Fircarls are lesser pine kindred that can be created by Jarls or particularly adept Thane spellcasters. They are infused with less necrotic sap than their full-blooded kin and serve as followers and rank and file warriors. A fircarl closely resembles a true pine kindred, but closer examination reveals they are more corpselike, with a more skull-like face and their bodies sometimes have exposed bones and unhealed resin-caked wounds. Their eyes are identical to a true Kindred: amber hued or a poisonous sap green and with a gleam of malevolent intelligence, although they lack the glowing intensity of their most powerful kin. Fircarls bear inferior equipment and are typically only armed with a spear plus a few darts stuck through their belts.

Dull-Witted but Cunning. A fircarl rarely speaks but is self-aware and crafty, although they are not as intelligent as a true Kindred. The more foolish full-blooded Kindred view them as stupid disposable slaves like a Resin-Thrall. The wiser ones remember fircarls have minds and desires of their own and treat them accordingly.

Fircarl Creation. Most fircarls are created by Jarls using Pine Kindred Initiation, but they can also be produced with a 3rd-level spell called create fircarl that is similar to animate dead in function. Most thane "pretenders to jarldom" create fircarls to bolster their ranks with this spell.

The Sap is The Life. A fircarl is basically a Pine Kindred who didn't receive enough Necrotic Sap Infusion at its creation to produce a full-blooded Kindred. This gives fircarls a perpetual thirst for sap containing the Gift of Nidhogg. A fircarl who perform exceptionally well is often rewarded with Nidhogg's Gift by their Thane or Jarl.
 Fircarls do not naturally regrow lost body parts like true Kindred, but if an undamaged fircarl receives a Necrotic Sap Infusion it gains the Pine Kindred ability of Regrowth from the excessive dosage of sap. The fircarl loses one excess dose of Gift per season (3 months), and its Regrowth ability ends once its oversaturation with Nidhogg's Gift ceases.
 There is another method of absorbing sap: cannibalism. If a fircarl eats or drinks the sap of a dead Kindred, it becomes infused with however many doses of Gift of Nidhogg the sap contained (the full dosages of Kindred are ½ for resin-thrall, 1 for fircarl, 2 for pine kindred, 4 for thane and 8 for jarl; assuming the entire body is devoured and the kindred did not expend any doses via Necrotic Sap Infusion). Most Kindred societies consider this practice abhorrent but a few encourage fircarls to honor fallen comrades by eating them, or even allow them to devour corpses from enemy jarldoms. Multiple fircarls can share a Kindred corpse to divide its doses between them. Note that only the standard types of kindred can be cannibalized, not the bestial or brutish forms such as Resin-Hounds or Tree-Vargr.
 A fircarl can "evolve" into a true Pine Kindred if infused with enough doses of Gift. Normally this is done during a Pine Kindred Initiation ceremony. This promotion requires four doses of Necrotic Sap Infusion, at least two doses of which must come from a Jarl, just like the normal Initiation of a Pine Kindred from a living humanoid. If a pine kindred is ever infused with 5 or more doses of excess sap it can spontaneously transform into a full-blooded Kindred by succeeding on a Charisma check against a DC of 25 minus the number of excess doses it is infused with.

Sapdrinking Insanity. A fircarl can be tainted with madness and so overcome by sap-thirst they will prey on its own kin. Called a sapdrinker, these undead serial killers are very rare and occur at random, but the madness is more likely to happen to a fircarl who was a particularly evil person when alive and infused with necrotic sap from enemy Jarldoms in undeath. Sapdrinkers may have a higher Intelligence or Charisma score than a normal fircarl. Knowing they would be destroyed if discovered, these insane fircarls resort to secret murder. Resin-thralls are their usual victims, being weak and unlikely to be missed, or Kindred from an antagonistic neighboring tribe. Should the fircarl consume enough Gift of Nidhogg to become a full-blooded Pine Kindred it is either killed immediately or escapes to become an outcast who only the most depraved Traitor Thane would shelter. All mainstream Pine Kindred view sapdrinking as a blasphemous crime.
 Sane fircarls lose their thirst for necrotic sap once they become full-blooded kindred, but not those corrupted by sap-thirst. Even if a sapdrinker becomes a Thane or Jarl it never loses the thirst, which it feeds by bleeding Kindred captives or unfavored minions. Sapdrinkers may have special devices to squeeze every last drop of sap from their Pine Kindred victims or their corpses: boiling them in kettles or grinding them in mills. Some are connoisseurs who savor liquors refined from necrotic sap and herbs in alchemical stills.

(Inspired by the Pine Kindred by Julian Lawrence; appeared in White Dwarf Magazine #21 (Oct/Nov 1980) as part of the Fiend Factory mini-module "One-Eye Canyon", edited by Albie Fiore.)​