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Tell Me About Ogre Island


dumuzid

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There is a Bad Place in Old Pavis.  The scourings of trolls and Praxian beast riders have not cleansed it.  It casts an ugly shadow across the back of Argrath White Bull's  regime in New Pavis.

Technically there's at least two Bad Places, but the one I want to talk about is Ogre Island.  What was this place originally in Old Pavis, or before in Robcradle-that-was?  What's Argrath going to do about this weeping Chaotic sore in his backyard, if anything?  What's the deal with Judge Dahak, the albino 'mediator' among unscrupulous sorts in the Zola Fel area (aside from being a thinly veiled Cormac McCarthy reference)?

I'm curious.  The place is likely to feature in Sacred Time 1626 of my RQG campaign.  As a party favor, attached is my RQG interpretation of Dahak, equipped for a journey down the river.  My player characters, junior Eaglebrown Warlocks, encountered him haranguing an elder, revered Agimori shaman.  Two of them opposed Dahak in debate under magically charged circumstances, and thereby gained their first points of Illumination.  One of those two entered into a wager with Dahak over the outcome of the pending Battle of Corflu, placing his soul in the balance against Dahak releasing one of his thralls into the player character's custody.  After the successful battle the character kept his life, and freed the soul of a Kralorelan illuminated monk traded to Dahak by Sheng Seleris--to the Judge's enduring chagrin, but secret joy at being on the losing end of a game, and having new cause to compete.  The ghost monk has signed on as that character's contractual allied spirit, and is their tutor in martial arts.

So, to the tribe: what can you tell me about Ogre Island?

Judge Dahak.txt

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Ogre Island hosts The Basher, a reinforced ram designed to carve open Cradles that hit it. It was at the forefront of the Jrusteli operations against Cradles. Sorcerers would direct the Cradles into the middle of the stream and force them onto The Basher, splitting and beaching them, at which point teams of treasure-hunters would board, kill the occupants and loot the treasures.

In my Pavis, some of the Jrusteli survived the sacking of Robcradle by hiding in tunnels and caves deep beneath the island, where the giants could not go. When Pavis came, they simply re-emerged and became citizens of the new city. When Pavis disappeared, the Nomads and then the Trolls sacked Pavis and the inhabitants simply retreated to their previous hiding place. However, this time they drew on their Jrusteli past and searched for deities that could strengthen them. They HeroQuested for strength and contacted Cacodemon who gave them what they desired, making them strong enough to survive the Troll Occupation. So, they became ogres and settled Ogre Island.

During the Troll Occupation, the ogres of Ogre Island thrived and spread to the banks of the river nearby. They fed on those humans foolish enough to pass nearby, as well as on trollkin and the occasional troll, for all were descendants of Grandfather Mortal and all were prey to Ogres. Their tunnels stretched to both banks and allowed them free access to the nearby lands.

With the advent of the Dragonewt Dream, the seals on the gates of Old Pavis were opened and the people of Pavis Outside the Walls could again enter Pavis. This brought a whole new lot of food to the Ogres, who thrived once more. as New Pavis was settled, the Ogres settled in as both Old Pavic Families and hunters of the people who ventured into the hunting grounds.

When the Lunars took over New Pavis, the Ogres of Ogre Island reached out to them, thinking that they could make allies with the Lunars, as they accepted Ogres into their armies. However, the Lunars were not particularly keen, fearing an uprising among the Sartar Exiles of New Pavis. They became friendly with the Ogres of Ogre Island but did not openly acknowledge them.

Now the Lunars have gone and a new Warlord is in charge, the Ogres of Ogre Island have once again gone into hiding. Some still maintain the appearance of Old Pavic Families, desperately trying to survive in the Big Rubble, but their kin living near the Cacodemon shrines of Ogre Island find it difficult to maintain an appearance of respectability.

The new rulers of New Pavis want to restore and reinvigorate Pavis. they are actively HeroQuesting to bring back the lost deities and spirits of the City. The Ogres of Ogre Island hold some of the secrets of its past, as they were there at its founding. They want to weave themselves into the fabric of Pavis and are not afraid to use their old Jrusteli secrets, new Lunar techniques and the secrets known by the Cacodemon cult to do so.

Argrath has little interest in Pavis, he simply used it to drive the Lunars from Prax and as a stepping stone to prove himself as a warlord capable of taking on the Lunars. He left some Storm Bull cultists in Pavis and they are keen on wiping Chaos out in the Big Rubble. They want to destroy the Ogres of Ogre Island, but have no real idea of how powerful or deep-rooted they are.

The Ogres of Ogre Island have ties with the Cacodemon and Krarsht cults. They know of the Chaos in the Devil's Playground but do not have many dealings with them. Some Ogres have joined the Thanatar cult and they have access to more of the old secrets of Pavis. The Ogres of Ogre Island are trying to build alliances of Chaos, so that they can face whatever onslaught is coming their way.

All in my opinion, of course.

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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If you can find any of Ian Thomson's ?late 1990s-early 2000s Pavis/Grey Company supplements, the ogre conspiracy w/Ogre Island, Eye of Wakboth and vampires and stuff are detailed in there and would fit fine into 1626. Very dungeon-y. I had tons of fun with it.

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20 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

What has prevented Storm Bulls, Zorak Zorani and Orlanthi from clearing their "dungeon"? What kind of defenses do they have on the entrances to their lair?

The island was built specifically to rob cradles, so IMHO it has the hulls of ancient cradles built into it's structure and quite possibly is still protected by subverted magical cradle defence mechanisms and beings. As an island, it's also naturally highly defensible. Cult sacred sites also have magical defences, whether they're chaotic or not, and aside from Cacodemon they may well have shrines and temples to various other chaos cults, or have access to ancient Jrusteli magical secrets.

Pavis is a city, but it's population isn't all that large. There aren't really all that many adventurers there at any given time. Dozens or a few hundred, not thousands, so the kind of massive, organised assault force that would be needed to siege and breach the island is only really available to the big players like the Lunars or Argrath, and they have better things to do. Ogre Island has no strategic value to them to compensate for the likely losses of personnel and material. It's also possible eliminating the island might be of more benefit to other factions in the area, such as the Trolls or Aldryami, than to the force doing it.

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23 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

What has prevented Storm Bulls, Zorak Zorani and Orlanthi from clearing their "dungeon"?

They regularly clear it out, then the Ogres come back and fill it up again.

There are lots of tunnels and secret ways in that the Storm Bulls cannot block.

Also, the Cacodemon shrines tend to attract nasty chaos.

23 hours ago, Runeblogger said:

What kind of defenses do they have on the entrances to their lair?

Normal thing, plus they can probably flood it with chaos creatures really easily.

They probably have false entrances with some poor ogres living there as bait for the Storm Bulls.

 

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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On 6/28/2021 at 3:38 AM, soltakss said:

In my Pavis, some of the Jrusteli survived the sacking of Robcradle by hiding in tunnels and caves deep beneath the island, where the giants could not go. When Pavis came, they simply re-emerged and became citizens of the new city.

We are on the same page, but my Jrusteli survived by eating each other when their emergency siege supplies ran out (after the Giants and Praxians kicked Robcradle over), and that is how they became ogres.

While they didn't have any God Learners in their number, they definitely had sorcerers, and they maintained their tradition as it was one of the few weapons they had available that could actually defend them.  The Jrusteli were already aware of the presence of the Eye of Wakboth under Robcradle and had been digging to find it, which is why there were tunnels in the first place, rather than just a basement that the giants could have stomped in.  The ogres certainly weren't above joining other chaos cults, as their taint couldn't easily be hidden (from the Stormbulls), and the ogres are arch pragmatists who sought any advantage they could get, including joining Black Fang and Lanbril when possible.  This is perhaps why Lanbril has incorporated so many alchemical toys into their cult; they are hang-overs from Jrusteli tech.

When Pavis came, he built the city around the ogres, and they preyed on the inhabitants, using guile and cunning so as not to be discovered.  Some were able to infiltrate Pavic society, and they became involved in the Sorcery Cult of Iffinbix, as their training gave them an advantage.  They are one of the reasons that Iffinbix ultimately fell to Vivamort, and is why the Pavis region has so many vampires.  The fall of the city was a good time for the Ogres, as the trolls wouldn't hunt by day, which meant they could.  Numerous enough ogres secretly lived among the Rubble Survivors, as they were not at all friendly with the Stormbulls or Praxians in general.  There were a couple of purges where ogre blood was discovered, but not enough.  The cult of Iffinbix was a big deal for the survivors, and ultimately its fall to undeath was another blow to the longer term plans for taking back the city.

During Lunar occupation, more hidden ogres in the Lunar ranks and population began to sense the Cacodemon ceremonies and come to Ogre island to partake.  These orgiastic rites began to swell the ranks of the somewhat inbred ogres of the island.  Most were subsequently annihilated during the Whitebull period, as it marked a time of massive inter-cult co-operation and there were more Stormbulls camped in the Rubble than ever before.  This meant that the ogre survivors fled to Adari until things quietened down again.  Rumors persist that they used Krarsht tunnels to do this.

 

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