Ice Spire Ogre

Larger, brighter and deadlier than common ogres, these dwellers of a frozen mountain range stand about 10 feet and weigh 500 to 600 pounds. Skin runs yellow to black-brown, hair is dingy gray and eyes glint purple. They reek of rotting meat, worse than their cousins, and wrap themselves in heavy furs bound with wide leather straps.

They are disciplined troops able to execute complex group maneuvers. Powerful limbs give +2 to hit and +6 damage. Eleven or more bring a leader (+3 to hit), and sixteen or more a chieftain (+4): 9 Hit Dice, AC 3, 2d8+7 per attack or +7 with a weapon. Six or more include a shaman with ordinary ogre statistics and 3rd-level priest powers, raised to 5th level when sixteen or more are present. Females deal 2d4 and cap at 6 hp per Hit Die; young fight as goblins.

In icy terrain they gain +2 on surprise and move silently 30% of the time. Shamans devour every foe they slay in battle, believing it grants control of the victim's spirit.

Most occupy a vast high cave network reached by a defensible tangle of stairs and ladders. A dense, choking mist fills it, limiting sight; newcomers must save vs. poison or suffer nausea for 1d3 turns, fighting at -3. Residents dart through the haze with +4 surprise and a 50% chance to hide in shadows or move silently. Worshipers of the ogre god of destruction, they love battle and ritually club one another to fix their pecking order.

Another tribe inhabits a gloomy icy chasm in thrall to the demon lord Baphomet. In trances they carve hideous friezes at its mouth to ward off trespassers. Gazing at them more than three rounds acts as confusion, and any close study requires a save vs. spell to avoid turning chaotic evil for 1d4 days. The demon has drained many of these ogres into listless trances, roused only to eat and fight.

Without warning, his influence can trigger the Blood Dance among them, a 2d10-turn killing frenzy granting +2 to attack and damage. Dancers fight until their fury fades or they fall at -10 hp, though damage past 0 still proves fatal.

Near the bottom of their region's giant hierarchy, they herd big yak-like cattle for milk, meat and hides, raid for food and glory, and hire out as mercenaries when humans or richer peoples nearby wage war.