In my local homebrew, dinosaurs are rather prevalent. Think “Dinotopia”, but the dinosaurs aren’t intelligent. Some are domesticated (with slightly increased intelligence) beasts of burden, but most still live in the wild. Anyway, one of the unique creatures that inhabit these lands is a sentient but primitive race known as…

The Talyn

These medium-sized humanoids are a hybrid mix of the common Lizard-folk and the Deinonychus*.  There is a great deal of controversy among scholars and sages as to whether they were created by natural inter-species breeding or by some mad magical experiment. These vicious creatures are barely intellectually advanced enough to utilize crude weapons and tools. Like their pre-historic cousins, the Talyn hunt in packs of 4 to 8 adults. However, they do gather into large, nomadic tribes of up to about 30 (including young). Each tribe is lead by either an alpha male or female.

Talyn Hunter Tactics

Hunting groups will usually have roughly half their number make their way straight toward their target, while the rest stealthily moving along their periphery in hopes of flanking their prey and catching them by surprise. Individually, if not within close enough range, a Talyn Hunter will usually throw a javelin, followed up quickly by their Charging Pounce attack.

Talyn Lore

A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.

DC:15 Talyn hate their Lizard-folk cousins and will usually attack them on sight. However, sometimes Talyn and Lizard-folk have been known to work together, but only when lead by a powerful master, such as a dragon, and it is never an easy truce.

* For those of you that aren’t dinosaur aficionados, the Deinonychus is the larger cousin to the Velociraptor.