Dobie [Brownie]

Dobies look like small elves with brown hair and eyes and plain workday clothes to match. Their ears are barely pointed, and their faces call to mind weary farmhands rather than bright faerie children. They walk with an easy stride, but nobody would call them graceful; they come across as rustic bumpkins, not tricksy fey. They speak the brownie language among themselves, and every dobie also knows common and at least one other faerie tongue, such as sprite or pixie.

A threatened dobie would rather slip away than fight, but it will defend its big-folk neighbors and their property against anyone. Its drab, sturdy clothing, small size, and busy habits let it hide in natural surroundings, for AC 5 outdoors or inside a building made of natural materials; anywhere unfamiliar it is AC 9.

It confounds foes with fumble, forget, grease, ray of enfeeblement, and confuse languages (the reverse of comprehend languages), each once per day at the lowest level able to cast it. Lacking skill at arms, it swings a hoe or hammer for 1d2 damage, and even with a proper dagger or short sword it does only 1d3. Dobies are notably gullible and take a -3 penalty on saves against illusions and charms.

Families of dobies build rough cottages of twigs and thatch in thickets at the edges of a farmer's fields; more than four on one farm split into separate households at different corners. Like brownies they glean after harvest, but sloppily, so their fields end up resembling bird and rodent habitat rather than neatly picked rows.

Being good creatures, they insist on paying for food and lodging with deeds, such as briefly guarding valuables or doing chores, usually at night or when no one is watching. They never ask what needs doing. And they nearly always bungle it: after milking the cows they leave the barn open, and while herding the strays home they smash fences and stomp gardens. A farmer who scolds them is misunderstood; they assume he wants more work and try twice as hard. Their intentions are beyond reproach, and if their blundering did not sometimes pay off by accident, one might call them a curse.

That payoff comes when thieves, bandits, or wild animals show up. Dobies defend their adopted families' lives and goods, especially when the farmer is away, and though the aftermath is a wreck of broken furniture and shattered crockery, the people and their important possessions come through safe. Very few become house dobies. They would like to live closer, but their accidents tend to convince a family that a poltergeist haunts the place, leading to drastic measures or a move. Insults hardly register on them, however, so driving a dobie off 'his' farm is very hard.

Dobies live at the fringes of civilization as strict vegetarians who cannot farm for themselves. Big folk must plow and plant first; after that, the dobies pitch in to tend the crops.