Orcs and Barghests¶
Blitz Eternal: Adventures Beyond the Mists — v0.3 Draft¶
Two enemy types built for a 09-playtest combat replay (see combat-replay-03.md), the bestiary's first actual creature content beyond the keyword vocabulary in monster-attack-keywords.md. An unusual pairing in the fiction: orc raiders and barghests don't naturally hunt together, and a party encountering both at once should read that as a sign something else drew them to the same ground, not a coincidence.
Stat block follows core-rules, Part Fourteen: Tier, Hit Points, Speed, Range, plus any Attack Keywords.
Orc Reaver¶
Rank-and-file raiders. Fast, disposable, dangerous mainly in numbers.
| Tier | Hit Points | Speed | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trained (5-6) | 2 | 4 | 1 (melee) |
No keywords. An ordinary Hit, ordinary overflow, same as a basic Retainer.
Grash the Cleaver (Orc Warleader)¶
Leads a war-band's personal die the way a Character leads a Company, for GM purposes. Rarely the most numerous threat in a fight; always the one worth watching.
| Tier | Hit Points | Speed | Range | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Veteran (4-6) | 4 | 4 | 1 (melee) | Rend 2 |
Rend 2. Grash's notched cleaver doesn't deal an ordinary Hit. Every Hit Grash personally scores is a single, indivisible 2-damage strike to one target, exactly as core-rules Part Fourteen's Rend keyword describes: no splitting, no overflow onto a second target.
Barghest¶
An uncanny black hound, bigger and colder-eyed than any true dog, that runs in packs and is never a good omen to meet on a road at dusk.
| Tier | Hit Points | Speed | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veteran (4-6) | 3 | 7 | 1 (melee) |
No keywords. Fast enough to close distance in a single turn against most Companies; otherwise an ordinary Hit.
The Alpha¶
Larger, colder, and first through the treeline. Where it bites, an ordinary shield does nothing.
| Tier | Hit Points | Speed | Range | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elite (3-6) | 4 | 7 | 1 (melee) | Piercing |
Piercing. The Alpha's bite ignores Guard. A banked Guard token isn't consumed when the Alpha's hit lands; it simply doesn't apply this once, and stays banked for a future, ordinary hit.
Design Note¶
Neither monster uses Inevitable. Both are built to be fought conventionally (Guard matters against the war-band, Intercept matters against both), with the Alpha's Piercing as the one specific reason a well-shielded Character can still take a real hit. This was a deliberate choice for a first bestiary pass: Rend and Piercing get exercised here; Inevitable is held back for something bigger than a first small-horde fight.