Squegs are the result of deep giants interbreeding with trolls, resulting in a weaker giant race that has been conditioned to serve without question. Standing a few feet shorter than deep giants but well over the height of a human, they are giants in their own right but easily picked on by their masters. Squegs are generally the laborers, food tasters and performers of other unsavory tasks in deep giant society. Instinct: to please its master.

• Serve a deep giant unquestioningly
• Do the dirty work

Deep giants dwell beneath the surface of the world, emerging periodically to gather food and supplies. Unfortunately, the giants' hunting territory often includes remote farms and villages, where livestock and other supplies are easily taken. While a deep giant maintains its abode beneath the ground, it considers its territory to extend above. It is not uncommon for surface dwellers to find themselves in the middle of rivaling deep giant clans, battling for dominance over people who never knew they existed. Where the giants are most dangerous is in their underground labyrinths, where traps abound and the giants are most familiar with every crevice. With the average human standing no higher than a deep giant's knee, their capacity to kill and maim smaller races is legendary. Furthermore, treasure tempts a deep giant as it would most surface dwellers, and they will attack caravans that pass through their territory for the sole purpose of gathering trinkets and treasures from the merchants they squash. Instinct: to expand its territory, regardless of inhabitants.

• Smash foes to a pulp
• Steal livestock and crops

"We were knee-deep in Kobolds after stumbling across their lair. It was nothing we hadn't seen before, though. Hordes of little, scaly beasts who make up for size with tenacity and cunning. We were giving as good as we got and had them on the run. Then came the lightning, a long, many-fingered streak of blue that crackled and popped so loud I couldn't hear anything for days after. Two of our party were down, smoke trailing up from their bodies, but it got some Kobolds, too. I remember the smell and then seeing that scaly bastard in his tattered robes, little skulls dangling from his belt. I thought we were about to burn as fire formed on his fingertips, but suddenly a hard, magical rain came as it hurled curses to the sky. We didn't take time to think about it - we ran as fast as we could and didn't stop til we were back in town." The Kobold Caster is a relic of the old dragon casters from a forgotten time. While much of their knowledge was lost over the ages, a select few still possess innate talents and study the arcane arts as best they can. The result is as deadly and dangerous to their kin as to their enemies, for they have little control over the forces they unleash. Kobold Caster spells are mostly elemental: fire, water, wind, earth, electricity and sometimes effects that defy definition (and are likely unexpected accidents). In spite of their poor grasp of magic, they are revered in Kobold tribes when they arise. Kobold Casters are not so much made as born, you see. And their connection to the dragon casters of old earns them a special place among their kind. Instinct: to break and kill with magic.

• Use allies as shields
• Unleash wild, uncontrolled magic
• Call the Kobold horde

"Those who say life is cheap never killed for a living. There's money to be made, getting rid of softer people's problems. If you've got the coin and a living problem, I've got the solution - I can do it clean or messy, however you like. Don't worry, I'm very discrete - no one will know it was you what bought a man's death. Do we have a deal?" Cutthroat is just a name. Sometimes they slit your throat, other times they stab you in the back. Still other times they don't use a blade at all. They might strangle you, suffocate you or poison you. The poison might just be in your drink, or it might be a lot more elaborate and subtle - a combination of separate ingredients: liquid in your drink, powder in your meal and smoke from a specially prepared candle as you drift to sleep afterwards. However they do it, it's clear they've done it before. Instinct: to profit from murder

• Make a sneak attack
• Poison subtlely
• Escape cunningly

A Deepwood Banshee, despite its name, is not truly a spirit. It appears as a gaunt man or woman clothed in leaves, bark and vines. It lures wayward travelers with a dreadful cry, like a child or adult in pain or peril. When the victims are in sight, it unleashes a trap of roots and vines which ensnare and strangle. The creature's best defense is also its most damaging attack: a whirlwind of razorleaves that spins about its person. If bested it will make deals, and Deepwood Banshees are so ancient and uncivilized that they know the deeper mysteries of nature and the beast. They bear human-like children which begin to transform into the creature they are at puberty. This change is timed to match that of humans, though a Deepwood Banshee has a much longer lifespan, akin to dragons. A Deepwood Banshee's primary drive is to protect the deepest reaches of the forest from meddling mortals. Instinct: To guard the dark secrets of the forest from wayward travelers.

• Tangle intruders in roots and vines
• Lure intruders into a trap
• Control plant life to tangle and lash
• Shred with razorleaves

Found among goblin war bands, Goblin Stalkers hide among the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike the back of an unsuspecting combatant. If a war band has the option, they will always keep at least one Goblin Stalker among them. Many is the time a goblin was outmatched by a larger combatant who suddenly dropped to their knees, a Goblin Stalker's long knife wedged deeply in their back. A Goblin Stalker will only engage in melee if there is no other option, for the shadows and sneak attacks are their closest allies and they use them to great effect. The presence of one or more Goblin Stalkers in a band of goblins raises the band's morale. Instinct: Stab you in the back

• Hide in shadows
• Sneak around quietly
• Backstab unwitting or occupied victims

Children adore tales of gallant knights who served the greater good - their deeds, their triumphs and their chivalry. What children never hear about is the knight who failed miserably, was corrupted by evil forces and who turned his back on his cause, breaking his vows. Some of these knights became cursed to walk the earth after death, their own darkness and hatred pushing them onward. The Death Knight is such a one, the goodness stripped from it long ago. In the place of chivalry and honor are cunning and a long, deep hatred for anything alive. A Death Knight is rarely found with others of its kind, but will often be accompanied by a small unit of Skeletal Warriors who serve under it. While its Great Sword is terrible enough, the Death Knight also has the power to pull at the fabric of the soul from several paces away. Those who experience it seldom survive, but those who have describe it as "all the joy, hope and dignity being ripped from inside you." Instinct: to crush the living.

• Cleave victims in twain
• Rend the soul
• Terrify with a gaze

Once a fierce warrior on the field of battle, the Skeletal Warrior remembers its conquests in life and longs to experience them again. In undeath, the Skeletal Warrior often serves with others of its kind under a more powerful Lich or Death Knight. It acts as a knight in its own right, equally found on foot or mounted on an undead horse. Left to its own devices, the Skeletal Warrior will seek to conquer the towns and cities of the living, ruling over them with a form of cruelty only its depraved, lifeless mind can comprehend. Instinct: to seize by might.

• Cut down the living.
• Shock with its appearance
• Serve a Death Knight