Editing Jermlaine (section)

==Culture==
Jermlaine dwell in clans consisting of 4d4 families linked by blood relation, ruled over by the strongest and cleverest of the elder jermlaine present. These clans inhabit twisting labyrinths of underground caverns, usually intertwined with the lairs of rodents; regular rats, giat rats and, rarely, [[osquip]]s all are used as riding mounts, lair guardians and trusted companions, and the jermlaine are devoted to them. They have been known to inhabit sewers and abandoned homes, but will never willingly share a space currently occupied by "the giants".

Jermlaine lairs are cunningly hidden and physically impassable by most humanoids, as they are usually a series of small chambers and tunnels scaled to their tiny occupants. The typical jermlaine lair is a filthy cave or burrow a short distance from a larger cavern complex. The only areas that can be easily reached by a human-sized being are the areas in which living captives are held and dead victims are butchered for food. Access past this area is controlled by small, one-foot-high corridors or thin, normally impassable cracks in the rock walls. The corridors lead directly to living areas and communal chambers. The living areas are furnished with crude furniture and items scavenged from past victims.

Each jermlaine family has a personal section that half resembles a nest, half a junk yard. Treasures are concealed throughout the lair. Each family maintains a series of small, personal caches, while the communal hoard is hidden in a series of small chambers at the end of cunningly concealed crawl ways. No one larger than a jermlaine can reach such treasure chambers.

For the most part, jermlaine live sedentary lives, venturing out of their lairs only to hunt, forage and raid other races. The rare exceptions are rovers; wandering merchants and couriers who ride rats between different jermlaine clan strongholds, carrying news and goods between them as they go.

Female jermlaine have a choice in their lives; they are treated as equal to the males, and allow to go hunting and raiding with them... but only if they are not child-rearing. If a female jermlaine falls pregnant, she is made to stay in the lair, where she handles mundane tasks and focuses on birthing and raising her offspring. Only once all of her children are fully adults at the age of 10 can she choose to rejoin the hunters. As females can and do get pregnant whilst rearing children, a female uninterested in raiding will simply spend her life as a mother, whilst a female who is more interested in raiding will shun mating. Jermlaine families are matrilinear; the father may be unknown, away or dead, so the children receive far more attention and recognition from their mother anyway.

Within a clan, the chieftain has ultimate authority; whilst he or she will lead important raids (from the rear, of course), the bulk of their work is in aiding the females in teaching the young all of the arts of trap-making and ambush. 

Consumed by hate for all humanoid races larger than themselves, jermlaine eagerly prey on them as brigands, relying on a variety of traps - most frequently pit traps, net traps, and triplines - to get their victims vulnerable before swarming over them in ambush, binding them down with lassoos and grappling hooks whilst savagely beating them unconscious with clubs. Only foes that the jermlaine judge too difficult to capture are slain, brought down with darts and miniature pikes, as well as vials of acid or flaming oil for more well-armored foes. Well aware of their inferior physical prowess, jermlaine are cowards; the only times they will attack victims without waiting for them to stumble into a trap first is when they expect no serious opposition, meaning they usually prey on sick, injured or sleeping victims.

Even when they don't attack humanoids directly, they have been known to sneak up on them in order to make hit-and-run attacks aimed at picking pockets, stealing small goods, cutting fasteners, and damaging or befouling possessions.

Those who fall alive into the hands of the jermlaine will usually survive the experience - at least initially. Whilst jermlaine are not fussy eaters, and humanoid corpses are as palatable to them as animal carrion, they typically eat humanoid captives only if the pickings have been especially slim or if they are feeling particularly sadistic. The vast majority of the time (95% chance), the jermlaine will simply strip their victim of all their clothes and valuables, hog-tie them, shave them completely bald (which is not only funny to the jermlaine, but provides them with the resources to weave their nets and ropes from), and then leave them in a corridor of the dungeon to whatever happens next. The jermlaine may also play other pranks on these victims before abandoning them, like rubbing them down with irritants such as poison ivy/oak, destroying a favorite item in front of them, or fingerpainting rude, simplistic pictures on their naked skin.

Tormenting a "giant" is a relatively rare treat for jermlaine, and most of their time is spent hunting for survival's sake. Lizards, insects, carrion, fungi and molds make up the bulk of their food - rodent flesh comes only from rodents that are killed in battle or which die of old age; butchering their pets is unthinkable to jermlaine. Because of this, jermlain tend to serve as the "garbagemen" of caverns and dungeons, clearing up carrion and refuse of all sorts in their search for food and loot. "Surface food", as they call it, is a favored delicacy; even hardtack and iron rations are a welcome break in the jermlaine diet, meaning they will go for an adventurer's food pouch as readily as they will his coin pouch. They go particularly nuts for sweets, like sugar, candy and preserved fruits, and they can be bribed with this - although they don't stay bought for particularly long.

And this more useful than it sounds. A jermlaine community can be a veritable font of information about  nearby terrain, especially the movement of native or visiting humanoids, or the remains of recently killed [[adventurer]]s or humanoids. They've even been known to vaguely ally themselves with thieves guilds or communities of [[Underdark]] races, such as [[drow]], [[troll]]s and [[troglodyte]]s, acting as watchmen and spies. Still, their hatred for the larger races can never be truly stymied, and they will inevitably lie to or otherwise turn on their "allies". 

Of course, this attitude means few if any races actually like jermlaine. This accounts for their high mortality rate; jermlaine are already close to the bottom of the food chain, being preyed upon by a wide variety of predatory beasts - and even [[flumph]]s! - but most clans ultimately anger adventurers or some of the "monstrous humanoids", resulting in them being violently purged with blades and spells. Still, like the rats they resemble, jermlaine continue to survive in the shadows everywhere.