Ogre Cave Dressing One-Pager
Ogres are generally stupid and brutish creatures. When encountered in their lairs, ogres react violently to the intrusion.
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Outside the Lair
Disjointed sections of rotting wood fencing, surround a plot of turnips.
Red paint warns about the ogre (which doesn’t care about the unreadable words or is colour blind).
Increasingly valuable coins form a beguiling trail leading to the cave’s entrance.
Several obvious snare traps, some of which are poorly set and will never work, dot the surrounding area.
What’s Going On?
The ogre stands on one foot with its eyes closed as if it is deep in meditation.
The ogre is whittling a tree branch into a masterfully carved club and proudly appraising her progress.
The ogre is cleaning his teeth with a sharpened bone; he jabs himself in the gum at the characters’ interruption.
The ogre is slashing at a leafy tree branch with a sword; every strike is punctuated with an exultant yell.
Major Lair Features
An intact dragon skeleton fills the rear section of the cave. It’s likely the ogre didn’t kill the dragon.
The back of the lair feeds into a set of confusing and twisting passages. The ogre avoids the area.
Fissures honeycomb the walls; a noticeable breeze emanates from the cracks, suggesting they link to a deeper cave system.
Intricately carved columns, dating back to an ancient civilisation, support the ceiling.
Minor Lair Features
This uprooted eight-foot-tall tree serves as a barrier used by the ogre to shake down visitors to the cave system, and as an impromptu weapon.
A fraying rope hammock is tied between two freestanding stone columns.
Ropes dangle from crevices in the ceiling. Several ropes sit in a pile, torn down by the ogre.
A stone trapdoor is only partially covered by a moth-eaten rug. It takes considerable strength to open the door. The ogre hides valuables in the shallow hole beneath the door.
Ogre’s Appearance
Clad in a hooded, black cloak long enough to reach the floor, this ogre enjoys lurking in shadows and the like.
A livid scar shaped like a forked lightning bolt cuts down the ogre’s right arm.
The ogre wears several pieces of costume jewellery, including a matching set of five rings on his left hand. None of the pieces are valuable, but the ogre likes the way they glitter in the light.
Wearing dried mud and live sprigs from trees (perhaps as forest camouflage) in its clothes this ogre resembles a bush. The disguise is ineffective in the ogre’s lair.
Treasure
This collection of jade combs is worth more if they’re cleaned and the stringy hair removed.
This iron-bound chest resisted the ogre’s attempts to open it. It holds 100 gp and a decades-old deed to a nearby plot of land.
What appears to be 312 gold coins are actually copper pieces painted (unconvincingly) to look like gold. The paint job would only fool an ogre—or an imbecile.
Hidden under lice-ridden bedding is a tarnished gold amulet inset with a tiny ruby.
Trinkets & Trash
The ogre has a crude map of the neighbouring caverns, but the map is only about half accurate.
Crude charcoal drawings on hide display the ogre’s victims and means by which the ogre slew them. The ogre used actual blood to accentuate the pictures.
A battered tin box contains fresh pickled frogs’ legs and dried mushrooms.
Painted letters decorate these crudely carved blocks. Either on purpose, or by sheer accident, the ogre has arranged them to spell words like “cat” and “run.”
Credit
This is a short system-neutral extract from Monstrous Lair #03: Ogre Cave by Mike Welham.
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