Like so: https://afraidofencounters.bearblog.dev/indonesian-ttrpg-blogwagon/
It is said that the people of the forest can speak as we do, but choose not to out of fear that if we knew we would force them to work. This is not a baseless fear.
A long time ago an orangutan's daughter fell sick. The forest she knew had been felled for crop-land, so she could not find the plants that would heal her daughter. She found a human and begged him for help, and the human feigned concern until she brought him to her daughter and then he tied ropes around their necks.
The man, already wealthy, grew rich indeed off the labour of orangutans - once he realized their value as slaves, he placed bounties on their parents, and took their children to work on his plantation. They grew up knowing nothing but bondage and drudgery. The fiery colours of their fur faded to the greenish-white of gravemold. Their flanges sagged, their bellies sagged, even as they walked upright their shoulders sagged and lowered their knuckles to drag through the dirt. All the life that had left the rest of them went into their eyes - bloodshot and frenetic things that began to whip about so quickly as to blur.
One day, the plantation's slaves came across the man's daughter, sleeping in the shade of a mango tree. After a few moments of debate they crushed her head in with a rock for her indolence, and got back to work. The man fell into despair, but the work continued. By that point they had become something other than orangutans.
Through a combination of strength and indefatigable obsession, a single one can do the labour of five men, and needn't stop for rest. Fear and pain can no longer coerce them - only the threat of mutilation which would inhibit their ability to work, and the offer of a potion made of wine and certain foreign drugs. Intoxication by this potion is the closest they can come to rest, to remembering the sweetness of fruit and honey, of the freedom of the canopies - and that it contains alcohol is considered proof of their natural inferiority and iniquity.
That man has been dead for many, many years, but they continue their work. Sometimes they are slaves, and sometimes they are masters, for they are consumed by the crop, the yield, the product, by productivity, and loathe to see a plantation mismanaged. The forest is no longer their home, but it remembers its love for them, and so they come out of the trees at night to kill and put under new management.
They are
Orangladangs
HD: 4 AC: 14 ATK: 1d6 machete or other farm-tool plus Poison, or if unarmed 1d4/1d4 paw plus rend 1d8 if both paw attacks hit the same target SAV: 8 MOV: As ape INT: As brutalized near-human ML: 7, or 11 if currently engaged in labour
No. Appearing: 1d4 in the forest, or 2d4 on a plantation
Poison: They remember the roots and the leaves and the saps and the juices but where once these things were used to heal they are now used to harm. A weapon wielded by an orangladang is slathered with a dose of one of the following poisons (1d4):
1. Hobbling-Crackle: A blueish crust. Save or else roll 1d4 (1 - right arm, 2 - left arm, 3 - left leg, 4 - right leg) - take additional 1d6 damage and affected limb becomes stiff and paralyzed for 1d6 hours as fluids in tissues crystallize.
2. Screaming-Waking-Nightmare: Grey and bubbling. Save or go mad as per Confusion for 1d6 rounds
3. Pecked-And-Stung: Yellow and resinous. Save or else for the next day all encounters with non-mammalian animals have the lowest possible reaction roll.
4. Be-Still-Heart: Blush-pink, slick and dripping. Save or else for the next hour you must test constitution whenever you take a strenuous action (swinging a sword, running, etc.). After three failed constitution tests your heart stops.
Forest's Unforgotten Love: Surprise on a 4-in-6 in the forest.
No comments:
Post a Comment