Portune [Shadow Fey]

Portune seldom wear their true shape: a black-skinned figure no taller than six inches, with moth wings, white hair, white eyes lacking iris or pupil, and slim fingers. Males usually live as turtles and females as asps, holding the animal form as long as they like, sometimes for years. They speak the fey tongue and, thanks to a love of word games and odd languages, at least a little of a dozen or more tongues both scholarly and everyday.

Healers at heart, portune hate violence and usually withdraw. Cornered, they give small bites that will not heal, even with clerical spells; nothing but a wish, or the portune that made the wound, will close it. Anyone attacking a portune saves vs. spell or suffers a fumble. They cast healing-sphere spells as 5th-level clerics.

Copper weapons or weapons of +3 or better can harm one; wooden weapons, enchanted or not, cannot, nor can heat or fire. Direct sun scorches shell or scales for 1 point every other round, slowing to 1 point every other turn under overcast skies.

Their herb lore detects poison (as the spell) with 75% success and can cure nearly any disease or condition, poisoning included. Males keep herbs in or on their shells, females hide them close by. Their sight and infravision are poor, but their hearing is sharp.

Portune roam almost any terrain on research errands but prefer to settle in marshes rich in odd plants and fungi. They dig little burrows into raised hummocks, screened by cattails, often beside a nest of friendly vipers that both guard the home and supply venom for medicine. Somber and scholarly, they are also fine alchemists, cooks, vintners and herbalists with a taste for clever wordplay.

Compassionate to the core, a portune always stops to help wounded humans and demihumans. They visit mortal lands for research or to study human medicine and may move into a gifted healer's house to watch the work. If impressed, they either share some herb lore or take the healer to the hidden shadow realm to become a changeling.