Djemaleddin held his mug hard enough to dent the metal. The bar didn't use horn or wood because it splintered too easily in the clenched fists of overpowered adventurers, but the metal mugs had to be light and cheap so they still crumpled. He was nervous because there was too much clang in the room. Too much power in the opposing force. Fighting men at the bar counter with dates and parties and crowds on their hips. If the sorceress at the riverside window started casting the whole room was within her area of effect. He could make it to the door before the cloud swallowed him but that would mean fighting his way past the group of Sugarmen hauling the idol up to the trade booth. He had to hit first, it was the only way. Get close so she couldn't zap him without catching herself in the blast. Put out damage, force her back. Her comrades would rush him but then she wouldn't FF them, and he could handle them until-
Gordy arrived with the refill. Gordastasia Greengloves, whose green gloves never came off even when she was naked. She put a green-gloved hand on his shoulder from behind and he sank into his seat with an instant scruffed-kitten reaction. Gordy was here. The only "encounter" was with the tray of river fritters and hippo steak and pickles and sweet pink guavarrack and beer so light and crisp and cold you could bathe in it. If he fell before the death spell or the plus ones and twos and threes of the bunched dunecrawlers, she'd catch him.
ADVENTURERS AND SCALPHUNTERS
Swarming like locusts across the Plain to kill anything with hit dice and make it safe for farming, coffee shops and the outlet stores of adventurer guilds.
GIANT CORPS
The Giant Corps sends Fire Giants (OSE) and their kin to fight on the Plain. They don't take damage from the heat, allowing them to operate in the open during the day. They fulfill their caloric needs with energy dense pemmican and "sweettack" biscuits made from 100 percent pure Commonwealth maple sugar. Replacement teeth are a common.
The handful of full Fire Giants are tough and competent but crippled by bone growth disorders from the inbreeding that affects most pureblooded Giants. These sickly mercenaries have stats as Fire Giants but minimum HP per hit die. They wear plate and shield, carry iron-shod staves to lean on, and complain constantly. Their leader Quezada opens every conversation with a torrent of blistering invective but rarely harms anyone he's not being paid to kill.
The bulk of the force is made of Half-Giants or less. Stats as Ogres (OSE) but equipped with modern armor and oversized greatbows. A penchant for alchemical flame weapons (flasks, bellows). They make liberal use of fire, doffing their armor and wading naked into the blaze to beat anything that survives to death with heavy mallets. They carry sacks of concentrated fuel pellets to create flaming perimeters when they can't find a safe place to camp at night.
Hired as guards or muscle to clear out troublesome tombs. They kill monsters if hired in advance but literally will not stoop to mere scalphunting.
CORTEZ' RANGERS
A franchise of Iron Hand. Orcs, Half-Orcs, humans and the occasional Elf. Named for their founder, an Orc killed somewhere on the frontier in a dispute over silver pieces. Clad in half plate, mounted on camels, equipped with muzzleloading rifles and illuminated gems that magnify their targets (as +1 weapon). Dismount to shoot at long range, flee mounted rather than fight in close quarters but use rodela and falchions if cornered.
The Eighth Level Half-Orc Ranger (OSE Advanced) Korba loves to call Ankhegs (ibid) with Animal Friendship, sending them burrowing through the earth to crack open the hiding places of troublesome foes. Use War Dogs, Giant Ferrets and Shrews to track enemies in close quarters. Rarely bring small artillery pieces (disassembled and carried by mules) to deal large single target damage or scythe crowds with grapeshot. More often carry loose powder for demolitions.
Rarely enter tomb complexes. Happy to rescue adventurers lost in the desert in exchange for a cut of the loot.
THE GRAIN CULT
Spreading agriculture by the bread or by the sword.
Mowers
A military order. Fighters and first level Clerics backed up by higher level divine casters. Sent on punitive expeditions or to clear sites for future habitation. Use Create Water to fill trenches and then bless it into Holy Water to keep out undead at night. Sometimes carry Scarecrows (Monster Ovehaul) to defend positions. Liberal use of Turn Undead when clearing tombs. In perpetual competition with the Threshers, Sowers, Harvesters, Reapers et al for the top spot on the scoreboard. Led by Alice Woodfingers, wise but always-furious cyborg Cleric with four limbs of living oak and a +3 Flail of Flowers.
Canarios
Indentured and convict soldiers who volunteered for patrol duty to escape back breaking agricultural labor. Never given firearms. Led by Clerics and backed up by Poleviks (Monster Overhaul) who clout them into action when their morale lags. When not closely monitored, as likely to trade with the desert people as fight them. Their selfishness and pedestrian sadism can't hold a candle to the Mowers' gamified mass slaughter. Led by Orgeat Chertscathed the Dwarf, a former prisoner who stuck with the Cult on release rather than returning to the Mountainhomes to face justice for acts committed under the Slave King.
Llanera
A Moon Beast flying ship, found crashed in the desert and refurbished. Can only hover a few feet off the ground, used for desert adventures and blasting things with cannons. "Rowed" through the air by enormous alchemically enhanced Fighters who serve as marines in close combat. Concern about dragon attacks by Baradye have curtailed long duration voyages into the sand, confining the ship to a rapid reaction and courier role. Captained by Bagration the Gargoyle (OSE), a servitor from one of the Old King's treasure dumps who gained sentience after going too long without a memory wipe.
NIGHT HUNTERS
An adventuring party trapped and slaughtered somewhere in the deep desert, reanimated as Revenants (OSE Advanced) by their obsessive hatred of monsters. Intelligent but obsessive. Night creatures leave them alone as fellow undead, letting them hunt while others stay in their fortified camps. Friends to adventurers and merchants and settlers, fanatically racist against anything outside the usual playable races (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome). The Grain Cult officially declared them outlaws for assaults on Orcs who were under the Goddess protection. Privately the Clerics make use of their services.
The Hunters proudly display injuries that failed to return them to the grave, bristling with nonmagical weapons like wound-men. The former Magic User Loomis leads the group, annoyed he can no longer cast spells. Former follower of God of Doors, now a devoted slave of One More Day, God of Necromancy and the desire for more life. Secretly afraid he'll disintegrate if he ever finds his killer.
PEOPLE OF THE PLAIN
The monstermen of the Plain use a mix of neolithic weapons (bone, flint, wood), ancient weapons (beat up kopeshes, axes and spears) and modern steel weapons, sometimes including guns.
BLOODSAINTS
A
pack of Gnolls (OSE Advanced) who worship Gnashbone, possibly an aspect
of Destruction. Unlike Flaymen, the Gnoll God of craftsmanship and
survival, Gnashbone has but one commandment: kill. She grants the
Bloodsaints temporary HP for every slain enemy. They use it to traverse
the plain during the hottest part of the day, tanking the damage on
forced marches to surprise their enemies and butcher them as they rest.
The pack is led by the Shaman Hedjet, a brutal tactician willing to accept huge losses. Push through casualties and kill the enemy, retreating just means your guys died for nothing. She makes scrimshaw bones for the tribe. Gnoll scrimshaw is shamanic magic where the hyenas carve magical if/then commands into the bones of people they kill and eat. Rather than reading the bones like a scroll, you cast scrimshaw by breaking a bone in your mouth. Easy for a Gnoll, hard for a human with less than 13 STR.
- Wither: target’s max HP is reduced by D6.
- Flay: Target’s base AC is reduced by D4
- Hobble: Target’s movement speed is halved
- Shrink: Target goes down a size category (Human to Halfling, Halfling to Gnome…)
- Infect: Target dies in D4 days without Cure Disease
- Torment: Target loses half their current HP. This cannot kill them.
WATER INSECTS
The bulk of the Orcs (OSE) on the Plain lived by rivers, fishing and hunting monsters and hiding from the undead. The Water Insects lived inland in the desert, driven there by the other clans, and therefore survived the first waves of adventurers who butchered the river dwellers.
The Water Insects are so called because they kill people and take their water, both what they're carrying and their blood. They don't take slaves because they need food and water more than they need extra mouths to feed. Due to an ongoing population collapse they sometimes take children from their victims, raising them alongside their own kids. They venerate a dried out Leshi (CC1) buried beneath the desert when it was once a vibrant jungle. The spirit's dream sendings inspire them to fight rather than retreat from murderous proto-industrial civilization. They only organize briefly for raids because two hundred Orcs quickly exhaust the land's carrying capacity.
The greatest among the Insects is Sourwood, an HD 4 Orc leader who the Leshi granted his own power of thrice daily Polymorph Self. He favors the form of a Giant Wasp (OSE Advanced) for scouting and stealth assassinations, a Giant Weasel (ibid) for tracking, and an Ogre (OSE) for negotiating with the Trolls that sometimes accompany the Water Insects in battle.
COLORED SHELL
A Mantid (OSE Advanced) tribe, named after its leader. She wears bits of glass, metal and cloth that she trades or steals. She loves collecting things brought by the invaders. She considers guns useless because their damage output is inferior to a brace of throwing discs, but understands how to use them, along with magical devices and potions. She has enough self control and foresight to kidnap victims rather than eat them, holding them for ransom in exchange for goodies. If she meets someone she can't beat she tries to barter for their stuff, offering knowledge of desert hiding places (she knows handcommon, the trade language for creatures with nonhuman mouth parts). If you have something she likes she'll follow you for days, staying just out of reach and striking when you're weak.
LOST BOYS
Elohim who leave the Lake of Glass die quickly of dehydration or undead attacks. Yabobaal the wandering Lamassu (Monster Overhaul) adopted a handful of the horned hominids because when he saw them dying in the sun he felt like he was a calf in the Temple of Trials again, watching an injured bird flop in a spiral on the ground as Mentor asked him what he was going to do about it.
He teaches them how to find water and what plants are good to eat, and how to use their strength effectively in combat. He teaches them about the stars and the different Gods they can worship since their creator is dead. He lets them pick names and teaches them how to write them. He warns adventurers to leave the apes alone. If he thinks they're going to attack he acts he doesn't notice, then sets an ambush. He's Lawful Good but he's not an idiot and he won't hesitate to kill people preemptively.
The Elohim hate their new dad. They hate his heretical religion and foraging for food that tastes different every time. They hate learning things and growing stronger and planning battles and making difficult moral decisions. They hate his stories about the Ancient Empire and the sun and the moons and all the wonderful places where he would take them if he didn't have to wait here and gather more of their lost brothers and sisters.
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