Pelts For XP - The Bushrangers

Four horseman rode out from the heart of the range,
Four horseman with aspects forbidding and strange.
They were booted and spurred, they were armed to the teeth,
And they frowned as they looked at the valley beneath,
As forward they rode through the rocks and the fern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.

Ned Kelly drew rein and he shaded his eyes -
'The town's at our mercy! See yonder it lies!
To hell with the troopers!' - he shook his clenched fist -
'We will shoot them like dogs if they dare to resist!'
And all of them nodded, grim-visaged and stern -
Ned Kelly, Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne.

By Edward Harrington

Sidney Nolan

THE FOREST

This forested hex is filled with Eucalyptus Regnans, some more than 100m high. It's obviously inhabited, several trails have been cut through the dense undergrowth and the area is decorated with red-painted iron helmets on spikes. There's a constant smell of woodsmoke and blood.

This hex is home to a Tree Giant, a depraved monster whose reproductive cycle involves eating people alive and shitting them out. The lucky ones comes out dead. The unlucky survivors begin a metamorphosis into another giant, turning into Tree Ogres (stats as Ogre with climb speed, OSE).

These monsters were popular allies of the Serpentman Empire, paid in human captives in exchange for labouring on the snakes' megastructures. With the empire gone, the Tree Giants lost their meal ticket and saw their population plummet. The Bloody Glades only had one remaining, and it might've gone extinct if it wasn't for outside assistance.

THE FATHARVEST GANG

THE BANDITS
The Fatharvest Gang, a band of escaped convicts, came across the Tree Giant after fleeing from a prison break. When it attacked, they fed it hostages taken from the clergy. The stupid giant assumed they must serve the Serpentmen and left them alone. The brigands have since Pavlovian conditioned the giant and its spawn. It accompanies them on raids, they feed it captives. It shits out Tree Ogres, the bandits train them as footsoldiers.

The gang is led by Sir Beaufort (Chaotic Level 6 Knight) a rebellious nobleman whose repayment obligations forced him into mountains of debt. Beauford's second is Esther (Neutral Level 4 Ranger) a gamewarden caught sacrificing poachers to demons, hoping to cure her son's consumption. 

There's 28 bandits, a mixture of humans and orcs. Twelve are Level 1 Fighters, the remaining sixteen are Level 1 Thieves. Each carries 100 GP in pelts, coins, alcohol or jewellery on them.

The Fighters are equipped with crude armour forged from plowshares (as chain), lances, shields and longswords. Beaufort wears +1 Chain of Poison Resistance, courtesy of a clerically-blessed plow. The Fighters ride Thracian Mares (stats as War Horses with D8 bite attack and ML 11, OSE) in cavalry actions. Beaufort leads the mounted troops, riding Last Sunset the hobbled Nightmare (OSE Adv, no fly speed).

The Thieves are equipped with leather armour, shortswords and a motley collection of muskets, crossbows and longbows. Esther carries a +1 Fowling Piece of Terror (can be fired into the air to magically force a Morale Check). They fight as dragoons, travelling on stolen draft horses (stats as Mules, OSE) and dismounting to provide fire support to the Fighters. 

The Stringybark Attack

THE OGRES
The gang has a pack of 10 Tree Ogres. These monstrosities are solely loyal to Tallskull (Neutral Level 4 Cleric) an orcish priestess of the Bloody Mother, a popular sub-cult of the Knacker. Tallskull helps deliver the fetal ogres when they're first "born" and ensures they are properly socialised with the bandits. She tries to ignore how much it resembles her old duties as a midwife, before crusaders sacked her husband's hillfort. The priestess carries a Staff Of Stone To Mud (casts the aforementioned spell 3/day), stolen from the clerics of Mothermilk.

The ogres constantly roam the hex, climbing through trees and looking below for interlopers. If they detect someone, there's a 4-in-6 chance they retreat to rouse the Fatharvest Gang. Else they try to club them to death.

Each Tree Ogre has 300 GP worth of swallowed trinkets in their guts.

By Fee Fi Fo Fin

THE TREE GIANT
20' tall red-skinned maneater. Equivalent to a ringworm, an awful monster that fulfils no greater purpose and only brings misery. Despite its size, it moves fast. Too fast. Clambering across treetops faster than a running man, it scoops up victims and devours them whole. Consuming humans gives immense sexual gratification, encouraging it to reproduce at a terrifying speed.
AC 4 [15], HD 14 (63 HP), Att 1 x weapon (6D6), 1 x boulder (4D6) or devour (swallow whole + reborn), THAC0 9 [+10], MV 150' (50') / 120' (40') climbing, SV D4 W5 P6 B5 S8 (14), ML 10, AL Chaotic, XP 2,300, NA 1 (1), TT E + 5,000gp
▶ Swallow Whole: Target must save vs paralysis or be swallowed. In the monster's belly: suffer 2D6 damage per round (until the giant dies); may attack with a dagger at -4 to hit.
▶ Reborn: If target reaches 0 HP, save vs death or die. Survivors are defecated out alive and turn into a Tree Ogre after D3 days. Remove Curse halts the transformation, but does not undo it.
▶ Stomach Contents: The Tree Giant has 5,000 GP worth of swallowed trinkets in its guts.
▶ Weapons: Clubs made from metal-banded tree trunks.
▶ Boulder Throwing: Up to 200'. 
▶ Guardians: 3D6 Tree Ogres, the result of reproduction. 

THE CAMP
The gang constantly rotates throughout the hex, but never leaves it; the presence of the Tree Giant repels the vast majority of other monsters from bothering them. The easiest way to locate them is by woodsmoke, the bandits constantly run a forge of fired clay bricks to maintain their equipment. 

Their fortified camps consist of dugouts covered with mud, wood and leather tarpaulins, surrounded by an earthwork palisade constructed by Tallskull's staff. The Tree Giant typically rests above the camp, slumbering in the gigantic trees waiting for the bandits to feed it. The gang's livestock and drafthorses are kept safe in secured enclosures. 

Aside from the treasure they and their monstrous allies carry, the bandits have 29,120 GP in stolen good squirrelled away inside their camp. Much of it is pelts, the gang traps fur-bearing animals as much as anyone else. It also helps that they rob any rival longhunters they find.

William Strutt

THE RAIDS
There's a 2-in-6 chance that the Fatharvest Gang is away on a raid. Their warbands consist of D4 + 4 Fighters and D6 + 6 Thieves, along with D4 + 2 Ogres. Beaufort and Esther accompany the raiding force, with Tallskull remaining at camp to command their remaining forces.

When the bandits sack an outlying farmstead, temple or ranch, they round up any surviving defenders and hold a kangaroo court. The lumpen proles are ordered to put their superiors on "trial", encouraged to freely voice grievances or accusations. Anyone found "guilty" is to be fed to the giant. Failure to convict an appropriate number of sacrifices leads to the bandits giving up on the pretence of democracy and just choosing people they don't like.

Any convicts "liberated" during these raids are encouraged to join the gang. A few do, but many more would much rather serve out their sentences or debts. Esther and Tallskull prefer to leave them be, but Beaufort's increasingly pushing for such "collaborators" to be giant chow.

The Tree Giant rarely leaves its forest anymore, the bandits don't want to risk it being killed and it's used to being pampered again. This changes if someone really pisses the gang off, then they pack up camp (along with all their loot) and bring everything they have against their target. 

Saturn Devouring His Son