Rastipede

Starfarers call the rastipede an insect centaur. Eight quick legs carry a long, segmented lower body, and a roughly humanoid torso with one pair of arms rises from the front. A hard shell gives it its good Armor Class, which is lucky, since no ordinary armor fits that shape. Its two antennae smell so keenly that nothing with any scent can surprise it from behind, and it is fully double-jointed and equally deft with either hand.

Peaceable by nature, rastipedes usually outrun trouble. They can use any weapon a human can, but prefer their own racial long bow: ranges 10/20/30, 1d12 damage. Shooting from afar suits their temperament.

One queen, said to dwell in a hidden cavern deep underground, lays every egg in a nest of 100-600, half of them young and unable to fight. Adults defend the nest fanatically, and all are raised with a deep sense of duty and schooled in mathematics and their race's large literature.

About one in six is a mage of 1st to 4th level, and none has ever learned a spell above 2nd level. Yet at a starhelm a rastipede counts as a mage of triple its spellcasting level, so a 4th-level caster pilots like a 12th-level one.

Trade is their passion. They hire crews and ships to haul goods across the void between worlds and nearly always profit, dealing in almost anything, though most firmly refuse to smuggle or traffic in slaves. Void merchants favor them as agents for their bargaining skill, and dealings with those merchants often run through a rastipede go-between. Whispers of some sinister bond between the two races have never been proven.

They eat almost any food and drink heavily, but seem not to need sunlight. Young may stay underground in the nest for their first decade.