Fantasy Monster: Forgling Gremlin

 You can now support Shaper Of Worlds on Patreon.

Gremlin, Forgling

A tiny coppery-brown figure with scorching marks here and there, a pot belly, short legs, long wiry arms, and a crown of tiny rust-like looking horns. It wears 

CR 1/2; XP 200
LN Tiny Fey
Init –1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +5

Defense
AC 11, touch 11, flat-footed 11 (–1 Dex, +2 size)
hp 11 (2d6+4)
Fort +1, Ref +5, Will +4
DR 2/cold iron; Resist fire 2

Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee hammer or red-hot tongs +2 (1d3–1 plus 1d4 fire)

Ranged thrown hammer or red-hot tongs +2 (1d3–1 plus 1d4 fire)

Space 2-1/2 ft.; Reach 0 ft.

Statistics
Str 8, Dex 8, Con 14, Int 5, Wis 11, Cha 9
Base Atk +1; CMB –2; CMD 7
Feats Endurance
Skills Craft (any) –3, Perception +5, Profession (smelting) +2, Stealth +12

Languages Ignan, Sylvan

SQ unreliable assistance, unwitting empowerment

Ecology
Environment urban, underground
Organization solitary, pair, workshop (3–6)
Treasure standard

Unreliable Assistance (Ex and Su) A forgling is always eager to help a smith at work. Whenever accompanying a smithing task, a forgling attempts to aid the smith by making a Craft check (DC 10). On a success, the forgling grants +2 bonus to the smith's Craft check, and increases CL of the magic item crafted by 1 (which may increase it's potency, but also increased DC of magic item creation). On a failure, a –2 penalty to Craft check is bestowed and the item CL is reduced by 1, potentially diminishing its effects. Each forgling assisting in forging of an item has a 25% chance of adding a minor magical quirk to the item, such as the crafted item shining with a very weak faerie fire, issuing creepy sounds whenever it is drawn, or buzzing and vibrating and random times.

Unwitting Empowerment (Su) If a forgling dies during the forging of a magic item, which happens with depressing regularity because of their clumsiness, carelessness, and low intellect (at least 20% chance, more in very unsafe forges), the item crafted can be empowered by the forgling's essence. Roll 1d4: 1—the item awakens intelligence, retaining the forgling's sapience and becoming a minor intelligent item; 2—the item gains fey bane property (if weapon) or grants +2 bonus to AC and saving throws against fey (if armor or jewelry); 3—the item interacts with fey, their magic, and their world, as if it was made of cold iron; 4—the item creation costs is reduced by 500 gp, to a minimum of half its crafting cost. If someone deliberately sacrifices a forgling during crafting of a magic item, either by force or deception, aside of it being an evil act (they might be annoying and troublesome but they are still sapient beings and eager helpers) and possibly a chaotic one, grants the item one of the listed random results, but it also imbues the item with a curse, such as:

• the bearer becomes vulnerable (+50%) to all damage inflicted by fey
• the bearer inspires instinctive hatred in fey creatures, immediately worsening their reaction by two steps
• the bearer is constantly pestered by seemingly endless numbers of particularly malicious and focused gremlins
• on a natural 1 rolled on an attack roll with the cursed weapon, the wielder strikes themselves, dealing full damage, including all the abilities and effects active.
• the bearer emanates an aura of evil, and becomes susceptible to all effects that harm, penalize, or thwart evil creatures.

or any other curse the GM deems appropriate for the circumstances. Sacrificing multiple forglings in a making of a single object in attempt to get more benefits, is not only atrociously evil, but also adds one curse for each forgling sacrificed.

Forglings are a breed of gremlins obsessing with forge-working and craftsmanship. They are dedicated and laborious, but also clumsy, thoughtless, reckless, and the worst of all, creative. They will happily experiment, rediscovering obsolete techniques, subpar alloys, inefficient processes, redundant designs, and misbalanced shapes time and time again. They will add too much or not enough coal to smelted ore, producing either overly soft iron or too brittle steel. And they will always overestimate their resistance to fire, burning themselves with hot metal, occasionally completely incinerating themselves and mixing their ashes with the item they tried to improve.