Monster Mash: Q is for Questing Beast

Is there more comedy or tragedy in equal parts found on the mortal plane than in the ironic quest to find the "Questing Beast"?

A Tradition. The Glatisant or "Questing Beast" started as a tradition played upon young squires: their mentors would take them into the woods to hunt down a beast that has been troubling the local peasants without telling them anything about the creature. The older knight would treat this hunt with all seriousness. After night falls, the mentor would build up the size, speed and ferocity of the creature before describe the beast:

The creature has the spotted body of a leopard, the neck and head of a great serpent, the legs and hooves of a hart, and a long lion's tail. Its footfalls are silent and it can climb a tree as easily as a spider. You can hear the Glatisant call, the barking of thirty hounds hunting prey, right before it ambushes its prey!

Just as the knight finishes the story, the sound of barking hounds come from nearby, and the knight tells the squire to seek out the beast. Of course, there is no beast. The sound of the barking came from a hidden accomplice with several hounds or a dog call. The squire then spends the night, frightened of his own shadow, scrambling around the woods until morning. When they reveal the trick, the squire is embarrassed but gets to borrow the tradition and use it on the next apprentice.

It is all in good fun... until the gods get involved.

A Cosmic Joke Turned Real. Perhaps, a heroic god was displeased with a family of knights or a trickster god wanted to teach a do-gooder a lesson, but the Questing Beasts was made real.

The Glatisant is a large and solitary ambush predator that hunts small birds, lizards and fish. They spend most of their time lounging about in the branches of trees, running at break neck speed that defies their awkward body shape and barking in excitement when they see humanoids. Their call does sound like dozens of dogs yipping. Their natural instinct is to run from humanoids and they seem to enjoy the chase.

They are most vulnerable when they stop running to cool off with a drink.

The Quest. Many knights are tasked with hunting these creatures by the gods but they are difficult to catch. Some families hunt the same beast for generations, since these creatures live for hundreds of years, and the creature is a symbol found on many family crests. While some knights perhaps driven mad by the quest would slay the beast for a trophy but it is considered bad luck to harm one of these creatures. They are not known to attack humans. It is better to release them back into the wild so that future heroes can prove their mettle by catching the Questing Beast. And who knows, perhaps the Questing Beast will reward this act of mercy by coming to the aid of their favorite Questing hunter in their time of need.

Monster Mash: K is for Kinnar

The kinnar are depicted in the tapestries and mosaics of palaces. They are beautiful and enigmatic creatures, resembling fey humans with flowing hair from the waist up and exotic, colorful and long-legged flightless two-tailed birds from the waist down, and they are always a pair: the male kinnara and the female kinnari.

Created By Love.  Kinnar are often hunted by fey who either despise their beauty or goodness, desire their feathers for fashion, or wish to capture them to perform. They are usually difficult to catch, as they don't require food, water or even sleep, instead meditating in each other's embrace for brief stints under the night sky.

Kinnar are love-sick creatures obsessed with their mates from the moment they meet. They are literally created in the the Twilight Realm of Dawn from feelings of unrequited love. Due to the fey lords sending hunters after them, the kinnar often escape to the relative safety of the material plane where they are legendary.

The shy and cautious creatures generally avoid humans. They live in remote jungles and forests away from prying eyes. But they have a weakness that lures them from safety towards other creatures. Kinnar are attracted to burgeoning love.

Drawn to Love.  Kinnar can detect romantic thoughts from a long distance. When they detect these thoughts, they are attracted to the scene. If the love is strong enough, they are drawn to it like a magnet and cannot resist. They seek the young couple out and, if they appear to be alone, the kinnar will perform a ritualistic dance and sing for them. In many couples this is believed to be a powerful blessing and it is considered bad karma to ignore the endorsement of two lover's romance by the kinnar. After performing, they will usually return from whence they came.

Sometimes their desire to witness romance is used against the kinnar.

Exotic hunters who specialize in catching the most exotic creatures will attract the kinnar by throwing parties for the young or bringing a new couple close to the area where the kinnar have been sighted, so that they can set up a trap. They then capture the kinnar and sell them to wealthy nobility that would keep them for entertainment. They are valued as divine creatures by many cultures and their performances are said to have many magical qualities. Their dance is often their best defense as it usually charms creatures that see it for the first time long enough for the kinnar to escape but there will always be hunters who find ways to counteract the effect.

Til Death Do Us Part. Hurting the kinnar is considered extremely bad karma and killing a kinnar is a terrible act. If one kinnar of a pair is slain, the other kinnar will go mad. It will sing a song that has been known to kill and attack the responsible party, and all around it, until it literally collapses and dies of a broken heart.

Monster Mash: J is for Jerff

The jerff is a large spotted ermine beast found in the forested mountains of the Hold and the bordering territories. They are a paradox and the paradox hinges on the fullness of their stomach: when sated they are friendly and curious creatures but when hungry they become savage beasts that attack and eat more than they need.

"Feed the Jerff... The jerff are harmless when well-fed. They are omnivores and, as long as they can find plenty of insects, fruits, and small prey, are happy to make friends with other animals and humanoids. They are fluffy creatures that enjoy gamboling and playing with other creatures, surprisingly smart and quick-to-learn, and are a favorite animal of wood elves. Elves recommend that traveling parties befriend and feed a jerff. It will then follow you to the edge of its territory, which can span several miles, warding off threats, and even try to warn travelers off of dangerous paths with pitfalls. But the elves remind you to feed it well and often, especially if it is already drooling, as this is a sign the beast's territory has scant food, because if you don't, the jerff will turn on its friends in a mindless and ravenous rage.


... Or Be Eaten." The jerff is a creature with an extremely large appetite and an unfortunately large hypocampus that overrides their senses when they can't find enough food. When this happens, the jerff's kind eyes become dull and predatory, it drools and grumbles, and it sniffs at the air for any hint of food. They lose control and attack the nearest sources of food. They use their powerful claws and bites, knocking them aside with their whipping tails, and slay their prey so that they can gorge. When this hungry, the jerff will eat until it becomes sick with fullness.

Round As A Barrel. If food is placed before the jerff, hungry or full, it will eat it. It has no self-control. It will eat until it becomes sluggish, falls into a stupor, and collapses. When this happens, the jerff will usually first dig out a small burrow with its massive claws between two close trees to prevent itself from rolling down the mountainside in its sleep.

Monster Mash: H is for Haathraji

Ancient scripture dictates that the beastfolk of Narya are the chosen people of their gods and Heramba's people, the haathraji or "elephant kings", care for the most innocent denizens of the jungle with generous patience and, when needed, protect them with unstoppable force.

These gentle giants  each stand well over twenty feet tall and weigh in at almost four metric tons and have the appearance and gravitas of their elephant ancestors.Their trunks notably split into two, allowing for even better manipulation of this secondary limb, and their tusks are proportionally smaller. They wear ornate outfits of a monk with white, red and gold linens strung up with beads and baubles ranging from materials as common as wood to their ancestor's ivory to jade and gold. These items hold mostly sentimental value, representing relationships and milestones in their life's path, and they have a fondness for gifts of all costs from their friends and allies.

Forest Sages. Haathraji spend most of their time in nomadic familial troupes, often shepherding elephants as a discipline, and their daily routines are focused on meditation, exercise, music, martial arts, and, of course, finding food to sustain themselves. The elephantfolk usually avoid human civilization which, from experience, is driven by material desires, have little respect for nature, and pervert the spiritual truth. Still, they get along well with the humble and poor, especially those living rurally near or in the jungle. The haathraji have no quarrel when it comes to helping others out of trouble but avoid creating a dependence between themselves and humans.

If a human truly wishes to seek wisdom and enlightenment, haathraji are more likely to welcome them into their troupe and share their deep insights.


Warrior Priest of Heramba. While being peace-loving creatures, primarily concerned with enlightenment, when roused the Haathraji are legendary warrior monks that can stand toe to toe with almost any threat to or from the jungle. Despite their size, the haathraji can move as quietly and quickly as a dancer, and on the battlefield toss their enemies, if they don't flatten them, like blades of grass being blown about by the wind.

They especially despise fiendish and unnatural creatures and can be roused to a cause against them.

Monster Mash: G is for Gallu!

Those indebted to the fiends of the underworld can expect to be made to pay up but if a powerful enough villain feels crossed or desires an audience, they will send for the gallu. These al-shadim or "faceless ones" come from the shadowy dunes of Hades, resembling dark, featureless and long-limbed humanoids with an expressionless mask adorning their faces but, rarely, will you see these creatures before they make their move.

Shapeshifting and Planeshifting. The main reason that their prey do not see them before the pounce is because gallu are shapeshifters that can seamlessly take the form of any humanoid in the blink of an eye and use all of their abilities while disguised as an old beggar or priest or whatever stranger they take the form of. Their modus operandi, from there, is to stalk their mark, while disguised, and wait for them to be as isolated as possible. From there, the gallu may take some time to research their target and discover the beast means to capture them, but they are impatient; they are more likely to make their move before their victims realize they're being followed. The gallu grabs their target/s, pulling them into their body and transports itself, and its unwilling passengers, to the designated drop-off point agreed to by their masters.

Monster Mash: F is for Fachin!

Mimia is a land of misbegotten giants and, whether an unfinished creation of the gods or a mad wizard, the fachin is one of the stranger denizens of the wastes at the edge of the world. It has one leg, one arm sticking out of its torso and a big milky eye in the center of it's monstrous head. The appearance of this creature baffles most adventurers and give it the edge before it leaps eighty feet thru air before crushing their defenses with a powerful club and blasts from its blind-eye.

One-Eyed, One-Legged People Eater. The fachin are lonely creatures that hide in caves and canyons when not hunting for food and fighting rivals for their territory. They are not picky about their pray, but enjoy ripping other humanoids apart. When confronted with a threat beyond them, they use their blinding eye-beam to escape.

Monster Mash: E is for Eachy!

Eachy ambush their prey at the water's edge, almost invisible to the senses when motionless --thanks to the thousands of photosensitive cells beneath their translucent skin and the clear layer of mucus that coats their body from head to toe, masking their scent-- before they spew a glob of acid to blind their prey and rush them with sudden violence. The only clue to their presence are the webbed claw prints by the river and the absence of birds-- their favorite prey. These savage predators, more primitive than bullywugs and more vicious than troglodytes, are little more than chameleon crocodiles that can walk upright. They are greatly feared, hated and hunted by grippli.

More Primitive than Primitive. Eachy can live in colonies as large as their territory can sustain and are biologically immortal. They lay their eggs in hollows, either made by digging or re purposed from the ruins they are frequently found living near, and a hatched eachy grows to maturity within a few months. They do not die of old age and invulnerable to poison or disease. Instead, they grow larger and larger until they become a monstrous threat to all swamp dwellers. When an eachy reaches that size, their gluttony knows no end and everything, including other eachy, are on the menu.

This often keeps their population in check.

Living Fossils of a Lost Age. Eachy are believed to be a servant race created by the ancient warty empire of the amphibious bupho, perhaps a hybridization of lesser species or a guided mutation of lizardfolk, and they are often found lingering near the ruins of the bupho. They show little memory of their heritage, even if they were once more than mindless monsters, but they do seem to be attracted to these sites and cultists of amphibious gods, especially Kek, have a way with these creatures and guide them into guarding sacred sites and strongholds of their cults.

Monster Mash: D is for Dactyli!

Few creatures have the same sort of old wives tale feel to them as the "little people"; there are countless stories of diminutive fairy folk that live in the walls and under the floorboards, like mice, and come out at night to steal away food and trinkets. It's a whimsical excuse for the disappearance of valuable odds and ends from socks to jewelry to the last piece of cake that are, more than likely, the result of bad memory or filching servants or midnight cravings.

But, in a fantastic setting, all fables and myths have a little truth in them. And the little people are real.

They are called the dactyli or "finger-folk" and they are split between three tribes: brownies, duende and fenodyree.

Brownies, duende, & fenodyree.

Brownies are considered to be the "domestic dactyli" subspecies. They are also called "house elves" because they like to live in the homes of humanoids.

Brownies make their homes, carefully, hidden away under the floors or in the walls and, much like the fairy tales, and only come out at night to steal away small things to feed themselves or improve their homes. While this might seem to be the tendency of a pest, brownies are considered good luck by the wise because they keep out vermin like rats and spiders. Furthermore, the stories of brownies fixing shoes and leaving coins on bedside tables are not inaccurate. They usually prefer to stay to themselves and to be allowed to go about their little lives. A brownie doesn't want to cause too much trouble for their housemates.

Each brownie is about four to six inches tall and resemble humans, though they often have exaggerated features, and wear elaborate clothing stitched together from bits of this and that stolen from the household above. Their clothing often says a lot about them. They are craft creatures and are capable of making small machines and gadgets that help them get around the home unnoticed.

If they have a choice, though, brownies prefer the homes of gnomes and elves, who are less superstitious than humans, and have been known to befriend them. In some elf and gnome communities, they even help build little homes for the brownies and cooperate with them. In exchange, brownies keep an eye and ear out for trouble.

When threatened by the residents of a home, they will turn to the wild for safety and have a way with small animals.

Duende are pests.

While brownies try to go unnoticed, duende like to irritate or frighten larger humanoids or "biggins" as they like to mockingly call them. They make messes, break and steal valuables, make noises, invite in vermin (who they also enjoy preying upon), and generally stressing their housemates out. To be frank, duende give their kin a bad reputation.

These foul sprites are the smallest dactyli, standing around three to four inches tall, with exaggerated fey features and bitter little eyes. They prefer to dusty attics and dank basements, riding spiders and rats to get around faster, and steal more precious materials and jewellery to make their ornate outfits.

They particularly dislike their kin and go out of their way to run any brownies or fenodyree out of their territory.

Fenodyree are even more reclusive than their smaller kin.

Fenodyree can stand about eight to ten inches tall and are distinctly different than their domestic kin with long faces, furry bodies and tails. They do not like wearing pants, perhaps as a result of their fur and tails, but do wear smocks and robes. Despite their more exotic and animalistic features, fenodyree are the least likely to bother humanoids or animals for that matter.They live in burrows and caverns under the ground, only leaving their homes out of curiosity or to steal vegetables and fruit from local farms and orchards.

While seen as less industrious, fenodyree are known, strangely enough, for being the most artistic of the dactyli. They have a rich story-telling tradition, through art and music, that makes them the loremasters for their species. They even like to tell stories about the above-world but often miss out on details or misinterpret events.

All dactyli like sweets and are capable of small feats of magic.

Monster Mash: C is for C'Horthid

There are many strange and horrible creatures lurking in the buried tombs of the Ptah-Hamutian god-kings but, perhaps, none are worse than the transformed priests of Khepis the Scarab God. Like many mortals, they feared death and sought a sort of immortality through the Swarm. These foolish priests were misled by their superiors into surrendering to a forbidden ceremony that granted them immortality but stole from them their humanity, identity, sanity and freedom to serve the dead as guardians and to be used as living weapons by the priesthood. The priests called them C'Horthids (Kohr-theedz], which translates to "Butchers of Souls".

Immortal Horrors.  C'Horthids creep in the darkened chambers of pharoahs, untouched by time or the sun for centuries, and lie in wait for tomb robbers that ignore the warnings painted in heiroplyphics on the walls.

Each C'Horthid is clad in armored plates of black chitine with writhing form of over three meters in length, with a multitude of wretched scythe-like legs running along a segmented thorax that attached to an upright abdomen armed with a pair of toothed scythes for forelimbs. Most horrifying is that rather than an insectoid head it has a large grey humanoid head with cruel red eyes, a mouth full of razors and pincers. They make inhuman coughing noises, like the wheezing croak of a thousand locusts, as they choke on death itself. For it is the breath of the C'Horthid that is the true danger: the black gas it emits from its maw paralyzes its prey. It is then that the C'Horthid's horrifying intent is revealed as it will attempt to devour the soul of an incapacitated humanoids.

The only way to release the souls so they can join the afterlife, once devoured by a C'Horthid, is to destroy the beast.

Mindless Servants of the Scarab. The long term purpose of these creatures is unknown and alien as the mind of their god Khepis but it is believed that they will be rewarded by the swarm lord when he returns to pick the desert clean of all life. Until then, they remain trapped forever in their bodies, which act as a prison for the souls as their prey.

It is believed that some priests of Khepis, as well as other evil beings capable of controlling these insane horrors, are able to use these creatures as personal protectors and have a way to extract the souls to be used as a part of dark rituals involved with the scarab god. Only the most wicked of souls would create or use these monstrosities.

Terrible Weapons. And the have been used for more than guarding dungeons: some priests managed to cultivate and grow C'Horthids of monstrous size for use in warfare. These C'Horthid "invaders" were used as siege weapons, unleashed upon the enemies of the Scarab cult, and a few of them could destroy and consume thousands of souls. These legendary horrors and the rituals to create them have thankfully been lost to the sands of time but there are stories from raving madmen of caverns beneath ruined cities holding these horrors in wait for some darker purpose.

Fun Fact: This week's monster's name was inspired by the ancient Roman word for high heels "Kothorni", which were worn by butchers in places like Ancient Egypt to keep their feet from touching the bloody floor of the abattoir.

Monster Mash: B is for Beastmen~ Part 2 Elite Beastmen

FOR PART 1

ELITE BEASTMEN

The common beastmen are well known to all but the most sheltered of peasants but the elite beastmen are monsters that are a threat to all but seasoned knights, mercenaries and soldiers. From the dangerously powerful bovine/caprine butchers to the mobile equine tramplers to the cunning gnolls and werebeasts that make the Hold a place of untold horrors. A horde composed of common beastmen is a threat but can easily be handled by experienced military. An army composed of the following beastmen are a threat that can wipe countries off the map.

BUTCHERS

Brutality incarnate.

Butchers are the result of a beast hag getting a concentrated diet of quality chevon, mutton or beef and are the meanest brutes of the beastmen. They stand twice as tall as a man, bulging with leathery muscle, and are topped with a bovine or caprine head with cruel eyes and a maw full of sharp teeth made for tearing flesh and crushing bone. Butchers take particular pleasure in seeing the disgust and fear of their foes, reveling for the opportunity to walk into a group of enemies, and making an example of the first opponent: ripping their limbs off, taking bites of their flesh, and crushing them beneath their hooves are all techniques that butchers revel in to soak up the terror of their enemies.

Among other beastmen, their physical strength and sadism often makes other beastmen cower in deference.

 

TRAMPLERS

Tramplers are the cavaliers of the beastmen horde, a cruel mockery of centaurs, with the lower half and head of a horse joined with a human-like torso between. Their mobility makes them excellent scouts and messengers for beastmen groups. In combat they prefer hit and run tactics with bows and pole-arms that take advantage of their speed. They are proud creatures that enjoy showing off their skill on the battlefield.

GNOLLS

A mix of canine and human flesh in a beast hag's diet creates the more cunning and devastating foot soldiers in any army of beastmen. Gnolls resemble humanoids with twisted features of a hyena, dog, jack or wolf with digitigrade back legs and hunched spines. They often have enlarged fangs and some even grown horns. These cackling and barking madmen take more pleasure in the subtle nuances of cruelty, playing with their food, before tearing it to shreds. The nightmares of many soldiers are filled with the laughter of gnolls.

Besides being foot soldiers that are a match for professional soldiers, gnolls are excellent hunters, using their social skills, cooperation and wits to overcome their prey. They are also known to use beasts, particularly wolves, hyenas, and monstrous canines to help them in their hunts and to put fear into the hearts of all innocent men.

Other Abominations

There are as many different and unique subspecies of beastmen as there are animals for beast hags to eat and infused with the fiendish magic of their lord Kalibos. The most feared subspecies are the werebeast:

The werebeast is similar to a werewolf in that they can shift between the form of a gnoll and a human but have a more unique ability: they can transform into any person they've eaten. This means that a clever werebeast can kill a member of a community and infiltrate it. Famously, a large group of werebeasts managed to infiltrate a monster hunting church, taking on the form of pilgrims, before turning on the priesthood and exterminating them.

The most insidious ability of the werebeast is to reproduce via their attacks. If they bite and infect someone with their blood, the person will transform into a werebeast. Most people who suffer this fate go mad from the pain of transformation under the next moon, becoming feral and attacking people, before eventually being drawn to the nearest group of beastmen and joining their ranks.

This is an example of the less natural and horrifying potential of beastmen.

What did you guys think? Any ideas for horrifying beastmen? Do you like my approach to monster creation?

Monster Mash: B is for Beastmen~ Part 1 Beast Hags & Common Beastmen

Orcs and goblins have no home in Sublanarya. Instead, they are host to a uniquely disturbing and dangerous horde of their own humanoid savages; the beastmen.

Less than a millenia ago, Kalibos the Bastard Prince, the god of butchers and cannibals, was reborn in eastern Thule to a barbarian witch. The powerful and hateful brutality of Kalibos's tribe quickly saw The Hold's southern tribes fall to his savagery or join his quickly growing cult. The diabolical and monstrous god infused his servants with blood and transformed them into monstrous shapeshifters able to switch between their human and lycanthropic form. But even a large army of primitive shapeshifters wasn't enough for Kalibos and he intended to tear civilization down and drown it in a sea of blood.

Kalibos's "great innovation" came in the creation of a dark ritual that allowed him to impregnate his priestess with his own demon seed and transform them into the progenitors of a menace that would last long after his second defeat. These priestesses transformed into bloated brood mothers capable of bearing the monstrous spawn of a demonic god. After the ritual, they are able to produce the Cannibal King's offspring indefinitely without repeated ritual. However, they do require copious amounts of blood and flesh to create their spawn. Luckily, barbarian cultists of Kalibos and the beast hag's own children are more than happy to oblige.

While they are hardly picky, cursed with a ceaseless hunger that would see them eat their own children if made to wait to long, the content of their diet is important. In fact, the contents of a beast hag's diet contribute to the exact variety of beastmen formed: a beasthag who is fed rodents, rabbits, and other small woodland creatures produces hobbs, if she eats porcine flesh she produces mobbs, cougars and leopard meet makes prowlers, excess primate and human meat allows them to create orgs, tons of beef and mutton create butchers, horsemeat makes for tramplers, and gnolls are created from dog and hyena meat. This means that raiding for food to feed the beasthag is central to beastmen "society" as the contents of the beasthag's food directly contributes to the creation of specific beastmen subspecies-- the "better" the diet, the better the beastmen a tribe can produce.

Due to their bulk, beasthags are vulnerable in the open and spend most of their time in beastmen lairs to protect them while they spawn more warriors and hunters for the tribe. That doesn't mean they are unable to defend themselves and are not threats on their own: beasthags are capable of wielding devastating magical effects to keep their spawn in line and defend themselves from would be beasthag slayers.

BEASTHAGS

Now, let's look at the beastmen that beasthags spawn in greater detail:

COMMON BEASTMEN

HOBS

Hobs are the common rabble of the beastmen horde and make up the bulk of any group.

Opportunistic, easily-distracted, cowardly, stupid, and nasty are all words that perfectly described this wicked ankle-biters. As they are the result of a diet of rabbits, rats, moles, voles, and other mammalian vermin, they have similar but exaggerated features in the face with uneven ears, bulbous eyes, flat noses and a mouth full of sharp teeth. Hobs are usually about 1-3 feet tall with yellow to reddish leathery skin stretched over the boney bodies that are a mockery of the humanoid form. A trademark and unusual feature of the hob is the small horns or antlers they often have growing out of their temples. Some hobs headbutt each other in silly little games that often devolve into bloody fights between the creatures.

Hunched like apes with short legs and long arms, hobs rely on numbers or ambush to get their better of their prey, as they have neither the size nor the strength nor the intelligence to do much better. They are so common that many farmer's almanacs consider them pests and include handy descriptions on how to deal with hobs poking about your property. Still, like any beastmen, they are dangerous and a large enough group of hobs can go from barn thieves to raiding the villages if not dealt with quickly enough.

In a tribe of beastmen, they are the lowest of the low; hobbs quickly fall in-line under the scrutiny of bigger, meaner beastmen.

MOBS

Mobs have been described as a parody of orcs by loremasters and they're not wrong to categorize them as such. Usually in hues ranging between blue to green to yellow with porcine feature, such as snouts and tusks, mobs are the second most common breed of beastmen and make up the bulk of any tribe's warriors. They are not much smarter than hobs but are clever enough to prioritize, make tools, weapons and armor, and come up with strategies to overcome more than farmers with pitchforks. The biggest thing they have over mobs is size: they are between 4 and 7 feet tall with powerful builds but are prone to fattening themselves up on the spoils of war. They enjoy bullying lesser creatures, especially hobs, and are known to force the hobs to play cruel games for their amusement.

An organized group of mobs can make for a fierce army of brutes.

PROWLERS

Not even predatory animals are safe from the insatiable appetite of the beast hag. When a beast hag has been fed a diet infused with meat from predatory animals, such as mountain lions or wolves, she births prowlers.

Covered in shaggy fur, with powerful limbs and a terrifying fang filled mouth, they are remarkably stealthy for their intimidating builds. They use their natural predatory instincts, enhanced senses and survivalist aptitude to stalk the area surrounding a brood's cave or a beastmen camp for intruders or prey. They are gifted with surprising cunning when it comes to tracking prey and the elite of their kind are infamous for taking pleasure in picking off straggles of traveling party over a several day period before making a more direct move.

Still, they are known to be the most cowardly and lazy of their kind, and are the first to run when things don't go their way.

ORGS

Brute strength incarnate, orgs are the most valuable and difficult members of the common beastmen rabble. Not only does a beast hag require a steady diet of man flesh to birth these huge monsters, they are dull-witted and their power/size makes them difficult to control. Furthermore, their own monstrous appetites can often rival that of the beast hag and, in a pinch, they will kill and eat their own brethren.

Still, you will find at least one org in any band of beastmen. They are used for tasks that require immense strength, like lifting and moving trees or boulders, and in battle they crush all but the swiftest and most experienced warriors with their superior reach and their enormous great clubs. Furthermore, as they develop, their hides becomes so tough that they can shrug off blows from most practical weaponry. While other beastmen are feared for their ability to overrun small villages, a full grown org is enough to terrorize a county on his own.

Next time we will look at the more elite and uncommon breeds of beast men.