Yellow Living Mold «Cyn I'xon»

Description (Initial Observations): The sarbis looks strikingly like a 2-meter-tall bipedal aardvark. Its body is covered with coarse yellow to gray fur, and its face is dominated by a long snout. The hands, while manipulative, end in powerful claws good for digging and fighting. Sarbises can be found in almost any terrain except the coldest. Their settlements or camps invariably signal the presence of minerals, for the sarbis are passionate miners. The camps are a mixture of above and underground constructions. Sarbises are paranoid that others (especially other sarbis) might try to 'claim-jump' their diggings, so most camps are well defended with stockades and guard towers. Attack is made doubly difficult since the ground outside the camp is broken by jagged heaps of tailings. Sarbises rely on trade for food, clothing, and other interesting goods. In exchange, they sell refined minerals ingots of pig iron, copper, lead, tin, nickel; bags of sulphur, salt, and coal; whatever is useful from the earth. Because few others have the talent to dig and smelt these needed metals, sarbises are often left unmolested, even in the most hostile territories. Each camp is ruled by a strong man, a single leader who achieved his position through bullying and threat. All trading in the camp is controlled by the strong man or his minions. Sarbises will often buy artifacts useful to mining, sometimes offering other artifacts or to make useful implements in exchange.