Ashiera

Ashiera are short, thickset humanoids with gray skin, little body hair, small noses and ears, and gills along the neck. Fingers and toes are lightly webbed, and ridges of blue-gray skin sweep back from the brow like a swimmer's wake. Their clothing is sparse, sleek and tight. A few wear the special armor their people make.

Generations ago their world overflowed with wild magic, and the ashiera, without ever meaning to, bent it to reshape themselves. Within a few lifetimes, before that magic faded, they had gained an inborn gift of flight to go with their ocean life. They fly by stroking through the air as if swimming. They are clumsy aloft, but a foe who must face them both above and below the waves has a real problem.

Their tactics are simple: mob the enemy from every side, in water or air, and rely on superior mobility to break off if things go badly. They open from range with coldfire and lances, then close in.

Once per day each ashiera can loose coldfire from its fingertips, out to 30 feet. In air it bursts as a small ice storm, a 10-foot-diameter circle dealing 2-12 hp damage to everything inside. Underwater it becomes three daggers of ice, each needing its own attack roll and dealing 1-6 hp damage.

Twice a day an ashiera can cloak itself in fog for five rounds, giving missile attacks against it a -2 penalty. Big war bands use this to roll in like a fast storm front, which unsettles defenders badly. Fire is their weakness: they take 1 extra hp damage on every die of fire damage.

Their weapons are notable. An ashieran lance is an awkward, flat-bladed pole arm that fights at -2 to attack and damage in melee (2-12 hp). On a mental command its spear-like butt fires a bolt of cold at one target within 30 feet for 1-8 hp damage, with a save vs. spells negating it. The bolt works 6/day, in water or air (XP 500, GP 1,000). Elite warriors carry a sword of free action, enchanted anywhere from +1 to +4, which lets its wielder move as freely as a ring of free action would (XP 1,500 and GP 3,000 per plus). Coastal druids answered the raids with the coldfire shield: +2 to AC, immunity to all cold attacks, and healing of 1 hp for every hp of ashiera coldfire it soaks up, never past the bearer's normal maximum (XP 1,000, GP 2,500).

Ashiera build nothing on dry land. Their underwater towns, large or small, sit in shallows beside empty islands, separated from one another by great stretches of sea. Sometimes they move into deserted coastal cities, but they have no interest in a land empire.

Because towns are so isolated, each develops in its own way. Those near rich resources grow complex trade and government; those in hard waters live by hunting and gathering. What they share is adaptability. The ashiera live short lives and care little for tradition, so laws and values shift with each generation, and new weapons or ideas are seized eagerly. They prefer isolation and rarely keep lasting ties with other civilized peoples.

Fiercely territorial and quick to anger, they usually end up owning entire island chains and strike at nearby settlements whenever they feel threatened.

No aquatic race is mightier. Ashiera have overrun the towns of other undersea peoples, aquatic elves above all. Ships crossing their waters are often looted for supplies and valuables, though a trading vessel is sometimes welcomed instead. Much of their wealth is salvage from wrecks and lost sunken cities. They farm fish for food and now and then eat a land animal taken in a raid.

Every ashiera must soak in saltwater for at least an hour once every three days. Past the third day without it, the creature loses 3 points each of Strength and Constitution daily and dies within a week.

As player characters they are the flying people most inclined to wander, thanks to loose social bonds and the freedom to travel underwater. They resent taking orders, change plans on a whim without telling companions, and break oaths without guilt when it pays. Survival of the fittest is their creed. They hate losing and fight hardest when cornered.