High Ogre

High ogres, the fair ogres, are slim six-footers of about 150 pounds, females equal to males, with firm muscles and real strength. Skin ranges from deep sea green to midnight blue; short, neat hair is black, silver or white; eyes are silver. Gaunt faces and heavy lids make them seem bored, which they are not. They often reach 500. They wear simple pale linens and silks, perhaps one modest jewel, but never wool, leather or other animal products. Their motion is fluid and lovely and their voices among the most beautiful in the world.

All can shapechange, altering height up to two feet either way and copying any humanoid's features, most convincingly human, elf or half-elf. Perfecting a form takes years, so most master one and reuse it.

Few have any fighting skill; they prefer graceful retreat, see no honor in bloodshed and perform a cleansing rite after any fight. Their strength gives a typical weapon 1d10 damage, but distaste for contact imposes -1 to hit with all melee weapons, so they favor slings and bows.

They also craft their own arms. Vine bolas, weighted with hooked stones, reach 25 yards, deal 1d4 and entangle until the victim makes a Dexterity check at -2. Cluster balls of dried clay bristle with mildly toxic thorns for 1-2 damage, plus 1d4 more if a save vs. poison fails. Egg-shell powder bombs burst over ten feet in radius: sleep (save vs. poison or as the spell), paralysis (save vs. paralyzation or helpless 2d4 rounds) or blindness (save vs. poison or blinded as the spell, 2d4 rounds).

Casters prefer spells, and their insight into magic grants priests and wizards one bonus spell at their highest level. Changer Adepts and Savants scare foes by becoming a death knight or minotaur, or escape as a mouse or bird. Armor is a last resort, always light and never animal-made, and weak Constitution gives -1 on poison saves.

Their sacred chronicle says ogres, not elves, woke first in the first age, darkly beautiful but cold and evil. Human contact unwittingly gave a great clan leader free will, which spread through his clan until all saw where evil led. Spurned by the other clans amid secret civil wars, they withdrew to a distant northern island, while the rest decayed into ugliness matching their hearts. After the great cataclysm, evil forces found and attacked the island; repelled, they still carried off many captives. Freed after the War of the Dark Queen, survivors roam the mainland in disguise, singly, in groups of 1d10 or as families, seeking a way home.

Magic, including permanent hallucinatory terrain, hides the island as empty sea. During the full moon of the silver moon, farthest of three, which lasts nine days every 36, wanderers hear its telepathic call and can steer toward it by ship, but the voyage outlasts the call and few succeed.

The island is a lush tropical paradise of friendly beasts. They build no lasting homes, living in caves and valleys and moving at whim, and own little beyond small caches of coins and gems kept to bribe intruders away. An absolute monarch, male or female and descended from that first chieftain, rules until 400, then usually the eldest child takes the crown.

They bear 1d4 children every 50 years and begin teaching them every art within weeks, shapechanging foremost; most can adopt humanoid guises at will by 20. With Intelligence 16+, at 50 one may train ten years or more as a Changer Adept, gaining shapechange (as the 9th-level wizard spell) thrice daily. With Intelligence 18, at 100 it may spend at least 50 more years becoming a Changer Savant, able to shapechange at will.

Living in harmony with nature, they harm no creature unless their own life is threatened. They eat no meat, eggs or milk, drink no alcohol, use no animal goods, make nothing for trade and do not trade. Outsiders seeking their knowledge of exotic plants and animals usually pay by helping a lost relative or friend come home.