Triton

Above the waist a triton looks like a handsome human with silvery skin; below, the skin shades into scales of bluish silver and two finned legs. Their hair runs from blue-green to a deep sea blue. They speak their own tongue plus those of locathah and sea elves.

Six in ten wield tridents and the rest long spears; one in four also has a heavy crossbow. In battle they wear scale armor for AC 4. Away from the lair, 90% ride, 65% of them on hippocampi and the rest on giant sea horses, and the mounts defend their riders. Their 90% magic resistance shrugs off most spells.

Leaders and exceptional tritons always carry mundane conch shells whose call every sea creature knows. When an exceptional triton sounds one, help arrives in 1d6 rounds: 5d6 giant sea horses, 5d4 hippocampi or 1d10 sea lions. Another call works like a fear spell on marine creatures of animal Intelligence or lower within 60 feet: they flee unless they save vs. spell, and even those who save attack tritons at -5.

Tritons prefer to capture rather than kill. If one of them dies, though, the fight turns to vengeance. A losing battle sends them home to fetch reinforcements or hold the lair to the end.

Eight in ten live in vast castles beneath the waves, the rest in carefully sculpted caves. They lean toward good but distrust outsiders and land dwellers, help them only when it serves triton interests, and seldom kill unprovoked. Intruders are swiftly seized and tried. The guilty, those who trespassed on purpose or came treasure hunting, are stripped and cast adrift no closer than 10 miles to shore. The innocent wake on a faraway beach the next morning.

Per 10 tritons one has 4-6 Hit Dice and counts as exceptional, and per 20 one has 7-8 Hit Dice. A band of fifty or larger always includes a leader with 9 Hit Dice and AC 2, and each 10 tritons add a 10% chance of a 1d6-level mage. A lair holds extra tritons beyond these and has a 75% chance of 2d6 sea lion pets standing guard.

Rumor says they came from the plane of elemental Water and were set in prime-world seas for reasons no one knows. They favor warm water at any depth and eat fish, shellfish and seaweed. The giant squid, immune to the conchs, is their only natural enemy. Ordinary tritons live about 300 years; leaders and spellcasters reach 500 or more.