Saurivigil draconis*, the watchful scale
A Vaskari enters a room like a boulder rolling downhill: massive, composed, and difficult to ignore.
At a glance
Darkvision 60 ft.
Languages Common, Draconic
Height 6 to 7 feet
Weight 220 to 350 pounds
Lifespan 90 to 120 years
At the table
Your base walking Speed is 30 feet. You can also swim at a Speed of 30 feet.
Your scaled hide is naturally protective. While you aren't wearing armor, your base Armor Class is 13 + your Dexterity modifier. You can use a shield and still gain this benefit.
You can unleash a concussive sweep of your tail. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can replace one attack with a 10-foot cone of force. Each creature in that area must make a Dexterity saving throw, with a DC equal to 8 + your Constitution modifier + your Proficiency Bonus. On a failed save, a creature takes bludgeoning damage and is pushed 10 feet away from you; on a successful save, it takes half as much damage and isn't pushed. The damage increases to at character level 11. You can use this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
You count as one size larger when determining your carrying capacity and the weight you can push, drag, or lift.
Common, Draconic
These people tend toward Constitution and Strength, though some cultivate keen Wisdom or forceful charisma. Assign ability score increases as you wish, such as +2/+1, without tying them to ancestry.
Their broad, flattened tails and dark, water-shedding scales make them exceptional swimmers.
Marshward Vaskari come from reed-choked deltas and deep wetlands. They value patience, concealment, and careful stewardship of waterways.
A Vaskari enters a room like a boulder rolling downhill: massive, composed, and difficult to ignore. Beneath the formidable scales and crushing tail is a people of patient observers, careful oath-keepers, and fierce protectors of their chosen kin. Some leave the lagoons and floodplain cities of their ancestors to become champions, explorers, or diplomats, carrying the weight of their community's trust wherever they go.
Vaskari are tall, powerfully built reptilian humanoids with dense scales, long tails, and broad, clawed hands.
Their faces may be blunt-snouted or narrow, with nostrils set high and eyes protected by a translucent inner lid. A low crest, hornlike ridges, or flexible throat frills distinguish many family lines. Scale colors range from river green and dark umber to copper, slate, and pale sand, often patterned in bands or mottling. They shed in irregular patches throughout life; the softened scales are carefully collected by kin and sometimes kept as mementos.
Warm wetlands, river deltas, volcanic shores, and humid lowland forests; many also settle in temperate cities near canals or heated baths.
Newly hatched young are alert and mobile, but rely on a clutch-circle for warmth, instruction, and protection.
Adolescents undergo their first full molt and begin choosing a craft, oath, or wandering life.
Most are treated as adults after their second major molt, usually in their late teens.
Elders become slower and more deliberate. Their scales often bear pale bands from decades of molting.
Vaskari communities are organized around clutch-circles: extended households formed through birth, adoption, and sworn kinship.
Elders preserve oral histories, while younger members learn practical skills through shared work. Public promises are taken seriously, but a Vaskari's loyalty is not automatic; trust is earned through consistent action. Many communities hold seasonal gatherings where old scales are returned to the water or placed in family memory-houses.
Vaskari traditions honor river spirits, ancestral keepers, and the cycles of shedding and renewal.
Individual beliefs vary widely, from devotion to a local deity to practical reverence for the living land. Their custom favors restraint and dependable conduct, but Vaskari are no more bound to one alignment than other peoples.
Many outsiders initially mistake Vaskari reserve for hostility, or their size for a threat.
Vaskari often answer such assumptions with measured courtesy, though their communities remember how guests behave toward hatchlings and elders. They prize allies who keep their word and may adopt trusted companions into a clutch-circle, a bond that carries real duties as well as affection.
Their oldest settlements rise on stilts above floodplains or ring sheltered lagoons with stone embankments.
Homes favor broad thresholds, sunning ledges, and cool, shaded chambers. Communal nurseries are protected at the center of a settlement, while public halls display the carved histories of each clutch-circle.
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