Playable Races Deep Dive Pt. 2: Cautuuk & Drelrhune

Vrahode is a world teeming with life and full of creatures and characters that you've never seen before in any fantasy world.

But what does that actually mean in practice?

This is part 2 of a 5-part deep dive into the playable races of Vrahode. We'll be talking about the Cautuuk and Drelrhune, who were created by the Accourisch from the winds and the waters.

Vrahode will be coming to Kickstarter most likely in quarter one of 2024. When that campaign goes live, you will not only be able to buy the core game, Vrahode: The Calteeryn Ascension, but its three expansions as well.

 Trailer Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy5rapu8Dd4

Learn more about Vrahode on the website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.     

Transcript

Brandon Rollins: [00:00:00] They call it Pirate's Booty. That's just the name of it. So... 

Jeff Irving: Pirate's Booty. You know what? I don't think I would say that around Captain Baerald. She might take offense to that. 

 My name is Jeff Irving and this is the Vrahode Tavern podcast. I am the creator of the Vrahode Game System. And in this podcast, we're going to do a deep dive into the lore and gameplay of Vrahode. I'm joined by Brandon Rollins, who will be acting as a stand in for you, asking many of the questions you might be curious about yourself. 

Brandon, what are we talking about today? 

Pregenerated Cautuuk heroes 

Brandon Rollins: So, for today's episode, this is part two in a five part series where we're going to be talking about all the crafted races of Vrahode. There are ten of them, so we're just focusing on two per episode. And for today, I was thinking, let's talk about the Cautuuk and the Drelrhune. 

So yeah, let's um, let's get into this thing. The Cautuuk. Cautuuk? Cautuuk. 

Cautuuk.  

So what are our pre gen [00:01:00] heroes for that? 

Jeff Irving: All right. Well, um, the Cautuuk are this, you know, their body is basically that of, of a small deer or antelope and their upper body is, is very much humanoid. They've got these small kind of horns. 

The pre gen heroes, uh, go along with that Cautuuk race are the Blade. Which is our, kind of our warrior or, um, just fighter, uh, antecedent. And so we have Aalrabion, he is the blade for the Cautuuk race. Um, and then our other, uh, pre generated hero from the Cautuuk race is Kibetta. And she is a Dream Catcher. 

And so the Dream Catcher role is something new that, that I came up with. Um, I really liked this idea of, of sleep or rest being, uh, a, a [00:02:00] place of, of power or a place where, where a certain role could kind of recharge and, um, work their magic. And so the Dream Catcher is that, um, she's kind of like a, a mage, but with a pet. 

So a pet class, mage. Um, and so that is, uh, those are the two, um, the two pregens. You want to talk a little bit more about those roles or do you want to, what do you think? 

Brandon Rollins: Let's get right into that. 

Jeff Irving: Okay, well, let's, let's go, let's start with Aalrabion. So, so basically he's a, he's a warrior, so he's going to start with a short sword, simple studded armor. He starts with some food. Um, he has no restrictions on his armor use. And obviously because he's a Cautuuk, we're talking upper body armor. But they also can wear some barding, uh, which is like armor for the lower part of their body. 

Let's see, his skills. Um, he's got all body skills because his primary, he's [00:03:00] a, he's a one stat, one primary stat type hero and so everything is in body. So he's got three, he's got a debuff called Unsettling Growl. So things that are adjacent to him that hear, hear this growl, it puts them at a negative. 

So he kind of, kind of unnerves them if you will. Um, he's got something called Blade of the Warlord. That skill allows him to imbue his weapon, um, and kind of buff it up. And he's got another one, another skill called Frenzied Blood. And so basically, I think Frenzied Blood, if I'm remembering that skill correctly, I believe that's kind of a Berserker type skill in that if he gets hurt, and his health goes below a certain level, then he's gonna get, um, extra physical attacks or extra damage to his attacks. 

Um, so that's, uh, the role of the Blade. He's going to be right up front. He's going to be on the front [00:04:00] lines. Um, if I'm playing this guy, I'm going to have probably two weapons. I'm going to have a weapon in each hand, dual wielding those, so I can get extra, uh, opportunities to attack, uh, on the front lines. 

 Kibetta, our Dream Catcher. So, this is a role that's near and dear to my heart. I put a lot of thought into, um, this role, and I find it very satisfying, uh, to, to play. Um, she, she in and of herself is fairly weak and, um, uh, not well protected. So she's gonna start out with a staff, cloth armor and some bandages in her inventory so she can bandage. 

Um, she cannot use heavy weapons. So she's able to, at her height, she's able to work long weapons, but she can't use anything real heavy. And then skills, skill wise, um, because she's a pet class, she has to have a certain level of presence. That's [00:05:00] that a stack that she's got a presence of 10 and a mind score of 12. 

So mainly a mage. But with enough presence that she can, um, have dominion over this pet and her pet is called a Dream Sentinel. So, um, let's quickly cover her skills. Um, she's got a, a skill called peaceful slumber. This allows her to give her. Um, and her party mates, um, an easier time of recovering their health, reducing their fatigue, and recovering their ruhl. 

So when they rest, this skill that she has allows her, uh, the party to treat all restless sleep cards as restful. And so what it does, it just accelerates the healing process from damage and battle. Um, she has another one called Falling Stars, and this is a, uh, uh, a skill that allows her to, to bring down, uh, small meteors and strike [00:06:00] enemies on the battlefield. 

This is, uh, only available to her in Overlands and then she has her present skill is Dream Sentinel, and this is the one that allows her when she is able to get restful sleep. She can summon this Dream Sentinel. So it's a spirit. Her ancestors introduced her to this older spirit, that had been on Vrahode and she goes into this dream world. 

When she sleeps, she finds the Sentinel. She summons it. And then when she awakens, the Dream Sentinel comes into physical being and, um, uh, protects her for the day until she rests again. And at which point the dream Sentinel is then released. And so basically it costs her about half of her daily allotment. 

To summon the Dream Sentinel. And so what that means is that, you know, she's relying heavily on that Dream Sentinel and the way it works is [00:07:00] as long as she has is not in melee combat. In other words, she's standing back away from, um, the battle. She can even attack by range, but if she's in melee. Her focus is on melee and she's unable to control the Dream Sentinel. 

So there's some restrictions and there's some balancing issues so that we make sure that, um, she's not overpowered. But when the Dream Sentinel comes into being, it is this kind of Oni looking figure with an orb and it has a melee attack. It has a ranged attack and it has a really cool action called Orb Pulse, that basically is an adjacent area of effect damage skill that the Dream Sentinel can do. 

So once the, once Kibetta has summoned the Dream Sentinel, the player that has chosen to play the Dream Catcher is essentially playing two heroes. And so that's very interesting, especially to people that like pet classes.  

Brandon Rollins: I think something else to mention here with [00:08:00] the Dream Catcher is just how important rest is in Vrahode. Basically, you can be attacked while you're resting, and it's like, it's a thing that you, you have to do. So it's, um, there's like a push your luck mechanic to it and everything. 

And just the idea of having this dream sentinel that you can play alongside kind of changes the dynamics of this mode that you're going to inevitably be playing anyway. So it's like actually a really big deal. 

Jeff Irving: Yeah, no, it's when people play test it, when we first started play testing it. The Dream Sentinel was actually overpowered. We gave him too much power. And so we've ganked him a little bit so that he is in line with, you know, with the heroes and, um, you know, it's the benefits of having the Dream Sentinel are offset by the restrictions, you know, the high ruhl costs to summon him and the fact that she cannot be in melee when she has him under her control. 

So [00:09:00] we feel like it's balanced. You know, it's well balanced. And then as, as Kibetta levels up and as, as she begins to stop fighting common enemies and is forced to fight, um, rare enemies, fabled enemies or mythic enemies. If she wants to summon a Dream Sentinel at the level that she is fighting enemies, instead of costing her three ruhl at that point, it'll cost her eight. 

And then if she wants to summon a top tier, the way the tiers work in, in allies, or in, in this case with the Dream Sentinel, which is a pet, um, they start out as initiates. That's the, that's the equivalent of a common enemy. Then they move up to adept, which is the second level, which would be the equivalent of a rare enemy. 

And then the top level of ally or pet is called an exalted. And exalteds are even with fabled. Um, enemies. And so that's kind of how our, our advancement system keeps the game, uh, keeps the [00:10:00] heroes in check. Um, you know, we force balance throughout the entire story arc. And so you get your challenge level is adequate. 

Um, but you're not, you don't, you don't really hit points in the game where you're, you know, you don't feel powerful enough, you know, 

Origins of Cautuuk 

Brandon Rollins: Where do the Cautuuk live? 

Jeff Irving: Um, the Cautuuk are, they are central on the map and Renduur, they are central, they're in the middle, um, of the map, which is essentially the stormward, um, plains of Renduur. So the plains is where they're at home. Um, their magic comes from, uh, I believe that the Accourish crafted them after watching antelope type creatures crossing the plains and the storms, uh, that blow across the plains. 

And they said, we want to imbue this creature and combine what an antelope is with [00:11:00] something that's completely sentient. And also something that can draw from the power of these mighty storms and the winds that blow across the plains. 

And that is the culmination of what the Cautuuk are. They're fast moving. They're a lot of their, um, their, uh, ruhl is based on winds and, and lightning and storms. And so if you want a mobile hero that can just flat out get it, um, that is the Cautuuk. They can move 10 spaces in the plains. They can move eight spaces everywhere else in the overlands. 

Uh, they are at a bit of a disadvantage in the underlands. They have a minus two movement in the underlands because they just, they're not, they're very unsure one in the darkness. And, you know, you can imagine an antelope. In a dungeon setting, they're just not going to move even close to their maximum rate. 

And so, um, that is where they live. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and I can imagine, they're probably going to be very comfortable in environments that [00:12:00] resemble their home. But, it's like you said, once you get into the darkness, and once you get into honestly just any place that doesn't look like home, then it's kind of a trouble. Which, it sounds like so far, so far, just about every race you've mentioned, struggles quite a bit in the underlands. 

And I know that the Athak-uul at a minimum, are going to be an exception. 

Jeff Irving: When we get to the Athak-uul, you'll understand, uh, better how that, how that works, because even though, yes, the, Athak-uul are one subterranean race and they suffer no minus one darkness penalty, they, they struggle in the overlands and depending on where you are in this, in the game. 

Um, you know, the core box focuses quite a bit more on the Overlands play, but then as you move through the story arc and through the expansions. It begins to focus more on the underlands. And so while an Athak-uul hero might seem a bit underpowered in early game, mid game, late game, they're, they're going to shine because [00:13:00] they're in their environment more often in those expansions. 

Cautuuk: bio & abilities 

Brandon Rollins: Mm hmm. That's good balancing. So, what's the back of the card say about the Cautuuk? 

Jeff Irving: Um, it says the small swift Cautuuk dwell not in any one place for all the plains of Renduur are their home, but there is one location among the expanses of Vrahode. where they gather and rest the Hills of the Living Spring, there tucked into the high hilltops. The Cautuuk worship the source of all water in ground and sky. 

There they count their numbers and hold their rituals for those hills have long been a place of refuge. And so these are, these are a semi nomadic people. They're tribal. Um, I, in my mind, I base them loosely on, on Native American tribes. I think if you think of them as, as kind of Native American tribes, um, their culture, then I think you're, you're a long way to understanding kind of what our hope is with the lore. 

Brandon Rollins: Now, what would [00:14:00] you say about their... actually, you know what? Let's get into abilities. What are their abilities in game? 

Jeff Irving: Uh, okay. So the Cautuuk have two abilities. And again, these are racial abilities are like skills. But they don't cost your hero any ruhl to use them because they're indicative of your race. And so again, if we think about them as these kind of mini centaurs, if you will, of the plains and of the storms, their first racial ability is called Energetic Assault. 

It adds plus two shock damage to your successful melee attacks this battle, and it may not be mitigated. So shock damage is like a shock on your weapon and, and it gets through the enemy's defenses. Gear cannot protect against the shock. It can protect against the weapon. But the shock is going to still hurt. 

So the shock damage and the other thing, if you notice the wording on this racial ability, it says to your successful melee attacks. Okay. So what that means is no matter what [00:15:00] weapon or weapons are in your hand, any weapon in your hands as a Cautuuk. that you successfully hit with after you have declared your use of this racial ability is plus two shock damage. 

That's powerful. It's not focused on a weapon. It's, it's every, it's you, you're the source of the shock. So that's pretty cool. The second racial ability is called Wind Wall. And so the, you know, again, this race is of the plains, of the winds, of the storms, what wind wall does. Is it basically they put a wall of wind up against their enemies that are using ranged attacks and it causes minus two range to enemy ranged attacks this battle. 

So basically they're making the enemy that's using ranged weapons, uh, fight against the headwind. 

Brandon Rollins: Is there anywhere that, like, you can't use Underlands, where it's just totally closed off?  

Jeff Irving: They can use when they can create that wind and pressure anywhere [00:16:00] they are because it's from them.  

Why choose Cautuuk? 

Brandon Rollins: Interesting. Now... On that note, is there anything in particular that they can't do? 

Jeff Irving: Um, restriction wise, um, I think it's really important that we know that there really aren't any racial restrictions, that the restrictions on the Cautuuk are based on their pre generated heroes. So, like, for example, um, she's not going to be able to use any heavy weapons and she's limited to leather armor because she's not a frontline fighter and she needs to remain mobile. 

Um, he has no role restrictions, but again, they're role restrictions. They're not based on their race. So the call took have no racial restrictions. 

Brandon Rollins: Now, if you were making a custom hero, why would you choose, say, Cautuuk over any other option? 

Jeff Irving: Mobility. I think that's the main thing. Mobility. Um, I like...  

Brandon Rollins: Sure. 

Jeff Irving: Well, and I think the fact that you can add two shock to any melee attack, uh, [00:17:00] basically what that does is it means that you, cause when you, when an enemy mitigates damage, in other words, they use their gear to minimize the damage they're receiving from a successful attack. 

But whenever you can add plus two shock to any melee attack. I mean, that's powerful stuff. So energetic assault in and of itself is a reason to pick the Cautuuk. 

Um, so that would be, that would be, I think the main thing. One other thing I want to mention too, that we didn't talk about yet is the traits. 

Um, we talked about the minus two movement in the underlands. So, so again, the Cautuuk have a base movement of eight. I think that's the highest in all the races. So, so again, it's mobility, right? Um, so they're going to only move six in the underlands, but in the plains, which there's tons of plains across the overlands, they're moving at 10. 

So mobility is the primary reason why you would choose the Cautuuk. And also I think the plus two shock damage is another great reason.[00:18:00]  

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and, and thinking about that, it's they have the ability to have, um, shock damage added to melee attacks, that means they can hit hard, and, and quickly, too. 

Jeff Irving: Oh, and just, let's not forget though, that just like any of the other Overland races, they have a minus one on their rolls in the Underlands, which can be mitigated with a light source. So someone in the party has got to have a light source. As soon as that happens, as long as one person in the entire party has a torch. 

Those, those darkest penalties go away. 

Brandon Rollins: Good to know. Let's see, so on the whole other end, you've got the Drelrhune, which is a very, very different kind of people entirely. 

Jeff Irving: Oh yeah. 

Drelrhune pregenerated heroes 

Brandon Rollins: So, let's start here. What are their pre generated heroes? 

Jeff Irving: All right. So, um, I, I've always been intrigued by the monk character in, in D&D, in, um, Diablo in, uh, uh, World War Warcraft. You know, [00:19:00] I've always been intrigued by monks. And so I really wanted to, I really wanted to introduce a monk type character. Um, Into the world of Vrahode, but also put a fresh spin on them as well. 

And so, because every single class in, or role, if you will, in Vrahode is a caster, okay. Even our, even our warriors, you know, like the Blade, all that, there's still casters. So the Rukus, uh, is he's called a Rook. He's the male pre generated hero, and he is kind of a monk antecedent. His main decks that he draws from when he starts the game is focus first, then mind. 

Okay. So again, um, focus is mainly where you find someone using precision, like, a ranged attacker has to have precision. And also someone with no weapons has to have precision in their attacks. And so he's focused and then mind, he [00:20:00] starts out with a staff, leather armor, and a torch. 

Um, his skills are, in focus, are Stone Mantra, which is an arm, an armor buff, a a mitigation buff. He has a weapon less attack called Flurry of Blows. So if he's not holding weapons, he can attack two, even three times with his hands, uh, in rapid succession. Again, that's scalable. So, you know, the, the better he gets at it and the more his focus stat goes up. Maybe he can even hit four times in one round. 

Um, and then his one mind skill is called Veil Walker, sort of like a short range teleport. He's able to move quickly from one spot on the battlefield to another, um, using this skill. So it allows him mobility on the battlefield that others may not have. 

He can appear on the front lines, he can reappear on the back lines, and so he can support from behind. So his, you know, he wants to move around quickly, he wants to attack multiple times, doing less [00:21:00] damage. That's how Rukus likes to fight. Um, he can't use heavy weapons, and he can't use anything above heavy banded armor. 

So he can be protected by armor, but he's not going to wear the heaviest plate stuff. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, very, it sounds like he's a very hands on physical attacker. 

Jeff Irving: Yep. The other, the other, um, pre gen hero is Katanni and Katanni is a jester. Okay. And what is a jester? Well, a jester, you know, is I would say similar to a bard. Um, what she does is she can pick up a lute or a flute and she can play on there, uh, and, and essentially do some crowd control with it. She can do some buffs. 

She can do some debuffs. Um, she starts with a stone dagger. A flute and cloth armor. So, um, she is primarily a presence, uh, using the presence stat and then mind [00:22:00] secondarily. So with presence, presence is about illusion. It's about mind control and things like that a lot, which is indicative of say someone who is influencing minds and buffing and debuffing. 

She has a presence skill called Triumphant Anthem, which is a song that she plays on the flute, um, that is, uh, her, uh, her party members. It gives them benefits to move. And then she has a debuff, um, that she can play on her flute called Dissonant Agony. So that's going to hurt the, the ears and, and distract the enemy and hurt, hurt their rolls. 

And then she has a mind skill, which is kind of an illusionary skill called, um, uh, Spectral Serpents. So she can summon these spectral serpents to, um, kind of come into being and then attack and poison enemies. And then they kind of disappear. Um, uh, [00:23:00] let's see. So yeah, that's basically the jester. The, the, the nice thing about the jester is the range of their skills is eight. 

So the instrument, the noise of the instrument reaches a long way. Um, which is, which is much easier to be able to get everybody in the battle inside an eight space range because that's 17 spaces across that you can reach with your, um, with your music, the downside of the jester, um, where the syrin, um, has only a six range, their voice, the jester has eight, but the, the jester has to hold an instrument. 

So in order for a jester to do physical attacks, they have to unequip the instrument and then re equip a weapon. And even a flute takes two hands to play. You cannot play a flute one handed. Um, same thing with a lute. The lute is a stringed instrument that they [00:24:00] could find in their travels. That also requires two hands. 

Brandon Rollins: It's remarkable how different of a character this is than Rukus. 

Jeff Irving: Yeah, well, and she's, you know, she can only wear, she can't wear it, use any long or heavy weapons. She can only wear fine chain armor or less. So she can't even wear, you know, quite the armor that Rukus can, cause she's got to stay, you know, she's got to stay fleet footed and be able to stay away from the fray. 

History & traits of the Drelrhune 

Brandon Rollins: Now where do the Drelrhune live? 

Jeff Irving: The Drelrhune are, their, their source of ruhl is water and they're most comfortable in swampy or marshy areas, so their, their home is called Aqualith Village and it is on the, um, the far leafward end of the lost Elder Marshes which are, you know, on the, on the leafward end of the main island of Renduur. 

So they're living in these insect infested swamps and, and marshes, and they're [00:25:00] happy there and their, their village is kind of indicative of the way they live in that, you know, the canals and pools that surround all their homes and things connect them rather than divide them because they're, they're just as at home in water as they are on land. 

And the bridges that are in their village are essentially there for the people that visit, you know, they spend most of their time in the water. Um, so they are, yeah, like I said, Aqualith Village. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, so kind of like a, um, a village of fishermen or something like that? 

Jeff Irving: Well, I kind of, you know, I think when I originally envisioned it, it was more like, you know, how, um, beavers build lodges, they build those great big, um, piles of sticks and rivers and things. And they typically go underwater and then into them from underneath and they rise up inside where they're safe. That's originally the way I thought about the Drelrhune is that they're there to enter their homes you had to dive under, go under and come up in the living room [00:26:00] kind of thing, you know? 

But in order for it, this is a board game. So in order for, um, uh, people, other races to be able to function within their village easily, it made more sense to, um, you know, put the structures above water and just do it that way. 

Brandon Rollins: Hmm. Yeah, you kinda, you have to make a few concessions just to make sure that the rest of it's playable. But I, I have to imagine that like... It's kind of like what you said, they're going to want guests every once in a while who wouldn't naturally be able to just navigate by going up through the water. 

Jeff Irving: Well, and I'll say this, you know, you have a vision in your mind and, you know, obviously this, this world has been in my head for over 30 years. I think it was 1990 that I started coming up with it. Um, you know, it's in your head for so long and you get this kind of vision of what everything is, should be, but I think part of the fun for me, not initially, it was really hard initially, but, but as the process has gone along through these past few years, when you [00:27:00] give an idea to someone and you explain to them, uh, what a race is like to see them...  

Take what you tell them and have their own vision of what it is has been really cool because I just, I've just been super happy with the results of, you know, like Wayne Peters, who did some of our village designs, uh, Moreno Paissan and his girlfriend, Angela have done some of the village designs. I mean, I'm, I'm a pretty decent art director, but I just really like to see people's interpretation of things. 

It's kind of fun. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, it's sometimes it's fun just get somebody else involved and see what happens. Yeah, so, um, what's it say on the back of the card when you're reading about the Drelrhune? 

Jeff Irving: Okay. Uh, the Drelrhune value solitude above all else, even from their cousins, the seafaring Sahrhune. They are most at peace within the deep water they swim, the ways others might navigate trails or roads. In their ancestral home, Aqualith Village, tidal [00:28:00] canals connect rather than divide the many islands on which they make their dwellings. 

And the bridges between are only for the rare guests. The Drelrhune welcome peaceful visitors. All others learn this isolated race is quiet only until provoked. 

Brandon Rollins: You know, it's funny, that's like the perfect summary of what we've already talked about. 

It's like all there on the card, that's great. 

Um, so I guess, what are their traits? 

Jeff Irving: All right. This is a big one. And this is a reason why you might pick a Drelrhune, why you might want to pick a Drelrhune. We have 32 encounter maps that you zoom into in the world, in the game series. And many of them have water. And as soon as you get past that kind of difficult terrain that exists between land and water, you go into deep water quickly. 

And so they have no deep water movement penalty. So where, if I'm a Cautuuk, or if I'm a, uh, Toreln or a Mynoc [00:29:00] and I'm traveling in deep water, it costs me three movement points for each square I want to enter. That is deep water for the Drelrhune. Just like on land where every space is one movement point except for difficult terrain, which are the yellow dots, but for deep water for the Drelrhune, it costs them one movement point to move into each deep water square. So, basically, their mobility is through the roof whenever deep water is there to be crossed or navigated. 

Brandon Rollins: You know, that, that would be like perfect if you had an enemy on the opposite side of a shore on a flat or something like that.  

Um, and you wanted, especially if you had one of the ranged Drelrhune, like one with good ranged attack like Katanni. That'd be perfect to just kind of get started attacking that thing while the others are still trying to cross the shore. 

Jeff Irving: One thing to be aware of though, when, because the Drelrhune are so focused and draw so much [00:30:00] strength from water, when you take them away from water. They have minus one skill roles in desert and badland regions. So when it's dry and arid, they don't do well. 

Okay, and I'll just say this, and I'm going to try not to do a spoiler, but our first expansion in the series after the core box. Most of that expansion takes place in the deserts and badlands of the world of Vrahode. And so, Drelrhune heroes need to be aware that there will be a time coming that they'll have to endure being in the deserts and badlands even though it costs them minus one to their skill rolls. 

Brandon Rollins: Ooh, that's gonna hurt a lot. 

Jeff Irving: Yeah. And of course, what, what, what, what, what penalty do they also have? Just like everybody else, they have a minus one rolls in under land battles because it's too dark. Right? 

So that's the racial traits of the Drelrhune  

Drelrhune racial abilities 

Brandon Rollins: And what about [00:31:00] their abilities? 

Jeff Irving: Well, real quickly to me, it's worth it to pay the minus one in under lands and the minus one in desert badlands to have that no deep water movement penalty. 

That's huge.  

That's  

Brandon Rollins: Especially once you start exploring the coastal regions of Vrahode, like, that movement penalty's gonna add up really quickly. 

Jeff Irving: Yep. Okay. So you asked about racial abilities, um, the Drelrhune, they have, they have one called aquatic mastery, which is plus one mitigation in any overland or ocean battles. So on the encounter maps where water is present, so they have more protection when they're able to draw directly from water, their protection goes up. 

Makes sense. 

Their other racial ability is called Watery Noose. So Watery Noose is going to, um, put a ring of water around the neck of an enemy. Okay. And it's going to cause [00:32:00] two damage and. It is so distracting to have this tightening, uh, uh, basically a rope of water around your neck. They also suffer minus three to their movement. 

So it causes two damage and minus three to targets target enemies movement this round range eight. So the range isn't quite as far as Choking Spores for the Mynoc. But it can reach out and put a loop of water around the neck of an enemy and slow them down, which is nice because if you're fighting multiple enemies, you don't want them all coming at you at the same time. 

Brandon Rollins: No, definitely not. It kind of acts as a... It's not crowd control the same way as you would have with like, um... 

Jeff Irving: A little different. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, it's not exactly crowd control, but it definitely changes the pace of battle in your favor. 

Jeff Irving: Yep. And we talked about, we already talked about their role restrictions because, uh, the, the, the pregenerated heroes, Rukus, he can wear, he can have no heavy weapons and [00:33:00] heavy banded armor or less. And then, the jester Katanni. She can have no longer heavy weapons, fine chain armor or less. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, that's a good and important note to make. 

Why play as Drelrhune? 

Brandon Rollins: So it sounds like if you're playing a custom character, the main thing that you're gonna want... is probably the lack of penalty on water movement, deep water movement. 

Jeff Irving: I would say so. I would say,  

Brandon Rollins: ...else that would rank up there? 

Jeff Irving: Um, well, to continue what you said too, I think that's right. I think if you're, where are you, you know, when you're traveling, if you're planning on traveling far and wide, with a group, then the Drelrhune, um, come in handy because there's so many types of terrain that have water where they're going to be an advantage for your party. 

And so to me, if you're really planning on seeing the world, take a Drelrhune. Um, cause there's going to be so many times [00:34:00] when that is going to benefit them. Um, if you're traveling across the oceans, the Drelrhune can jump off of a ship and move around the ocean around the ship against these massive enemies. 

Just like he can move around the ship. I mean, and that at sea, I mean, that's invaluable. 

So, and I just recently redid the, uh, the ship encounter map. So we have a ship that we can summon, um, called the Lady Virtue. And, um, the encounter map that you're on when you're traveling at sea is on this Lady Virtue ship with ocean around it. And I just redid it to get all the deep water icons around the ship properly and all of the, um, the spawn points for the enemies, um, redone. 

The map looks amazing and it looks like a Drelrhune heaven. Because it's, it's either the ship or deep water, so. 

Brandon Rollins: I can't wait to take a look at that. 

Final thoughts on Cautuuk and Drelrhune 

Brandon Rollins: So yeah, is there anything else that you want to mention about the Cautuuk and the Drelrhune? 

Jeff Irving: Um, I would just [00:35:00] say these races are very different. Um, the movement rate of the, the Drelrhune is only six, so they're a little bit slower moving on, on foot than the Cautuuk are eight. And then of course the Cautuuk get that movement benefit or, or bonus in the plains. So. To me, um, that fact that the Drelrhune don't move as quickly as the Cautuuk is offset by their ability to not pay any penalty in deep water. 

So they, they, they both have advantages in certain instances for movement. And so again, they're both kind of unique in that um, the, the difference between the, um, uh, the two races in life is they're exactly the same. They both start out with 14 life, so a little bit less than the Toreln and the Mynoc, but I would consider them both very much on the robust, robust end of the spectrum for sure. 

Brandon Rollins: Hmm. Oh, there's definitely weaker in there. Yeah, it's [00:36:00] interesting how they're very, they're very different, um, they're very different creatures, these two, but the, the fact that they both have these different mobility modifiers in different situations means if, like, if you had a party of, like, four, or let's say you go for six, Um, you would definitely want at least one of them each in your party, I think, just to help ward off any of the problems that will come with traveling some of these regions. 

It might be a little harder at solo play, or maybe if you're playing with two people, um, but big party, definitely you would want one of them around. 

Jeff Irving: One of the things I think that's important to note when we look at the Drelrhune and the is unlike the, the Mynoc and the Toreln, which the Mynoc, if you remember, are immune to paralysis and the Toreln are immune to knockdown. Okay. Neither the Cautuuk nor the Drelrhune have any immunities, any natural [00:37:00] immunities to, to, to the, to those sorts of things. 

So, so that's something to be aware of. That's a little bit of a vulnerability. Does that make sense? 

So, so that's, I think that's an important thing to note here is that maybe they seem, maybe they, they have some amazing skills. But you also have to be aware, be aware that by virtue of having those amazing skills, they also have a weakness, and that there's no natural protection against say poison or sleep or burn or, or whatever, they don't have that. 

Brandon Rollins: Yeah, and that's just one of the things that helps balance it out a little.  

Jeff Irving: That's right. It's all about play balance. It's all about making the races play with synergy. You know, if we're in, if we're in a battle against something that can cause paralysis, we're probably going to send in our Mynoc hero to battle that because none of the rest of us are going to be immune from that paralysis that that enemy might be able to cause.[00:38:00]  

Well, if we're fighting something that, that, that knocks you down a lot, which we can get into at another point, what a pain in the butt being knocked down is. You'll want to send in your Toreln heroes because they're rooted to the ground. You know, they're not going to get knocked down. And in, uh, in a future episode here soon, we're going to talk about the Athak-uul and the Mahorii and the uniqueness of their races. 

And they do have some immunities, uh, that are, are potent. 

Brandon Rollins: Mm hmm. That's actually what we're going to cover in our next one. All right. So I actually think that's a good, um, segue because I think it's a good time to call, call an end on this one. And then next week or next episode, we can talk about the Mahorii and Athak-uul. What do you think? 

Jeff Irving: I'm excited. So, uh, just as a quick recap though, before we go, um, we talked about in the first episode, we talked about the Mynoc and the Toreln, which are the giants of, [00:39:00] of the range of, uh, playable races. Uh, this week in the Cautuuk and the Drelrhune, we talked about. Um, races and heroes that are essentially the size of humans. 

They're, they're about, uh, our height when you, when you bake it all in. And next time, when we talk about the Athak-uul and the Mahorii, we're going to be talking about, talking about races and heroes that are a bit more diminutive. They're on the smaller end of the spectrum. 

Brandon Rollins: In Tabletop Sim, it's funny, the minis are actually scaled to the size of the actual characters, um, just because of the quirk of the way that we did it. And they are so much smaller than the Toreln and the Mynoc. 

Jeff Irving: They are, but they're no less fun to play. I can tell you that. 

Brandon Rollins: Oh no, absolutely not. Uh, Corive is fun to play in Tabletop Sim. 

Jeff Irving: Yep. 

Brandon Rollins: Which is one of the um, Mah orii. All right, so on that note, do you want to go ahead and take us out? 

Jeff Irving: Thank you for listening to the Vrahode Tavern podcast. If you've [00:40:00] enjoyed this show, take a moment and subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. If you're on Apple Podcasts, please leave a five star review. It helps more than, you know. You can learn more about Vrahode on Vrahode. com. That's V R A H O D E. com. Link in the show notes. 

You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where we're @Vrahode. Thank you again for listening. We really appreciate it and keep an eye out for our next episode in two weeks.