Koalinth (SofS)

__TOC__
==Koalinth (marine hobgoblins)==
Sea marauders, murk-dwellers, Khapak (locathah for "scourge")
Koalinth appear as common surface-world hobgoblins adapted for undersea life: Brawny and powerful (even while being sleeker than the hobgoblin) with massive limbs that belie their speed in the water, koalinth have light green skin, and their wide ears are scalloped to allow for better directional hearing. Hands and feet are webbed with a darker shade of green, and the coarse hair dominant on the scalp and limbs (though present all over the bodies of some) runs from black to emerald green.
The koalinth were once a prouder, more advanced race in Seròs, akin to what the locathah are today. However, the sea elves purposely visited genocide upon the ﻿koalinth tribes, which long ago tried to rise above their barbaric status and join the civilized races. Due to these attacks, the marine hobgoblins went into hiding among the caverns and cliffs and seamounts far away from the civilized lands, where they thrive today but as a barbaric shadow of what they once were.
Koalinth, unlike all other Serôsian races save the sea elves, can breathe both fresh- and saltwater without difficulty (see "Undersea Facts of Life"). This ability to "breathe the murk" provides them the safety of freshwater outlets along the coasts into which they can retreat and not be easily pursued by other Serôsians.
Koalinth, like the orcs, ogres, and hobgoblins of the surface-world, are barbaric, relying on physical might to determine status among themselves and sheer might of numbers to assert their status on other tribes and other peoples. Koalinth, as a rule, dislike and distrust everything, including other koalinth, as one only has what one can keep others from taking. The tribes loosely organize around the concept that, once established, the rulers of a tribe protect their tribe from other tribes with only minimal fighting within a tribe itself. Challenges for leadership happen often among the koalinth, unlike some surface races, so the chiefs are rarely idle and soft but always in fighting trim. The koalinth might rise again to nearly a civilized status, but the infighting among the tribes as well as with other races keeps them from any real successes at developing skills beyond raiding, hunting, gathering, and crude tool-making.
Even during pitched battles, the koalinth hatred of one particular race will provoke special attentions toward sea elves. During raids and hordes, while they mow everything else down in their paths, koalinth attempt to capture any sea elves alive to be brought back to their caverns for torture and food. A popular superstition among the koalinth is that a chief's eating the heart of a sea elf both brings good luck to the tribe and it could grant magical powers to the chief (though no actual record of such occurrences has ever been found). They also reserve this kind of attention to any single or collective foes that has fought them repeatedly (such as adventurers).
===Game Characteristics===
Koalinth tactics are quite simple: Overwhelm a foe by strength of numbers and ravage everything in your current. Only their great hatred for sea elves will change the path of a koalinth raiding party or horde. When raiding, koalinth travel in bands of eight, all lined up to hide their numbers from those listening to or watching currents. The leader of any band is a sergeant, though sub-chiefs lead larger companies of four to six bands. Chiefs ﻿only leave the tribal caverns when the whole tribe has gone into horde status (either by overpopulation and the threat of starvation or by coercion by other koalinth tribes or merrow) and lead their tribe into battle. The sub-chiefs and chiefs often carry tortoise-shell shields or wear them as breastplates, slowing them down to MV9, though their armor class rises to AC 7 or 5 when worn.
Koalinth, Common: AC 8; MV Sw 12; HD 1+1; THAC 19; #AT 1; Dmg By weapon-1d4 (dagger) or 1-6 (spear); SA Nil; SD Nil; MR Nil; SZ M-L (6-8'); ML Steady (12); AL LE; XP 35.
Koalinth, Sergeant: AC 8; MV Sw 12; HD 1+1, hp 9; THAC0 19; #AT 1; Dmg By weapon-1d4 (dagger) or 1-6 (spear); SA Nil; SD Nil; MR Nil; SZ M-L (6-8'); ML Steady (12); AL LE; XP 50.
Koalinth, Sub-chief: AC8; MV SW 12; HD 3, hp 16 (min.); THAC0 18; #AT 1; Dmg By weapon +2 Strength bonus-1d4 (dagger) or 1-6 (spear); SA Nil; SD Nil; MR Nil; SZ M-L (6-8'); ML Steady (12); AL LE; XP 65.
Koalinth, Chief: AC 8; MV SW 12; HD 4, hp 22 (min.); THAC0 17; #AT 1; Dmg By weapon + 3 Strength bonus-1d4 (dagger) or 1-6 (spear); SA Nil; SD Nil; MR Nil; SZ L (8); ML Steady (12); AL LE; XP 120.