Orc Caves
Wild and feral orcs take over caves with little care for secrecy or subtlety. Proudly displaying their battle trophies, they taint the area with their awful, savage presence.
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Outside the Lair
A severed orc’s hand lies beside the track. Closer inspection reveals it was removed by a heavy, blunt blade wielded with considerable force.
Hundreds of heads—the orcs’ victims—are impaled on the sharpened branches of a twisted tree.
Bestial roars and raucous laughter echo from the cave’s dark entrance.
The image of several teeth has been crudely chipped into the rock face, as the beginning of a skull carving.
What’s Going On?
Two orcs wrestle noisily in a pit; their grunts and shouts echo noisily through the tunnels.
Limping along, a wounded orc lags behind his companions and collapses. His uncaring, weary fellows don’t notice he is missing.
Piggy-backing orcs parody a noble joust, using long poles to knock each other over.
Several orcs are planning to ambush a rival and use the distraction of the party’s arrival to strike.
Major Lair Features
The tribe uses a putrid mess of blood and clay to daub crude sigils on the walls and their many banners. Pots of it litter the lair.
A pile of heavy rubble hides the crushed bodies of two orcs whose poor attempt at mining caused a collapse.
Scalps and skulls of powerful enemies are nailed to a rotted tree trunk in the centre of the chamber.
The vinegary stink of rotting guts fills the air. Investigation reveals ropey intestines with drying meat hanging on them jammed into cracks in the wall.
Minor Lair Features
Glowing coals fill skulls suspended from the ceiling. Sinister flickering light fills the area.
The foul-smelling waste filling this otherwise empty animal pen makes intruders’ eyes water.
A barrel of heads rots in a corner. Sometimes, the orcs throw the suppurating heads at each other for fun.
A rusty helm slowly filling with fetid water dribbling down the rocks is nailed to a wall.
Orc’s Appearance
A bull’s horn rises from the side of this grey-skinned orc’s helmet. The horn is battered, chipped and slightly lopsided, giving the orc a comical look.
Patches of this orc’s skin are a sickly yellow colour. Black, weeping sores cover much of its body. Dried black ichor streaks the orc’s clothes.
Wielding a vicious barbed polearm this orc stands back, watching its fellows. It only attacks when an enemy is injured or distracted.
Claw marks scar the face of this old orc’s face giving him a lopsided almost childlike grin.
Treasure
Three green precious stones sit prominently atop a goat’s skull.
A silver nibbed quill from a writing kit is embedded in a chair leg; the kit’s inks and drying powders stain the nearby floor and walls.
A boar-face helmet, complete with a pig-nosed face plate and engraved steel ears, perches on a small table.
A cloak of untreated lion skin complete with claws and skull hangs from a spike driven into a wall. The cloak stinks of rotting meat until vigorously cleaned.
Trinkets & Trash
An ornate paper fan is jammed into a crack in the wall. Its delicate scenes are stained with blood and mould.
A chipped stoneware plate decorated with blue fish lies in many pieces on the floor.
A single padded boxing glove, like those worn by the fighters in a travelling circus, hangs from a spike.
A deer hide quiver is filled to bursting with cracked, badly fletched hunting arrows.
Credit
This is a short system-neutral extract from Monstrous Lair #50: Orc Caves by Steve Hood.
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