There are dark parts of the ocean: the deep chasms and reefs where even tritons, merfolk, and water elementals hesitate to go. The octopus-like deeplings are the mysterious inhabitants of these places, but you will be hard-pressed to find one if they don't wish to be found. With a talent for disguise and camouflage, the deeplings live strange lives without culture or organized society, acting more like wild animals than humanoids. Despite this, they have a uniquely clever intellect, and they carry a streak of incurable curiosity that drives them to explore further and further, learning more and more about the world as they study and experiment with anything and everything they can get their tentacles on. Most deeplings never leave the dark depths they were born in, living their entire existence as a wild person. But sometimes curiosity leads a deepling into the light or even onto land, where they might encounter other humanoid races. When they first emerge from the watery depths and make contact with another race, many deeplings are excited to learn that the world is wider than they ever imagined, full of wonders and mysteries to be understood, and eagerly devour the new information all around them.

Ability Score Increases. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Strength score or your Wisdom score increases by 1.

Age. Deeplings are infants until age 1, adolescents until age 2, mature until age 25, mid-life until age 35, elder until age 50, and ancient afterwards.

Language. You can speak, read, and write Common and Elemental

Size. Deeplings can reshape their body to alter their height and proportions at-will but not their weight, weighing on average between 130 and 160 pounds. Your size is Medium.

Speed. Your have a Walking and Swimming speed of 30ft.

Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of rippling blue.

Amphibious. You can breathe air and water.

Distributed Mind. You have resistance to psychic damage, and being stunned doesn't prevent you from moving.

Dynamic Form. Your body is a mass of tentacles that can be easily reshaped, and your skin can change colors to form complex camouflage or disguises. As an action, you can alter your height to anywhere between 3 and 9 feet tall When you do so, you can choose to adopt the disguised form of a Small or Medium creature or object or to blend into the environment. If you adopt a disguise, you have advantage on ability checks made to impersonate the thing you're disguised as when your appearance is relevant. If you blend into the environment and you aren't wearing any armor, you can attempt to hide in that environment even if you are visible, but if you are visible, you make the ability check to hide with disadvantage. Not all disguises are feasible, and you can't disguise anything you're wearing. You also have proficiency in Deception.

Squishy Body. Your body is boneless and made of entirely soft tissue except for your beak, allowing you to compress your body (but not your equipment) down to fit through small spaces. You can move through a space as narrow as 3 inches wide while squeezing, although your speed is reduced to 1 foot when you squeeze between a gap with a width of less than 1 foot. In addition, you ignore any of the drawbacks caused by a deep, underwater environment.