Onyxscale Lizardfolk WIP

Onyxscale Lizardfolk

Clad in long jackets to protect against the scouring winds on the shores of Tarfisher Lake, the laconic Lizardfolk of Kraynor hunt their furtive prey by spitting boiling tar with deadly precision. In the ages since the Day of Onyx Scale, the embattled Lizardfolk have mastered their environment and the bitter gifts they received on that day; scales capable of resisting great heat and saliva as thick and caustic as the boiling lakes of Bolok. Their tribe has grown vast once more, and restless, enough so that they occasionally come into conflict with their half-orc neighbors.
They have never forgotten what the ancient Creakers did to their ancestors and what it cost the Lizardfolk. Members of the Onyxscale tribe are therefore slow to trust, to put it lightly, but even so, many a young Lizardfolk straps a tar-spitoon to their hip and hits the lonely, dusty trail in search of new horizons, a new home for their people, and potential allies for the reconquering of Nilorval.
Or so goes their excuse. But it could also be that, even though the Lizardfolk have been betrayed and scarred, they nonetheless have an intense yearning to once again find those that share a common rhythm and to reconcile with their long-lost brothers in the marsh.

The Story of the Onyxscale

The vibrant Lizardfolk of Kraynor were once at home in the northwest of Nilorval and enjoyed pleasant diplomatic ties with the Creakers, often providing percussive accompaniment to the dances of the latter in many an impromptu festival in honor of the moon.
Legend says that they were once feared as mindless man-eating killing machines. However, the story goes, after many years of conflict, a war-party of Lizardfolk stumbled upon an isolated village of Creakers that knew nothing of war or conflict. The Lizardfolk carefully observed and stalked the Creakers from the dark edges of the village as the Creakers danced around a fire in the center of the village accompanied by the sound of rhythmic clapping, shouting, and whooping. The leader of the Lizardfolk war-party, a massive and scar-latticed specimen whose name aptly translates to War, became fascinated, and stepped into the firelight while banging his serrated hatchet upon his shield to the rhythm of the beat. The oblivious Creakers invited War and the rest of the Lizardfolk into the party, sharing in a bounty of delicious grilled roughage and marsh-meat gumbo (an aromatic combination of dinosaur, alligator, and shellfish) as they drank and danced until sunrise.
War, it turns out, was no mere war-leader, but a mighty chieftain. Within a single cycle of the moon, the long war was over, and the two races began a process of cultural exchange and integration.
The Lizardfolk of Nilorval, now masters of percussive instruments, were always excellent hunters and animal tamers, often using formerly wild animals as companions for both survival and leisure. They particularly favored relatively small, intelligent dinosaurs as companions, and though few Creakers were interested, the Lizardfolk were happy to share their knowledge.
The many generations of peace, however, were suddenly shattered by the appearance of the Nilor Blights, giant, mutated animals that seemed to go berserk and rampage across the marshlands. Initially, the Lizardfolk and the Creakers fought alongside each other against the Nilor Blights. However, this ended with the arrival of Tekki, the great blight. The stories say that Tekki was over thirty feet tall and twice again as long, with scales like diamonds that turned aside spell and spear alike. It was capable of flattening villages and devouring entire tribes as easily as it breathed. The cohabitant marsh-dwellers lived in fear of Tekki for months, until someone noticed that Tekki only appeared in villages where Lizardfolk dwelled. At first, the Creakers vowed to stand by their long-time friends and allies against Tekki. But the great blight wore down their resolve as it devoured village after village, and angry Creakers soon began to turn against the Lizardfolk, chasing them out of their shared villages and driving them westward toward Bolok.
When the last Lizardfolk was chased from the marshlands, Tekki moved to the northwest of Nilorval, where it has been sleeping ever since, awakening only once every century or so to ensure that no Lizardfolk remain.
The Creakers mourned the loss of their great friends the Lizardfolk as they turned their attention to rebuilding and resettling the marshlands, and the preceding events remain the great shame of the marsh-dwellers, passed down forever in a heart-wrenching song and dance.
In Bolok, the Lizardfolk and their raptor pets found themselves in a lush and verdant landscape, remarkably welcoming and well-suited to their needs. There was a brief period of respite and optimism as the tribe explored westward. However, just as they were settling in and around a great lake in the center of the region, disaster struck in the form of a well-known cataclysm caused by the actions of the humans in the region. The Lizardfolks' beloved pets were all of them reduced to white ash and red dust by a scouring and scathing wind. The waters of the lake turned to sticky tar that boiled and bubbled, and the tar became part of the Lizardfolk themselves as they breathed it in and choked on it. The Lizardfolk that stood on the shores watched in horror as their brothers and sisters choked on the boiling tar, but it was them upon the shore who were the less fortunate. The same wind that had scoured their pets and all other life from the surface of Bolok soon scrubbed the onlookers down to red dust.
Those Lizardfolk that had been trapped in the roiling lake of tar awakened on its shores, opening their eyes to a lonesome desert hellscape. As they looked around, they noticed their fellow survivors, formerly clad in feathers and beautiful scales, were now naked and onyx-colored. With but a moment to catch their breath, the Lizardfolk were beset by demonic horrors, and they struggled and fought bitterly for survival. In the wake of the cataclysm, the Lizardfolk were forced to rediscover the ways of war as they did battle with fiends that now ruled the region, along with Orcs and blood-drinking Zacuer.

Onyxscale Traits

Ability Score Increase. Increase an ability score of your choice by 2 and your Constitution or Wisdom by 1 or increase your Constitution or Wisdom by 2 and an ability score of your choice by 1.

Speed. Your base walking speed is 30. You have a swimming speed equal to your walking speed.

Age. Lizardfolk are considered adolescents around age 10 and adults around age 16, and they typically live to be no older than 40. This is largely due to the harshness of their environment, however, and in rare cases they can live to be 80 or older.

Alignment. Onyxscale morality is limited in scope and highly tribal. Within the tribe, whether it be a literal or metaphorical tribe (e.g., a long-term adventuring companion or pet), they are exemplars of empathic, kind, lawful good behavior; their attitude toward and treatment of outsiders is neutral at best and evil at worst. Lizardfolk do not struggle with the idea of murdering or exploiting those outside their tribe. However, if they form bonds with people who care for the greater good and who broaden their idea of the tribe, they can genuinely come to adopt such views themselves.

Size. Your size is Medium.

Tarproof Scales. You have resistance to fire and acid damage. If you would take fire or acid damage equal to or less than your proficiency bonus (after resistance), you instead take no damage.

Strong Lungs. You can hold your breath for up to half an hour.

Onyxscale Lore. You gain proficiency with the Survival skill and one of the following: Nature, Perception, or Animal Handling. Alternatively, you can up give this skill choice in order to learn to read Common and Orcish.

Pitch-Mouth. The mouth of an Onyxscale is filled with black, viscous saliva, which flows copiously between their teeth; traveling Lizardfolk carry a tar-spitoon at all times, which is usually a hollow gourd but can be made from any corrosion-resistant material. In one day, you produce enough excess saliva to fill a one-pint oil flask.

Pitch Hunter. You can spit tar as a ranged weapon attack with the following properties:

• You are proficient.
• It has a range of 15/30.
• It uses either your Dexterity or Wisdom modifier (you choose when you make the attack).
• Your spit becomes boiling-hot as it travels through the air, rapidly turning into a flaming bullet. It deals 1 bludgeoning damage plus 1d4 fire damage on a hit.
• Hitting a creature with your spit incites your prey drive, granting you advantage on the next non-spit attack you make before the end of your next turn.

Languages. You can speak Common and Orcish. You cannot read without further investment.

Names. Lizardfolk names are simple and descriptive, and may change or grow in complexity as a Lizardfolk ages and adds achievements to their story. An elder Lizardfolk may have a compound name like Big-Tail Tar-Shark Fiend-Eater Egg-Hatcher Runs-Through-Dawn. However, they may answer to any part of this name, and only in highly formal circumstances (for example, asking for approval to marry one's daughter) is one expected to recite it in its entirety.