The Grenkh

A band of semi-feral crocodilian lizard-people who live in the flooded under-prison beneath the Grey Vale Cave. Stocky, spiny-backed, low to the ground like dinosaurs with stubby legs and lashing tails, they have three-clawed "hands" (which they do not consider hands), thick scaled hide for armor, and carry tridents as a mark of being an "evolved" people. They speak Aquan (partly intelligible to Lash's axolotlan), have no concept of names, and knew nothing of the floor above or the surface world until Lash swam down to them. They nest in a "wet room" of the old prison, tending egg-pools of tadpole-like young (the spines are a mark of youth — the more an adult eats, the fewer it needs).

They never set out to be jailers. After the Hand Lady (the Queen Grabbler) escaped one of the cells, their elder Grank decreed "don't let the others out," and so they took up guarding the six remaining prisoners by turns. The deeper jail door and bottom door can only be opened by Grank.

Named members

• Friend — the Grenkh whom Lash befriends and names (the species has no names of its own). Curious and brave enough to follow her up to the surface to see the Queen, but too frightened to approach her closely; reports back to Grank, who is displeased.
• Grank (also The Grenkh / Gregg) — the biggest and oldest, their ruler and "the one that eats." So old he has no spines left, with deep amber eyes and a mouth of mismatched razor teeth. Jabba-like and too big to leave his room, but fed and content; eats the slowest or smallest of his own kind. The only one who can open the locked doors.
• Half-gore (Halfgore / Hargor / Harfgor) — the Jailer of the Deep, hatched from the same spawning-pod as Grank, kept smaller and weaker by Grank's bites. He guards the jail proper; the party is sent to tell him the lost prisoner is found.

(Species and individual names all garbled — "Grenkh"/"The Grenkh"/"Grank"/"Gregg"; "Half-gore"/"Hargor"; "Friend" is Lash's coinage. See Canon Questions.)

Session 26

• Discovered by Lash, who swims into their sealed egg-room; they didn't know there was a surface, or that the Hand Lady had grown so large outside her cell.
• Recount the prison's history — "6 people in 6 rooms," the Hand Lady's escape, and their self-appointed guardianship.
• Friend visits the surface and the party, then returns to report; Grank is met in person and grants the party passage to the jail to inform Half-gore that the lost prisoner is too big to put back.

Session 27

• Half-gore appears in person, admitting the party to the jail and confiding that the spiked barricade before the cells is purely for comfort — "Lizard feel strong when hold spear. Lizard don't need to know that spear don't work." The real prison is the glowing magic cell-doors, whose workings the Grenkh don't understand.
• A little woodling sprout stands "guard duty" at the jail mouth, waving the party in though it cannot see.
• History deepens: their ancestor Morgor — eight greats back from Grank — first asked the lich-smith Malifax to forge the cells and locks and to lend the prisoner-moving (sleep) tool. The Grenkh themselves came to the prison "with the technology of the Old Ones," moving the prisoners as captives.
• They do not know how to open or close the cell-magic; only Grank's brandished device can subdue a prisoner for transport.

Session 28

• A minor presence: the lizards have already opened the portcullis for the party (normally a two-hour job), and Grank is greeted in passing as Malifax leads the group through.
• The "device" the Grenkh used to move prisoners is confirmed to be Malifax's Prisoner-Moving Staff (kept in his cupboard); the party borrows it.
• Their egg-nests need cleaning; Malifax sends his freed digging golem to deal with them.

Session 30

• Recruited for the Queen fight. Lash visits Grank's table (he's fed snacks on fishing-rod hooks so no one strays close enough to be eaten) and persuades him to commit a "good number of lizards" to recapturing the escaped Queen. Grank agrees that recapture beats killing — "inmate die on lizard watch, lizards feel shame."
• Grank fights only as a last resort. It takes great effort to rouse the huge elder; he keeps a wall-mounted war spear but reckons "if the little lizards fail, then I'll get up" — and he won't mourn the little lizards if they die, which is poor comfort for the party fighting beside them.
• The Grenkh run three shifts (morning, midday, night), so some always stay to guard the prison; only a portion will join the assault.

Session 31

• The jailers fought. A warband of lizards marched into the Queen fight under Harfgore (the Jailer of the Deep), cleared their drones by round 10, and — true to his word — Grank stayed home, "too big and too important." A baby woodling Sprout in war paint marched in their ranks.
• One of their own, found. The malnourished sprout trapped in Caressa's lair turned out to be a full-blown Grenkh Jailer of the Deep — a woodling raised into the deep-jail. By size-based Grenkh logic, Harfgore assumed the biggest woodling must be the village leader.
• With Caressa caged in their prison, the Grenkh's century of guarding the escaped seventh prisoner is, at last, resolved.