Lizard Man [Dark Sun]

These amphibious humanoids reach 6-7 feet and 200-250 pounds. Their tightly meshed scales are flexible but protective and shift color like a chameleon's, blending in by reflex; at ceremonies they deliberately paint their skin in intricate, symbolic patterns of any hue. A stiff 3- to 4-foot tail steadies them in the water. Telling male from female requires a close look few will permit. Daily dress is a herd-beast hide loincloth, with full hide togas saved for formal events, since togas hinder swimming. Besides their own language, most, the king above all, speak some of the common tongue for their rare dealings with shore dwellers.

Fierce but calculating and smarter than typical lizard men, they can follow complex plans and will pull back from a losing fight until help comes. They favor shields and tridents with wooden hafts and heads of three long bones. Every 10 include a 17 hp patrol leader and a 50% chance of a 3rd-level psionicist. When two or all three tribes appear together, each adds a 6 HD war leader, two 4 HD subleaders and a 5th-level psionicist, and there is an even chance that Ulvash, a 7th-level psionicist, comes along. The king Sesskar appears half the time, always with Ulvash, guarded by the patrol leaders.

Hemmed in by a psionic barrier and forbidden human flesh by the psionic overlords who rule their sunken valley, they faced extinction until they tamed the local herd beasts and became herders. Outside their walled city at the valley's heart, groups larger than a dozen are rare. Life is calm: they farm kelp, tend their herds and hold underwater festivals whose lights can be seen from a hidden city-state far away. They revere the overlords, who rescued them from a hated lizard-man executioner, and call the shore folk the overlords' children.

Sesskar is wise, generous and loved by most, though followers of his war leader Tzarra, an old rival, are more loyal to her; so far he has kept them in check. He stands 8 feet tall, over 250 pounds, and his great trident deals 3d6+2, doubling (minimum 15) when his roll beats the needed number by 5 or more. No king has demanded a sentient sacrifice in centuries; killing a thinking being except in self-defense is their worst crime, punished by tribal law and, when needed, by lawkeepers from the city-state.

Sharks and dolphins mostly avoid them, though a lone swimmer may fall to a shark pack. The true menace is a sea behemoth that, every few years without warning, assaults their fortified city; the walls eventually give, and dozens die each time.