Giarrok the Fire-Tongue
By Steven E. Schend

Here is a new NPC foe for your Forgotten Realms campaign, updated for the new edition of the D&D Game. Giarrok is a ruthless gnoll sorcerer from Amn who has seized control of his former tribe and now preys upon innocent travelers.

Skills and Feats: Concentration +4, Intimidate +3, Listen +4, Speak Language (Common), Spellcraft +3, Spot +3; Alertness (when within arm’s reach of Korrok), Martial Weapon Proficiency: Battle Axe, Power Attack, Spell Focus (Evocation), Toughness.

Special Abilities: As a sorcerer, Giarrok has a number of special abilities, described here.

Spell Use: Obviously out of the norm for the gnolls of his original tribe, Giarrok has formed his own Fire Claw tribe that respects (and fears) his magic. He also has mated with three females of his tribe in hopes of passing on his magical bloodline.

Weapon/Armor Proficiency: Giarrok can use all simple weapons. From his early training in his original tribe, he is proficient in the use of a battle axe.

Familiar: Giarrok, like any sorcerer, has the ability to call a familiar to him. His familiar is a weasel, which he simply calls Korrok (the Gnoll term for "weasel"). As if to clearly establish this creature as Giarrok’s minion, the weasel shares the same bold black coloration along the left half of its head, shoulders, and torso, while the rest of her coat remains a light grey.

While this creature is no more powerful than the standard familiar, she is more capable and powerful than the usual weasel. Also, her ability to communicate with Giarrok and his ability to send spells through her makes the other gnolls of the Fire Claw tribe fear her almost as much as they fear their chieftain. See her abilities and statistics below.

Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft.

Possessions: Like the rest of his tribe, Giarrok carries only what he has scavenged off his victims. While his tribe generally wears pieces of scale armor or better, he wears only a pair of bracers, aware that they improve his defenses (bracers of armor +3). He also carries a keen battle axe +1, which he claimed off a warrior slain more than a year ago.

Arcane Spells (7/4/2/1 known; casts 6/7*/6*/3 per day): 0 -- dancing lights, daze, detect magic, flare, ghost sound, mage hand, ray of frost; 1st -- burning hands, mage armor, ray of enfeeblement, shocking grasp; 2nd—summon swarm, whispering wind; 3rd—lightning bolt.

* Giarrok gains additional spells of 1st and 2nd levels due to his high Charisma score.

Languages: Common, Gnoll

Appearance: Giarrok appears different from other gnolls immediately upon viewing him. Towering at nearly eight feet in height with the usual hyenalike head and hairy body, he has dark brown fur, almost mahogany in hue, and his mane is only mildly paler than that. He also sports a distinguishing feature shared only with his familiar and two of his five cubs: a jet-black stripe on one side of his muzzle, around the upper left side of his face and eye, through his mane and coat, encompassing his left arm and shoulder but stopping at the end of his rib cage -- as if the gods had slashed him to mark his special abilities.

He wears a simple loincloth of ragged fabric, a bandolier with a gnoll skull attached and acting as his left shoulder guard, and the ornate bronze bracers he took from the Stonetooth chieftain, which he wears as his mark of leadership. He prefers to go bare-chested to show off his scars and his black markings, believing himself to be favored by the god Yeenoghu and also because he believes he more easily strikes fear into both his tribe and his enemies.

Background: At birth, he seemed no different than any other gnoll cub, though his singular (instead of the usual multiple) whelping drew unwanted attention to himself and his mother. The shaman (adept) of the Stonetooth tribe cast out the female and her cub, claiming that she proved unworthy of bearing cubs for the tribe and her cub would be equally useless. Thus, the cub and his mother survived on bitterness and loneliness for their next few years. As a result, instead of earning a name in his first hunt like other gnolls, the cub grew with the name Giarrok, or "revenge" in Gnoll, as was his mother’s wish within the Wealdath (Forest of Tethir).

After his first year, Giarrok’s coat darkened noticeably and his unique markings grew prominent. After he reached his full growth at two years, Giarrok and his mother attempted to return to the Stonetooth tribal lands in the Umar Hills south of the Small Teeth in Amn, but the tribe’s hunters slew her before they even approached the tribal den. Enraged, Giarrok unleashed his first spells, slaying his mother’s killers almost before he knew it. Giarrok spent two years terrorizing the Stonetooth tribe and killing its cubs, hunters, and females one by one. Soon, the Stonetooth gnolls even howled in fear of Giarrok’s weasel familiar, whom he gained over the first year of learning his skills.

Giarrok at last entered the tribe’s den and killed the chieftain without warning or mercy. Showing the gnolls his magic powers and proclaiming himself chieftain, Giarrok took over what remained of the tribe. Renaming them the Fire Claws after his most common spell (burning hands), Giarrok moved the tribe away from the territories that made them vulnerable to his own attacks.

They moved to a new den in the remnants of an old human castle, formerly a logging camp in the northern Wealdath that had fallen to elven arrows long ago. The keep lies equidistant between the villages of Trademeet and Brost. Giarrok plans to capture and enslave a number of humans or others who can repair or build onto the fort and teach his tribe how to better defend it. Until then, they make due with the partially fallen battlements and sundered portcullis at its gate.

Giarrok and his hunters, over the past months, have learned from some of their prey. Originally wandering and attacking any prey they scented near and around their keep, they fell upon a band of thieves who fled east. Pursuing them, they watched over a fortnight and learned of the thieves’ tricks of waylaying travelers along The Tethir Road and not only killing prey but gaining treasures they carried with them. After some debate, Giarrok and his hunters surprised the band of thieves after they had recently killed a wayside owner and his family. They then set themselves up to ambush more travelers. This wayside lies south of the Tethir Road 35 miles west of Brost and sits about a quarter mile off the main trade road within a small copse of trees.

The Fire Claw Tribe

Giarrok has drawn together a small band of gnolls around himself, and they all acknowledge him as their leader. He consequently has renamed the rather smallish "tribe" of 36, which includes 17 gnoll warriors (seven of whom are females), and six gnoll females who raise and protect the dozen cubs of various ages.

Korrok (Weasel Familiar): Tiny animal, HD 6 (as caster’s level); hp 16; Init +2 (Dex); Spd 20 ft, climb 20 ft.; AC 17 (+2 size, +2 Dex, +3 familiar bonus); Atks +4 melee (1d3-4; bite); Face/Reach 2 ft. by 2 ft./0 ft.; AL N; SV Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +1; Str 3, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 8, Wis 12, Cha 5.

Skills and Feats: Climb +10, Hide +14, Move Silently +14, Spot +5; Weapon Finesse (bite).

Special Attacks: Attach (Ex): If a weasel hits with a bite attack, it uses its powerful jaws to latch onto the opponent’s body and automatically deals bite damage each round it remains attached. An attached weasel has an AC of 12.

Special Abilities: Alertness, empathic link, improved evasion, scent, share spells.

Gnoll warriors (9 at Wayside, 6 at Keep): Medium humanoid; HD 2d8+2; hp 11; Init +0; Spd 20 ft. (scale mail), base 30 ft; AC 17 (+1 natural, +4 scale, +2 large shield); Atks. +3 melee (1d8+2, battleaxe), +1 ranged (1d6 shortbow); Face/Reach 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.; AL CE; SV Fort +4, Ref +0, Will +0; Str 15, Dex 10, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 8.

Skills and Feats: Listen +3, Spot +3; Power Attack.

Fire Claw Keep

Giarrok and his mother, after their exile from the Stonetooth tribe, found shelter in the partial ruins of this old keep along the borderlands of the Forest of Tethir, which had long been abandoned since its destruction before the founding of Brost. The sorcerer’s arrogance demands the keep be named after himself as well as the tribe that lives therein. It is little more than a 15-foot-high curtain wall with a second story plank landing inside for defenders to look out over the battlements and fire down on any standing below the walls. The keep’s walls encompass a space of 40 feet square, and the wall facing a slight path into the forest contains a gate, its portcullis dropped into place but sundered and two of its five bars bent inward from some long-ago attack. Giarrok usually leaves one to three gnolls behind in the keep to guard this entrance and the tribe within.

Beneath the scaffolding and connected to the walls opposite the gate (but not visible from the same) are log-built buildings of 15 feet square at the corners. Both have doorways facing each other onto the main courtyard, though one has suffered some fire damage and only has half its roof. This former barracks holds the gnolls’ treasure and weapons cache, buried in a pit beneath some loose planks and straw strewn across the floor beneath the roof. The gnolls tend to either face any invaders outside the keep or, if inside, they allow invaders into this room, then leap in through the gaps in the roof upon any thieves of their treasure.

Treasures claimed and stored here over the past few months include: 500 pp, 1,200 gp, and a dozen large emeralds (worth 250 gp each). Additional weapons stored with the treasures include nine daggers, four clubs, and two battle axes with slightly pitted blades.

The cubs and females (who are noncombatants unless trapped and forced to defend the cubs) occupy the former stables of the keep, as this is the area with the most roof cover and generally is the warmest part of the keep, against the corner of the southeastern wall.

The Wayside

Giarrok and no less than nine gnolls have taken position in a wayside along the Tethir Road a day’s travel to the east of their keep and 35 miles west of Brost, set off from the trade road about a quarter mile within a small copse of trees. The gnolls slew the previous tenants -- four thieves who had slain the innkeeper, his wife and daughter, and two guards -- and they lie in wait within the partially destroyed inn and stables. From the front, no damage can be discerned in the inn and stables, though entering the inn easily reveals the large scorched hole in the back wall of the taproom -- the remnants of Giarrok’s surprise attack by lightning bolt on the wayside’s defenders.

The front door opens directly onto the bar about 20 feet along in the eastern face of the building, where the trail ends. A smaller path arcs around to the 10 by 20 foot stables adjacent to the right side of the building. The taproom is 30 feet square, and the kitchen behind the bar is 30 feet deep but only 15 feet wide. There is about 4 feet of clearance on the other side of the kitchen wall behind the bar, making the entire inn 50 feet long and 30 feet wide.

Leading to the second story is a small set of spiral stairs rising from the far end of the bar up to a hallway. Immediately at the top is a door leading to the innkeeper’s family lodgings of three bedrooms and one sitting room, taking up about half of the top floor. The other half is reached at the end of the short hallway, which opens into a common room with a dozen beds in it. Half the beds are in disarray from the thieves’ and gnolls’ looting.

Storing the thieves’ treasures and their own in a small chest behind the bar, the gnolls keep the following treasures on site: 140 pp, 473 gp, 639 sp; six gems (four amethysts of 100 gp each, and two peridots of 50 gp each), and a small silver hand harp with inlaid gems (900 gp worth). Also scattered around the chest behind the bar are six common daggers pulled from the thieves but cast aside by the gnolls.

They also have claimed these items from the thieves, and each is used by one gnoll warrior (replace the standard battle axe with said weapons): a masterwork battle axe, a heavy flail, a mighty composite short bow, and a morningstar of thundering +2 (the gnoll wielder does not know of its magic and has a 50% chance of dropping the weapon in panic if its power is invoked by a critical hit).

About the Author

Born in Wisconsin in 1967, Steven Schend fell into the world of fantasy quite quickly, growing up on L. Frank Baum's Oz books and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and Barsoom novels. From 1990 to 2000, Steven was with TSR/Wizards of the Coast. He began his career as an editor and worked on a multitude of projects including the D&D Cyclopedia. By 1994 he had found his home as a designer in the Forgotten Realms, and he's enjoyed swapping tall tales with Elminster and company ever since. He also has worked in other realms, such as the science fiction worlds of the Alternity game system and the wild game world of Marvel Comics. Steven has written more than 50 game products and magazine articles, as well as two published short stories, though he now makes vague attempts at some novels, playwriting, and screenplays as well.