers, forgotten foundations, natural caverns, and buried structures beneath Drown Town. They generally avoid civilization, though encounters with surface dwellers are rarely peaceful.
Most inhabitants of Byzantium Secundus regard the Raech-ul as dangerous animals rather than sentient beings. Wealthy nobles have even turned hunting them into a clandestine sport, organizing expeditions into the underworld in search of particularly large or dangerous specimens. Few authorities object.
Those nobles rarely mention what they sometimes discover in the creatures’ lairs.
Raech-ul caves contain tools, deliberately constructed shelters, ritual objects, and elaborate drawings covering walls and ceilings. Some paintings appear to preserve events stretching back generations, suggesting the supposedly bestial Raech-ul possess oral traditions, culture, and perhaps a history of their own.
The outcasts known as Misfits normally give Raech-ul territory a wide berth, though rumors persist of individuals who secretly protect the tribes or trade with them. Stranger still is the relationship between the Raech-ul and the Ur-Ukar. The Ur-Ukar know the creatures by name and appear to have maintained some form of contact with them for generations.
What passes between them—and what the Ur-Ukar know about the true origins of the Raech-ul—remains unknown.
Medium Sized Monstrous Humanoid
CR 2
Hit Dice: 3d8+2 (18 HP)
AC: 16 (+2, +4 Natural)
Initiative: +2 (Dex)
Speed: 30 Ft.
Attack/DMG: Claw (+2 Melee/1d4+1), Bite (+2 Melee/1d4+1), Club (+2
Melee/1d6+1)
Face/Reach: 5 ft by 5 ft/5ft
Special Attack: Improved Grab
Special Qualities: Darkvision, Camouflage (+4 to Hide), Psionic
Resistance (+6 tp Will)
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +1, Will +3
Abilities: Str 12, Dex 11, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 5
Skill: Hide 4, Climb 2, Swim 4, Spot 4
Feats: Alertness
(Minor Raech-ul is a under developed Raech-ul, who are “cast out”
of normal Raech-ul society. They are smaller and less powerful, sometimes
diseased and sickly.)