Tatalla

Known as "the eye" for the single huge, bulging eye in the middle of its face, a tatalla is a gaunt, nearly skeletal humanoid about two feet tall. Many have tusks and big ears and look like shrunken ogres; scholars suspect a link between the races, though none has been proven. Tatalla speak the common trade tongue of the desert lands in a coarse growl that spoils its music, along with the languages of imps, quasits and similar beings, and they can talk with rats and bats.

Every tatalla has thief skills: pick pockets 50%, open locks 42%, find/remove traps 40%, move silently 50%, hide in shadows 51%, detect noise 20%, climb walls 90%, and a backstab for triple damage.

On a killing contract it slips into the target's home, bites the sleeper, and darts away. The victim wakes only by rolling his Wisdom or less on 1d20, and the wound looks like a big spider's bite. The first bite brings nausea; a second worsens it and saps Dexterity, removing any Dexterity bonus to AC and imposing -2 on all attack rolls. A third bite within three days kills in 1d4 rounds unless the victim saves vs. poison, and each further bite calls for another save at a cumulative -2. The tatalla returns every night as long as needed, following the target if he changes where he sleeps.

Tatalla avoid open fights and often flee, but cornered or sent to kill, they fight savagely with two claws for 1-3 each. Many carry paired small blades such as jambiya or razors and use both at once without penalty. In melee a tatalla can give up its two attacks to bite instead, using its normal THAC0 with the poison effects above. It can also call 1d100 ordinary rats or bats, which arrive in 1d4 rounds while it dodges and hides; they disperse when it dies or dismisses them.

Tatalla live only in cities, where their skills are in demand and vermin are always at hand. Once given a target, though, their tracking sense never fails, and they will follow by night across great distances; a victim may stay ahead for a while, but the creature always catches up.

They organize into guilds of 4d20 members, much like a thieves' guild or a brotherhood of holy slayers. A guildmaster (3+3 HD, THAC0 17) approves every contract, assigns members to spying, theft or murder, and uses any magic in the guild's treasury. Guilds often work alongside a city's burglars and holy slayers. They insist on payment up front, from a few silver for surveillance to several gold or a magic item for a killing, and never break a contract. A client who cheats them faces a blood feud unless he makes amends quickly.

Tatalla are pure parasites on civilization, scavenging and stealing whatever they need and returning nothing.