Belgoi

From a distance a belgoi passes for human. A closer look reveals long claws jutting from its fingers, a puckered mouth with no teeth, and webbed feet with three toes. Belgoi are a brutish demihuman race of the bleakest wastes, with a hunger for thinking flesh and a gleeful love of causing pain, so the sorcerer tyrants and other rulers of the city-state heartlands will not tolerate a tribe within five days' travel of their lands.

Their crude speech barely echoes the common tongue of the heartlands. A few chieftains know the trade speech too, not that civilized folk let them near enough to talk.

A belgoi sneaks toward a caravan's campsite and picks out a plump victim. It carries a small bell, carved by the tribal shaman from the bones of dead belgoi and charged with a psionic power only belgoi can use. With the target in sight and within 500 feet, the belgoi rings it, and the target must save vs. death magic at -2. On a failure only the victim hears the bell, his mind lies open, and the belgoi may then use a psionic power on him, typically domination to march him out of camp or attraction to draw him into the dark. On a success, everyone in camp hears the ringing, but it does nothing, and the target is immune to the bells for 12 hours.

Once its prey is away from the fire, the belgoi strokes him. Each round of contact drains 1d6 Constitution, and he loses all Constitution bonuses while reduced. At 0 he passes out, and the belgoi begins to eat. Lost points return after 1d4 turns if he survives.

In open combat a belgoi claws twice per round for 1d4+2 each, and anyone hit must save vs. poison or lose 1d6 Constitution in the same way. Some wield weapons stolen from victims. If losing, belgoi fall back to fetch help from their own and nearby tribes and return within 1d6+2 hours, and these fights can last for days. Only killing every belgoi before any escape ends the cycle.

Telepathy: sciences psionic blast and domination; devotions thought shield, ego whip, attraction and mind blank. Psychometabolism: no sciences; devotions flesh armor, catfall and cause decay.

Belgoi live in huge raiding tribes based in the most desolate desert, wandering the heartlands in a constant search for food and preying on trade routes, villages and any poorly guarded group. Scouting bands of four to ten hunt ahead, kill travelers or small camps for their own meal, then call in the tribe for the scraps. Intelligent prey is preferred, but hunger drives them to eat beasts, plants, even monsters.

A belgoi tribe leaves the land stripped bare of plant and animal life. Only the vilest defilers do more harm to the world.