Ettin [Giant]

From a distance an ettin looks like a two-headed hill or stone giant, but up close the resemblance fades. Its pink to brownish skin is hidden under a crust of grime so thick it seems to be a brown hide, and that tough skin accounts for its good Armor Class. Long, greasy hair hangs from both heads, the teeth are huge, yellow and often rotten, and the faces are distinctly orcish, with watery eyes, upturned piggy snouts and wide mouths. The right head always dominates, and the limbs on that side tend to be more heavily muscled. It wears raw, filthy skins and stinks terribly.

Ettins have no language of their own, just a jumble of goblin, orc, and giant dialects mixed with the chaotic evil alignment tongue. Someone who speaks orcish follows about half of what an ettin says.

With one head always keeping watch, surprise works against an ettin only on a 1 on 1d10, and its 90-foot infravision lets it hunt in darkness. Dull-witted but crafty, it prefers ambushes to fair fights; once battle is joined, though, it fights savagely until every foe is dead or the fight is plainly lost, retreating only when it cannot win.

Each head runs one arm, so it makes two attacks with no penalty for fighting two-handed. It always carries two big clubs, usually spiked: the left deals 2d8 and the right 3d6. Without weapons its left fist does 1d10 and its right 2d6.

Ettins prefer dark caves in remote, rocky country, reeking of rotten food and dung. They are loners; mates stay together only a few months after a birth, and the young grow up fast, leaving home within eight to ten months. Rarely, a powerful ettin gathers 1d4 others into a band that lasts only while the leader lives and keeps winning. One serious defeat and the band scatters.

They gather treasure only to hire goblins or orcs, who may rig traps around the lair or help beat off a dangerous enemy. Some keep 1d2 cave bears nearby. Their squalid dens crawl with vermin and parasites, and ettins often carry parasitic diseases, so looting a lair is revolting and possibly hazardous.

Their crude ways produce nothing of value to civilized folk. They put up with neighbors such as orcs when those neighbors are useful; anyone else who trespasses gets smashed without discussion.