“I’ve noticed you using the word ‘sluglet’ again, sluglet.”

“Master?”

“Copying me. Mocking me, some might say. My old friend Inferdal the Dark Magentine noticed it only last week, and Mumpsicrumb the maid has twice commented upon it to me recently. You will cease this imitation.”

“As you wish, mighty one, but I am merely basking in the glory of your potent arcane shadow. As naught but a manufactured thing of your making I am helpless in the face of your overwhelming personality.”

We’ve covered the weighty topic of environs before, and how those environments can rub off on those who live within them. Imagine, if you will, the appalling blackness of the darklands and how such environments affect those within it, what might dark unions produce, or what appalling fate awaits those taken from the sun to live their lives without hope in the darkness?

The insidious and numerous troglodytes thrive in the darkness beneath the world, and those who spend generation upon generation with the trogs could pick up more than just their foul scent. The simple template presented here offers an option to spice up those lairs with more than just monitor lizards.

As ever, use this simple template to spice up an encounter, to create a fun new subrace of creatures, or as the basis for further adventures, perhaps to discover why this is happening…

Simple Template—Trog-Kin Creature (+1 CR)
Trog-kin creatures have taken on a reptilian facet: it could be its eyes, maybe areas of sickly scales, or perhaps the growth of a rotting, flaccid tail. Each gains darkvision to 60 ft. and exudes a vile stench that is unmistakably troglodyte.

Quick Rules: +3 to AC and CMD; Ability Scores: +2 to all rolls based on Con, +1hp/HD; Aura stench (20 ft., DC 10 + Con bonus, 5 rounds).

Rebuild Rules: +3 natural armor; Ability Scores +2 Con; Aura stench (20 ft., DC 10 + Con bonus, 5 rounds). Racial Modifiers +2 Stealth (+4 in rocky areas)

This is a very simple template to add to an encounter and can be included with minimal preparation and time to add a little extra to encounters with trogolodytes.

Encounter—The Scavengers [EL 7]

This encounter occurs when a group of raiding troglodytes hunt by night. They are alert and very nervous, anxiously seeking out meat from their nearby cave, which descends many miles beneath the skin of the world.

Troglodytes (6)     CR 1

XP 400 each
hp 13 (Pathfinder Bestiary 267)

Dire Rats, Trog-Kin
These rats have broad, reptilian eyes, their tails are mangy and end in sore scales that are prone to come away with sinews of flesh when grasped.

Dire Rat, Trog-Kin (6)     CR 1

XP 400
N Small advanced animal
Init +3; Senses low-light vision, darkvision 60 ft., scent; Perception +4
Aura stench (20 ft., DC 13, 5 rounds).

DEFENSE
AC 17, touch 14, flat-footed 14 (+3 Dex, +3 natural, +1 size)
hp 6 (1d8+2)
Fort +4, Ref +5, Will +1

OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 20 ft.
Melee bite +1 (1d4 plus disease)
Special Attacks disease

STATISTICS
Str 10, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 13, Cha 4
Base Atk +0; CMB –1; CMD 15 (19 vs. trip)
Feats Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Climb +11, Perception +4, Stealth +13 (+15 in rocky areas), Swim +11; Racial
Modifiers uses Dex to modify Climb and Swim

Tactics
Before Combat Hunt by scent using stealth, leading the troglodytes on with their own stench. Try to attack by surprise.

During Combat Swarm upon a single target, using their stench to keep other opponents at bay until the troglodytes arrive, then assist them in killing and taking meat.

Morale Although they are cowardly, the rats nibble at unconscious opponents, and they swarm in to feast upon anyone so helpless unless driven away. The rats flee if injured.

Special Abilities
Disease (Ex) Filth fever: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 12; onset 1d3 days; frequency 1/day; effect 1d3 Dex damage and 1d3 Con damage; cure 2 consecutive saves.

Tactics
The clutch uses the trog-kin rats as hunters, loosing the pack in the night and following their stench until the rats find something to eat. The main problem the troglodytes have is keeping the rats from eating the food before they have had chance to eat some themselves, and occasionally a troglodyte will kill a feasting rat so that it can save the food until later.

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