Hruggekolohk

Character

As realms go, this's a tiny one. Hidden away on this layer of Pandemonium, it doesn't draw much attention. That gives it the seclusion necessary for the hideaway of a bugbear god.

Power

Hruggek. Hruggek's the primary god of the bugbears, but that doesn't mean he rules their pantheon. The bugbear gods all tend to be suspicious and solitary, prizing caution and sneak attacks over direct confrontation — Hruggek as much as any of the others. That's one of the reasons he chose this backwater region of the Outer planes for his home. This isn't to say Hruggek's a coward, though. As bugbear gods go, he's a real fighter. It's just that he prefers sudden, savage skirmishes to mass battles.

Description

Hruggekolohk is set in an unusually honeycombed area of Cocytus, and one with an abnormally large number of standing pools. Through some secret of Hruggek's, these pools are magically heated from within, allowing various sorts of pallid, grublike life to grow in them. The bugbear villages are settled around the banks of these pools, and the petitioners hunt the various creatures that swim in the pools or that crawl out of them into the surrounding tunnels. Deep within the center of the realm lies Hruggek's grotto, separated by quite a distance from the petitioners' villages. It's a foul cavern filled with the moldering bones of Hruggek's victims, and ringed with the severed heads of his conquered enemies. Again, through some magical secret known only to Hruggek, these heads are cursed to howl perpetually with pleas for mercy and praises of Hruggek's might. The heads are of many different races, and they're said to have great powers that Hruggek can wield against other members of their race. How Hruggek endowed the heads with this power is a mystery, as he's not that powerful a god in the overall scheme of things. Most likely, both this and the heated pools are simply things Hruggek found hidden on this layer, remnants of the magic of the ancient gods who carved its tunnels at the dawn of time.

Principal Towns

As a realm of bugbears, Hruggekolohk doesn't have towns as humans think of them. Instead, it's a collection of bugbear petitioner "villages" all in the general vicinity of the cavern Hruggek occupies.

Special Conditions

As far as this realm's petitioners are concerned, any non-bugbear who comes here is either a potential slave or potential meat. As a matter of fact, even bugbears who make it here had better demonstrate that they worship Hruggek above all others, or they'll end up in the stewpot as well, as spies of other gods. In order to catch such interlopers, the locals have set all sorts of traps (primitive deadfalls, pits, and ambushes) around the realm. Cutters who intend to pass through this realm should be warned beforehand that the hand-carved stone of the layer makes these modified areas unusually hard to spot.

Principal NPC

The chieftain of the largest village in the realm is a crafty old bugbear petitioner named Stinking Glahk. He's been known to sell safe passage through the realm to parties of adventurers. He's also been known to lead those came parties into traps.

Services

Sometimes a handful of the bugbear petitioners of Hruggekolohk hire out as warriors — usually to other evil races — for a raid on an adjacent layer or plane. That's about the only thing that could be considered a service available from the realm. 'Course, there's always an addle-coved adventurer or two who comes to the realm looking for lost treasures of the ancient gods.