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Sibling to Balador, Ferrix is a playful and inquisitive deity, and patron of the weretigers. She is a huntress, but gets a greater thrill from the hunt than the kill. She likes to explore and learn, but unlike her brother, she has not the wisdom to differentiate mundane and trivial knowledge.

Ferrix (PDF Version)
(Mother Tigress, the Huntress, the Prowler)
Lesser Power of the Beastlands, N

Portfolio:                 Play, curiosity, hunting, felines, weretigers, feline lycanthropes
Aliases:                     None
Domain Name:           Brux/Wanders
Superior:                   None
Allies:                       Balador, the Cat Lord, Mielikki, Nobanion, Solonor Thelandira
Foes:                           Bast, Daragor, Erythnul, Eshebala, Kiga, Malar
Symbol:                     Green cat’s eyes
Wor. Align.:              LG, NG, CG, LN, N, CN, NE

Ferrix (FAIR-riks) is the playful and inquisitive patron of weretigers. She embodies the thrill and challenge of the hunt, but lacks the all-encompassing desire to slay prey that is prominent in other hunter deities. She is known to her followers as Mother Tigress, but hers is not a doting motherhood. She provides and she teaches, but she also pushes her followers towards independence when she believes they are ready, even if it hurts them.

Myths of Ferrix tie her closely to Balador, Father Bear of the goodly werebears. In many respects, she is a balanced opposite to him; where he is wise beyond reckoning but not particularly knowledgeable, Mother Tigress knows vast stores of information accumulated from her wanderings, but does not have the wisdom to distinguish between the trivial and the consequential. She is playful and flighty, always looking for fun new experiences, while he is dutiful and focuses on tasks until they are complete. In many ways, she has benefitted far more than he from their relationship. Most myths describe the pair as having served a powerful nature deity in the distant past, but where Balador faithfully carried out all his tasks, Ferrix put in only the minimum effort required, often completing them late due to distractions. However, when Balador was offered his freedom, he insisted his sibling receive hers as well, which was granted. She immediately celebrated her newfound freedom by disappearing to wander the planes for a very long time, and only rarely visiting her brother, and this behavior continues to this day.

Central to Ferrix’s character in her disconnected myths and stories is her insatiable curiosity. It is sometimes speculated that she is the origin of the phrase “curiosity killed the cat,” either through some deadly situation one of her avatars ended up in, or it mutated from a warning to her that “curiosity will kill the cat.” She is easily attracted to new or unusual creatures or things, often distracting her from other plans she may have had. In particular, her hunter’s instincts often lead her to stalk creatures as she would prey when she wishes to know more about them; for the fearful or belligerent, this behavior often leads to conflict or violence even though she rarely intends such. Ultimately, Ferrix is a playful goddess, but can be quite fickle; she may even be cruel towards those she stalks if the mood strikes her. Further, she has a long memory and is spiteful and vicious towards those who mock or belittle her.

It is said that her stalkings, besides garnering her numerous enemies, also begat her strong alliance with the elven power Solonor Thelandira. The pair are said to have stalked each other unknowingly throughout the Beastlands for a period of many days before either could determine who their combined quarry and predator were. Ferrix was greatly impressed with Solonor’s exceptional skill and not a little infatuated with his elven beauty and grace; since the meeting the pair have become firm friends and even occasional lovers if the stories are to be believed. Ferrix is on good terms with a number of other deities of hunting, although not all are true alliances; in particular she has been attempting to cultivate an alliance with Thard Harr the Disentangler; although his isolation has made it difficult. Her closest ally outside of Balador and Solonor, and perhaps the entity she is closest with, is the current Cat Lord of the Beastlands, even spending much of her time within her domain on Brux. Ferrix is said to have been just as close with the previous cat lord, a male who disappeared not long ago; as both Ferrix and the current Cat Lord share an enmity towards Bast, the Mother of Cats, there is considerable speculation that she may have been involved in the last Cat Lord’s disappearance. Ferrix is also on excellent terms with Nobanion, although she finds Lord Firemane to be somewhat stuffy and far too concerned with justice and propriety; she often urges him to “let his mane down,” but has yet to succeed in this endeavor. Finally, while not particularly active against them, Ferrix opposes those powers that hunt for pleasure and cruelty, despoiling the hunting grounds of her followers. She has come in conflict the most with the jaguar-headed power Kiga the Predator, and may be in part responsible for that feral goddess’s long-waning stature.

Ferrix’s avatars roam the Prime Material Plane frequently, sometimes visiting mortal weretigers for play or carnal trysts. Her insatiable curiosity often takes her to old and unusual ruins, beautiful and exotic geologic formations, or ancient magical trees. This same curiosity is often piqued by individuals or groups, leading her to follow and watch them, much as a cat stalks prey. This can easily put her into conflict with those who do not wish to be followed, or consider her activities to be aggressive. Since the most interesting individuals tend to be powerful, even sometimes manifestations of other deities, these activities have placed Ferrix’s own avatar in peril on a number of occasions.

Ferrix’s Avatar (Fighter 27, Druid 21)

Ferrix favors her hybrid form most of the time, although she often hunts as a tigress. In either form she has dazzling green eyes and a silky coat of honey-brown and black. In human form, which she rarely assumes, she has deeply tanned skin and jet black hair, but her green eyes are the same. She draws her spells from the spheres of all, animal, charm, combat, divination, elemental, healing, plant, sun, travelers, wards, and weather.

AC 0; MV 15 + special; HP 120; THAC0 5; #AT 3
Dmg 2d4+6/2d4+6/4d6 (claw/claw/bite)
MR 20%; SZ L (8-12 feet)
Str 18/00, Dex 17, Con 17, Int 17, Wis 13, Cha 19
Spells P: 10/9/9/9/8/6/2
Saves PPDM 2; RSW 5; PP 4; BW 4; Sp 6

Special Att/Def: Ferrix never engages in combat in her human form, changing to her tiger or hybrid form if she feels she must fight. She favors neither physical nor magical combat, using whichever seems best suited to the situation. If both of her front paws strike a single opponent in the same melee round, she can automatically rake with her back paws for 3d4 points of damage each. She is dextrous enough to leap in combat as if she were wearing boots of striding and springing in addition to her melee attacks, up to 30 feet forward, up to 15 feet vertically or up to 15 feet backwards.

Mother Tigress wears a golden ring set with a tiger eye stone on her right front paw that operates as a ring of human influence. Once per day she can growl to instill fear (as the wand), and once per day she can purr to evoke emotion (calm). She may lick a wound to cure critical wounds three times per day, and she can charm felines (normal, giant, magical, and partial) at will. Further, she can charm person or mammal three times per day, with targets suffering a −4 penalty to their saving throws.

Ferrix is immune to poison, disease, and paralyzation, as well as weapons below +2 enchantment, although she can be struck by silver weapons, suffering only half damage from such strikes. No natural feline (including giant varieties) will attack her, even if magically compelled.

Other Manifestations
As she prefers her followers to be self-sufficient, Ferrix rarely manifests her power to directly aid them. When she does, it is usually in the face of aggression by followers of one of her foes, and typically takes the form of subtle aid. She favors granting them magic that emulates haste, cat’s grace, or free action that lasts many hours or days, until the danger is dealt with or passed. She has also been known to send ephemeral cat-like forces to harass or harm a follower’s foes, although encouraging them to leave is usually the preferred outcome to death. Finally, she may lead a follower out of danger or to a specific location through a series of half-seen sightings of a ghostly snow-white tiger with glowing green eyes.

Ferrix is served primarily by small and large felines of all sorts, but especially tigers, as well as cantobele, caterwauls, chimeras, displacer beasts, dragonnes, elven cats, griffons, leomarhs, leonal guardinals, sabu lords, sphinxes, thylacine, and tressyms. Mother Tigress displays her favor through a comforting touch along the back of the neck, the sound and sensation of a great cat purring nearby, and the discovery of amber, emeralds, green alexandrites, peridots, tiger eye stones, and orange and yellow lilies of all sorts. She expresses her displeasure through the rumbled growl of a great cat heard nearby, as well as the discovery of black diamonds, black sapphires, black tourmaline, jet, and other black stones.

The Church
Clergy:                      Clerics, specialty priests, rangers, thieves
Clergy’s Align.:      NG, N, CN
Turn Undead:           C: Yes, SP: No, R: No, T: No
Cmnd. Undead:         C: No, SP: No, R: No, T: No

All clerics and specialty priests of Ferrix receive religion (lycanthrope) as a bonus nonweapon proficiency. Clerics of Ferrix may not use bludgeoning weapons, instead being restricted to piercing and slashing weapons only.

Ferrix’s clergy are not so well known as Balador’s, nor are they as respected. Her faith draws in those who are self-centered but not selfish and those with little regard for duty or obligation. They are much more interested in experiencing the world than they are in improving it, but neither are they interested in harming it. As they tend to live in somewhat wild regions, they often have contact with druids and organizations dedicated to preserving such places, but they generally maintain a non-interference style of relationship, offering minimal help, but also not asking for it. They do, however, often tease or toy with them, especially if they seem the type to lose their composure in such situations. For their part, these organizations consider the faithful of Mother Tigress inoffensive at best and annoying nuisances at worst.

Followers of Mother Tigress rarely build temples or shrines, favoring a style of worship that has no need for physical displays of faith. However, in the rare circumstances when weretigers or other members of her faith form a settlement, they do typically build small temples in Ferrix’s honor. These temples are usually circular or octagonal, with tall conical roofs. Such temples are built of wood to start, and only if the community has thrived for many decades does it get replaced with stone. The exterior walls are decorated with naturalistic friezes of cats of all sorts hunting and playing, while the interior is dominated by a rounded pedestal with a recumbent tigress figurine atop it. Some members of the faith maintain personal shrines in their dwellings, which usually consists of a small figure of a tiger on a tree branch resting in an alcove.

Novices of Ferrix are known as the Untrained, while full priests are Lady Huntress or Lord Hunter. Specialty priests of Mother Tiger are known as prowlers. The priesthood of Ferrix uses no rankings or titles, and has no hierarchy to speak of; individual priests call each other simply Sister or Brother. The majority of Mother Tigress’s clergy are specialty priests (60%), while the rest are clerics (35%), rangers (4%), and thieves (1%). The priesthood of Ferrix has considerably more females (70%) than males (30%). Weretigers make up the bulk of Ferrix’s clergy (66%), with the remainder consisting of werelions (10%), wereleopards (8%), werepanthers (6%), werejaguars (5%), other lycanthropes (3%), and other intelligent felines (cat hengeyokai, rakasta, sabu lords, wemics, etc.; 2%).

Dogma: Engage your curiosity and always seek new experiences. Explore the unexplored, hunt the unhinged, and meet the unknown; never let another’s description supplant your own experiences. Prowl and stalk the wilderness, for food as well as the thrill it provides. Revel in the joy of play for it brings both lessons and pleasure. Remember that there always comes a time when one must leave the den and live for oneself; do not begrudge it when the time comes, but instead embrace the new experiences it will bring.

Day-to-Day Activities: Most of Ferrix’s followers live in on the fringes of society or in fully wild lands, and can be found hunting for their own food frequently. When not engaged in such necessary survival activities, they often spend their time relaxing in locations that offer warm sunshine, cool breezes, and interesting views. They also enjoy exploring their territories, looking for anything new or unusual that they haven’t discovered before, or engaging in rambunctious play with large felines or other lycanthropes who share their lands. They generally do no more work than is absolutely necessary, preferring pleasurable activities instead.

Important Ceremonies/Holy Days: The irreverence of Mother Tigress extends to her clergy as well, for they observe no holy days and perform no major religious ceremonies. They see most of their own actions as a form of worship and veneration of their goddess; in the act of playing, hunting, and learning do they honor Ferrix. Even those communities that have built full temples dedicated to her hold no formal ceremonies. Instead, the temples serve as places of learning and play for the faithful.

Major Centers of Worship: The mountain peak known as Felnarix on the world of Oerth is considered particularly sacred for the weretigers of the Flaeness. The do not speak of the reasons why to outsiders, but their myths and legends hold that it was here that Mother Tigress first appeared on their world, and bore the first litter of weretigers. She roamed the land frequently but always returned to the mountain to check on her offspring, and they maintain that she is still wandering Oerth and will return one day. They have built no visible monuments to Ferrix, seeing the mountain as monument enough, but the sacred nature of the peak has kept the normally inquisitive lycanthropes relatively sedentary.

The only temple of any prominence dedicated to Mother Tigress is located in the Lady’s Ward of the planar city of Sigil. Called the Evening’s Prowl Hall, it is a small building mostly overlooked despite the prevalence of temples in that part of the city, but is said to have a portal to the Beastlands if one has the proper key to access it. The temple is run by Lady Huntress Jaxara Nighthair, a werepanther priestess who maintains the small, round building. Her personal quarters form one wing of the structure, with another wing serving as lodging for visitors. While the temple primarily serves as a social gathering location for non-evil lycanthropes, it is also visited by a handful of other creatures, mostly guardinals and eladrins.

Affiliated Orders: Ferrix’s priesthood sponsors no martial or monastic orders, although some worlds are host to groups of feline lycanthropic rangers who honor her primarily.

Priestly Vestments: Members of Mother Tigress’s clergy typically conduct any necessary official duties in their hybrid form, and thus do not often wear any clothes at all. Those who do favor robes or vests of an orange-yellow shade trimmed with black, and all members wear their hair unadorned. The holy symbol used by the priesthood is a polished tiger’s eye gemstone about the size of a coin, worn as a necklace or placed in a collar.

Adventuring Garb: Members of Ferrix’s clergy don whatever traveling garb is appropriate to their area, facing to blend in with others than standing out in any way. Many of her lycanthropic clergy travel in their animal form, and thus wear no garb beyond their holy symbol and possibly some jewelry. They favor piercing and slashing weapons when not using natural attacks, and avoid bludgeoning weapons if possible.

Specialty Priests (Prowlers)
Requirements:          Dexterity 13, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 9
Prime Req.:                Intelligence, Wisdom
Alignment:                N
Weapons:                   Any piercing or slashing (wholly type P or S, plus P/S)
Armor:                       Leather, padded, or hide; no shields
Major Spheres:         All, animal, charm, combat, divination, healing, protection, travelers
Minor Spheres:         Necromantic, plant, summoning
Magical Items:         Same as clerics, plus see below
Req. Profs:                Tracking
Bonus Profs:             Hunting

• • While most prowlers are natural or infected feline lycanthropes, some cat hengeyokai, rakasta, tabaxi, and wemics sometimes feel the call to Ferrix’s service.

• • Prowlers may take any wilderness-related proficiencies from other proficiency groups without suffering a crossover penalty.

• • Prowlers can use any magic item related to cats regardless of class restrictions.

• • As skilled trackers, prowlers gain a +1 bonus to their tracking proficiency for every level they have attained. They still suffer the −6 non-ranger penalty, however.

• • As they are quite skilled at exploring natural places, prowlers can hide in shadows and move silently in natural environments as a ranger two levels higher. Thus, at 1st level, a prowler can hide in shadows and move silently as a 3rd level ranger.

• • Prowlers can cast jump (as the 1st-level wizard spell) or light landing (as the 1st-level priest spell) once per day.

• • At 3rd level, prowlers can cast blur (as the 2nd-level wizard spell) or feet of the cat (as the 2nd-level priest spell) once per day.

• • At 5th level, prowlers can cast cat’s grace (as the 2nd-level priest spell) upon themselves granting 1d8 points of Dexterity, or charm person or mammal (as the 2nd-level priest spell) once per day. Felines suffer a −2 penalty to their saving throws versus the latter ability.

• • At 7th level, prowlers can cast nap or silence, 15’ radius (as the 2nd-level priest spells) once per day.

• • At 10th level, prowlers can cast emotion (calm) or fear (as the 4th-level wizard spells) once per day.

• At 12th level, prowlers can cast cloak of bravery (as the 4th-level priest spell) or fumble (as the 4th level wizard spell) once per day.

Ferrian Spells
In addition to the spells listed below, priests of Mother Tigress can cast the 2nd-level priest spell stalk, detailed in Faiths and Avatars in the entry for Mielikki.

1st Level
Light Landing (Pr 1; Alteration)
Sphere:                    Animal
Range:                     10 yds.
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 1 hr. + 1 turn/level
Casting Time:          1
Area of Effect:         1 creature
Saving Throw:        Neg.

When this spell is cast, the recipient gains preternatural agility when it comes to landings from falls or jumps. A creature affected by light landing always lands on their feet for minor falls and jumps, allowing immediate movement and avoiding damage that such situations might entail. While under the effects of this spell, a creature suffers no damage for falls of 10 feet or less, plus 2 feet per caster level. Thus, a 5th-level casting of this spell allows the recipient to land on their feet unharmed for falls of up to 20 feet. In addition, if the recipient also benefits from magic that allows great leaps or jumps, such as boots of striding and springing or a jump spell, their leaping distance is increased by 50%, although the limit for damage on downward leaps or falls is not increased. Finally, should a character benefiting from this spell fall further than they can safely land, only the portion beyond their landing range is calculated for damage. Thus, a character who can land easily from a 20-foot fall would suffer 1d6 points of falling damage for a fall between 21 and 30 feet.

This spell does not transport a character beyond their normal jumping range in order to make them land on their feet; if, for example, a creature under the effect of this spell were to leap up and grab a ledge, this spell would not pull them up to the top of the ledge; they would still have to pull themselves up normally. In addition, it offers no benefits if a character is bound, restrained, or otherwise prevented from getting their feet under them during the fall.

The material components for this spell are the priest’s holy symbol and a small tuft of feline fur.

2nd Level
Cat’s Grace (Pr 2; Alteration)
Sphere:                    Animal
Range:                     Touch
Components:           V, S, M
Duration:                 1 hr./level
Casting Time:          1 turn
Area of Effect:         Creature touched
Saving Throw:        None

Just as a strength spell can increase a subject’s physical power for a time, cat’s grace can enhance a subject’s Dexterity. All abilities and skills that are Dexterity-based can be affected by an enhanced Dexterity score, including reaction adjustment, missile attack adjustment, defensive adjustment, Dexterity-based proficiency scores, and adjustments to thief abilities. The exact amount of Dexterity gained depends on the subject’s class; multi-classed characters use the most favorable die.

Class                   Dexterity Gain
Rogue                  1d8 points
Warrior                1d6 points
Wizard                 1d6 points
Priest                   1d4 points

The spell cannot confer a Dexterity score of 20 or more, and it is not cumulative with any other Dexterity-enhancing magical or psionic power. Creatures without Dexterity scores gain a −1 bonus to AC and a +1 to attack rolls with missiles for the duration of the spell.

The material component for this spell is a few whiskers from an elven cat or a large cat such as a tiger. All priests of Ferrix gain the Dexterity as a rogue rather than a priest.

Feet of the Cat (Pr 2; Alteration)
Sphere:                    Animal
Range:                     Touch
Components:           S, M
Duration:                 1 rd./level
Casting Time:          5
Area of Effect:         Creature Touched
Saving Throw:        None

This spell grants the recipient the ability to move unnaturally quickly and quietly. For the duration of the spell, anyone affected has their movement rate doubled and has their Move Silently rolls improved by 50%. If the recipient of the spell is not a thief or ranger, he has a 50% chance of moving silently during the course of the spell. This spell does not impart any ability to jump higher than normal, although leaping horizontally is obviously easier for a person moving at increased speed. (Assume the character can leap as far horizontally as a character using a jump spell could.)

The material component of this spell is a tuft of cat fur. It is destroyed in the casting of the spell.

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