Quickling

Greyhawk creature

Quickling A quickling, from Monster Manual II (1983) Alignment: Chaotic evil (neutral) Type: Fey Subtype or Tag: None First appearance: Monster Manual II (1983)

The quickling is an evil fey creature.

Ecology

Because of their vastly heightened metabolisms, quicklings have the shortest lifespans of any of the fey. They grow to adolescence within their first years of lives and are considered adults by the age of two. By the age of ten, they are elderly, and they often die before they reach a dozen years. No quicklings are known to have grown older than 15 without powerful magic sustaining them.

Quicklings hate good-aligned fey and druids, attacking them without provocation. They will readily ally with evil fey and creatures like drow, fomorians, imps, and quasits on a short-term basis.

Environment

Quicklings live in dark woodlands and wild, evil areas such as groves of twisted trees, poisoned or cursed springs, and overgrown areas once ruled by demons. Quicklings avoid contact with the outside world except when it suits their evil ends.

Physical characteristics

The quickling is a small, slender being, resembling a miniature elf with sharp, feral features. Their eyes are cold and cruel, with tiny sparks of yellow light within. Their skin is pale blue to blue-white, and their hair is often snow-white or silver. They dress in fine, brightly colored clothing, and are fond of silver and black.

The quicklings of fourth edition are depicted as as naked, bald, demonic creatures with gray skin, four fingers, and three clawed toes.

The quickling has the ability to move and attack at extremely high speed, often becoming invisible to mortal eyes.

Alignment

The Monster Manual II gives their alignment as chaotic evil; the Greyhawk Monstrous Compendium Appendix gives it as chaotic evil with neutral tendencies. The fourth edition Monster Manual gives their alignment simply as evil.

Society

Quicklings dwell in extended family units led by a skillful leader. Clans with more than ten members have two such leaders, as well as a powerful elder.

Language

Quicklings speak Sylvan, but they speak very quickly. To those unfamiliar with their speech, it sounds like meaningless noise, the individual sounds passing too quickly for a human ear to catch. Most can speak many words of Common, though this, too, they often speak too quickly for humans to understand.

History

Quicklings are said to have been brownies transformed by the evil power of the Queen of Air and Darkness.

According to some myths of the Old Faith, after the faeries were first created by their Queen Rhiannon, each of them gave gifts to their creator. The leprechauns gave her a self-playing fiddle and flute, the sylphs gave her wings, and the elves gave her magic and poetry. Some of the brownies gave her gifts from the forest: nuts, wreathes, and a ring that commanded the grass and trees to do its bidding. Another group of brownies offered nothing but their love, a gift the former brownies mocked them for. The Faerie Queen, who had been very happy with the gift of love, cursed the mockers, withering them and transforming them into the first buckawns.

Some of these buckawns went further, stealing a book of dark magic brought to the Faerie Queen by the elves, a book whose secrets slowly warped them into their current forms.

Publication history

The quickling was introduced to the D&D game in the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The quickling first appeared in the first edition Monster Manual II (1983).

The quickling appeared in second edition first in the Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Appendix (1990), and then in Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two (1995).

The quickling did not appear in any official Wizards of the Coast product for third edition. It did, however, appear in the Tome of Horrors (2002) by Necromancer Games. The quickling appeared again in Necromancer Games's Tome of Horrors Revised PDF (2005).

The quickling appeared in the fourth edition Monster Manual (2008).

An updated version of the quickling was presented in the fifth edition book, Volo's Guide to Monsters (2016), pg. 187.

Gallery

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  MC5 Greyhawk Appendix, (1990)

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  Dungeon #56 (1995)

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  Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Two (1995)

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  Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters (2008)

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  Monster Manual (2008)

• 

  Volo’s Guide to Monsters (2016)

References

Bibliography

• Breault, Mike, ed, et al. Greyhawk Monstrous Compendium Appendix. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1990.
• Garcia, Vince. "The Folk of the Faerie Kingdom." Dragon #155. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1990.
• Greene, Scott, and Clark Peterson. Tome of Horrors. Seattle, WA: Necromancer Games 2002. pp. 328.
• Gygax, Gary. Monster Manual II. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1983.
• Mearls, Mike, Stephen Schubert, and James Wyatt. Monster Manual. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008.
• Sargent, Carl. Monster Mythology. Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1992.
• Wilkes, Jennifer Clarke. Wizards Presents: Worlds and Monsters. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008.

Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index

The Index is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, and his work as continued and updated by Eric Johnson, Richard DiIoia, Jason "PupickDad" Jacobson, a French fan group, and numerous other fans over the years. The wiki page for the EGI has a list of sources, full product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.

Topic	Type	Description	Product	Page/Card/Image
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		From the Ashes: References Card	#11
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		From the Ashes: References Card	#14
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		Monstrous Compendium - 1995 Annual, Volume 2	24
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		MC5 Monstrous Compendium Greyhawk Adventures Appendix	Insert (Brownie, Quickling), Encounter Tables
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		Monster Manual 1, D&D 4e (Deluxe Edition)	215
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		Monster Manual 2, AD&D 1e	103
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		Oerth Journal #33	40
Brownie, Quickling	Monster		Volo's Guide to Monsters, D&D 5e	187
Quickling	Monster		Reference	SEE Brownie, Quickling