Gautiere

A gautiere is a gray, starved-looking humanoid with hooked claws and needle teeth, swaddled in rags and scraps of hide against the razor winds of the prison plane's sandstorm layer. Leathery skin plus those wrappings give its Armor Class. Whether it descends from the tiere, a vengeful people who may be pure legend, is unknown: perhaps the tiere damned themselves with their own rite of revenge, or perhaps a power they struck at hollowed them out and locked them away forever.

Gautiere size up a foe slowly, but once committed they fight to the finish. A claw rakes for 1d4, though most carry a xaen, a heavy staff bristling with bone hooks and spikes that deals 1d10. Using one requires 16 Strength, which all gautiere have; many reach 17 to 19.

Once a day, by touch, a gautiere can turn part of a foe's flesh into foul acid for 3d6 damage. Rest heals that wound at half speed, and healing spells restore only half their normal amount to it. Gautiere are immune to all acid, fire and heat, but other attacks harm them normally. One in 50 casts wizard spells at 1st-6th level, usually a leader. None are priests; they hate gods of every kind.

They wander the dunes aimlessly, as fixed in their grim acceptance of looming oblivion as the tiere were said to be in vengeance. Tribes of 4d6+10 stay well hidden, so travelers usually meet hunting parties chasing vargouilles, mephits or big spiny sand-fish. Their evil is blunt and open; a gautiere lets others die rather than risk itself, and some turn gleefully sadistic. Endless wind, scarce food and scarcer water bind them tightly to the tribe and its chief, who has +1 hit point per Hit Die, 19 Strength, 15-16 Intelligence and possibly spells. They mate and raise young like other races.

The plane holds them prisoner. No portal lets a gautiere out, even with the right key; only powerful magic from an outsider can, and few wizards want to unleash them. They clash with gehreleths only when cornered into it and shun the endless war between demons and devils.