Wallara

Wallaras, also called chameleon men, are seven feet tall and so thin in the limbs that some liken them to stretched-out humans, and their loping gait strikes other races as gawky. Their faintly scaled hide is striped in a dozen shades, from indigo and violet to orange, white and black, though most individuals show three or four main hues, and the colors seem to ripple as they walk. The crimson curse never discolors them. They speak their own tongue, and many know common as well.

Oldest of all lizard kin and born of dragon stock, the wallaras were once proud and wise until araneas, and a spell from a wizard-governed nation, knocked them back to a stone-age life. They dwell on broad grasslands along the northern edge of their peninsula on the frontier coast, far from human and demihuman lands, which makes avoiding outsiders easy.

Wallaras would rather vanish into the landscape than fight in the open. They carry light gear, preferably nonmetal: daggers, spears hurled with throwing sticks (wommeras), and clubs called nulla-nullas. They never wear armor, which would hamper their gifts.

Their best trick is vanishing. Once per round a wallara can blink to a spot up to 120 feet away, in effect a dimension door with that range. Their control is so fine that they never arrive in midair or inside something solid, though they cannot appear where something else already stands, and they cannot attack in a round they blink. They use it to dodge fights or to encircle foes.

They can also duplicate a ring of chameleon power at will, becoming 90% invisible against most backgrounds. Mingling with creatures of Intelligence 4 or more, it passes as one of their kind, but every turn adds a cumulative 5% chance of discovery. A creature of Intelligence 16 or more adds its Intelligence score to that base chance, so a watcher with 16 Intelligence has a 21% chance after the first turn, 26% after the second, and so on.

Small settlements are led by Masters of Hue with 4 Hit Dice, each kept under constant guard by 1d20+10 warriors of 3 Hit Dice. Mightier wallaras, priests of up to 10th level and rangers as high as 15th, live in larger settlements and in their lost capital city.

Every wallara settlement centers on a spirit-site, a magical place that serves as their temple: a crystal-glittering grotto for a cave clan, an ancient enchanted tree for forest dwellers. Spirit-sites always radiate magic and give wallaras +2 to attack and damage, and defending a spirit-site or home raises their morale to Fearless (20). Clan decisions are made there as well: everyone gathers and stays until they reach consensus, weighing every consequence to find what is best for all.

Wallaras have no females. Once a year each sheds its skin like a lizard and lays it in the spirit-site, where every skin has a 5% chance of budding into a young wallara. The youngster grows up in only eight weeks, then remains with the tribe for a year or more while learning a craft. Like dragons they are long-lived, reaching as much as 250 years, and those past 200 gain 10% magic resistance.

They live peaceably with nature, love games of every kind, and wage stylized wars among themselves meant to vent grudges without doing much real harm. Bit by bit they are rediscovering their lost past. Most feel a wanderlust at some point and go on walkabout, though rarely beyond the grasslands, and a wallaran spirit nearly always travels with the wanderer.

Many wallaras devote their lives to tending one old forest, cave or beauty spot, or one kind of beast or plant, keeping nature in balance while they piece together their history. They live on fish, small game and their own crops. Unscrupulous wizards hunt them for their skins, which are used to make robes of blending.