Gashlai

Even in a galaxy of oddities and mysteries, the Gashlai are unique. Each is a raging inferno, an organism constantly enveloped in a roiling blanket of flame and heat. Unlike most living beings, the Gashlai conceive their children by creating an embryo in a “cocoon” that somehow draws energy from its surroundings and converts it into mass. When a Gashlai is birthed from their cocoon, their squat, bulky body erupts into flame as that mass begins to return to energy. This process continues for the rest of their very long life, until the last of their body is consumed, the flames gutter out, and the Gashlai dies.

The Gashlai could only evolve on a volcanic world like Muaat, where most of the lowlands are hotter than blast furnaces, since prolonged exposure to temperatures others might consider normal causes them to radiate heat much faster and even “burn out” and expire. But even Muaat has its colder climates, mountainous highlands where the temperatures are a “frigid” thirty-two to fifty-five degrees Celsius. To explore these alien realms, the Gashlai developed cumbersome personal transports that could preserve their internal heat: the precursors to their famous Ember suits.

Why Play a Gashlai?

Gashlai tend to be strong and tough with high wound and strain thresholds. They make good mechanics and solid combatants, and can take on hybrid roles as combat engineers. They also have the unique ability to set people around them on fire (although they risk injuring themselves in the process).

The Gashlai in the ranks of the Keleres tend to be military personnel dispatched by the Fire Wardens. Many fill the role of a mechanic or enforcer, since their cumbersome suit makes them less suited for stealth-related tasks and infiltration duties. If you want to play a devoted soldier working to ensure your people are protected from future oppression, a wide-eyed explorer marveling at your first explorations of the strange world beyond your fiery home, or a grizzled mechanic who can always jury-rig a solution to a problem, a Gashlai is the right choice for you.

Names of the Gashlai

Gashlai names tend to have a harsh “sh” or “t” sound somewhere within them and are often pronounced like water spitting and hissing after being dropped on a hot stove. This makes their names hard for most non-Gashlai to pronounce properly, so many Gashlai take on nicknames that are adaptations of words that refer to fire in other languages.

Some examples include:

✦ Flaim Haash
✦ Hosh Gahloki

✦ Magmus (nickname)
✦ Umbat (nickname)

Gashlai

Starting Abilities

3	2	2	2	2	1
BR	AG	INT	CUN	WILL	PR

• Starting Wound Threshold: 12 + Brawn
• Starting Strain Threshold: 12 + Willpower
• Starting Experience: 80

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Special Abilities

• Starting Skills: A Gashlai starts with two ranks in Mechanics. They obtain this rank before spending experience points, and they may not increase Mechanics above rank 3 during character creation.
• Integral Combustion: When a non-Gashlai is engaged with a Gashlai, they are exposed to a fire with a rating of 5. Gashlai do not suffer damage from weapons with the Burn item quality (whether or not the quality is activated). When a Gashlai who is not wearing a sealed environmental suit is present in any environment that does not have temperatures between 400 and 2,000 degrees Celsius, they suffer 1 strain at the end of each of their turns. If this causes them to exceed their strain threshold, they suffer one Critical Injury at the end of each of their turns as well, until they are able to return to a habitable environment.
• Ember Suit: Your character starts the game with a sealed environmental suit. While your character is wearing the suit, engaged non-Gashlai are not exposed to a fire with a rating of 5.
• Focused Heat: While your character is wielding a Melee or Brawl weapon (including their unarmed attacks), that weapon gains the Burn 2 item quality if it did not already have the Burn item quality. When making a combat check with a Melee or Brawl weapon, your character may suffer 3 strain to trigger the Burn quality without spending a.

Source

Embers of the Imperium: 24