As a follow-up to last month's post, and in honor of Halloween, I give you ... Haunted Orcs (Muhahahaha!)

You may remember that last month I talked about OD&D's Wilderness Encounter table, and how I suggested altering it. If you don't, please take a moment to read last month's column. Okay, now that you're back, I'll walk you through the steps, using some very luckless orcs as my example.

Step One

Decide which dominant groups are possible in the larger area (island, kingdom, continent, etc.), and make a chart detailing them.

Major groups (1d12)

• 1 Two or more dominant groups (see below). Roll 1d10+1 twice.
• 2-5 Humans (probably the most likely)
• 6-7 Demihumans (elves, dwarves, etc)
• 8-9 Goblinoid/Humanoids
• 10 Giants/ogres/trolls etc
• 11 Mystical threats such as the undead
• 12 Major monsters such as dragons

Step Two

Roll on the chart you've selected or constructed to see which group predominates in THIS area, then follow-up with the specific sub-charts.

So now the dice came out. I rolled a 1: two or more dominant groups. That means I need to roll 1d10+1 twice, and find a way to combine the results. I rolled an 8 (goblinoids/humanoids) and 11 (mystical threats, such as undead). I think I can work with that.

Rolling on the Goblinoid sub-table below, we roll a 4, getting orcs.

Goblinoids (1d10)

• 1-2: Goblins
• 3-5: Orcs
• 6: Kobolds
• 7: Hobgoblins
• 8: Gnolls
• 9-10: Combined group: Roll 1d8 twice. Use half of the given "number appearing" for each group (for example, if both groups show 40-400 as the number appearing, there will be 20-200 of the first group and 20-200 of the second).

We turn to OD&D Book II: Monsters & Treasure and see that orcs come in groups of 30-300, and that they can appear in one of three basic group types: above-ground villages, underground complexes, and trade caravans (which often deal in slaves). Each of these settings has percentage chances of additional NPCs/monsters accompanying/ruling the orcs. Options include ogres, trolls magic-users, even dragons.

This group of orcs is a village, with 149 orcs present. Rolling to see if any other monsters or NPCs are present with them, we see that none are. They do, however, have 2 catapults (1 per 50 orcs).

Okay, so let's look at the group that "shares" their village, the undead. Rolling on the undead table below, I get a 9, for a mixed group of 64 skeletons, 84 zombies, and 11 ghouls.

Undead (1d12)

• 1-3 skeletons
• 4-6 zombies
• 7-8 ghouls
• 9 Mixed group of 12d10 (40%) skeletons, 15d10 (50%) zombies, and 3d10 (10%) ghouls
• 10 wights
• 11 ghosts
• 12 vampires

Now, for the motivations of the two dominant groups. The orcs are intelligent, and so will roll on the following tables: I like rolling benevolence/malevolence first (I got a 3, standard motivation).

Benevolence/Malevolence (1d6)

• 1: Mission of mercy/benevolence
• 2-5: Standard motivation. Generally, the lower the number rolled, the more ethical they will behave overall.
• 6: Actively evil mission (like slave-trading)

Now for the standard motivations table. I rolled a 4, conquest/adding new territory. Maybe this village was meant to be the staging ground for an expansion into the human territories? Or maybe they just carved a village out of the woods in an attempt to add to their territory without conflict.

Standard Motivations (1d10)

• 1: Vendetta/Revenge/Seeking to return a fugitive to justice
• 2: Hiding/on the run/fleeing a disease, curse, or vendetta
• 3: Looking for a new home
• 4: Conquest/adding new territory
• 5: Religious or similar mission
• 6: Secret business for a high-ranked individual. Will have a cover story
• 7: Seeking a lost item or person
• 8-10: Commerce (logging, mining, etc)

Undead and similar creatures are somewhat different. They pretty much always have a malevolent motivation. The real question is whether they are "feral" or being controlled by an intelligent force. If feral, they may actually be haunting someone, that is, they may be acting as part of a cause and effect relationship, and an army of undead may be stopped by correcting the situation.

I've decided that these undead are "feral," ie, they are tied to the location of the village in some way, and they are not being controlled by an intelligence or NPC.

Okay, so I'm going to put these pieces together and see what I have. A village of orcs on a mission to add more territory found a perfect hilly area to put a village. They had to clear some trees, sure, but they needed lumber to build the village, so it seemed perfect. . . until they discovered why there wasn't already a village on top of that hill. That hill was an ancient barrow, filled with unquiet dead. Now the normally nocturnal orcs must operate during the day and huddle locked in their huts, marked with whatever holy symbols they can beg, borrow or buy, until dawn. They desperately want someone to help rid them of their problem. They don't have a cleric among them, and their attempts at fighting the undead have been costly and futile.

Step Three

I need to construct a level-appropriate random encounters table containing characters/monsters from the dominant groups, and determine how likely that table is to used instead of the "generic" wilderness encounter table I might otherwise be using (one that has local wild animals, other travelers, and so on).

In this case I might say that close to the village-site, you're 50% likely to use either chart. Farther out from the village, you won't see the undead, but you will have a 25% chance of running into the orcs.

Day -- Orcs (1d6)

• 1: Solitary orc, on a scouting mission, looking for help, or running away
• 2: Small family of orcs fleeing with what they can carry
• 3: Small orc patrol (1d6)
• 4: Orc work group (3d6, but only 1d6 are warriors/armed, and they're all focused on their task)
• 5: Large orc patrol (2d8)
• 6: 1d6 orcs doing some kind of religious ritual or penance to seek divine help for their problem

Night -- Undead (1d6)

• 1: Skeletons (1d6)
• 2: Zombies (1d6)
• 3: 1 ghoul plus 1d6 skeletons plus 1d6 zombies
• 4: Roll 1d6: odd = 2d6 skeletons. Even = 2d6 zombies.
• 5: 1d4 ghouls
• 6: Roll on orc table. They are terrified of the undead, don't really want to be out there, and not much interested in fighting humans/elves/dwarves/halflings.

So, what did we end up with? I picture this as something like the old NES game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. When the sun set in the villages, they became filled with undead, and you had to fight until "The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night" flashed across the screen and the sun rose.

Except here, instead of friendly human villagers, orcs are the victims of the undead menace. This adds a little twist to it, since orcs tend to be very standard enemies at low experience leveled. Do the PCs decide to abandon the orcs, or even hinder them, so the undead can destroy them utterly? Do they stand with the orcs to destroy the undead? Do they try to find a way to put the undead to rest, or relocate the village to somewhere less haunted? I don't know, but I think I could have fun finding out.

Happy Halloween.