Grivnik Sharpshot

The Grivnik Sharpshot is a specialized stalker bred by scavenger clans that prize stealth and ranged skill over brute force. Clans such as the Skitterfen Pact keep packs of these hunters to harry caravans, ambush lone scouts, and contest rivals for hunting grounds. Their techniques — including crude spike-sights and decoy perched arrows — are taught by veteran marksmen called linehainers, who pass tactics in whispered songs. Scholars of frontier warfare, like Master-Archivist Jebun of the Borderward Institute, record the Grivnik as less organized than war-bands but more dangerous in broken terrain. Encounters are common near ruined watchtowers, fen-woods, and narrow passes where the Sharpshots can use cover and elevation. Local militias in places such as the hamlet of Correnford maintain simple counters: hobble lines of flipped shields, roving point scouts with lanterns, and traps that deny the Sharpshots comfortable perches.

About 3 to 3.5 feet tall and lean as a stray dog, the Grivnik Sharpshot wears mismatched leather patched from tanned hides and scavenged straps. Its face is angular with a hooked nose and a thin mouth; yellowed teeth peek when it snarls. Tubular leather cheek-pouches hold spare arrowheads; a crude quiver sits slung low across its back so it can draw while crouched. Hands are callused with short, blackened nails; its feet are bare, toes splayed for grip. The bow it carries is short and recurved, fashioned from a sapling and bound with wire, with fletchings of different bird feathers. Scars ring its forearms, and a half-healed notch across one cheek is often painted with a streak of berry dye as a clan mark.