Enter The Unseated One - - A Wretched Country By the Red Room & NightOwl Workshop's Gunslinger - Session Report 3

 Cuttting a bloody path in tonight's game, a new PC joined the action in Scorpion Canyon & in town in tonight's game. A lone samurai cut a bloody path through  pig  faced Orc assassins & scouts in tonight's game. This session picks right up from here on the blog. 

 We quickly went to help the lone warrior when two more Orc assassins armed with short bows and poisoned arrows  appeared on the nearby roof tops to take out the samurai. The lone warrior dodged the two scout's arrows and then we shot them. The samurai followed us after some very quick hand signs and the promise of drink. After a few hours we found out the name of the Samurai was 不安定なもの meaning 'Unseated One' and it seems that Doc speaks Japanese having worked with rail road workers before coming to town. 

不安定なもの is a degenerate and gambler who happens to be a 'sword for hire' whom it seems might be supernaturally cursed. One moment he was fighting Orc assassins on his world and he swore he was cut down and next he was on our world. Bill Tenison Arizona Ranger  & his companions  don't trust this guy. They sight the fact that he must have come from the Scorpion Canyon dimensional gate. Our adventurers wonder if he might be in league with the Bloody Hand tribe of Orcs. 
Our own two Indian shamans consulted the spirits who said that the samurai is surrounded by a path of blood but sensed no connection to the Orcs. Several of the Shaman's abilities have been adapted from suggestions out of the Gunslinger rpg.

While the Shamans didn't get any evil connection per say from the samurai they did sense strong magics from his sword. And there were unspoken spirits surround it. There was a silence in the bar where everyone was drinking. 
While everyone was distracted with 不安定なもの, two Orc assassins crawled under the bar and ambushed the party. They used mini crossbows to take out Doc and injure one of the Arizona rangers who is now poisoned! 
Our shamans summoned two desert spirits to help heal the Arizona ranger and then guard him until they can get the right herbs to counteract the poison. 

We ended with the party's indian scouts going out to get the herbs nearby in the desert.  不安定なもの is actually a PC who died in DM Steve's Wretched Chanbara! game but is cursed to appear again and again wherever there is conflict. He's actually a pychoitic and hightly dangerous degenerate with a passion for violence and murder.

Pig Pen - - A Wretched Country By the Red Room & NightOwl Workshop's Gunslinger - Session Report 2

 The PC's wiped out a bunch of Orcs of the Bloody Hand tribe of pig faced Orcs. And the Orcs rooted after two dynamite bundles were pitched into thier midst. We then retreated out of Scorpion Canyon and back to town to restock & resupply. This session picks right up from here.

We began to hear the drummings of more Orcs and local indian scouts put the Bloody Hand's number at at least three hundred. Why?! Why was there a force of over three hundred Orcs moving on the town?! The Indian scouts think that this is merely a scouting & exploratory army moving in. The scouts and our ranger also think that there's at least 6 or more wizards or shamans among the Orcs.

 Bill Tenison Arizona Ranger  & his companions  made their way into the canyon again but didn't see any dimensional door or such. 
 We found two of our farmers and thier drovers pincushioned with hundreds of flint tipped arrows. The Blood Hand tribe of Orcs appears to be quite well adapted to the Old Western desert. Here I used a bunch of suggestions out of the Gunslinger rpg. 

Our posse came face to face with a group of Bloody Hand scouts being led by an Orc  shaman. Things got rather nasty as we got a huge smack down by two local spirits. These came straight out of Wretched Country rpg 

Our own Indian shamans and scouts made short work of the scouting party with little issue by sniping them from within the edges of the town.  The game can best be described as thematic at best. We slaughtered any orcs we saw and our scouts Moonface and Sunface went on the offensive. And found two half Orc assassins sculking around town. We ended here! 

Pig Roast - A Wretched Country By the Red Room & NightOwl Workshop's Gunslinger - Session Report 1

 Once again our gang of cut throats & bounty hunters were visiting the thematic viberation saturated area of Scorpion Canyon. We're using Nightowl Workshop's Gunslinger and Wretched Country Second Edition by The Red Room together. The last time we ventured into Scorpion Canyon we wound up fighting aliens from Cha'alt. Tonight's game was very different. 

The Bill Praxton gang had recently gone into the canyon and there's been not a peep outta of them  for two months now. We gathered our posse together including Doc Emit and his son the local doctor. We then had Preacher Vorciani join us on this mission. Walking feather our scout along with Bill Tenison Arizona Ranger  made their way into the canyon. 
They found the Praxton gang camp right away or the remains of it. The gang had been ambushed and killed the bodies riddled with stone spears and flint tipped arrows. No known indians of the area used thoses types of weapons. 
And then things started getting weirder?! The posse was attacked by strange pig faced humanoids armed to the teeth. They were dressed in strange armor and armed with wicked flint tipped weapons. The pig faced humanoids had a great bloody hand print on thier wooden shields. And they knew about fires to stay behind rocks for cover against the fire arms. 
We almost lost the Calico Kid to the ravages of four flint based arrows. And the humanoids brought reenforcements! 

Things are not going good against the orcs from the Bloody Hand tribe. And our heroes might be cooked here. 
Our scout and ranger are trying to flank the orcs but to no avail. The orcs seem to know the canyon pretty well. There are other remains on the canyon floor. 
The orcs seem to have the situation well in hand using flint tipped arrows and spears that have a +1 against our PC's. How they got in the cayon is anyone's guess. Are we going to live?! Tune in next week! 

Blood for Bacon - Another Ecology of the Orc For Old School Campaigns

Much of what follows in my wake is taken from the Wiki entry on orcs
Ever since I was growing up going up in the Seventies I've been hearing about how 'orcs are racist' & how its wrong to paint them as merely evil's cogs & parts that act as a mechanism for slaughter of PC's & the forces that commit genocide on campaign settings. To which I say, "bull shite". Orcs have been with the grand game since its beginning in original Dungeons & Dragons. I know that these have been there because I've had countless PC's slaughtered by the Porky Pig faced bastards. But the origins of these pig faced horrors goes back into the dark recesses of mythology besides Tolkien;"Tolkien began the modern use of the English term "orc" to denote a race of evil, humanoid creatures. His earliest Elvish dictionaries include the entry Ork (orq-) "monster", "ogre", "demon", together with orqindi and "ogresse". He sometimes used the plural form orqui in his early texts.^[f] He stated that the Elvish words for orc were derived from a root ruku, "fear, horror"; in Quenya, orco, plural orkor; in Sindarin orch, plurals yrch and Orchoth (as a class).^{[T 2][T 1]} They had similar names in other Middle-earth languages: uruk in Black Speech (restricted to the larger soldier-orcs);^{[T 1]} in the language of the Drúedain gorgûn, "ork-folk"; in Khuzdul rukhs, plural rakhâs; and in the language of Rohan and in the Common Speech, orka.^{[T 2]}

Tolkien stated in a letter to the novelist Naomi Mitchison that his Orcs had been influenced by George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin.^{[T 1]} He explained that his "orc" was "derived from Old English orc 'demon', but only because of its phonetic suitability",^{[T 3]} and

I originally took the word from Old English orc (Beowulf 112 orc-neas and the gloss orc: þyrs ('ogre'), heldeofol ('hell-devil')).^[g] This is supposed not to be connected with modern English orc, ork, a name applied to various sea-beasts of the dolphin order".^{[T 4]}

Tolkien also observed a connection with the Latin word orcus, noting that "the word used in translation of Q[uenya] urko, S[indarin] orch is Orc. But that is because of the similarity of the ancient English word orc, 'evil spirit or bogey', to the Elvish words. There is possibly no connextion (sic) between them."
That's right going all of the way back into the beginning of Tolkien's work. But for me orcs have always been the 'other'. The other in this instance isn't a particular race,person, or thing but something utterly alien. Orcs to me are the inversion of mankind & a mockery of everything that it means to be human. This all comes down for me in Gary Gygax's B2 Keep on the Borderlands. 

Orcs are the evil monsters that along with a slew of other evil humanoid monsters in the Caves of Chaos are intent on slaughtering every human they can get a hold of. Its almost as though the orcs were created & bred for murder whole cloth. And that's exactly what they are. Don't believe me?! Again from the wiki on orcs; 


"The scholars of English literature William N. Rogers II and Michael R. Underwood note that a widespread element of late 19th century Western culture was fear of moral decline and degeneration; this led to eugenics.^[17] In The Two Towers, the Ent Treebeard says:^{[T 16]}

It is a mark of evil things that came in the Great Darkness that they cannot abide the Sun; but Saruman's Orcs can endure it, even if they hate it. I wonder what he has done? Are they Men he has ruined, or has he blended the races of Orcs and Men? That would be a black evil!^{[T 16]}

The film-maker Andrew Stewart, writing in CounterPunch, cites this speech as an instance of "mid-twentieth century scientific racism .. which alarmingly spells out the notion of 'race mixing' as a great sin".^[18] Stewart notes, too, that the geography of Middle-earth deliberately pits the good West against the evil East;^[18] John Magoun, writing in the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia, concurs, supposing that Middle-earth has a "moral geography".^[16] Any moral bias towards a north-western geography, however, was directly addressed by Tolkien himself in a letter to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, who had recently interviewed him in 1967:

Auden has asserted that for me 'the North is a sacred direction'. That is not true. The North-west of Europe, where I (and most of my ancestors) have lived, has my affection, as a man's home should. I love its atmosphere, and know more of its histories and languages than I do of other parts; but it is not 'sacred', nor does it exhaust my affections. I do have, for instance, a particular fondness for the Latin language, and among its descendants for Spanish. That is untrue for my story, a mere reading of the synopses should show. The North was the seat of the fortresses of the Devil [ie. Morgoth].^{[T 17]}

In a private letter, Tolkien describes orcs as:^{[T 18]}

squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types.

 A variety of critics and commentators have noted that orcs are somewhat like caricatures of non-Europeans. The journalist David Ibata writes that the orcs in Peter Jackson's Tolkien films look much like "the worst depictions of the Japanese drawn by American and British illustrators during World War II."^[19] The literary critic Jenny Turner, writing in the London Review of Books, endorses Andrew O'Hehir's comment on Salon.com that orcs are "by design and intention a northern European's paranoid caricature of the races he has dimly heard about".^[20][21] O'Hehir describes orcs as "a subhuman race bred by Morgoth and/or Sauron (although not created by them) that is morally irredeemable and deserves only death. They are dark-skinned and slant-eyed, and although they possess reason, speech, social organization and, as Shippey mentions, a sort of moral sensibility, they are inherently evil."^[21] He notes Tolkien's own description of them (quoted above), saying it could scarcely be more revealing of his attitude to the "Other", but excuses him saying that "it is also the product of his background and era, like most of our inescapable prejudices. At the level of conscious intention, he was not a racist or an anti-Semite" and mentions his letters to this effect.^[21] In a letter to his son, Christopher who was serving in the RAF in the Second World War, Tolkien wrote of orcs as appearing on both sides of the conflict:

Yes, I think the orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic' fiction ... only in real life they are on both sides, of course. For 'romance' has grown out of 'allegory', and its wars are still derived from the 'inner war' of allegory in which good is on one side and various modes of badness on the other. In real (exterior) life men are on both sides: which means a motley alliance of orcs, beasts, demons, plain naturally honest men, and angels.^{[T 19]}

The scholar of English literature Robert Tally describes the orcs as a demonized enemy, despite (he writes) Tolkien's own objections to demonization of the enemy in the two World Wars.^[22] The Germanic studies scholar Sandra Ballif Straubhaar however argues against the "recurring accusations" of racism, stating that "a polycultured, polylingual world is absolutely central" to Middle-earth, and that readers and filmgoers will easily see that.^[2] The historian and Tolkien scholar Jared Lobdell likewise disagreed with any notions of racism inherent or latent in Tolkien's works, and wondered "if there were a way of writing epic fantasy about a battle against an evil spirit and his monstrous servants without its being subject to speculation of racist intent""

The origins of the 'Orc' for me are much deeper stretch back further then Tolkein & his works of high fantasy. No for me the orcs go all the way back to William Hope Hodgeson's 'House on the Borderlands'.
"The House on the Borderland (1908) is a supernatural horror novel by British fantasist William Hope Hodgson. The novel is a hallucinatory account of a recluse's stay at a remote house, and his experiences of supernatural creatures and otherworldly dimensions."

The swine things that ravage, plague, & harrow the recluse are the perfect demonic Lovecraftian or is it Hodgesonian monsters that would be progenitors for the orc race. These are not a race that can be reasoned with or sat down to have tea with. These are murderous things intent on corrupting, destroying, & ravaging everything around them. Nightmare given flesh!



In 2000, DC Comics’ mature reader imprint Vertigo published a 96-page color graphic-novel adaptation The House on the Borderland, with story by Simon Revelstroke and art by Richard Corben.

The Vertigo imprint version of The House on the Borderland by Simon Revelstroke and art by Richard Corben takes some very heady liberties with the original source material. There's a very good review of The House on the Borderland & the Vertigo version of The House on the Borderland by Simon Revelstroke and art by Richard Corben on the Old Wine in New Wine Skins blog here. 
The truth is that we get a very alien & utterly demonic horror that seems at times to be a reflection of the evil or perversion of man. This is the other that William Hope Hodgeson brings to bare on his protagonist in the House on the Borderland. Wayne Douglas Barlow does an incredible job in his Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy portraying the Swine Things. Its implied in The House on the Borderland & The Hog both by William Hope Hodgeson that the Swine Things are appendages for some greater cosmic being or god.

For my campaigns the swine things are the 'other' & their rutting, invading, etc. are the source for the orc infestation across the multiverse. Want an OSR set of stats for the Swine Things the Throne of Salt blog has those here.  How are the orcs getting across planes?! Wizards, dark clerics, necromancers,etc. use the essence of the Swine Things & then begin spawning orcs in gene pools & the like. These things are programmed for destruction straight outta the artificial womb. They don't care about the niceties of mankind only its destruction!
“I’ve heard it. A sort of swinish clamouring melody that grunts and roars and shrieks in chunks of grunting sounds, all tied together with squealings and shot through with pig howls. I’ve sometimes thought there was a definite beat in it; for every now and again there comes a gargantuan GRUNT, breaking through the million pig-voiced roaring—a stupendous GRUNT that comes in with a beat. Can you understand me?”William Hope Hodgson’s “The Hog,” first published in Weird Tales in 1947 but certainly written much earlier since the author died in 1918.

Orcs are not simply evil but the essence of it. Their life is anti nature & they are hell bent on your PC's destruction. Make no bones about it. There's no racism about it only bloodshed, murder, & mayhem of any adventuring party that enters their domain. And if you think that this has nothing to do with Tolkien may I refer back to the orc wiki entry & what follows;"The Tolkien critic Tom Shippey writes that the orcs in The Lord of the Rings were almost certainly created just to equip Middle-earth with "a continual supply of enemies over whom one need feel no compunction",^[24] or in Tolkien's words from The Monsters and the Critics "the infantry of the old war" ready to be slaughtered.^[24] Shippey states that all the same, orcs share the human concept of good and evil, with a familiar sense of morality, though he notes that, like many people, orcs are quite unable to apply their morals to themselves. In his view, Tolkien, as a Roman Catholic, took it as a given that "evil cannot make, only mock", so orcs could not have an equal and opposite morality to that of men or elves.^[25] Shippey notes that in The Two Towers, the orc Gorbag disapproves of the "regular elvish trick" of seeming to abandon a comrade, as he wrongly supposes Sam has done with Frodo. Shippey describes the implied view of evil as Boethian, that evil is the absence of good; he notes however that Tolkien did not agree with that point of view, believing that evil had to be actively combatted, with war if necessary, the Manichean position"

There's good reason to slaughter those Pork Pig faced bastards in your Dungeons & Dragons games. Don't let orcs gain an inch in your campaigns or you may be dealing with a far greater & deadlier evil then your party of adventurers expects!


Otherworld Miniatures Orc Warband 

The Clark Ashton Smithian Ecology of The Orc Tribes in Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea with Help From Dragon Issue #62

"These despicable humanoids are the unhallowed progeny of swine dæmons and an abominable tribe of Picts. They are stocky, short-legged, thick-boned, and heavily muscled, but their features are horribly disfigured and oft porcine, with pronounced lower canine teeth. In the wilderness they are largely nocturnal, but in subterranean lairs not necessarily so. Orcs are temperamental and prone to infighting, but under a strong leader they are capable of exceptional obedience. They are a violent species, killing for pleasure, and they relish in torturing and burning their victims; too, they are notorious slavers. 

Orcs are intelligent enough to manufacture their own weapons and armour and perform other feats of simple engineering, but their craftsmanship is generally inferior to human standards; hence, a suit of orcish plate mail might provide AC 4 instead of AC 3 (otherwise orcs have natural AC 6 from their thick hides). Orcs speak their own language (Orcish) and oft a crude form of the Common tongue of man; some are able to speak a smattering of Pictish."

These are the orc warrior tribes that we've come to know in Hyperborea but there is far more bubbling below the surface of these eaters of men & warriors of renowned cruelty.

When most folks think of the troops of Ragnarok they seem to always forget the most dangerous & deadly the Orcs.  Found on the edges of Zothique  & the temperate forests of Hyperborea the pig faced orc warriors are some of the most dangerous foes that adventurers can encounter. The orc tribes of Hyperborea go all the way back to the time of the ancient Hyperborean nations were wrecking havoc on Earth. They are the projeny of Babi - ngepet ("swine demons") & an abominable tribe of half blooded Picts on Hyperborea. But their origins go much further back in history into the very mists of time. Their wiki entry hints at some of their demonic origins;

"Old English glossaries record the word orc corresponding with Latin Orcus (deity of the Underworld), and synonymous with þyrs/ðyrs "ogre" (cognate to Old Norse: þurs), as well as "hell devil". The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal defines ork in the very closely related Old Dutch language as a verslindend monster ("devouring monster"),^[3] and points at a possible origin in the Old Dutch nork "petulant, crabbed, evil person".^[4]

The Latin: Orcus is glossed as "Old English: Orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol"^[a] as given in the first Cleopatra Glossary (10th century), and on this entry Thomas Wright wrote, "Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglo-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin.

þanon untydras ealle onwocon eotenas ond ylfe ond orcneas swylce gigantas þa wið gode wunnon lange þrage he him ðæs lean forgeald —Beowulf, Fitt I, vv. 111–14[7]

Thence all evil broods were born, ogres and elves and evil spirits —the giants also, who long time fought with God, for which he gave them their reward —John R. Clark Hall, tr. (1901)[8]

The compound orcneas is designated "evil spirits" above, but its accurate meaning is uncertain. Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. orcus "the underworld" + neas "corpses" and that the translation "evils spirits" failed to do justice"

Orcus himself the demon prince of the undead had a hand in seeing his babi-ngepet minions sewing the seeds of his chaos as the old gods battled the orc warriors birthed from the stomachs of mankind. These first warriors were the powerful gods of the orcs who would later be worshiped & venerated in the city state of Orcust. Shamans to this day court the evil survival at costs favors of their gods. The Hyperborean wizards & shaman scientists who courted the favor of Orcus lord of the underworld had no idea of they were sewing the seeds of their own destruction.

DD12 – Orcus, Prince of the Undead By Otherworld Miniatures 

Driven by their Jotunn masters the tribes of orcs ran riot killing both man & demi god alike. They were born into an age of the axe & very well adapted for it. The events of Ragnarok were the orcs golden age & they reveled in it. But as time moved on the orc mind began to resemble or emulate mankind. Even as they put man to the sword & axe their chieftains began to arise from those touched by their gods. The chieftains were methodical in their violence & carefully dangerous in their tactics. They became more lawful in their evil as time went on. They began to turn on both human & Hyperborean masters alike putting them to fire & flame. 

HT3l – Pig-faced Orc Chieftain I by Other World Miniatures 

With the unleashing of the Green Death upon the Earth the orc tribal shamans & priests lead their peoples into the underworld of Iceland soon to become Hyperborea. When the black  miracle of Hyperborea was lifted into the sky occurred the first champions of the orc tribes waited along with their babi-ngepet masters. Their infravision scanned the caverns of Underborea. But soon the Hyperborean wizards would create more savage versions of these creatures. Orc shamans communed with the Great Old One Abhoth ("The Source of Uncleanliness") for his genetic favors for their warriors. The shamans passed this knowledge along to senior Hyperborean wizards & they birthed special warriors & chieftains who were slightly more intelligent then the usual rabble. These warriors often had mastery over many weapons stronger natures & constitution but soon the Green Death came for all & once again the orcs retreated beneath the vaults of Hyperborea. Thousands died but those who survived were the strongest of the race of the damned.

HT3q – Pig-faced Orc Shaman I By Otherworld Miniatures

Today foolish humans have forgotten the face of the Hyperborean wizards & their kings of the damned nation states. The City State of Orcust now grows fat with the newest batches of these despicable monsters. But in the genes of orcs, ogres, & goblins flows the promises of damnation from the twin horrors of insanity from both Abhoth ("The Source of Uncleanliness") &  Ubbo-Sathla. The wizard houses of the Ixians have been turning out record numbers of new Orc shock troops. While in the wilds outside of the bounds of civilization the ancient Orc shamans & priests begin to call upon their gods. Some of the Ixian's shock troops already hear the ancient call of their gods as it courses through their dark & sinister veins!

So one would not think that there would be a Dragon magazine angle to this but in Dragon issue#62 we have the article Gods of The Orcs Make War Not Love By Roger Moore. The update to this article is the roll that orcs have on Hyperborea today.



The difference here is that the shamans of the orcs tell of their incredible bravery & battle prowess during the time of Ragnarok & how now their is only room on Hyperborea for them! The humans will once again die by the score on their sword & knife blades as they did during the end of all things.


Today the orcs of Hyperborea are even more dangerous then they were during the time of Ragnarok because humanity does not preconceive the danger that their in. The orcs grow bolder & more dangerous with each passing day. So mankind will feel the rage & wraith of the orc once again! 

'The Devils of The Black Circle' An NPC Lovecraftian Enemy Faction For Your Old School Campaigns

 'They have names whispered in Hell & the devil's hooves dance across the midnight hour as their black souls howl for blood & violence! The souls of the old gods, the jealous gods can never have enough of either!'

John Wright 1904
Echoes At Midnight

Among the Pict tribes there are legends of  'The Devils of The Black Circle' a group of twisted devil orcs lead by  four demon pigs from the underworld. They were let loose by an ancient curse. Among the Picts there are legends of a group of starving Pict warriors who feasted on the body of a Keltic bard. For their murderous & roiling hunger the four lead warriors were cursed with the spirits of swine from the bowels of the underworld. These nameless warriors went on to spawn a bevy of twisted orc progeny who serve the depraved needs of their tribe. There are between 1d10 to 1d20 of the devil orc warriors at the beck & call of their tribal leaders/parents. The cycle of violence of 'the Devils of the Black Circle' is always the same.
There will be a series of lightning raids by these horrid warriors for 1d6 weeks during the sacred cycle of Shub-Niggurath . The goddess will be in her Magna Mater ("Great Mother") riguise within the woodlands of Hyprborea. The black circle orcs will strike & offers to the Great Mother begin.

Shub-Niggurath, along with her "Thousand Young"
by Dominique Signoret

These demon swine have an incredible appetite for human flesh which they consume with relish.  They always create ruses to aqquire more flesh.
They do this by posing as Pictish tribal elders who have a connection with the Devils. They may negotiate a peace between the orc warriors & those being victimized for the price of a feast.  In reality, they are setting up an murderous raid using their charm ability to size up the tribal defenses & gain the confidence of their victims.They do this for a final murderous rite of carnage. They then use a rather hellish sacrament with the corpses of their victims to turn all present into a pack of huge boars & pigs who fleeing into the woodlands to start the cycle over again. This is usually done with another tribe of Picts, Kelts, or even Norsemen. The 'Devils'  sometimes masquerade as Pictish traders from the Pictlands of lower Hyperborea to continue the cycle of death, murder, & madness.  These monsters often visit Greyhawk or alternative shadows of Blackmoor to continue the blood bath.


The second way in which 'The devils of the black circle' elders  will operate is to infiltrate a Pict tribe via their charm ability & corrupt the tribe from within.This is done via divine favors or glory in inter tribal warfare. This often works with tribes whose honor has been compromised from the onset often in matters of war or hunting for food. These affairs might often been engineered by the devil orc warriors giving the elders the opportunity to move in for a bit of tribal manipulation. Often means setting up the normal Pict leaders for a fall from grace in the eyes of the tribal members. These affairs always end with the new tribal leaders becoming the demon swine themselves followed by their orc warriors moving in as their  violent muscle. This tactic is often used when the 'devils of the black circle' need to replenish their ranks. The Black Circle will lay low for a year or more. Locals often suffer under the yoke of these tyrants.


Because of the 'devils of the black circle' connections to Shub-Niggurath & a particularly nasty aspect of  Nyarlathotep they black circle thrive on madness and violence. Nyarlathotep the mad faceless god, who howls blindly to the piping of two amorphous idiot flute-players within grinning caverns of Hyperborea's center listens to their rites with glee. The orc warriors have several characteristics that mark them as slightly different then many other orcs found within "The Referee's Guide for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea." First their warriors  display the cloven hoofs of the blessed of their loathsome god & goddess. They may once every new moon enter a berserk state & gain a +3 to damage with melee weapons, & these bastards in these states are immune to most pain from mundane weapons. Every three days these orc warriors may polymorph into the form of a mundane boar or pig. Once per week three or more devil orcs may summon a giant boar to add them. This animal will be of a particularly dangerous, bloody thirsty & violent aspect. They often use these abilities to scout out new areas  or villages for raids or marked as sacrifices.


'The devils of the black circle' are actively hunted by a dedicated group of Pict knights & paladins charged with bringing an end to the dishonor that these being's existence poses to all. These knights  were formed more then ten years ago. They have faced down ten to twenty warriors of the black circle. The black circle as a whole seems to allude these knights. They seem to slip through the armored fingers of the knights time and again.

Helen Rickard Man Kills Mosaic Boar
 The Devils of the Black Circle are a bane on the face of existence & it is whispered by right thinking people that they are a curse sent by the gods to test the folly of men. These bastards seem to show up as the winds of chaos & the whims of their dreaded gods dictate. Their very nature seems to demand violence, chaos, & sheer depravity in the extreme. This is something that these mad bastards revel in.

1d6 Random Targets That The 'The Devils of The Black Circle'
Seeks This Week Table 

1. Sacrifices for the alter stones to show the old gods that our commitment to them hasn't wavered! Blood & souls for the ancient ones! 
2. Men & women to renew the breeding stock of the tribe! We require vitality & fertility to continue to grow strong! 
3. Food and more food especially the blood and flesh of humans! The very best for our tables & our gods! 
4. Gold and spoils of murder because one never have enough gold or blood for our black table! 
5. The head of a shaman for the 'mother goddess' demands it! 
6. We seek the heart of a brave warrior for stomachs his bravery & strength will make us stronger as a whole we have seen it!