Meazel

Slightly shorter than a human, a meazel has skin anywhere from pale gray to deep green. Most (85%) bear angry red blotches from a harmless disease found only in their kind, giving them a leprous look. Their eyes are solid black, their waxy hair greenish gray, and their toes partly webbed. The sexes look nearly identical.

Meazels avoid open battle, preferring to sneak up behind stragglers to throttle them or lift their gold. They claw for 1d4 with each hand and possess natural thieving talents.

Against a target seven feet tall or less, approached from behind with surprise, a meazel may loop a cord around the throat with a successful attack roll. Two rounds later the victim dies unless the cord snaps or is torn away or the meazel lets go, which it does only when slain or forced to fend off another attacker.

These surly loners stay close to home in marshes, caverns and other cold, dark, damp places. Their nests are revolting: every possession lies in one heap that serves as a bed, crawling with rats and insects that eat the scraps and are eaten in turn.

Meazels gather only to fight a shared enemy or, rarely, to breed. A female bears one or two young, who fend for themselves at three and are adult at six. Even one raised kindly from birth grows up vicious, if perhaps craftier. They make poor allies, though they can be duped into acting as pawns or enlisted against a mutual enemy.

They loot every corpse but do not see magic items or gems as treasure, so hoards rarely include either; stones get discarded or end up in sacks of old bones near the lair. Their wealth is mostly gold and silver coin, plus odd gear they cannot use, such as human armor or large weapons.

Meazels prefer humanoid flesh and mostly hunt orcs and kobolds, though anyone will do. Nearly every creature underground attacks them on sight, and loathing for meazels is one thing all subterranean travelers have in common.