Ogres, Ninjas and Poison, a Hex and a Dungeon

21 Oct, 2025

The Ogre Camp

Three ogres live here with a human child they’ve raised since they destroyed a merchant caravan passing through the area and found the infant within. The human is now an adult and a skilled hunter and tracker. She helps the ogres lure in merchants and travelers to be killed.

The ogre camp sits near the edge of a river, covered by a cloth tent stretched between trees. The camp is filled with stolen merchant goods, human bones, and various handmade hunting tools. A firepit with a spit large enough to hold a human sits near the tent, gristle and seared bits of flesh hanging on it.

The ogres keep the best of their goods in a cave a quarter mile south of the camp. The matriarch, GaBa, spends a lot of time in the cavern with her art, the others only spend time in the cave during bad weather.

Camp Residents

GoBo

28 grit, 17 Brawn, 8 Agility, 12 Mind Smash: 2d6 Throw (with Tsa’Lee): Throws Tsa-Lee onto a nearby target. The target makes a Brawn save to avoid being knocked prone.

Appearance: Hairy except for the face, which has been burned, scar at the corner of the mouth, shoddily made huge cowboy hat.

GoBo is ruthlessly protective of Tsa’Lee and is her primary hunting partner. He is untrusting of others and sees others as threats. He would rather avoid humans and ratlings if possible. He is gruff and speaks very limited Common. He is the main cook of the ogre trio and spends time at camp cooking meals and pampering the women.

GaBa

30 grit, 19 Brawn, 12 Agility, 10 Mind
Smash: 2d6
Crush: The target makes an agility check to avoid being picked up and squeezed by GaBa. On a failure, 3d6 damage, and you can’t take any action on your turn except attempt a brawn check to escape.

Appearance: Well-groomed fur, bulging muscles, accessories made of human bone and jewels, ill-fitting fine clothing

GaBa is the head of the ogre trio. While the group makes decisions together most of the time, GaBa is ultimately the final say. She feels humans and ratlings are no different than any other animal, to be hunted and used for her enrichment, and to be kept in their place if they go where they don’t belong. She is gentle with Tsa-Lee. Speaks little common

GaMa

24 grit, 15 Brawn, 10 Agility, 14 Mind, 1 defense Spells: Wind wall, Grasping Vines
Casting Dice: 2d6

Appearance: Smaller than the other ogres and has thinner fur, wears crude leather armor, and a ruby pendant necklace.

GaMa is a half ogre, though GoBo and GaBa treat her like a full one. Having fit into human society when she was younger, GaMa is the most comfortable with speaking with humans, and untrusting of them given she was ousted from her human home when it became obvious that she was an ogre. She is fluent in common and acts as Tsa-Lee's teacher. GaMa is also a witch, a close friend gave her a blood transfusion to help her escape her hometown.

Tsa-Lee/Lola

18 Grit, 12 Brawn, 16 Agility, 14 Mind
Claws: 1d6
Open vein: Target must make a Brawn check or bleed for 1 damage per turn for 1d6 turns
Execute: 1d12 damage, only usable on bleeding targets

Appearance: Short for a human, messy long hair tied back, wears a wooden mask of a horned creature, keeps a metal claw attached to her hand.

Tsa-Lee, meaning little foot in ogre, (Lola when tricking humans) is the adopted daughter of the ogres. She loves her parents and is happy to either drive dangerous humans away from the ogre’s camp or lure in ones that look like prey. She learned common from GaMa and hunting from GoBo, she's bitter that GaMa won’t give her a blood transfusion to make Tsa-Lee a witch.

What's going on at the camp?

If the players haven't interacted with the camp or its inhabitants, Roll on this table to see what's going on at the camp when the party enters the hex.

The Cave

The cave where the ogres store many of their valuables was originally occupied by ratling ronin and shinobi who used it as an underground poison mushroom farm. The ronin harvest toxic mushrooms and synthesize them to make hallucinogenic poisons. Passageways and sensitive areas were locked or hidden via trick doors. Instructions for avoiding traps and opening doors are left in a symbolic cipher the ratlings use.

The ogres found the cave and smashed through some of it, claiming the space for their own, but they haven't figured out a way through the heavy, lever-locked doors deeper in the cave. The ratlings are ok with the ogres being there as long as they don’t figure out how to get deeper, they have an alternate entrance they use or come in when the ogres aren't around. The ratlings see the ogres as the cave's primary defense, but they still have guards and traps in their portion of the cave, as well as a valve they can use to flood the dungeon with poison gas if the ogres (or anyone else) threaten their turf.

Cave Features

Hallucinogenic Poison

The ratlings have been fashioning poison from purple clathrus mushrooms in the cave. A single dose of the poison causes minor hallucinations and confusion.

An afflicted character suffers a 1 in 6 chance to miss when they attack, increasing by 1 in 6 for each additional time they’ve been dosed.

After a character has been dosed 3 times, they must make a Mind check every 10 minutes or fall unconscious. For each time they’ve been dosed after the third, they take a +1 penalty to their Mind checks.

Characters recover from 1 dose of poison when they Hit the Hay, drinking an antidote immediately removes all doses of poison.

Calamity

This is a calamitous dungeon, so it uses a calamity timer.

Calamity: Ratlings flooding the cave with hallucinogenic poison gas.
Effect: Once the chambers are flooded with gas, characters are afflicted with a dose of hallucinogenic poison each round.
Trigger: The calamity timer begins when the characters have opened any of the lever-locked doors and the ratlings are aware of their presence.
Omens

Entrances

Main entrance (Room 1): The mouth of the cave, clearly visible from a mile away.

Underwater Entrance (Room 9): Anyone who searches the river near the cave discovers water flowing underground towards the cave. A human can squeeze into the passageway where the water is flowing, leading to the bottom of the jellyfish pond in room 9.

Secret entrance (Room 13): on the eastern side of the cave, there is a marsh where anyone looking for an entrance finds hoof prints and crushed reeds. Past the reeds is a cave entrance just wide enough to fit a person. It descends down to a doorway with a lever lock. There are 4 levers, and the following symbols are written above the door in chalk: “Mountain, Mountain, Dagger, Sword”.

Rooms

Map (better one to come after I make it)

This map is just meant to show the relationship between the rooms. The lines don't represent any particular distance.

1. Cave Mouth:

• 2 Monitor lizards: 50% chance they are sleeping, wearing gold, jeweled collars
• Stone Floor: Damp, spotted with smashed pieces of wood and metal

Monitor Lizards
13 grit, 16 brawn, 8 agility, 4 mind, 1 defense

• Bite: 1d6 and grabs the target (they can make a brawn check as an action to break free)
• Tail whip: 1d8
• Death roll: 1d6, target is knocked prone and makes a brawn check or suffers a sprained leg (pick the leg randomly). Only usable on grabbed targets.
• Treasure: Gold collars with a cut ruby hanging from them (50s)
• Details: GaBa’s beloved pets, food motivated

2. Pierre’s Workstation

• Pierre Lemieux: tall, sweaty, red-headed man working on a painting in the center of the room
• Half-finished sculptures and paintings: most carelessly tossed in the corners, a few sitting on makeshift easels
• Paint splotches: dotting the walls, ceiling, and floor

Pierre Lemieux
3 grit, 8 brawn, 11 agility, 12 mind
Why he’s here: Kidnapped as he traveled west with a caravan to sell his art.
What he’s doing: GaBa is forcing him to create art for her, which she keeps in her gallery in room 5.
What he wants: Pierre wants to escape, but won’t leave without a portrait GaBa keeps as the centerpiece of her gallery, he believes it is his finest work (it's nothing special).
What he knows: Pierre knows the ogres haven’t figured out how to pass the locked doors deeper in the cave and has figured out that the rat symbol drawn on some cave walls means “left”. He will provide this information in exchange for the return of the portrait.
Personality: Cowardly, full of himself, stubborn

3. Mask Making Room

• Table covered in masks: The masks are in various stages of completion, mostly made of wood and leather. They are covered in pointy bits and feature exaggerated, angry expressions, and horns. They are sized for a human. One has a splash of dried blood on it.
• Leather and wood working tools: piled nicely beside the table, among them is a metal claw that can be used as a hand weapon.
• Human sized straw bed

The masks
The masks aren’t worth anything, but there are 4 completed masks here. Wearing one provides a -1 bonus to checks made to protect one’s eyes.

4. Kitchen

• Stew pot: A stew pot big enough for a small human to fit inside.
• Hacked up body: A hacked-apart and seasoned body lies beside the stew pot.
• Human clothes: A coat, pants, and shoes are haphazardly thrown in the corner.
• Pots, pans and bonesaws: hanging on the walls and sitting on tables.

The Body
The body is Ashe Stedson, a caravan merchant. His clothes contain a journal that identifies him. It had entries up until 2 days ago, which included plans for an escape as well as a note that the dagger symbol means "down".

5. GaBa’s Gallery

GaBa: Woman ogre admiring her artwork, draped in ill-fitting finery and jewelry made of bone and gemstones, speaks broken common.
Golden Bust of GaBa: 300 pounds, stone sculpture with gold plating on the outside
Gaba’s portrait: A large, mediocre portrait of GaBa, the centerpiece of the gallery.
Chandelier: Hanging precariously from a hooked stalactite.
Lever Locked Door: on the east wall, 5 levers, written above the door in chalk, behind a painting, is (“mountain, dagger, dagger, rat, sword”).

GaBa 30 grit, 19 Brawn, 12 Agility, 10 Mind
Smash: 2d6
Crush: The target makes an agility check to avoid being picked up and squeezed by GaBa. On a failure, 3d6 damage and you can’t take any action on your turn except attempt a brawn check to escape.

Thinks lowly of humans: humans are like any other animal, kept and used if obedient, slaughtered for food if not.
Motivated by: Ostentatious beauty, artwork (of her), flattery. Loves her possessions: Will attack anyone she realizes stole her things or hurt her pets in room 1. Holding: The key to the cage in area 8, 3 damaged pieces of fine clothing (valueless unless repaired), 4 pieces of bone jewelry (too big for humans, but if the gems are removed, they’re worth a total of 20s).

Treasure
Most of the art here is worthless to anyone but GaBa and Pierre. The gold is the most valuable portion of the bust. Intact, the statue is worth 5g, the gold, stripped off, is worth 3g. The gold weighs 30 pounds and is bulky.

6. Lesson Room

Lever Locked door: North, has a row of 5 levers that can be positioned up, down, left, or right, followed by a button.
Chalk above the locked door: Above the door, the following symbols are written in chalk (rat, sword, mountain, mountain, rat).
Chalk on the walls: Different, worse handwriting than the chalk above the door. Includes the common alphabet, various simple math equations, and a note that says “sword = right”.

7. Caravan Supplies

• Blind Salamanders: 3 4-foot long salamanders with slimy grey skin and no eyes, relaxing on top of a pile of spoiled food.
• Smashed caravans: Broken wagon wheels, splinters of wood, and broken signs from various merchant companies line the floor.
• Crates: Containing linens, leather, and moon Lilies.

Blind Salamanders
14 grit, 13 Brawn, 10 Agility, 4 Mind
Bite: 1d6 damage
Toxic Skin: Anyone making physical contact with a salamander feels a strong burning sensation, dealing 1d4 damage
Senses: Blind salamanders can’t see, but they can hear and are sensitive to light.

Crate contents

• The trade goods that haven’t been destroyed are worth 15s.
• The Moon Lilies aren’t valuable to most, but are popular with breweries as a garnish. Worth 10s and a favor to anyone in the alcohol business.

8. Caged Merchants

• Three Merchants: Josh Brown, Jamie Xi, and Jun Tanaka are all locked in a small cage. Jamie and Jun are healthy; Josh has a nasty burn on his arm.
• Cage: Locked by a padlock, bells are affixed to the door.
• Equipment: Well-worn crude armor and a katana (field weapon) sit outside the cage, just far enough away that no one inside can reach them.

The Merchants

• Background: All three work for the Chrysanthemum Caravan Company, a major trading company that specializes in identifying unique wares a town has to offer and selling them elsewhere.
• Appearances:
  Josh: Human, Portly, short black hair, burned arm.
  Jamie: Human, Tall and slender, auburn hair tied back in a messy bun.
  Jun: Ratling, chestnut fur, muscular.
• Details/rewards:
  Josh: Panicked, convinced they’re going to die, if rescued, very chatty and thankful, offers a 10% discount on his wares if they come see him in town after the adventure.
  Jamie: Aloof, religious, frequently quietly praying in the cell. Offers appraising services for free for any item found in the dungeon.
  Jun: Pragmatic, dutiful, owner of the weapons and armor outside. If rescued and provided with her gear, she will offer to accompany the party for the remainder of the dungeon for free (Treat her as a mercenary lackey).

The Cage The lock on the cage is old and easy to break. It can be opened with the key in room 5. Breaking the lock or opening the door without removing the bells attracts the blind salamanders from area 7, if they are alive.

9. Jellyfish Pond

• Pond: The west half of this room is covered by an underground pond covered in tiny glowing lights.
• Jellyfish: Closer inspection reveals the lights are actually hundreds of small jellyfish, who dance, twirl, and periodically glow.
• Tanto: A Tanto dagger sits at the bottom of the pond, stuck between a pair of rocks, it looks well-crafted, despite the water damage.
• Chalk symbols Above the door to the north is a wave symbol.

The Jellyfish
The Jellyfish are aggressive towards anyone who gets in the water. Anyone who tries to swim through the water without protection takes 1d8 damage per round from their stingers. Reaching the Tanto takes 2 rounds, it takes another 2 to surface.

The Tanto The tanto, motomeru, when drawn from a scabbard, shines a ray of light in 3 directions, each pointing to a broken piece of the Onimaru, a legendary sword capable of slaying demons. If the scabbard, blade, and hilt are combined, the blade’s power is restored.

10. Crayfish Lair

• Dead ratling: on the north side of the room, there is a dead navy furred ratling, who looks like his torso was crushed, and is partially eaten.
• Lump in the ground: There is a lump in the ground about 5 feet in radius that rises about a foot off the ground.
• Lever Locked Door: on the east wall, 5 levers, written above the door in chalk is (“mountain, rat, sword, dagger, rat”).

**Giant Crayfish (lump in the ground) **
The lump in the ground is a pair of burrowing giant crayfish; they attack anyone who gets close to them. If the characters are not approaching the lump carefully when they enter the room, they are surprised. One crayfish has an egg sac on its underbelly with hundreds of eggs.

12 grit, 14 Brawn, 6 Agility, 4 Mind, 10 defense

• Claw: 1d6 damage, 1d8 if it uses it on the same target in consecutive rounds
• Brittle armor: Each time the crayfish is hit, some of its armor breaks off, reducing its defense by 1.
• Treasure: The shell is worth 5s times the crayfish’s defense when it died, the eggs are worth 20s to a chef.

Dead body

• Claw marks: On close inspection, the ratling was obviously killed by constriction with a claw.
• Notebook: most of the notebook has been destroyed, but one of the legible sections explains that the Mountain symbol means “up/center”).
• Chalk: the ratling has a box with 8 pieces of chalk on his person.

11. Poison Making Room

• Crafting table: A long table with a pair of gloves, a mortar and pestle, and several glass bottles
• 3 Corked Green Vials: On top of a barrel next to the table, each vial contains a dose of hallucinogenic poison that can be applied to a weapon
• Crate with a wave symbol drawn on it: contains 5 purple clathrus mushrooms. Anyone who touches the mushrooms without a glove has to make a Mind check or be afflicted with a dose of hallucinogenic poison.

12. Pitfall trap

• Dust-covered floors and walls
• Cobwebs in the corners
• Shovel: Dirt covered, leaned against the northeast corner of the room.

The Trap
The center of this room has a wall-to-wall pitfall trap, 10 ft across. Anyone triggering it drops 15 ft into a cell in the mushroom collection room, taking 1d6 damage (room 20).

13.Ratling Entrance

• Lever Locked Door: East wall, 4 levers, the following symbols are written above the door in chalk: “Mountain, Mountain, Dagger, Sword”
• Masks and gloves: on top of a crate sits a pile of linen masks large enough to cover one’s mouth and nose, along with a stack of leather gardening gloves.
• Chests: There are 3 small chests beside the lever locked door. 2 are marked with a Wave symbol, one is marked with a fire symbol.)

Chests
The 2 wave chests are trapped. If opened, a spring-loaded kunai knife is fired through the center of the opening, dealing 1d6 damage and inflicting a dose of hallucinogenic poison.

The chest with the fire symbol holds:

• 1 Antidote
• A scroll of invisibility (2 casting dice)
• A smoke bomb, a kusarigama (field weapon)
• A Kitsune Mask. when worn, the Kitsune mask memorizes the face of the wearer. It can hold 3 faces at a time, forgetting the earliest face if a fourth is added. The mask can mimic any of those 3 faces perfectly. Additionally, the wearer gains a -1 bonus against any checks to protect against attacks to the eyes.

14. Shinobi Quarters

• Shinobi: There are 2 ratling shinobi and 2 ratling ronin here, 50% of which are sleeping at any given time
• 5 Straw beds: simple, uncomfortable-looking beds with thin covers
• Metal footlockers: One for each bed

Ratling Shinobi
5 grit, 11 Brawn, 14 Agility, 12 Mind

• Claw: 1d6
• Kusarigama: 1d8 OR 1d4 and the opponent must make an Agility check or drop their weapon.
• Poison Darts: 1d4 damage, the target must make a mind check or be afflicted with a dose of hallucinogenic poison.
• Tactics: If they aren’t in melee range with someone, Ratling Shinobi will start by firing a dart at their foes in an attempt to poison them. On subsequent turns, they attack with their kusarigamas.

Ratling Ronin
7 grit, 14 brawn, 11 agility, 10 mind

• Claws:1d6
• Katana: 1d8
• Eye rake: Agility check or blinded 1 turn
• Tactics: if at least 2 allies are alive, ronin will eye rake to blind a target, then focus on blinded targets.

Footlocker Contents

• One vial of hallucinogenic poison
• 4 kunai knives (hand weapon)
• One antidote
• A blowgun (hand weapon)
• 3 darts laced with a dose of hallucinogenic poison.

15. Training Room

• Wooden weaponry: Weapon racks hold a host of wooden swords, daggers, and blunted lances.
• Training Ring: A circle is drawn in chalk in the center of the room. It has been smudged and redrawn many times.
• Bloodstains: Bloodstains dot the floor inside of the chalk circle.
• Buckets of water and bandages: In the back corner of the room. If searched, there’s a potion of healing shoved in with the buckets.

Potion of healing: Restores 1d6 grit, takes an action to drink or administer to someone else.

16. Throwing Weapon Room

• Straw Targets: 3 straw targets are lined up against the south wall, the left is the most damaged, followed by the right, and the center is barely damaged
• Chalk symbols: on the wall above the straw targets, reading “rat, rat, sword”.
• Basket of kunai: contains a dozen kunai knives
• Metal Panel (a hinged metal panel in the center of the room, no handle or lock.)

Metal Panel Puzzle
If the targets are hit with kunai in quick succession in the proper order (left, left, right), the metal panel opens, revealing a ladder heading down to room 20. A button on the other side of the panel closes it.

17. Supply Room

• 2 Barrels: open barrels in the center of the room, one full of oil, another full of black powder.
• Weapon racks: containing 2 yumis (field weapon), 2 kusarigamas (field weapon), and 5 kunai knives (hand weapon).
• Bookshelf: Contains manuals on the use of ronin weapons and poison making. If searched thoroughly, one of the ronin weapons books has a scroll of foretell death (2d6 casting dice) shoved into it.

**Foretell Death **
R: Far
T: Single Creature
D: [sum] rounds
Concentration
Foretell the target’s death. Whenever they take damage, they take [dice] extra damage.

18. Break Room

• Card table: a deck of cards with art depicting the changing of the seasons sits in the center.
• Jugs of water: beside each chair at the table
• A music box: Next to the deck of cards, features 2 ratlings ballroom dancing on top, has a small hole above a wind up key on the front face.
• Heavy door and button: east wall, there is a heavy wooden door that is raised into the ceiling, similar to a portcullis. A button on the wall raises and lowers it.

The Music box
If the wind-up key is turned, the music box plays a slow, high-pitched tune for 5 seconds before shooting a dart from the small hole. The dart deals 1d4 damage and afflicts the target with a dose of hallucinogenic poison.

19. Dead End Chest Trap

• Heavy door: West wall, there is a heavy wooden door that is raised into the ceiling, similar to a portcullis.
• Chest: Against the east wall, no lock.
• Metal pipes: Each corner of the room has a small metal pipe rising from the ground.

The trap
The chest is empty. When opened, the heavy door slams shut, and the metal pipes start spewing hallucinogenic poison gas into the room. Everyone in the room is afflicted with 1 dose of the poison at the start of each round they spend in the room.

The door can be kicked down, but its weight imposes a +2 penalty to brawn checks made to break it.

20. Mushroom farm

• Ladder: Leading up to the hatch in room 16
• Mushroom field: a 30x30 field of purple clathrus mushrooms
• Farmers: 3 ratling and 2 human farmers are tending the mushrooms. They are wearing clothing that covers their whole body, including masks, boots, and gloves.
• Guards: 3 ratling ronin and a ratling shinobi watch over the cultivating.
• Poison Valve: The valve used to flood the upper floors of the dungeon with poison. Closing the valve ends the calamity timer.
• Cell: a cell on the west side of the room containing a ragged-looking human who yells nonsense every few minutes

Ratling Shinobi
5 grit, 11 Brawn, 14 Agility, 12 Mind

• Claw: 1d6
• Kusarigama: 1d8 OR 1d4 and the opponent must make an Agility check or drop their weapon.
• Poison Darts: 1d4 damage, the target must make a mind check or be afflicted with a dose of hallucinogenic poison.
• Tactics: If they aren’t in melee range with someone, Ratling Shinobi will stay behind the Ronin and fire poison darts at their targets. Otherwise, they attack with their kusarigamas.

Ratling Ronin
7 grit, 14 brawn, 11 agility, 10 mind

• Claws:1d6
• Katana: 1d8
• Eye rake: Agility check or blinded 1 turn
• Tactics: if at least 2 allies are alive, ronin will eye rake to blind a target, then focus on blinded targets.

Farmers
The farmers aren’t fighters. If the ronin and shinobi are killed, the farmers will run if it seems feasible or surrender otherwise.

• What the farmers know: The one in charge of the poison making operation is Mochizuki Sasaki, aka “The Lady of Silence”. She is one of the military leaders of Onyx the plaguebringer’s settlement to the East and specializes in espionage.
• Onyx’s settlement is about a day and a half’s march east/southeast.
• They’ve been collecting the mushrooms for weeks, with shipments being sent to the settlement every few days.

Cell
Inside the cell is Marcus Castelluci, the ratlings have been testing poison on him, and he’s had so much that his mind is fully gone. If freed, he continues to babble nonsense every few minutes.

An angel or high-ranking priest can restore his mind, for a price, in which case he will happily tell his rescuers what the lady of silence looks like, that she visited the mushroom farm once a week, and that she holds meetings in an abandoned tavern south of Onyx's ratling settlement with ratling shinobi and outsiders of the settlement.

Mushrooms
The mushroom fields produce enough mushrooms to harvest once a week. Each harvest yields enough mushrooms to make 2d4 doses of hallucinogenic poison. Making the poison requires basic chemistry equipment. It takes a day of work to make 2 doses. Anyone who handles the mushrooms without a mask, gloves, and boots is afflicted with a dose of poison.

Adventure fallout

Potential future hooks from this adventure:

• If GaBa is killed or hurt, the party has earned the ire of the ogres, GoBo and Tsa-Lee begin hunting the party.
• If the ratlings were cleared out but GaBa was left alone, the ogres expand deeper into the cave, either using the mushrooms for themselves or becoming intoxicated by them.
• If any ratlings escaped, the characters are now enemies of Onyx's ratling settlement.
• Onyx's shinobi now have limited access to hallucinogenic poison. For the next few weeks any encounters with Onyx's ratling army should involve them dosing their weapons with the poison.