Ogers

Seeming Contracts: Stone

Concepts: Working-class Red Cap hard-man, arrogant giant CEO, shrill political activist, gung-ho Marine grunt, nightclub bouncer, understanding but non-nonsense bar manager, Bigfoot hunter, belligerent redneck, prizefighter, long-distance truck driver, deep sea fisherman.

The story goes that there was once a troll, a beast who dined on human flesh and carved knife-handles out of the bones. Business was good, and the troll decided that he needed assistance in his workshop. One night, he stole into a village and took away three sons of a shoemaker. The ogre worked the three boys in his workshop, on the drill and lathe and chisel and awl for long hours. Every day, at dawn, he beat them, and he fed them on scraps of raw flesh. One night, the eldest boy took one of the knives he had made for the troll and crept in upon him while he was sleeping. But the knife shrieked out loud and would not kill the troll, and the troll awoke and cooked the boy in a pie and forced each of his brothers to eat a slice, before he beat them so hard that they were all bruises. The second son made a pick so that he could open the lock on the door of the troll's workshop, and at night he crept to the door and picked the lock. But the troll was waiting behind the door, and he chopped the boy up and cooked him in a stew, and fed it to the youngest son before beating him so hard that his teeth were all broken and his mouth was all blood. The third boy worked so hard and so well in the workshop that the monster could find fewer and fewer reasons to beat him, and the knives the boy made were beautifully carved, and the troll found that he could sell them for more gold than he ever had before. One day, the troll came into the workshop, and he leaned over the boy's shoulder as the boy carved the knife handle, and the boy pointed out a detail of the carving, and the troll craned closer to look, and quick as lightning the boy turned his hand and stabbed the troll in the eye. And that was the end of the troll. The boy wanted to run away, but he turned back and saw that the workshop was now empty. And he didn't leave. He ate the troll's food and slept in the troll's bed. And now he dines on human flesh, and carves knife handles from the bones. And business is good. One day soon, he will need assistance.

The changelings who, for the want of a better term, are called Ogres understand this story, for it informs who they are. They know that abuse sometimes creates abusers, that the victims of brutality can sometimes become brutal themselves. By definition, the Ogres are those changelings who have been shaped by unthinking violence, and brutishness defines them.

This is not to say that Ogres can't be gentle or honorable, or possessed of restraint. It's just harder for them. They believe that their journey through the Hedge was the hardest of all the changelings because they had to escape from vicious, brutal captors, through locked doors, from chains and manacles, from regular beatings and the fear of beatings. To escape from that, every Ogre inevitably had to become hardened to the violence, and in Faerie, to become hardened to something is often to become that thing. Just as the shoemaker's youngest son, some changelings defeat their captors only to become them.

Most folklore traditions have stories of trolls, hags, giants and flesh-eaters, and the changeling Ogres reflect those, to a certain extent. Their tragedy is often that as they try to escape the violence that made them, they perpetrate it.

A big man, Cyclopean in stature, one eye missing and covered by a patch, works as a traveling salesman. Sometimes, when he thinks that no one's watching, he makes a meal of lonely people he meets on the road. The Court that uses him as a courier doesn't know this. A Gristlegrinder hag with teeth like iron and skin like green leather is the matron of a children's home. The kids are scared stiff she'll make good on threats to eat them up. She wouldn't, but the children she terrifies unknowingly gain a respect for the things of Faerie that might one day save them from ending up like the matron. Another Gristlegrinder, a tiger-jawed, wide-eyed Indian raksha, works as a police community support officer. The frequency of racist abuse and attacks has plummeted since he's been on the job. Partly, this is because of the rumors of the terrible things that happen to people who stray onto his turf. How long can it last? One of the more organized racist groups is thinking of retaliating. A Farwalker, a farmer, keeps kids away from the Deep Dark Wood at the edge of his land (and the gap in the Hedge in the middle of it) with tales of the orange-eyed, black-tongued, sharp-toothed creature that hunts there. The farmer wouldn't hurt a fly, but he really looks the part. A Gargantuan oni demon, a tusked, scarlet-skinned brute, makes a living as a construction worker. If his Court wants something (or someone) buried, something placed in the fabric of the building, or something sabotaged, they'll come to him, although they won't expect subtlety. A craggy-chinned Stonebones climbs in the Rockies. He's been caught in avalanches and rockfalls, but somehow he never seems to be badly hurt. He knows the mountains like he knows his own back garden, and he's a superlative guide. A Water-Dweller works for the Coast Guard. He amazes his colleagues -- and even himself -- with the acts of heroism he engages in, and the feats of strength he sometimes manages to perform in service of his craft. What his colleagues don't know is that sometimes the Court would prefer that some boats stay sunk, that some crews drowned and sometimes the aspiring lifesaver finds his loyalties sorely tested.

Whatever place an Ogre finds in the world, she'll find that the only way to rise above the brutality that made her what she is to accept it and use it. Of course, there's a fine line between accepting something and embracing it, a line too many Ogres cross.

Appearance
Ogres are always brutish in some way. Some have bestial features (and a very few might even be confused with Beasts). Many are tall and broad, although by no means all. There are several short Ogres and almost as many skinny Ogres.

The Hag Matron has hair like wire and deeply wrinkled, leathery dark green skin, covered with warts and pustules. Her teeth are made of steel and catch the light when she bares them. As a human, she looks older than she is, and has an intimidating cast of feature. The raksha policeman has jaws like a tiger, and skin of the deepest blue. In his mortal guise, his eyes are incredibly compelling, and sometimes frightening. The Farwalker bogeyman is hairy, with shaggy black hair covering his body, an elongated snout with tusk, short spines covering his back and blazing orange eyes. In real life he's pretty scary-looking, too, the epitome of the intimidating land-worker. The Cyclopean salesman's one eye appears in the center of his forehead in his fae seeming. The Stonebones mountaineer has skin made of rocks, and eyes that peer out from beetling brows. Even as a human, he's craggy and weather-beaten. The Water-Dwelling Coast Guard member has tusks and green, scaly skin. The oni construction worker is bright scarlet, with the wild hair and grimacing mouth of the creature he resembles, wild hair and ugly features that persist to a degree when his seeming is invisible.

Background
The Ogres who make it back through the Hedge have to be, more than any other changeling, exceptional people. Not that the Fae are necessarily picky in whom they choose to abuse and brutalize: More that the Ogres are the ones who managed both to survive without being eaten, crippled or beaten to death and to avoid becoming so much like the monsters that took them that they wouldn't want to leave. They don't have to be particularly smart or cunning, but they are the kind of people who know their own mind. Most Ogres have an inborn streak of stubbornness that makes them faithful (if sometimes annoying) companions and terrible enemies.

Durance
Ogres' memories of their time in Faerie are often clearer than those of other changelings. Kidnapped by monsters, the Ogres became monsters. Some were forced to subsist on raw flesh. Some were chained to the hearth and forced to cook for awful masters. Some scrubbed floors until their knees grew scales. Some were made to fight. Some were chained up in dungeons and fattened up for the pot. All were abused in some way, and Ogres sometimes have flashbacks of verbal and physical abuse, brief painful moments where they relive in their heads the impact of a fist or foot, or the sting of a verbal barb.

Character Creation
Nearly all Ogres concentrate on Physical Attributes and Skills, almost to the exclusion of all else. Presence is a popular buy for Ogres who seem larger and more intimidating than their actual physical stature would imply. Physical Merits are also common, particularly the Giant Merit. Many Ogres take Wrath or Gluttony as Vices.

Blessing
Ogres are mostly big, often ugly and always capable of frightening displays of brute force. The player can spend points of Glamour to improve dice pools involving Strength, Brawl and Intimidate. Each point of Glamor spent adds one die to one dice pool.

Curse
Not all Ogres are necessarily stupid, but most are fairly gullible, weak-willed and prone to impulsive, thoughtless actions. An Ogre doesn't get the benefit of the 10 again rule on dice pools using Composure (with the exception of Perception rolls using Wits + Composure, which suffer no penalty). The character also suffers a -1 die penalty to Composure when using it as a Defense Trait (that is, when subtracting it from another character's dice pool).

Kiths
Bloodbrute: Veterans of the fighting pits frequented by jaded Gentry, the Bloodbrutes were kept for one purpose only: to fight for their Keepers' enjoyment. In some cases, the battles were simple matters of survival, but too many others came with extra rules and conditions born of a fickle Other's imagination. The Bloodbrute is a master of Improvised Mayhem: By spending a Glamor point, he may rip a suitably sizable object free from its moorings and fashion it into a crude but effective weapon as a standard action. The character can create the equivalent of any weapon from the Melee Weapons Chart, given appropriate materials at hand. For example, he could craft the equivalent of a great ax by uprooting a stop sign and hastily wrapping the sign into a more effective ax head, but he couldn't make a spear out of a small nightstand. The item does not suffer any penalties for its improvised nature as long as the Bloodbrute wields it; others suffer a -1 equipment penalty if attempting to use the impromptu implement of destruction.

Corpsegrinder: Some Ogres are fed upon death. The Corpsegrinders are survivors of massive charnel pits, brutes maintained on a diet of bones and carrion, the hulking guardians of burial grounds. They gnawed like Nidhogg at the roots of great dead trees, or tunneled into graves like ghuls to search out the freshest corpses. The Corpsegrinder's gift is Sepulchral Hunger: The character gains a +1 bonus to any attack roll made against an enemy who has already been reduced to half his Health. In addition, the Corpsegrinder gains an additional die to attack rolls made against undead creatures such as vampires.

Cyclopean: The Cyclopeans are like the ancient hunters and herdsmen of legend who sought men for their cooking pots: Changelings who resemble Cyclops of Archaic Greece, the one-legged Fachan of Scots legend, the three-eyed oni of Japan, the elephant-eared rakshas of India, or the wind-borne footless Wendigo of North America. Although many are crippled in some way, they have profound senses to make up for it. The Cyclopeans can Smell the Blood: The character gains the benefit of the 8 again rule on Wits-based Perception rolls. He can smell things that can't normally be smelled, meaning that even if some of his senses are deficient, his sense of smell makes up for it. Many Cyclopeans have Physical Flaws such as One Eye, Lame, One Arm or Hard of Hearing.

Farwalker: Changelings who resemble the abominable men of mystery, the possibly savage hairy creatures of the wilds whose existence straddles the divide between folklore and cryptozoology: the Sasquatch, the yeti, the Russian Alma, the Australian yowie and dozens of other wild men. Farwalkers have The Elusive Gift: The character gains the benefit of the 9 again rule on Stealth and Survival dice pools. Also, the player can spend a point of Glamor to retake a failed Stealth or Survival roll.

Gargantuan: Captured by giants, these changelings had to grow to a greater stature, perhaps being stretched on racks or forced to drink noxious potions. As humans, they appear less freakish, though many purchase the Giant Merit. Their blessing is Spurious Stature: Once a day, the changeling can grow to colossal size. The player spends a point of Glamor, and adds the changeling's Wyrd score to her size for the rest of the scene. This supplies temporary Health dots. Returning to normal size is painful, as if the changeling's skin is unable to contain the character's stature, and when she regains her normal height, the character takes one point of lethal damage.

Gristlegrinder: Man-eaters and gluttons, taking their cue from the English Black Annis, Scottish Red Caps or the rakshas of India, but also sometimes resembling more modern Ogres, such as the masked unstoppable lunatics of slash-and-stalk horror movies. Every Gristlegrinder has Terrible Teeth in his terrible jaws: The character's bite is a two lethal attack, though it does require him to grapple the opponent first.

Render: The Renders were kept as living engines of destruction. They may have been used as shock troops in a besieging army, charged with ripping open the gates and tearing down the enemy's towers. They may have been woodsmen without axes, quarry-workers reliant on their talons rather than chisel and mattock. The Render's gift is the Sundering Talons: When damaging an object with his bare hands, the Render may ignore up to three points of Durability. His claws count as a tool created to bypass Durability

Stonebones: Changelings who resemble the rocky giants of folklore, Nordic trolls, Native American mountain spirits and the like. The Stonebones are blessed with Obdurate Skin: Once per day as an instant action, the player can spend one point of Glamor to harden the character's skin, making it like rock. The character uses his Wyrd as his armor rating for the rest of the scene. The character's rocky carapace does mean, however, that the character isn't as nimble as he was: The changeling suffers a -1 die penalty to all Dexterity-based dice pools while this power is active. In addition, his Defense is reduced by one for every two points of Wyrd past the first; -1 Defense at 3 Wyrd, -2 Defense at 5 Wyrd and so on. This blessing doesn't stack with mundane forms of armor.

Water-Dweller: Changelings who resemble the legendary water-demons of many cultures, from life-demanding river spirits through to the trolls of coastal caves and under-bridge shadows. The Water-Dweller can Lie Under the Waves: The character can hold her breath for 30 minutes, as if she had a Stamina of 7. She is also accustomed to murk and darkness, and suffers no penalties to sight-based Perception rolls when underwater.

Witchtooth: The embodiment of the cruel, maneating hag and the selfish, mystical monster, the Witchtooth is among the wisest and most cunning of Ogres. The Witchtooth have a penchant for dark magic, particularly curses. While many of the most famous examples of this monster are female -- Baba Yaga, Spearfinger, Black Annis -- male changelings can learn the ugly secrets of Witchtooth wisdom as well. The Witchtooth has learned the secrets of the Black Hex: The character may spend Glamor to increase Occult rolls, and gains a one-die bonus to activate any Contracts that involve cursing another person (such as Fickle Fate).