Velai

The velai, often called simply the visitors, are slender humanoids about five feet tall with round heads, swept-back ears, huge eyes and pale, faintly glowing skin. Most are hairless, a few have thin wisps of white, silver or pale yellow hair, and every one wears the wrinkled face of an ancient archmage. They speak mind to mind with anything of low intelligence or better, and use slow, halting Common with outsiders.

Velai talk first and slip away if that fails, though they watch others' fights with childlike, clinical fascination. Cornered, they rely on psionics and, more rarely, alien gadgets. They nearly always travel seven or more strong, and constant telepathic contact makes each band hard to catch or outmaneuver. Their mental attacks subdue rather than kill, though they will read thoughts, dominate minds or erase memories when needed.

At most one in three carries a fire weapon, and none of their devices detects as magic. They use fire only in dire need, perhaps because of a religious taboo; asked about it, they only ramble about 'limited resource development' and 'conversationism.'

The velai are from somewhere else, perhaps planewalkers who lost the knack or castaways whose starship crashed here from another crystal shell. All agree they arrived by accident and cannot get home. A ranger reports them saying that the dark master behind their floating world now slumbers and needs waking, but they do not otherwise seem evil. They number under 1,000, children have only lately been confirmed, and they are long-lived but mortal.

Every five velai have a 4 HD captain with 80+3d12 PSPs, bearing no mark of rank; groups over 50 add up to four captains and a 6 HD great captain with 90+4d10 PSPs. With no known cities, bands roam and map the land, amazed by common beasts, by the 'radical genetic diversity' of humanoids and by any magic; none has ever been a wizard or priest. Some folk still kill them as lesser tanar'ri or other fiends. They scorn manual labor, prize the intellect, and meditate and worship together often. Their specialists include healers (biokineticists), spy-advisors (ESPions), mystics said to glimpse past and future, and the rare psionic soldier called a biowarrior.

Velai eat only plants and processed crops, wary of anything new until they have studied it closely. They seem to live four or five centuries. Until a few years ago scholars thought them a myth; sightings have risen for decades.

Roll 1d10 per velai: 1 gives a firestaff (1d10 charges), 2 or 3 a firerod (1d20 charges), and each armed velai has 1d6-3 firecubes. Recharging takes 1 round and consumes a firecube; a proficient user always succeeds, while someone who has merely watched needs a Wisdom check at half score, and a roll of 20 ruins the device. One velai in ten, and every leader, wears inducer bands, bracelets and anklets equal to bracers of defense AC 2 that do not detect as magic.

Gauntlet: a shining elbow-length metal glove on the off hand that hums and blinks as the owner taps it. It surely detects psionics held or used within 100 yards. Half or more of any group carry one.

Firerod scabbard: a belt sheath only its owner can draw from, as fast as an unsheathed rod. Leaders have a 20% chance of one.

Telescoping rod: a strong metal pole that extends from 3 to 15 feet to peer around corners or over walls. A group has a 25% chance of 1d4-2. Its nonmagical attachments always grant clairvoyance like a crystal ball sensor, and roll 1d10 each for the rest, all at 6th-level ability: clairaudience on 1-9, infravision on 1-8, detect invisibility and detect psionics on 1-5 each, truesight only on a 1. The DM may simply pick a mix instead.

Portable dome: a pack-sized unit (1 in 10 chance per group) that unfolds into a dome 15 feet across, complete with a two-door antechamber, bedrolls, rations and a water purifier.

Black sun sphere: a cool, glossy black orb with a tiny raging sun inside and a faint hum, small enough with its holder to fit a backpack. Groups have a 2 in 10 chance of one, set at the heart of camp like an altar. Silent, sunless versions are rumored but none has left velai hands.