DW Monsters: Ogri

The next few stories, taking us through the remainder of season 15 and into season 16 are:

• Underworld – the enemy here is a unique one, a computer that has built its own robots.
• The Invasion of Time – other than the Sontarans, this features the Vardans, who have powers of telepathy and teleportation and can turn insubstantial but otherwise basically appear human.
• The Ribos Operation – The only ‘monster’ here is the Shrivenzale, a local predator. From what we can tell, there is little to suggest that its game statistics would be radically different from, say, a tiger.
• The Pirate Planet – This story does not feature a monster.

This brings us to The Stones of Blood. This features three different types of alien. Apart from their physical appearance, the only significant difference between Diplosians and humans is that the former are essentially immortal. The Megara are microcellular machines, more of a game effect than a ‘monster’ in the RPG sense. 

That leaves us with the titular monsters of the story, the Ogri. Although they have since been mentioned in passing, the Ogri are a one-off monster on the TV show. They have made brief appearances in the spin-off novels, although not so far in the audios… at least partly, one assumes, because they are silent. 

Description and Biology

Like the Kastrians, the Ogri are silicon-based lifeforms, but they take the rocky nature one step further. Physically, they are large, tall and somewhat irregular rocks, lacking any visible sense organs, orifices, or limbs. When they are awake, they glow with a golden light and they can move about, but other than this, there is nothing visible about them to distinguish them from regular rocks and they are, for example, completely rigid.

How they would work biologically is a mystery. The lack of visible sense organs doesn’t rule out an ability to sense vibrations, perhaps even soundwaves in the air, although it’s hard to imagine how they would see in visible light. It’s also unclear exactly how they move, but perhaps they can manipulate the crystals in their bases to create a sort of conveyor belt-like effect, pulling them along and leaving dust in their wake. 

Their most significant ability is that from which the story takes its name. In order to function, the Ogri need some special nutrient found in blood, which they can absorb from living beings by touch. Since this wouldn’t enable them to build the silicate structure of their bodies, it’s likely to be an adjunct to a primary feeding method that extracts minerals from the ground while they are in contact with it.

It’s implied that it’s the proteins in the blood that they need, but iron seems more likely given their mineral nature. And perhaps they can extract that from iron ore or rust when it’s around, but not from solid items of forged metalware – or perhaps the protein binding the iron into the haemoglobin makes the process easier for them. Either way, if they are after the iron, it’s worth noting that aliens will not necessarily have iron-based blood – some real-world invertebrates have copper-based blood, so we know this is possible.

If, on the other hand, it really is just the protein, then it presumably must be a specific sort of protein, or they could get it from other parts of a victim’s body, or even the grass they are rolling over (they don’t seem to need much). And, if it is specific, then, again, aliens may be safe, since there are other ways of binding iron into a respiratory pigment than the one employed by haemoglobin… and we know this because, again, some real-world invertebrates use them.

Game Attributes

While they are not immobile, the entirely rigid structure of the Ogri makes them unusual in game terms. That they can move implies a dexterity, since this is often used to calculate things like initiative and reaction speed, but the complete lack of manipulative appendages means that it isn’t dexterity in the everyday meaning of the word. Given their slow movement rate and inability to (for example) meaningfully dodge anything thrown at them it’s probably at the lowest level that a given game system will allow without being zero and, if possible, well below the minimum score that a human character could possess.

For similar reasons, strength is also unusual; they don’t have any means of exerting leverage. But they can push things and they won’t have any difficulty carrying heavy objects if somebody places one on top of them, so, even if they can’t use it to wield a sword, it’s likely very high. Their ability to resist physical damage is going to be even higher, although different systems may reflect this in varying combinations of armour and constitution/vigour. But, basically, they are rocks, and it’s hard to damage a large rock with weapons designed to injure fleshly beings unless we’re talking high explosives or powerful energy weapons. They’ll be resistant to fire, cold, and electricity, among other things, although strong acid would still be a problem. If they are using the protein component of blood, organic poisons that work on that might affect them, but it seems more likely that their biochemistry (or equivalent) is too alien for that to be the case.

There is no indication that the Ogri are intelligent. At best, they are probably equivalent to something like a dog… although, admittedly, it’s not obvious how you would tell.

Special Abilities

The key distinguishing ability of Ogri is the ability to extract blood from a living being by flesh contact. Indeed, it’s probably the only attack method they have other than falling over onto somebody or nudging them off a cliff. Most of the time, they just do this passively, but on the one occasion we see them attack, the victim becomes stuck to them – possibly by having their flesh partially absorbed into the rock – and then they extract all the blood in a matter of seconds. For game purposes, we’d likely want to slow this down a bit, and give more of a chance of resistance or escape. Having said which, an attack that relies on the victim touching you with bare flesh and that doesn’t involve actively striking out, is more of a ‘trap’ effect than a regular combat action.

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5E - Ogri

Large earth elemental, unaligned

Armour Class: 18 (natural)

Hit Points: 84 (8d10+40)

Speed: 5 ft.

STR 20 (+5)	DEX 1 (-5)	CON 22 (+6)
INT 3 (-4)	WIS 10 (+0)	CHA 4 (-3)

Damage Resistances: bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, fire, cold, electricity, poison.

Condition Immunities: blinded, grappled, prone.

Senses: Tremor sense 60 ft., Passive Perception 10

Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target takes a long rest. The target dies if this reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

Challenge: 4 (1,100 XP)

BRP - Ogri

STR 2D6+15 (22)	CON 2D6+15 (22)	SIZ 2D6+12 (19)
DEX 1	POW 2D6+6 (13)
Hit Points: 21	Move: 1
Base SR: 6	Damage Bonus: +2D6

Armour: 12-point solid rock

Combat Skills: Drain Blood 50% (1D6 CON damage)

GURPS - Ogri

ST 20	DX 1	IQ 3	HT 20
Thrust: 1d-4		Swing: 1d-3
Speed: 1	Move: 1		Size: 1

Advantages: Body of Stone, Damage Resistance +8, Innate Attack (1d, Toxic, Contact Agent, Melee Attack), Vibration Sense

Disadvantages: Blindness, No Legs (slithers), No Manipulators, Restricted Diet (very common)

Savage Worlds - Ogri

Agility: 1	Smarts: d6 (A)	Spirit: d8
Strength: d12+1	Vigour: d12+1

Skills: Fighting d6, Stealth d4

Abilities: Armour +8, Elemental, Environmental Resistance (cold, heat)

Blood Drain: A ‘strike’ (actually a touch) from the Ogri does Vigour+d4 damage.

Pace: 1                  Parry: 5                 Toughness: 8           Size: 1

STA - Ogri

Control: 5	Fitness: 12	Presence: 7
Daring: 11	Insight: 5	Reason: 2
Command: 0	Security: 2	Science: 0
Conn: 0	Engineering: 0	Medicine: 0
Stress: 14	Resistance: 3

Attacks: Blood Drain (Melee, 3^, 1H, Vicious 1, Debilitating)