Pterran

Pterrans look less like lizards than like upright pteranodons, which hints at kinship with the pterrax. They stand about 6 feet tall with light brown scales, two arms and two legs, a short tail-like stub and two rounded nubs on the back. The head has big, nearly bulging eyes and a long snout that serves as the mouth, filled with ripping teeth. Clawed hands serve for hunting and fighting. Males and females are normally indistinguishable.

Their speech mixes hisses, pops and the occasional growl or snarl with clicks and taps of the claws. Human and demihuman throats cannot produce it, and even understanding it is hard, imposing -5 on language proficiency checks.

Pterrans distrust outsiders, especially humans and halflings, so most meetings turn violent, and they are well equipped for it. Their coloring hides them in forest, giving foes -1 on surprise rolls there. Tough scales armor them, and each can claw twice for 1d4 and bite for 1d6 per round.

Many warriors carry tribal weapons. The slodak is a long sword of wood, cut from a young hardwood tree and soaked in a blend of tree sap and the blood of mind-hungry lizard fiends until it is nearly as strong as steel; it deals 1d8. The thanak is a sawlike blade of two hardwood strips with a row of pterrax teeth set between them, swung like an axe for 2d6 against creatures of any size. Its teeth are often poisoned: a victim who fails a save vs. poison at -2 loses 1 point each of Strength and Constitution, and another point of each every following day until one reaches zero and he dies. Only neutralize poison or heal can stop it.

Pterrans often fight from the backs of pterrax, using melee and missile weapons but favoring ranged attacks. Most riders carry spears dealing 1d6, their tips often smeared with the same poison.

Every pterran is at least a wild talent, and some have the full powers of a psionicist character. Like many creatures of the desert world, they have natural psionic defense modes that are always on and usable at any time, whatever else they are doing, as long as they have PSPs to fuel them. Typical powers include the clairsentient science aura sight with know direction and danger sense, and the telepathic science mind link with contact, life detection, ESP, ego whip, mind blank, thought shield and id insinuation.

Most pterrans live in the humid jungle borderlands beyond a nearby mountain range, and few cross it, but some clans have settled on the desert side in the woods and jungles of a forested ridge beside the rocky barrens. Tribes number from 10 or 12 to over a hundred and live in jungle villages of family dwellings ringed around a central ceremonial ground. Each family lodge bears its own symbols and colors and holds a central common room surrounded by small sleeping chambers for two, mirroring the village layout. Two families share a lodge only when marriage joins them. A household usually counts four to eight: a mother, a father and their young, who always arrive as twins.

Their society revolves around ceremonies of thanks to their world, for they believe their race sprang from the earth and that the world is their Earth Mother; their priests are druids. A Triumvirate, made of the eldest member of each Life Path, makes most decisions, such as when to move the village, where to send scouts, or whether to deal with other races, but always after consulting the whole tribe.

At age 15 every young pterran picks a lifelong Life Path. About 65% become warriors, who defend the tribe, prepare each new village site, learn natural, tribal and enemy weapons, and craft slodaks, thanaks and their poison. Before being named a warrior, a candidate must find a pterrax nest, choose a suitable mount, climb up and grab it by hand, hold on as it takes off and force it to land, then train it over 3 to 6 weeks and show his mastery to his peers and the Triumvirate. Preparing for the capture can take months or years.

About 25% become druids, the tribe's priests and healers, with all normal druid powers. Like every druid of the desert world, they have major access to the Sphere of the Cosmos plus one other sphere tied to their guarded area, usually the forest around the village. A candidate lives six months alone in the wild with only tools it makes itself, avoiding all contact with the tribe, then comes home to recount its experiences to the Triumvirate and the senior druids.

Only about 10% become psionicists, who are often viewed with suspicion but are valued as negotiators with other races. To qualify, a candidate must read the elder psionicists' thoughts and relay them telepathically to the Triumvirate, so every pterran psionicist knows the Telepathy discipline.

Pterrans are omnivores but eat mostly game, and hunting parties spend hours every day finding food. Favorite meats include eight-legged desert cat, mind-hungry lizard fiend and, on trips toward the barrens, the occasional flailer.