Species Name: Bhuka, Desert Goblin

Type: Humanoid

Physical Traits: Bhukas are slightly built with sand-coloured skin and brick red, tightly curled hair. They have little facial or body hair. Their large ears, networked with veins, fold flat against the head to retain heat in the cold desert night and keep out blowing sand. A frill of skin about the neck contains numerous spines that can lift the frill and raise it for cooling. The face of a Bhuka is flat, with slitlike nostrils protected by flaps of skin. A Bhuka's eyes have long lashes to keep out sand and dust, and the skin surrounding them is darker than the rest of the face, giving a Bhuka the appearance of wearing a mask. Bhukas have wide, splayed feed that help them move easily over sand, and they do not wear shoes. Body paint is used to signify social position and ranges from a simple stripe on a low ranking youth's neck frill to an elaborate pattern of spots, stripes, and whorls covering the arms and upper body of a matriarch. Clothing is flowing and light, woven from desert grasses using ancient techniques that make the garb excellent protection from heat.

Height: 4-5' feet

Weight: 90lbs

Abilities: Bhukas have broad feet and spayed toes that help them travel easily over sand and similar loose surfaces. They treat shallow sand as normal terrain and deep sand as shallow sand. Dark skin and long lashes around the eyes protect Bhukas from sun glare, so these creatures are never dazzled by bright sun. Bhukas have the innate ability to detect a source of drinkable water within a distance of 100 feet. Bhukas can resist the harmful effects of heat and dehydration. They are toughened to the rigors of waste life.

Mobility: Legs

Sensory Organs: Visual

Communication: Vocal

Reproduction: Sexual

INT: 3D6, WIS: 3D6, STR: 3D6 -2, DEX: 3D6 +2, CON: 3D6 +2, CHA: 3D6, MR: 3D6, HPs: CON +D10

Orbit/Climate: See Earth

Feeding Habits: Omnivore

Lifespan: 50 years

Technology: 2

Culture: Standard. Diversified mix of kind and evil people. Although theirs is not a technologically advanced society, Bhukas are a sophisticated people with highly developed art and social organization. They are not warlike, so they have learned to avoid conflict by the simple method of not being seen. A Bhuka never approaches strangers but observers from hiding as long as possible while gauging the newcomers' intent. Even if she does make contact, a Bhuka reveals nothing of her kin or settlement and is very cautious in her dealings. Within their own society, Bhukas form strong bonds in extended families and cement the community as a whole through rituals and storytelling.

They are very peaceful and live in arid places. This race is commonly found in the desert. Bhukas sustain themselves through farming and pride themselves on being able to find water. Their chief crops are beans, sunflowers, grasses, and corn. Their fields surround the village. Each village is lead by an elderly woman along with a council of both men and women. And each family has a house that is built into a cliff or canyon in order to protect the family. This race develops very strong relationships with their extended families and they are very loyal to their villages. Bhukas worship a goddess, which they see as the benevolent mother of their race. They believe that she lead them out of Khyber. They claim to be descended from goblins. And these medium sized creatures avoid the wrath of evil gods by appeasing them with a religious event on winter solstice.

From the beginning of their history, Bhukas have been a gentle people of whom others have taken advantage. When the first people emerged from the lower world, Bhukas were the last to choose their home and thus had to adapt to the harsh waste. The cruder goblinoid races deride them as weak, while the traditional enemies of goblins (such as badland dwarves and panted elves) are more likely to engage a Bhuka on friendly terms. Warlike people of the waste have driven Bhukas away from fertile regions, forcing them into an ever smaller and less hospitable territory. Yet this form of exile is a source of strength for the Bhukas, who take pride in their ability to flourish even under such conditions. Bhukas are not cowards--push too hard, and they reveal a toughness bred of burning sun and baked earth. The Bhuka people have a longstanding trade relationship with the crucians, exchanging food, art objects, and dyes for tools and other worked items. Asheratis are unnerving to Bhukas. The asheratis' presence below the sand is disturbing to a Bhuka's perception of reality and challenges his standing in the hierarchy of the waste.

Bhukas form extending family groups called phratries, consisting of several clans related by origin. Each phratry claims ancestry from one couple who emerged from the Lower World at the beginning of history and is responsible for maintaining a particular tradition of the people. Young adults of a given phratry cannot marry within any of its clans, which means they must wed someone from another village; the new family may settle with either parent clan. Bhukas inhabit adobe or sandstone dwellings built into and against cliffs or dug into its own home, with a terrace built under it to allow drying of food, space for sitting and talking, and access to other houses. The entrance to a house is well above ground level as a defence against the invaders--access is by ladders or rope lifts. A central spring provides water to the community. Farms surround each village. The arid climate and hard earth of the waste makes agriculture a challenge but Bhukas use traditional dry-farming techniques to grow their staple foods of beans, sunflowers, desert grasses, and corn. The fields are not ploughed. Instead, tough native vegetation holds the soil in place, with the crops planted in rows of deep holes. Sometimes, the village spring irrigates a terrace built below the house entrances for growing small tough melons that furnish both food and containers. Bhukas supplement their diet with wild plants such as cactus pads, fruits, and the meat of small animals.

Bhukas will fight, when ultimately backed into a corner, but prefer peaceful agrarian lifestyles, eking out a living farming what foods can grow in the badlands and supplementing with forage and hunting. Matriarchal, their phratries (extended, clan-like bands consisting of several extended families that are mythologically related to each other) trade with many willing people, even the crucians, although they find the asherati unnerving for how they seem to contradict the Bhukan religious beliefs.

Each Bhuka village has a ceremonial pit, dug into a courtyard or sacred cave and covered with a lid of painted hides. The walls are carved with traditional symbols that depict the emergence and subsequent migrations of the people, as well as images of friendly spirits, important landmarks and food animals and plants. The most solemn rituals take place in these pits, which recall the dark world beneath the ground from which the Bhukas emerged. Outsiders are strictly forbidden from entering sacred pits, and only adult members of the community participate in the rites. The village pit is also where coming-of-age rituals are held. Village festivals celebrating the harvest, weddings, and changes of season take place in the common area rather than the pit, and are occasions for feasting, song, and dance.

Government: Tribal

Bhukas gain all the following free;

Bhuka Body - All Bhuka have broad feet and spayed toes that help them travel easily over sand and similar loose surfaces without penalty. They treat shallow sand as normal terrain and deep sand as shallow sand. Dark skin and long lashes around the eyes protect Bhukas from sun glare, so they are never dazzled by bright sun. Bhukas can resist the harmful effects of heat and dehydration. They are toughened to the rigors of waste life.