The Altar Skulkers are a slave tribe that has lived in the caves surrounding the Dragon’s Altar for decades, if not centuries. They use the area’s reputation to their advantage; since most right-minded people fear visiting a place so tainted by the Dragon, there are few visitors that the Altar Skulkers need to hide from or kill to preserve their secret. In essence, the superstition about the Dragon’s Altar, no matter how valid, serves as the tribe’s greatest defense against discovery.
Despite the rarity with which the Dragon’s Altar gets visitors, the Altar Skulkers have developed a relatively sophisticated system for warning against the approach of visitors. Lookouts wearing animal skins stained with red clay lurk in the peaks surrounding the rim of the caldera. They relay warnings to one another with a series of hand gestures. These scouts have learned to remain so still while on watch duty that (with the help of their cloaks) they appear to be stones rather than men. When templars or other visitors approach, the tribe moves deeper into the supposedly haunted caves and waits out the visit. If the intruders are few in number, the Altar Skulkers may decide to ambush and slay them, then claim the travelers’ belongings for their own. In the rare event that the Dragon comes to the Altar, the Skulkers have plenty of warning. They can retreat through their caves to a place so deep underground that the Dragon’s defiling does not touch them.
The escaped slaves of the Altar Skulkers tribe live in caves surrounding the Dragon’s Altar. The first Altar Skulkers were slaves who chose to risk their lives in the dark caves lining the path to the Dragon’s Altar rather than face the Dragon itself. The caves led them to a network of lava tubes where they could live without fear of discovery. The Altar Skulkers are a paranoid tribe who want their secret protected at all costs. On occasion, they rescue a few sacrificial victims by drawing them off the path to the Altar. When necessary, the Altar Skulkers send representatives to meet with dune traders at neutral locations and bring back supplies for the entire tribe. They use the spoils of attacks against visitors to the Dragon’s Altar to pay for their goods but live a meager existence nonetheless.
Members of the Altar Skulker tribe rarely join forces with other humanoids outside of their tribe. They do, however, keep domesticated animals in the caves, particularly those that can adapt well to life in their mountainous home. Many baazrags are kept as pets and are trained as scouts to sense danger. Similarly, a few of the Altar Skulker’s best high-altitude scouts (those that stand watch for the approach of the Dragon) have tamed kestrekels that they use to hunt for food while on watch