Name: Azarrk Prazzk Rakkk.

Other names: Skippy (used because Azarrk Prazzk Rakkk is more of a description than anything else, referring to a sorcerer from the Rakkk burrow with respectable status, given to him by an orc child).

Gender: Male.

Age: 17.

Species: Tlincalli.

Scorpion-men from the deserts, combining humanoid and scorpion bodies in a similar fashion to a centaur, although their humanoid portion is still within a chitin shell. They typically live in large communal burrows under the sand, often divided into many chambers in loose approximation of cities, and they often take slaves. Most Tlincalli burrow-cities have been conquered by the Ameyatl.

Occupation: Slaver captain.

By a strange turn of fate Skippy ended up with ownership of a ship after encountering a crew who responded to his appearance with a case of OH GODS KILL IT WITH FIRE. His ship is now crewed by orcs and other monster species. His ship, the Sea Scorpion, supports itself by a mixture of slavery and limited piracy.

Physical Appearance:

OH GODS KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Skippy resembles a sandy scorpion topped with a humanoid body, covered in the same sandy shell. This leaves him with only the most marginal equivalent to a face, with two onyx-like eyes and a gap for the nose-mouth. The rigid plating over his face renders him incapable of facial expressions. The most human-like trait about him is a set of onyx-black dreadlocks falling down to below his shoulders.

Overall size is seven feet high, with the scorpion body a solid ten feet long.

Personality:

Solidly believes in Might Makes Right, feeling that it is justified for him to rule over those weaker than him, while also accepting that those stronger will rule over him. Having grown beyond his raider-background he has discovered far more options than mere physical might, and he is fascinated by such concepts as economic might, political might, or social influence, finding the notion at once impressive and intriguing. This is something of a restraining force for him, as his belief that Might Makes Right leads him to respect all forms of might, even if it does not necessarily give an advantage in the current scenario.

Communicates mostly through posture and stance, it being a major component of his first language, and a habit that stuck with him in other languages. Body language is something he made a conscious study of, since when learning other languages he assumed it was just as essential for communication as with his own. Since he lacks facial expressions, he does a lot of communication through body-position and physical presence, often being consciously still when speaking in order to avoid confusing the signals of body language with false messages.

Values order and hates surprises, likes things to act in expected ways, and once he has come to expect something he grows attached to that order of events. Doing the unexpected gets the same response from him as surprising a scorpion – he reacts in anger, lashing out.

Magic:

Mirage – Able to craft false images from the light, the most traditional being an oasis that is not there. These images require active concentration from Skippy, and will fade without his attention. They also require light, able to craft large images in the bright sun, but the darker the area the less he can make. These images are also disrupted by physical disturbance, being touched will cause the nearby area (within a few yards) to crumble. Essentially it is a hologram.

Mirror – Able to summon up to 3 false images of himself which move and act as he does. The traditional use is to create illusory doubles to confuse enemies of what target to attack, although he prefers to use it for the intimidation factor of the main thing scarier than a manscorpion is 4 manscorpions. These images are broken as easily as the Mirage, one hit will cause it to disappear.

Diving Bell – This is as much a charm as a spell. As soon as he enters water a sphere of air surrounds him which he can direct with his mind, as a bubble he can move at human running speed.

Mute – Able to suppress sound in an area with his concentration. This is sufficient that someone can scream at the top of their lungs and produce no more sound than a whisper. Normally this requires his concentration on the area he silences, but he may also enchant chains to produce this effect.

Blood Compass – A divination spell, all he needs is an item connected with the target or their full name and he can fashion a compass that always points to them.

Strengths/Advantages:

A chitin shell protects Skippy like bronze armour. Generally swords and arrows will do little or nothing to harm him, and more powerful weapons like axes or maces are required to easily hurt him.

A powerful stinger is an effective weapon. The barb on the stinger is very short, making it unable to stab deep enough to reliably inflict lethal wounds, but the venom in it causes nausea, immediate burning pain around the sting, sweating, muscle-twitches or even convulsions. One sting is non-lethal for a healthy adult and he only has enough venom for half-a-dozen doses. The venom is spectacularly painful, and he will often sting a slave with each trip to show off the agony to the others.

Skippy has a body much stronger than a regular human, not impossible for a human to achieve but his upper body is as strong as a large warrior. The scorpion body gives him great stability, and is even stronger. He is also skilled in the use of a ‘pincer-staff’, a pronged polearm with a spring-loaded ‘door’ which he can use to trap limbs or a neck, and generally has a decent idea how to fight, although not advanced skill in the subject.

Bizarre biology has conveniences, he can go without food and water for weeks at a time due to how he ingests and absorbs his prey, although typically requiring prey the size of a horse or antelope, or a human each month. All the water he needs comes from digesting his prey.

A carapace is a magnificent poker face, and Skippy has made a study of body language due to the importance of posture in his own language, the result is that he is good at reading people while being very difficult to read.

Weaknesses:

The exoskeleton is protective but also far less flexible than a human endoskeleton. The result is Skippy’s movements are stiff and clumsy, and while he can do normal activities without trouble, he will not accomplish any feats of mobility.

As tough as the exoskeleton is, it is still a skeleton and damage done to it will take a long time to recover. Even healing magic which speeds the process will take far more time than when healing someone else.

Size is inconvenient for Skippy, buildings and doorways give him trouble to get through, and cramped quarters can seriously hinder him in a fight.

Bizarre biology has weaknesses, on a trivial level his meals take hours to consume, on a more serious level he is unable to benefit from many potions.

It goes without saying that a giant human-scorpion hybrid does not blend into polite society all that well, or really do much blending in at all.

Character History:

Skippy was part of a clutch of twenty young, clinging to his mother until taken into the care of a nurse. The nurse was entirely scorpion, with no humanoid aspects whatsoever. Not that he could tell the difference at the time. As was standard for Tlincalli, he was a hunting machine for the first year of his life, preying on small animals like mice and reptiles.

Then he was turned out into the wild to kill and eat his first meal before returning back into the camp, in order to earn his right to live. That is what he remembers, a cycle of being cast into the desert and to return, although in this case as he grew he found himself hunting as part of a group, rather than hunting other members of the group.

Yes, he remembered his first trial was murder and fratricide.

Once he had proven his right to live, food was more reliable, due to livestock kept by human slaves. Skippy conversed with them, not for any sympathy with the slaves but because his time was spent learning and that may as well include language. What he learned was the ways they spoke, which was considered strange by his fellows but proved convenient for others, who allowed him to assume the role of overseer.

Being able to fulfil that function in his infancy earned him patronage, one of the magi of their burrow took him in to study. After all, it was for prowess of mind, not body that he distinguished himself.

Managing the slaves was a good position for him. Pity was alien to him, but communication with the slaves had established that such a concept existed at all, and he was willing to exploit it in his dealings with them, seeing that the slaves would show gratitude and motivation to help one who restrained his cruelty with them.

At age ten, he was ready to mate, and to undergo the test to prove himself worthy. They had to spend a night fleeing from the most powerful females of their burrow, those who failed would be captured and lose prestige (and the right to mate), those who failed badly would be killed on the way back. Skippy knew about this concept, and had been preparing for it. With some aid from his master, he worked on creating a charm to let him dwell within the water, planning to use it to hide where others could not follow.

The water.

So that night he went down to the beach, and dwelled within the water, protected by his bubble of air, floating in the waves.

And got lost.

The next day, he was unable to find the shore that he left. So he continued using the charm to follow the coastline, in hopes of finding home again. It would have helped if he had gone the right way.

What he found was a ship sailing the waters, and he approached, partly from boredom, partly to ask directions, partly for the possibility of food. Once aboard, he found the crew responded poorly to his appearance, and he fought his way off the ship again. His pride hurt by the experience, he followed with the intent of striking again at night.

Which he did.

When he struck, he killed the sentries, and descended to the deck. It was difficult, but after the first few killings, he still needed to feed on the ship and he needed information.

What he found were grey-skinned tusked mammal creatures, who called themselves orcs, shackled as prisoners. He saw no problem with this arrangement, but he decided they would be useful to him, and he set them free on the condition they fight for him and bring him prisoners to torture. They seemed to consider this a fair deal.

There was butchery, but the orcs seemed to like the idea of having prisoners to torture as revenge, so the slaughter was less than expected.

Which was convenient. Skippy drew information from them, and tortured them for information, particularly regarding piloting the boat. Gradually he consumed those no longer of use to him. Eventually the orcs got the hang of piloting the boat and following Skippy’s direction. They stopped at an Ameyatl village, one orc suggesting trading off a few slaves in exchange for supplies while Skippy searched for the beach near his burrow.

Eventually he found the beach, and when he got there, he realised he did not want to leave the ship behind. Perhaps the remaining prisoners would buy him status, but here he was a leader, a master, and overseer in one. The Ameyatl empire could teach him greater magic for a price, and he had the means to raise it. The city of Verre Zon could be used for profit and trade. At the beach, the truth had become simple and obvious.

He no longer wished to go home.

Belongings:

A large slaver ship, with a crew of 70-80 orcs and a cargo space for up to 200 slaves. Most of the cannon have been sold to the Ameyatl, since the large fingers of the orc crew cause them trouble working the cannons, and instead they use ballista-like slingshots to throw huge stones.

A pincer-staff, or mancatcher, a polearm with a spring-loaded door used to trap people by the neck or limbs, with sharp prongs to discourage resistance.