ECOLOGY

Environment warm deserts
Organization solitary, pair, patrol (3-5 plus 2-4 giant scorpions), or cult (6-14 plus 3-6 temple guardians of 3rd level, 1 cleric or oracle leader of 6th level, and 4-9 giant scorpions)
Treasure standard (leather armor, masterwork spear)

Girtablilus fiercely guard ancient places and treasures lost to history. Far from civilized eyes, they thrive and piously protect their charges with the aid of monstrously large scorpions that girtablilus keep as pets.

All girtablilus share a zeal for religion, although the objects of veneration vary from tribe to tribe. Some girtablilu tribes still serve long-forgotten deities, preserving the divinities' names and holy rituals. Others embrace religions derived from prehistoric worship, devoted to the idea of gods that once were or might never have been.

Girtablilu leaders are clerics or oracles, and are responsible for the tribe's religious observances and laws. Tradition and service to the group are important. Those who violate tribal beliefs are killed or exiled into the harsh wasteland. Girtablilus believe that no sacrifice in life (including death in the service of the gods) goes unrewarded in the hereafter; this belief makes them fierce and fearless fighters.

A girtablilu is 13 feet long and weighs 800 pounds.

Girtablilu Encounters

Source PCS:ISMC

The scorpionfolk known as girtablilus guard many of the oldest ruins in deserts. They drive intruders out of their territories with dire warnings and violence to protect ancient secrets. The race maintains a tribal culture of family groups who live near the sites they guard. Many chieftains are clerics of forgotten gods, oracles of mysterious ancient practices, or shamans empowered by the spirits of the past. Because ancient religion plays such a large role in girtablilu society, the race has a reputation for cultish zealotry and dedication to archaic faiths. What girtablilus don't usually share with outsiders, however, is that they believe they protect the mortal realms from the terrible spaces beyond by performing the rituals of long-forgotten creeds and preventing intruders from defiling sacred places. While they might make exploration of sacrosanct locations dangerous for the curious, girtablilus do so out of a powerful sense of duty to a purpose that few will ever understand. They guard ancient ruins as well as lost sites of the fallen empires. Girtablilus guard holy sites and maintain some of the last bastions of faith within the secular nation. Girtablilus protect the ruined remnants of cultures and faiths displaced by more modern societies.

Adventurers usually encounter girtablilus in hunting or raiding parties. Hunting parties consist of two to four dune striders and usually at least one trained giant scorpion. If the search for food takes the group a significant distance from the tribe's home, the hunters may not consider an adventuring party a threat, allowing for a peaceful meeting. However, if explorers roam too close to the tribe's territory, the hunters attack in order to prevent the adventurers from stumbling upon the ruins under the tribe's protection.

When girtablilu territory is violated—especially if an item of importance is taken from their ruins—the scorpionfolk send out raiding parties or recovery teams of dune striders accompanied by three to five raging sting barbarians and at least one quick striker rogue to punish interlopers. Such parties generally don't waste time parleying with trespassers, operating under the belief that any they find in their territory are potential tomb robbers.

Divine chieftains lead girtablilu villages and serve as spiritual guides. If the tribe venerates a spirit or deity whose worship is not long dead, they might benefit from the presence of a cleric. However, their strange connection to the ancient places they protect most often manifests as a girtablilu druid, oracle, or shaman. A girtablilu oracle may even bear a strange curse that forces her to stay near a particular site.