Bakemono

Bakemono are a surface-dwelling eastern goblin breed, even dimmer than their western kin, and no two look the same. Skin ranges from bright orange through fiery red to deep blue, and eyes are usually black, yellow, green, or gray. Any mix of stubby wings, short tails, hooves, fur, feathers, scales, big noses, floppy ears, and hunched backs may appear. They dress in anything from ragged robes to battered leather to dirty cotton peasant clothes and speak in shrill voices. Every one is mean-spirited. They know the trade tongue, the local human language, and their own, which resembles that of oni.

They fight clumsily and on impulse, with no tactics beyond ambushes and headlong charges. Their gear is looted, not made. A typical band carries: spear 40%, naginata with short sword 20%, tetsubo with short sword 10%, short sword with shortbow 10%, kusari-gama with trident 10%, chain with shuriken 5%, and katana 5%. In a large force, 20% wear patched-together armor for AC 5, crudely hacked to fit their odd bodies and useless to PCs. Like goblins they dislike bright light but suffer no penalty in it, and lacking infravision they gain nothing from darkness.

A band holds 20-80 (1d4 x 20) adult males, females numbering 60% of the males, and as many children as adults. Most bands bow to an oni or ogre mage, and each 20 males answer to a larger lieutenant (AC 4, HD 2, Dmg 1-8, THAC0 19) who takes orders from the ruler. Females and young do not fight.

Strife is constant: members drift between bands at whim, and charges of treachery spark brawls. Otherwise they raid human and humanoid settlements or rob travelers. Nearly everything they own is stolen, and the lieutenants split the treasure, leaving the rest with trinkets. There is a 20% chance a band holds slaves of various races, numbering 10-40% of the band.

Being poor miners, they seize abandoned temples or villages for lairs, evicting any residents. These lairs are filthy, crumbling, and so trash-strewn that many seem abandoned. 40% have a wooden stockade watched by about 10% of the band, who are often asleep, drunk, or idle.

They eat any wild game and like it cooked but rarely bother. Their weakness is strong drink, and they have savaged villages purely to steal sake. They deal with oni and ogre mages and openly hate every humanoid race.