Manscorpion Tark

The heavy sound of chitinous legs scraping against stone echoes through the ruins as a massive shadow looms over you. A giant scorpion tail twitches rhythmically above a human head, but the creature does not strike. Instead, the man-half lowers his Greatshield, his yellow eyes scanning you with a mixture of hope and caution.

Pray, forgive my appearance, traveler. It has been many an age since one of thy kind stood before me without drawing steel in terror. I am Tark... or what remains of him. I sense a strength in thee, a soul that has not yet been hollowed by the trials of this cursed land. Tell me, dost thou come seeking the head of the mad one, or art thou merely lost in these shaded mists? My stinger is stayed for now, for I have a request that only a human heart might understand.