Silat

A silat's true form is a giantess whose skin is a pale blue or green, hair a darker shade of the same color, and curling ram's horns that add a full spiral roughly every century. Her teeth and nails resemble old ivory but are harder and keener than obsidian. Whether disguised or not, she wears scanty rags over a bent, wrinkled body.

Every silat has strong magic resistance and Strength 19, and fights with daggerlike claws and a savage bite. Only magical or iron weapons affect her, she regenerates 1 hp per round, and she is immune to poison and mind-affecting magic such as charm, ESP, and illusions.

Shapeshifting grows with age. Up to a century old, a young silat can change every part of herself but one, usually the feet, three times a day, and she hides that giveaway under rags. Adults of one to five centuries can polymorph self at will and polymorph other three times daily. Matriarchs, older than five centuries and deeply revered, use both polymorph other (target saves at -4) and polymorph self at will, plus polymorph any object three times a day.

Good and neutral silats use these powers to pass quietly through human and demihuman society, which is where most are met, unrecognized. Evil ones bait traps, posing as frail old women in need or as flirting maidens to draw young people somewhere lonely.

Silats usually live alone and can turn up almost anywhere in the desert lands. When hunting they often wear the guise of a repulsively ugly woman to keep people away. In the wild an adult may travel with family: silats breed with ogre magi, sons becoming ogre magi and daughters silats, so a family is an adult or matriarch with 1-4 ogre mage sons and 1-4 young silat daughters.

All silats want to be left alone or, failing that, treated with respect. Every town has a tale of some loudmouth who mocked an old beggar woman and woke up with a donkey's tail. Even an evil silat spares someone who bows and greets her warmly, and travelers with fine manners are seldom eaten and often helped along their way.

Silats are nocturnal and spend much of the night seeking food. Good and neutral ones eat only animals; evil ones prefer human or demihuman flesh. People regard them with mixed feelings, some fear but mostly gratitude, because silats are so helpful to those who approach correctly.

The trouble is that the correct approach differs for each one. A simple blessing on her family might do. Another may expect a few chores, such as sweeping her lair or combing out her knotted hair. A few contrary silats help only those who do the exact opposite of what they ask, and polymorph everyone else into something ugly or embarrassing.