Ogre (CTD)

Ogres are one of the Thallain kiths, the counterpart of Kithain trolls.

Overview

Ogres have no hope of redemption, and, even worse, many of them are indistinguishable from trolls. They are completely without honor, and exploit the weak. They hunger for flesh, and care little for where they obtain it. Violent and ill-tempered, they are soon cast out from freeholds if their true nature is divulged, even if their identity isn’t.

Notorious bullies, ogres only respect one thing: strength. Political strength threatens them even more, mainly because they don’t know how to hit it. They have the social graces of a lecherous, drunken lout 10 minutes before the closing of the local bar, and, in the presence of beautiful faeries, they have the drool to prove it. It’s still possible for an ogre to be quick-witted, however. Once the punches start flying, they can be absolute geniuses when it comes to smashing things. They actually do have a survival instinct, and can even muster the deviance to impersonate trolls. They’re just mistaken by most as being really stupid trolls.

Allowing ogres to organize in their own cliques is also considered to be a Very Bad Thing. Ogre leaders don’t stay in command for very long unless they’re very light sleepers and exceedingly good with whips and chains. Without more intelligent (read: subtle) fae to lead them, they’ll fall into fighting amongst themselves.

Nonetheless, they do have talents that aid the Shadow Court, beside strength and skill in a fight — their heightened senses assist them in finding other Thallain. If a bogie has killed a dozen children over the last month, or if a sidhe noble is being seduced by a Ganconer, an ogre has the best chance of finding it. For this reason, the Shadow Court shields the few ogres in this world.

One other type of ogre is worth mentioning at this point — the Ogre Hag. Double-crossing an ogre lieutenant is fairly easy, but fooling an Ogre Hag is nigh impossible. The closest human equivalent would be a cross between the stereotypical mother-in-law, any given mom on a really bad day, and the worst grade-school teacher you’ve ever had. Unspeakably hideous, yet preternaturally cunning, Hags demand respect among ogres. They get it.

Appearance

As mortals, these monsters actually do a fairly good job at impersonating humans, albeit slovenly and crude ones. Childlings act like snot-nosed bullies; Wilders are typically thugs who’d find Beavis and Butthead intellectually stimulating; Grumps tend toward pot-bellies and shaggy beards hiding raw bits of meat. Once in faerie mien, they actually weigh much heavier and might gain (or lose) six to 12 inches.

Birthrights & Frailty

Birthrights

• Affinity: Fae
• Smells Like Chicken! —The easiest thing for an ogre to puzzle out is “who’s evil and who isn’t.” They can smell Thallain before they see them and can tell the difference between a Seelie and an Unseelie. With a successful roll of Perception + Kenning (difficulty 6), they also use a sort of “idiot-savant” ability to sense a person’s general emotional state. If successful this will give the ogre an advantage in any situation (the ogre receive -1 to the difficulty in any opposed action involving the subject).
• Strong As Oaks — Ogres get an additional two dots of Strength during character creation, even if this puts them above a Strength of 5, and they can never botch a Strength roll.

Frailty

• Dumb As Rocks — When creating an ogre, you must pay twice the normal cost to increase the Intelligence Attribute, both when assigning Attribute points and when spending freebie points. (Thus, when assigning Attribute points, you must pay two points for each point of Intelligence you wish to add; and when spending freebies, you must spend 10 points to raise Intelligence a point.) This rule also applies to raising Intelligence with Experience.

Other

Quote: Now I smash you, little man….

References

• CTD: The Shadow Court, p. 74-75