General Rules: Monsters - Talaq

Talaq (modified for rules compliance from Mercenaries)
Medium Humanoid (Goblinoid)

Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 hit points)
Initiative: +2 (Dexterity)
Speed: 30 feet
Armor Class: 14 (+2 Dexterity, +2 leather armor); touch 12, flat-footed 12
BAB/Grapple: +1/+1

Attack: Shortsword +1 melee (1d6+1, piercing, 19-20 x2) or shortbow +2 ranged (1d6, piercing, 20 x3, 60 feet x10)

Full Attack: Shortsword +1 melee (1d6, piercing, 19-20 x2) or shortsword +2 ranged (1d6, piercing, 20 x3, 60 feet x10)

Space/Reach: 5 feet by 5 feet/5 feet
Special Attacks: None
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 feet, forest elusiveness, light sensitivity
Saves: Fortitude +0, Reflex +3, Will +0
Abilities: Str 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Dex 14, Con 11, Cha 8

Skills: Hide +3, Listen +4, Spot +4

Feats: Skill Augmentation (Listen and Spot)
Environment: Forest

Organization: Gang (2 - 4), squad (11 -20 plus 2 3^rd level sergeants and 1 leader of 3^rd - 6^th level), or band (30 - 100 plus 150% noncombatants plus 1 3^rd level sergeants per 10 adults, 5 5^th level lieutenants and 3 7^th level captains)

Challenge Rating: ½
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class

Talaq are squat goblins with round, thick heads who live in forests and woods. They are notorious for raiding farms and settlements on the outskirts of their native habitats; in part, they regard such folk with righteous indignation as intruders on their land. They also find that it is a lot easier to steal and rob than to make a living on one's own, and that torching huts and houses has its own peculiar joy. As a result, frequent skirmishes between talaq and militia, settlers, and posses are a fact of life in the regions that they inhabit.

As forest denizen, talaq function best in low-light conditions, and when they wish to move across open ground, they do so at dusk or night. If compelled to retreat, they try to melt back into the forest, where they are particularly difficult to find. From earliest childhood, talaq regularly coat their mottled green-brown hide with loam, so that over time their scent becomes indistinnguishable from that of their surroundings. Tracking a talaq through the forest - or indeed any type of vegetation - is a difficult task indeed.

Talaq speak a dialect of Jeblic.

Combat
Talaq like to strike quickly, using stealth and the cover of night to get the drop on their opponents. They won't stand for a melee slugfest if the odds are anything like 1-1, much less worse than that. Out in the open, they are sneaks and cowards at heart.

In the forest, they will strike from ambush, using their primitive shortbows from behind or up in the branches of trees. They position themselves such that their darkvisions puts their foes at a disadvantage.

Forest Elusiveness (Ex): Anyone tracking a talaq through forest, woods, or any terrain containing heavy vegetation suffers a -4 circumstance penalty to their Survival rolls or any other roll made to track or follow them. This reflects the difficulty of distinguishing the talaq's scent from that of its surroundings.

Light Sensitivity (Ex): Talaq suffer a -1 penalty to attack rolls in bright sunlight or in the area of effect of daylight.

Talaq Society
All of the talaq in a wood or part of a forest organize themselves into a tribe led by the dominant warrior. Leadership of the tribe is always subject to challenge, so that a chieftain's reign could always prove violent and short. Any warrior who thinks him or herself more fit for leadership may call out the current chieftain, in which case the two engage in ritualized combat to submission or death. All talaq wear tokens of tribal affiliation and rank on the braids that hang from just above their ears.

Talaq woship Enik-Talaq, who is both a nature god and a racial god.

Talaq Characters
Any talaq encountered alone outside its habitat is likely to be a fugitive from its racial enemies, or perhaps even from its own tribe. In such a case, it may welcome the friendship and company of non-talaq if it thinks it would benefit from the help.

A talaq's favored class is rogue. Talaq clerics worship Enik-Talaq and choose two of the following domains: Chaos, Evil, Protection, and Trickery.

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