The Dabrutu: Hog Men of Caan

In the waxing light, a thin stream of smoke from a cooking fire snakes about the broad-head leaves - the omen of a fast broken and a day's genesis. Two armored figures, grinding whetstones against blades; three more - oiling leathers; over the fire, a half-man reheats a purloined clutch of eggs alongside salted pork fit for travel. The leaves rustle - ferns swaying against the breeze - armored eyes snap to attention as squealed whispers pierce the quiet. 

Caught! 

A rain of darts whip through punch-holes in the brush - black stains creeping up from the wound as the leaf edges curl as if pained. An armored figure falls - another, the chef - choking as corruption pulses in to the rhythm of their own heartbeats from half a dozen tears the size of sewing needles. Two, four, eight stunted beast men: faces of a boar, the hooves of a swine - four prehensile fingers to a hand, and a snarling gait - vomit out, spears in hand. Three, five, seven - thin skins pierce easily for the adventuring elite: but then come bigger boars - six feet tall, barrel chested - following the swinelings: cruel khopesh hacking, tusks goring, fingers throttling. Three, two - more explorers fall, the smaller and larger of these warriors of the weald laughing as blood fountains spurt and gush before trickling and running dry - last of all, the boar-mother: a man and a half tall, as thick as the trees around her - her matted fur braided with bones and charms - striding across the campsite, looking at the fire, the purloined eggs - now quite burned - the salted pork - overturned, cooling at rest in the dust of the forest floor. A word is spoken. The flame goes out.

These are the Dabrutu - the brutal Hog-Men of Caan.

Bearing Cruel Weapons, Without Fear of the Fight

The Dabrutu - or the Hog Men - are a twisted melding of man and wild boar: hungry, always, and prone to vengeance - choosing to take what they desire over building it with their own sweat. They have four grasping fingers on each hand and walk on bi-cloven hooves. Their bodies have thick, matted fur - thicker with age and size - which serves as a natural armor for them: and their protruding, porcine jaws house sharp tusks which can be used to gore an enemy or one another. A Hog Man's fur can range in color from a deep brown to a midnight black and is frequently blotchy, with irregular patterns emerging in its hue and tone - especially about the torso and head.

The Caanish know the Dabrutu as a menace - the presence of even nuisance Squealers implies the presence of a larger force: perhaps even a dreaded Boar Mother - the passel matriarch bearing powers and blessings of Chaos. They are known to kidnap or capture humans to slaughter as food or to retain as sporting pets - sometimes gambling on combat games between striking prisoners.

Encountering the Hog Men

All Dabrutu, when Saving against Disease or Poison, do so rolling twice and picking the higher of the two results. Dabrutu do not have infravision - but can hear acutely and fight by scent effectively at a radius of 15 feet in darkness.

Dabrutu, Squealer
Armor Class:	7	No. Appearing:	3-12 (special)
Hit Dice:	1	Save As:	Normal Man
Move:	120' (40')	Morale:	6
Attacks:	1 weapon or 1 gore	Treasure Type:	Q (~)
Damage:	By weapon or 1-3	Alignment:	Chaotic
Frequency:	Common	Chance In Lair:	10%

Squealers are range between two and a half feet and four feet in height and from 25 to 75 pounds in weight. Their fur is somewhat sparse, with the larger specimens being more hairy. They are sadistic and merciless, frequently finding humor in suffering: including the suffering of their own. They tend to act rashly and impulsively and are not particularly brave - so, where they may not find the loss of a comrade to be particularly demoralizing, they will frequently retreat intentionally if they find that the situation does not suit their advantage. They lack, however, the foresight and attention span to re-ambush: thus, if Squealers retreat, it can frequently be assumed they no longer pose an active threat.

1d6	Dabrutu Favored Poison
1	Blindness - the poison attacks the eyes: dimming and darkening. The victim is blinded for the next 1-4 hours and, for 1-4 hours further, the victim's chance of being surprised is increased by 1 in 6.
2	Hallucinations - a paste of mushrooms and oil has been applied. The victim must make a morale check each turn or either flee, cower, or perceive a random target as an adversary - at GM discretion.
3	Muscular Dysfunction - the toxin attacks the nerves, causing muscles to lock up locally and then more broadly. The victim must Save vs Paralysis - for the next 1-4 hours, on a failure, the character is paralyzed; on a success, the character suffers a -1 to attack rolls and a -15' (-5') penalty to their movement rate.
4	Nausea - an old poison or a lazy poisoner has produced a non-fatal, but still sickening, agent. For the next 1-4 hours, the victim rolls all 1d20 rolls twice, taking the lower roll. Additionally, if a spellcaster, the victim suffers a 25% spell failure rate.
5	Sepsis - the point has been swabbed in filth. The victim will require a successful save each day in order to heal any HP.
6	Sleep - the concoction is laced with powerful barbiturates. The victim will fall into a deep sleep for 1-4 hours, but can be awakened forcibly after 1-4 minutes.

Favored weapons include spears - the reach making up for a Squealer's short stature - other small-sized polearms, and blow-guns.


Squealers frequently smear fetid or toxic substances on the darts and points of their weapons - requiring a Save vs Poison or producing a noxious effect. A list of common poisons favored by the Dabrutu is provided - while it is possible multiple individuals will be using different poison types, it is more common that a single poison type will be used by the net encounter at a time, as Dabrutu poisons frequently have a short shelf life and will have been brewed very recently from whatever the Squealers found on hand.

Special: Squealers do not have lairs of their own: they always live in the company of Boar Mothers. Thus, they are not encountered in the wilderness alone unless the party is within a mile of a Boar Mother's den - in which case, Warriors will likely be patrolling the area as well.

Dabrutu, Warrior
Armor Class:	5	No. Appearing:	2-8 (5-20)
Hit Dice:	2+1	Save As:	Fighter 2
Move:	90' (30')	Morale:	8
Attacks:	1 weapon or 1 gore	Treasure Type:	S (B)
Damage:	By weapon or 1-4, both +1	Alignment:	Chaotic
Frequency:	Common	Chance In Lair:	20%

Dabrutu Warriors have a hunch at the upper extent of their back, causing their head to jut forward when in a comfortable gait and producing an apparent height of just shorter than an average human - somewhere in the vicinity of 5 and a half feet. When looking up, or intentionally standing erect, many if not most easily crest two yards. They share the harshness of their kindred Squealers, but not their fickleness, and are known to engage in group tactics. They prefer - and will seek - advantageous circumstances, such as surprise or encircling of an adversary: if a party is surprised by Dabrutu Warriors, it is almost a guarantee that they will have surrounded them or have taken steps to block off an easy exit path, such as with tripwires or rockfalls.

For every 6 Dabrutu Warriors in a group, there is a 50% chance of 1-4 Squealers accompanying them. For every 12 Dabrutu Warriors in a group, there is a 30% chance of a single Boar Mother in tow.

Preferred weapons include heavy hacking weapons - such as axes or bladed polearms. They are not averse to poison - but they tend not to outside of clearly one-sided engagements, as a Warrior has grown to depend on its strength and tactics over the cheap cunning of the weaker Squealers.

Dabrutu, Boar Mother
Armor Class:	4	No. Appearing:	1* (1-6)
Hit Dice:	6	Save As:	Thief 5
Move:	90' (30')	Morale:	10
Attacks:	1 weapon or 1 gore	Treasure Type:	V (B)
Damage:	By weapon or 1-8, both +1	Alignment:	Chaotic
Frequency:	Rare	Chance In Lair:	60%

Boar Mothers - as their name implies - are sows who have grown to immense size. Even with the characteristic hunch of the Dabrutu, a Boar Mother stands easily 8 feet in height and bears large, snarling tusks beyond their beady eyes. Their fur is longer and courser than that of other Dabrutu - it tends to be braided, different each day, with the skulls of smaller animals - some sentient, some not - woven into it, producing a muted rattle as they knock together inside curtains of hair. Routinely, likewise, Boar Mothers dress the part - wearing vestments or stoles with scrawled runes on them legible only to the lords of Chaos, stained dark with dirt and blood.

Spellcasting: Boar Mothers are blessed by the Akhkhazu - Chaotic spirits in service to a dark god, Dimmekur - and can cast spells as a Vicar (Cleric of 4th level). Frequently used spells include Blight, Cause Light Wounds, Cause Fear, Darkness, and Hold Person.

* Special: Boar Mothers never appear alone. If a lone Boar Mother is rolled, it will be accompanied by a bodyguard of Warriors: 2-8 in the dungeon, 5-20 in the wilderness. Similarly, based on the number of Warriors, so also may Squealers appear in tow.

Spoiler Alert!

The Deeper Lore section contains some notes to help a GM (me) to run the Hog Men in a way consistent with the archetype they are supposed to fill and some of the inspirations behind their creation. If you play in (or want to play in!) a game GM'ed by me, beyond this point will ruin some of the mystery for you for both Dabrutu and for most of the sentient races: having some impact in the game world that isn't immediately available outside of player character discoveries.

Deeper Lore

There is little difference between male and female Dabrutu, physically. Not all females will grow into Boar Mothers, though in a Dabrutu passel, only a Boar Mother is permitted to reproduce - thus, any female Warrior is assumed to be a gilt. Dabrutu produce litters smaller than true hogs - around six at a time - which are weaned no later than four months later. Some Warrior females will grow pregnant mistakenly: where feasible, these Warriors are occasionally known to sneak their own offspring into the litter (or litters) of resident Boar Mothers: who don't care about their children enough to scrutinize them. Young who are nursed in this manner typically survive - young who are not are typically slaughtered: and if the Warrior mother is found out, she will find herself on the receiving end of a challenge from the resident Boar Mother as a competitor.

From time to time, a female will instead be elevated to Boar Mother - a transition that requires either the intervention of the Akhkhazu or for the female to receive the energies passed to a preexisting Boar Mother upon her death. This occurs voluntarily on occasion - a female Warrior having been groomed by a coven of Boar Mothers to replace one who nears the end of her natural life span - far less common is the Boar Mother being replaced willing to give up her blessing, regardless of whether she takes it to her grave. The Dabrutu - especially the Warrior caste - are typically not aware of the Akhkhazu: religion is the domain of the Boar Mothers.

An unknown element regarding the Squealers - they are not a subspecies, as many might believe: instead, Squealers - as might be evidenced by their varied size - are the shoats of Boar Mother litters - children, so to speak, for the Dabrutu people. A Dabrutu matures quickly - reaching adulthood (Warrior stage) around 9 years of age. Squealers are between the ages of 5 months and 6 or 7 years, typically. In childhood, Squealers are adventurous and keen to strike out on their own, with little regard to social standing; in puberty, however, Squealers begin to be conscious of their passel's hierarchy

The natural life span - that is, an "in captivity" Dabrutu, so to speak - can be 35 or 40 years.
The life span of a Boar Mother can stretch beyond a century - as long as 120 years.

On a more meta-note, more than one person with whom I've played, world-building, has had the idea to tie mortal races to the cosmology: specifically, in an old-school context, recalling that the game was heavily influenced by Christian mythos early on, tying the mortal races to the Seven Virtues and Seven Vices (or Seven Deadly Sins). Being the totally unique and snowflake-special innovative type that I am, I boarded that train, too - taking it one step further by tying the Seven Vices to the four Peccata Clamantia - which, in game terms, I translate to Violence, Excess, Oppression, and Defrauding. To that end, the Hog Men, or Dabrutu, are a representation of the Sin of Wrath, bound and intertwined with the Peccata Clamantia, Violence. By association, the Akhkhazu - stolen from Akkadic tradition - are a representation of Violence: being both vengeful and avaricious. The name Dabrutu was taken from Babylonian traditions - Umū Dabrūtu - actual depictions of which were lost (went with boar-people, to reference early TSR Orc art and to attest to the chimeric penchant for Mesopotamian mythological beings), but which were described as being wrathful and keen with weapons - prior to being subdued and bound to benevolent service by Marduk.

The Dabrutu - as well as other Vice Races - are not, themselves, a natural thing. Instead, in an age before, the powers of Chaos, raging against the powers of Law, stole humans, who are the middle ground: unique in their spiritual duality - and planted in them a Chaos Seed. The Chaos Seed entrusted to Dimmekur was planted by Akhkhazu covens: resulting in two creatures reflected by the two ways in which their nature - their affiliation to Violence - manifests: one, an embodiment of Envy (another race, the Mushussu); the other, an embodiment of Wrath - the Dabrutu: a people built for combat, built for survival, and built for anger. The secret of the Dabrutu - like all of the Vice Races - they are capable of breeding, and do breed: the Chaos Seed spreading and growing in the hearts of the offspring akin to Original Sin - however, it is not the only way that these creatures are created. By the nature of their society, the Dabrutu keep themselves largely in check - no species foundationally vested in malice can be sustained: when large groups, hordes, or wars are waged by the Dabrutu, almost always, it is the work of the Akhkhazu - who have bred more Dabrutu through the ritual to plant the Chaos Seed in the hearts of a population.

A powerful Cleric can remove the Chaos Seed - restoring, redeeming a Dabrutu - but this secret is not known to the Caanish priesthood.

None who live know how a redeemed might react to such an act.


Public domain artwork lovingly pilfered from OldBookIllustrations.com on or about 8/11/2020. Attributions in alt text.