Desert Giant

Deep wrinkles score the weathered faces of desert giants, even the young ones, though the women's veils hide this. Dark hair and swarthy skin set off startling blue eyes. When those eyes darken to brown, the giant is starting to fossilize. A typical adult measures 17 feet and 7,000 pounds, though a fossilizing giant may weigh twice that. They can live 400 years.

They fight mounted whenever they can find beasts big enough: giant lizards, huge insects, enormous horses of shifting undead bone, even rocs. Some once served mighty sultans as bodyguards and hired soldiers, and the sight of a desert giant squadron wheeling to charge has routed more than one legion.

They do not hurl rocks, since boulders are scarce in their wandering grounds and too heavy to haul. Instead they carve great throwing spears from jungle timber, cherished as heirlooms for generations, thrown at ranges of 3/6/9 for 2d6+7. Chieftains may carry huge scimitars granted to their ancestors for heroic service, dealing 2d8+7 in the hands of anyone with Strength 19 or more. Sometimes a giant just punches, for 1d10.

With one turn to prepare, a desert giant can blend into sand and rock so well that it surprises foes on 1 to 4 on a d10, and searchers or soldiers spot it only 1 time in 10. Herdless giants frequently use the trick for banditry, and such brigands grow more common as the race declines.

One giant in 10 is a sand-shifter, named for how the summoned dead burst up through the sand. The gift is not priestly or wizardly magic, and it brings no other spells. Once per week, with a turn of effort, an adult can raise 1d6 petrified giants from the stones to fight for 2d6 turns; they crumble to dust and rock when slain. Instead of giants, an adult may raise 3d10 stony mounts, while gifted children can summon 2d10 such mounts for the adults to ride into battle.

Once desert giants were many across the scrub and sand, but a divine curse is slowly turning them to stone, and their old civilization lies buried under dunes. They live as nomadic herders, always near their cattle and mounts. In fertile country their herds can strip a river valley bare, and they pay nothing to the farmers and herders on its edge; the land is theirs to take, crops included, and they never apologize. Few rulers try to evict them by force. Most dangle mercenary work instead, or offer generous gifts of metal, spices, cloth and salt if the giants will just go back to the empty desert.

The giants follow the rains for hundreds of miles. When rain fails the scrub dies, and herds and herders starve. Then young males hire out as mercenaries and send their pay home to the tribe. A drought lasting years drives ever more giants into the cities, though their numbers stay tiny beside the human crowds.