A legend from up by the Scottish borders.
Shellycoat
by Cab Davidson
| Stat | Shellycoat |
| AC: | 2 |
| HD: | 1* |
| Movment Swimming: | 120' (40') |
| Movement Walking: | 60’ (20’) |
| Attacks: | 1 weapon |
| Damage: | By Weapon |
| No. Appearing: | 2d6 (8d6) |
| Save As: | F1 |
| Morale: | 7 (9) |
| Treasure Type: | E (R) |
| Intelligence: | 7 |
| Alignment: | Chaotic |
| XP Value: | 13 |
Shellycoats are thought to have originally been goblins, who for reasons unknown took to inhabiting temperate lakes, rivers and estuaries. But some scholars dispute this classification, and argue that the shellycoats are an entirely different lineage derived from an aquatic species. Whichever is true, the shellycoat is a medium sized (around 5’ tall) humanoid with greyish skin, that cultivates shellfish (freshwater mussels, oysters and any other essentially immobile bivalve) on the surface of their skin to form a natural, growing armour. On land, shellycoats are noisy and slow, being more at home in the water (in which they can breathe as easily as on land).
They are tribal, with each tribe having a chieftain who has 3+1HD. The chieftan has 2d4 bodyguards of 2HD. If the chieftain is alive and fighting with the tribe, shellycoats have a morale of 9, otherwise they have a morale of 7. They make their lairs in the muddiest of water and in ocean caves. They lack infravision, but in water can see even through cloudy water by echolocation to a range of 90’.
Shellycoats fight with weapons, preferring weapons that work under water as well as on land such as spears and tridents. They occasionally raid coastal villages or sites on rivers, but conflict more with shellycoats more commonly occurs when they sneak aboard ships on rivers and in estuaries to take whatever they can carry.