Mythic Monsters-Dwende

This is part of the A-Z Blog Challenge. Herein I will be presenting a new monster that hopefully has not been seen before in any RPG game. These will be drawn from stories and mythologies found in a variety of real-world cultures.


Dwende

It was no higher than 3 inchest. It was spindly and knobby kneed. I had been lost in the hills and had stumbled upon the creature. At first I was unsure what its intent was, but it offered me a cup of water, which I took as a good sign. Unfortuantely the cup slipped from my hand and crashed to the floor. It was then that the little creature reacted and violently. It hurled small rocks at me that stung most fiercely. Then it screeched in a tongue I did not recognize and it felt as if my face had melted. I fled the place as quickly as possible.

A fey type of creature from the Phillipines, this resembles a thin dwarf. It generally has a long, white beard and nobby joints. They have bad eyesight, but extremely good hearing. They live predominantly underground, but can be found on the surface, though they are nocturnal creatures if found aboveground. While they live in groups, they each have their own homes which they tend to diligently. These homes often look like termite mounds.

The Dwende do find other life forms of interest. By and large they are helpful to others, though they do like to play pranks on larger beings, particularly children. About the only thing that will incite a Dwende to violence is if someone messes up their home. To this they will attack quickly.

The Dwendse have a wide range of pursuits. They are thoughful creatures and spend much of their time in quiet contemplation. When underground they like to explore the area, digging deep with magic. They are rather proficient with magic, focusing on earthern magic, but also curses. Their magic extends to the creation of magic items, especially magic plates that provide a blessing to those who eat from them. They will let those they trust borrow these plates.

Abilities
-Curses: These can come in a variety of forms, such as disfigurement of the face, but these curses always cause the target to suffer a loss of attack skill or ability.
-Stones: The Dwende are adept at throwing small rocks. These can cause some serious damage.
-Earth Magic: They are able to move the earth as attacks. This could cause the ground to become unstable, difficult to move through or even to rise up and strike for damage.

Adventures
-By accident a member of the party knocks over what appears to be a termite mound. In fact it was the home of a Dwende. Fortunately for the characters the Dwende was not at home, however, the Dwende in the area is now looking for the party. The creatures have taken to attacking anyone and everyone they cross paths with. The party will have to find a way to resolve the situation or many innocents will suffer for their mistake.

-The party is asked to help a poor soul. This man once stole a magic plate from a Dwende and quickly sold it. Unfortunately, the Dwende caught up to him and he now suffers a terrible curse wherein his mouth is on the back of his head. Since then he has tracked down and recovered the plate, but he can not venture down into the underground to return the plate. He asks the party to return the plate for him, which will entail going down below.

-The Dwende near a village have been playing a lot of pranks of late, including a spate of minor theft. The village has asked the party to attack the Dwende to force them to stop their actions and recover the lost goods. In fact, this is the work of a band of children in the village. The children do not want the Dwende to suffer, but they also do not want to reveal it was themselves that are behind the rash of incidents.