Shiny Thing(Htlepi)

Homeworld/plane: a created creature, constructed by a crystal Grand Mage over a million years ago, the shiny things have no homeworld of their own-- instead traveling anywhere they wish to.

Climate/terrain: not particulary fond of the material plane, the shiny things will most often live in the elemental planes of Fire and Air. However, they will visit the material plane when hungry or when they wish to observe particular events or people, as well as when they are hunting for food.

Mental abilities: cunning, devious and rather evil-minded, shiny things are every bit as intelligent as any human. As they are long-lived and rarely forget anything, they are also notoriously difficult to outsmart.

Special Abilities: shiny things are capable of shapechanging. They are also strong telepaths and teleporters, as well as being powerfull magic-users, although they rarely make use of magic unless they have to. They also seem to have a certain immunity against magic, and it's very difficult to kill one by mundane means.

Society: it's generally not thought that shiny things have much in the way of a ordinary society. Each individual govern itself and doesn't care about having it any other way, although shiny things will work together under the direction of the oldest and strongest in the group for a while when neccessary. However, most of the time they travel and hunt on their own, only meeting to exchange information at predetermined times every few years.
Neither are there any true ranks among the shiny things as far as anyone knows, although there are rumors about a larger type of shiny thing-- these marked with complex patterns and runes in bright crystal colors. However, while some claims that these are the first and most powerfull of the shining things, their existence has never been confirmed through both mundane and magical means. Therefore the existence of these is probably a myth at best.
Sometimes a shiny thing will choose a mortal companion of any 'alignment' and will serve him or her as a familiar, but as the shiny thing will never reveal anything about its reasons for this, it can only be speculated on. As far as anyone has been able to establish, a shiny thing serving as a familiar have never done anything to harm the person its serves.

Description: while it's believed that they can take on a wide variety of forms, the shiny things most often appear as small bird-like dragons. Their forms seems to be made of animated metal which glows with a bright lumniscense-- making them visible even in darkness and almost painfull too look at. Although the exact form of each individual shiny thing may vary, they are always somewhat roundish of build-- equiped with a set of rather vicious-looking teeth which are only visible when they open their mouths and retractable claws at each toe. Shiny things have two pairs of wings, both long but broad bat-type wings, each wing has five fingers and a curving spike in place of the thumb. The front pair of wings are the largest and those a shiny thing will use the most, while the smaller second pair will usually be tightly folded and barrely visible along the back of the shiny thing. Another feature that is almost always seen at shiny things as well is a row of spines connected by membrane running from the tip of their noses to the end of their tails, as well as differing sets of slender horns at their heads. Most of the time the eyes of a shiny thing will be hard to see as they have the exact same color as the rest of its body, but the eyes are said to take on a noticeable red or blue-white glow when the creature is hunting or about to attack. Shiny things are never seen in any other colors than gold, silver, mercury or copper, mixes of these colors are extremely rare and it is believed that these are destroyed by other shiny things on sight.
Shiny things 'reproduce' by gathering in large groups of the same colors, using magic to remove a small portion of their own bodies which is then melded together in a large egg-shaped mass. After about five years the 'egg' hatch to produce a number of newborn shiny thing equal to the number of adults participating in the melding spell, the newborns are emmediately independent-- going their seperate ways and becoming adults in about eight years.
Specific Physical Statistics.
Size at birth: 1-3 cm long.
Size at maturity: 10-20 cm long.
Time to maturity: 8 years.

Combat: true to their nature, shiny things will almost never attack directly unless they want to finish something quickly. Instead they are more likely to get close to a target by using their shapechanging abilities, disguising themselves as for example some precious-looking object or something else which doesn't appear threatening. And when the target picks it up or come within reach, the shiny thing will attack-- usualy with its teeth and talons as it enjoys the pain inflicted upon the victim that way, in particular if it have a few minutes available to prolong it. However, when facing a magic-user, the shiny thing will take out the target with a swift and overwhelming attack using magic, permitting him or her no time to fight back.

Race weaknesses: shiny things can be harmed by natural fire-- while they cannot acctually be melted down due to being magic-based beings, exposure to particulary strong natural fire will slow them down and even make it impossible for them to move. Also electromancy, magnetomancy and gyromancy can be used to stop or destroy a shining thing provided that a strong magic-user is the one to attack the shining thing.