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Dabus
| Climate/Terrain: | Sigil |
|
| Frequency: | Uncommon | |
| Organization: | Hierarchy | |
| Activity Cycle: | Any | |
| Diet: | Omnivore | |
| Intelligence: | Very | |
| Treasure: | Nil | |
| Alignment: | Neutral | |
| No. Appearing: | 1d8 | |
| Armor Class: | 7 | |
| Movement: | 12 | |
| Hit Dice: | 4 to 8 | |
| THAC0: | 4 HD: 17 5-6 HD: 15 7-8 HD: 13 | |
| No. of Attacks: | 1 | |
| Damage/Attack: | 1d8 or by weapon | |
| Special Attacks: | Nil | |
| Special Defenses: | See below | |
| Magic Resistance: | Nil | |
| Size: | M (6' tall) | |
| Morale: | Steady (12) | |
| XP Value: | 4 HD: 175 5 HD: 270 6 HD: 420 7 HD: 650 8 HD: 975 |
Combat: The dabus are not combative creatures. They seek no battle, as destruction is not their role and purpose in life. Still, in a city like Sigil, avoiding combat is not always possible and the dabus will fight if they must. The dabus possess no special attacks. They can only Fight normally, with swords, hand axes, or hammers - the latter two being tools they often have at the ready.
The dabus never quite stand on the ground. They neither fly nor walk, but exist on the boundary between each, so they're immune to spells that affect the surface beneath them. A transmute rock to mud won't catch them, nor will a grease spell make them slip. At the same time, they are not really flying, either. Thus, spells that might be effective against flying creatures, such as gust of wind, will not send them spinning out of control. Otherwise, they have no unusual immunities or special resistances.
Ķabitat/Society: Sigil is their sole habitat, which they constantly build, cannibalizing one part to construct another. It is known their homes are in substructures far beneath the city, but few have seen them. They don't care for visitors in their cramped workshops, and they mislead those who try to follow them home without permission.
The dabus claim to be organized into cells (if their rebuses are read correctly). Each cell has a duty in the city, though it is not tied to one place or skill. One day a member of a cell gathers the trash that blows out of the Great Bazaar. The next, it might be resetting cobbles near the Hive. Whatever guides them in their tasks, the dabus seem to always know what is expected of them. Each cell has 2d6 members.
All dabus are of the same sex, for the race appears to have no sex at all. There are no dabus young, yet they do seem to be able to replace those lost to accident or misadventure. No one is sure how they do so, but the best guess is that a new member is constructed from the merged illusions of the others, that the word-pictures take on real form, that what is written/spoken has reality for these creatures that translates into reality for others.
That leads to their strange speech, the most puzzling aspect of the dabus race. They have mouths and seem perfectly capable of speaking, but they never do. Instead, should they desire to communicate with someone not of their race, images of appear in the air. The images are the picture equivalents of sounds that match whatever language the onlooker speaks. When a dabus is excited, the rebuses can flicker by with dazzling speed.
Why do they not speak? Have they surrendered speech, cutting away the abstractions that bind the flesh to a false image of the world, or is language a mystery to them, an art they haven't learned? Are they a race unable to seize upon words and letters? Perhaps they are like some idiot savant, brilliant at their own chores but blind to the talents common to others.
Ecology: There is no doubt the dabus have a role in Sigil. They are its cells, constantly repairing the body of the city. It is hard to imagine what would happen to Sigil without them, for no one really knows the full extent and workings of Sigil's streets and furnaces.
Role-playing the Dabus: How does one role-play a race that speaks in pictures? The easiest answer is to simply have the dabus not speak. They barely acknowledge the presence of others, anyway. This is fine for common encounters, where this strange race is part of the background, or when their presence is not important to the adventure. However, sooner or later, players and DMs are going to want to deal with these mysterious creatures.
The DM can take two approaches to the dabus's rebuses: First, he or she can substitute some other nonvocal means of communicating to simulate their strangeness. Pantomime is particularly effective for this, like a game of Charades - the DM states that the dabus spews forth a torrent of undecipherable symbols, then resorts to pantomime to make itself understood. Thus, puzzling out what the dabus is trying to say becomes a challenge that involves the players right at the table. Pantomime is handy for those times when the DM hasn't prepared any rebuses and the player characters suddenly decide to question the nearest dabus.
Second, if the DM is willing to prepare, he or she can create an even greater sense of the race's strangeness. Knowing in advance that the player characters must deal with a dabus, the DM can actually draw up a rebus for them to decipher. Imagine the surprise of the players when their characters ask a question and the DM suddenly holds up one or even a series of rebuses as a reply.
Finally, rebuses and pantomiming should be used for fun, not to bog down play. If the characters really need to know something and the play-acting isn't as important, a nonplayer character bystander can always "translate" what the dabus says. This avoids the problem altogether, but it does lose some of the atmosphere.
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