From publisher blurb:
The gods created Sphinxes to guard their sacred places, treasures, and knowledge. Varied in form and function, they serve as a reminder of the power of deities over the world. In remote swamps and badlands dwell a failed creation of some forgotten pantheon of gods - where most Sphinxes are noble and powerful creatures with a sacred mission, these craven creatures serve only themselves and rarely guard anything of consequence. Scholars call them Fool’s Sphinxes, but they call themselves the Parosphinx.
A grossly oversized human face, lolling tongue, and bedraggled fur cover the creatures, who have the legs of a hoofed beast like a goat and a flowing tail and mane like a horse. Comically undersized bat wings hang limply from their shoulders, allowing limited flight despite their seeming uselessness.
The Parosphinx’s most dangerous trait is their seeming unawareness of their own absurdity. Believing themselves chosen by the gods for glorious purpose, they impose themselves upon everything around them, using a magically augmented facility for speech to back up their requests for petty luxuries at the expense of others: Fresh-baked breads, pastries, fruit juices, alcohols, plush pillows, tapestries, and finely crafted furnishings.
In spite of their piteousness, Parosphinxes are actually powerful diviners capable of contacting the primal forces of the universe: Their connection to the divine is real. Someone who fulfills one of their absurd requests can force the creature to use its divinatory powers on their behalf, receiving an answer direct from the cosmos. A Parosphinx often sets itself up as a petty oracle to backwater and unsophisticated peoples - remote humans, goblins, hill giants, and ogres often form cults surrounding a Parosphinx.
Lizardfolk often live in the same swampy regions as Parosphinxes and so know them well for what they are. Lizardfolk kill the creatures on sight, never allowing them to speak. A Parosphinx will often use its Piteous Complaint ability to conscript adventurers as diplomats to make peace with locals they’ve previously wronged, like Lizardfolk.