Page 116 - Ultimate-Bestiary-Revenge-of-the-Horde-5E

Culture Environment

Gut size is the measure of worth amongst ogres, so adolescents To call ogres nomadic is to give them too much credit; ogres
who have yet to grow a gut worthy of respect exist at the bottom simply wander aimlessly, cutting a meandering swathe of
of the pecking order. Beyond this, their culture is one of barely destruction through anything that gets in their way. Where they
structured anarchy and chaos. Each ogre strives to be the biggest choose to settle for the night quickly becomes a squalid mudhole
by devouring as much as possible, and the bigger an ogre gets, (‘mud’ is putting it charitably) churned up by their near-constant
the better it is at getting, holding on to, and denying others food. in ghting.
Ogres will o en wander into others of their kind forming a loose Ogres may also be encountered in caves (o en feasting on the
mob of individuals with the shared goal of nding and eating cave’s previous inhabitants), but seldom wander too deep, for the
food; depending on the opportunities this creates, some may stick deeper caves o en have the whi of troll about them. Nonetheless,
around, some will wander on again.
some do lose their way, or trail food deeper underground and
If a mob is proven to be successful, the adult ogres are more likely become trapped. ese ogres are o en found blinded and shackled
to stay together, albeit fractiously, for increased opportunities for in the retinue of a goblin king.
mating and foraging. Should an ogre become badly injured in Should a mob happen upon the scent of civilization, carnage is
one of their many scraps, it will typically have the sense of mind sure to follow. Ogres prize villages and hamlets as a supply of
to leave the group, for even a lone, wounded ogre is more than food that will last the mob weeks. Some ogres will rush in with
capable of dealing with most threats the world can throw at it wild abandon, killing all they can lay their hands on and stowing
(though they have a healthy fear of trolls, whose natural weaponry the bodies for later consumption. Others, gi ed with unusual
rivals their own, and bugbears, who specialize in bringing down forethought, may use tree trunks or rubble to construct makeshi
big game as a team). However, travelers should not assume that a corrals, penning in surviving villagers for an easy supply of
lone ogre is necessarily nursing a wound – an ogre may have many fresh meat.
reasons to nd itself alone, including if it was by far the strongest
of the mob and has slaughtered its erstwhile companions. e trails an ogre mob has taken can be identi ed by the lack of
Although chilling reports exist of those taken alive by ogres, it is any creatures not small enough to escape notice, with perhaps a
few blood splashes remaining of larger quarry. e exception being
unclear whether ogres truly relish the torture they in ict on their the populations of frighteningly large boars, known as scrofa,
victims, or whether these horrors are the result of unthinking and which trail the mob, feeding o their leavings. e scrofa are wily
uncaring gluttony. Regardless, tales of captives being ripped quite enough to evade the ogres’ notice much of the time, and tough
literally limb from limb, or body parts fought over and devoured in enough to compete with adolescents for scraps and stand a chance
front of their still-living owners are enough to give anyone pause. at escaping should an adult take interest. is, and the lingering
Travelers’ tales (commonly from ‘ e Far North’, or ‘Across e smell, is usually enough to warn experienced travelers to choose
Sea’, or somewhere similarly vague and di cult to corroborate) tell another route.
of settlements, even empires of ogres. ese ogres, it is claimed,
spoke and traded with other folk and built cavernous stone temples
to ever-hungry gods. at intelligent ogres existed is possible, but
most scholars agree that such creatures vanished long ago. ese
persistent myths may be nothing more than an attempt to explain
the mysterious ruins that dot the land, remnants of vast structures
the mysterious ruins that dot the land, remnants of vast structures
seemingly constructed for a race far larger than
seemingly constructed for a race far larger than
our own.
our own.

115
115
Chapter 6: OgresChapter 6: Ogres