Turtle-Folk

Turtle-folk are upright tortoises with a heavy, rolling stride, about 6 feet tall and over 500 pounds, shelled front and back with only head, limbs and a two-foot tail showing. Their hairless hide is usually blue-green or olive; the back shell is darker and glossier, the belly shell paler and yellowish. Humanlike eyes have sideways oval pupils and vivid irises, usually blue, sometimes green or red. Most of their weight is shell, so they never grow fat or thin, and their thick, clawed arms wield weapons like a human's. Most wear only a cloak, belt or gear harness, if anything.

Slow to fight but trusting their shells, they rarely retreat. They prefer flails, long swords, short bows and staves, claw when unarmed, and some learn a 1d6 beak bite. In groups, about half close to melee, then pull into their shells so the rest can shoot without hitting friends, after which the melee group emerges and resumes, repeating as needed.

Withdrawing takes a full round of twisting and nothing else. Fully inside, it is AC 1 with +4 on every save, mental attacks included, as it gathers its inner strength, but it cannot move or attack. It still hears and smells, and since it sees nothing, gaze and other sight-based attacks fail.

Their 60-foot infravision works underwater too. They gain swimming proficiency automatically but swim clumsily, buoyed even across mud, bogs and quicksand, and hold their breath 10 turns. Mages and priests are common, warriors and bards uncommon, thieves very rare; favored kits are Local Hero, then Honorbound, shamanic spellcaster, Fighting Monk and Trader.

Turtle-folk are not slow, just deliberate, pondering before they answer. Calm, mostly lawful good and hard to provoke, they feel as much as humans but show less, seeming cool to fierier races. They speak their own tongue plus common or a local language, and love warmth and sunbathing but handle cold poorly.

Independent groups use advanced stone-age tools, but most along a frontier coast use their neighbors' metal, and their smiths are superb. They adopt the culture around them: free turtle-folk farm by slash-and-burn or hunt and gather, while most are peasant farmers in other nations. Tales of grand cities rest on ancient seaside monoliths, pyramids and obelisks, true relics of a brief civilization a little over 1,000 years ago and sacred to free turtle-folk.

They are most common in a cat-folk kingdom, a frontier kingdom of dog-folk and the beaches south of it, where families live in mud-and-wood huts with outliers several hundred yards out, each with an alarm horn or gong, and neighbors help each other with defense and big projects. They also make up most of the peasants in a free merchant city there, whose trade is largely run by a powerful company.

They live about 50 years, mate once and die within a year; the unmated can grow very old with little decline. After late-summer mating, females from all nations gather each autumn in a defensible, male-guarded compound in free lands, since their eggs are a delicacy, and lay 4-24 eggs that hatch six months later. Most young are raised by aunts and uncles in close families. Mother and father are words only for their gods: Mother Ocean the protector and Father Earth the life-giver, plus Brother Shell, guardian of families, and Sister Grain, patron of farmers, adopted from the dog-folk.

Apart from soil-draining slash-and-burn farming they live in harmony with nature, and accept any people who deal fairly with them.

Snappers are primitive marine cousins, broader and heavier, with lumpy brown shells, savage beaks and no ability to withdraw. Their 60-foot infravision doubles to 120 feet underwater, they get swimming proficiency automatically and swim gracefully, and they hold their breath up to two hours. They favor nets, spears and tridents along with natural weapons. Ill-tempered, they attack most beings they meet and train their sea mounts to be vicious. Their hunting packs follow the biggest, toughest male until someone challenges him.