Nathri

Nathri stand 4 feet tall, with dark green skin and wild black hair. Fierce as they are, they wear clothing and carry weapons. Most speak only their own language, though the cleverest pick up the planar trade tongue.

Alone a nathri is weak, and it knows it, so nathri fight in swarms. Each has a small barb on the back of the right hand that deals 1d4 points of damage; the target saves vs. poison or turns dizzy, suffering -1 to attacks, ability checks, and saves for 2d10 rounds. More failed saves lengthen the duration but never deepen the penalty.

Many also carry scavenged weapons of every style, but never anything over 5 feet long, so no nathri wields a polearm. Warriors and rogues look identical to outsiders; warriors gain +1 to hit and damage with weapons, while rogues have the skills of 4th-level thieves. None wear armor. From the planes and demiplanes bordering the Ethereal, nathri can see into it, and their stubborn independence grants +1 on saves against charm and similar magic.

A clan is an extended family, sometimes of very distant kin. Clans drift through the Deep Ethereal, ducking into demiplanes by routes only they know to scavenge food, gear, and whatever else they need. Inhabited demiplanes are prime targets: rogues sneak in first to scout, and wealthy or weakly guarded places get raided over and over, while empty ones are stripped once and left.

Nathri know where most demiplanes are and what lies inside, but they guard that knowledge jealously. Bargaining rarely works, since they prefer seizing to trading, and offered gifts often provoke an attempt to grab them. Only a clan in real trouble, starving or hounded by a strong enemy, will barter.

Every clan, whatever its size, follows one leader, the targai, a 3 Hit Die nathri usually carrying the clan's best magic item. Clans of 20-30 are common; some top 100, and bigger clans give their targai more clout.

Nathri can digest almost anything organic but prefer finer fare, which they usually steal from demiplane natives, who curse them as thieving vermin. In the Ethereal they are the bottom of the food chain for big hunters like magran and xill. They live mostly in the deepest Ethereal, farther in than most beings go, and keep their forays brief: get in, grab it, get out.