Disir

A disir stands six to seven feet tall but usually stoops lower. Patches of natural armor alternate with bare, rubbery skin the color of sickly greenish paste. A thick, slick gel seeps from its pores, mixed with grime, debris and shreds of dead skin that seem to fall away constantly, and a cloud of rot and stink follows it everywhere.

Disir rarely pick up weapons, preferring claws and teeth. The claws are long enough and strong enough to crush soft rock in one hand, and the creature leads with them. It saves its deadlier bite, with jagged fangs and a long rasping tongue that strips flesh from bone, for prey that is helpless or close to it.

The gel on its body makes every claw and bite venomous. The poison causes searing pain but does not kill. Anyone wounded rolls one save vs. poison once the round ends, no matter how many hits landed, taking a -1 penalty per claw that hit and -2 for the bite. The penalties stack, so all three attacks landing means -4.

On a failed save, a burning agony spreads out from the wound, numbing the muscles until the victim is paralyzed after 1d4+1 rounds. Until paralysis sets in, the victim's THAC0 worsens by 1 each round, cumulatively, until the pain is neutralized. Its effect lasts 1d4 turns. The gel breaks down almost at once in open air, and only works because the disir's body keeps making more, so nobody can collect it for later use.

The same coating protects against fire. Disir gain +4 on saves against fire-based attacks and take 1 point less damage per die from them.

They dig their own tunnels in the deep underworld, but prefer to take over homes others have built, which makes them a constant threat to dwarves and other burrowing peoples. Many wars between them are fought over dwarven halls.

Tribes of 50 or more stay on friendly terms and may cluster close together; they never war on each other. Every other settlement is simply food, and despite their high intelligence they never accept a treaty or truce.

Disir hatch from eggs and show no outward signs of sex; each one shifts between male and female over its life, and those in the female stage rule. Adults share all work. Eggs are kept in guarded incubation halls, and groups go out to forage and raid, bringing everything home to be divided among the tribe. Any member who cannot contribute, for any reason, is killed.

Though they can eat anything, disir crave meat of any kind, fresh or rotten, killed or found. They turn to plants, mostly fungus, only when nothing else is left. A tribe can strip an old, crowded stretch of the underworld bare, leaving lifeless remains behind.