Prince of Happiness said:
I've *so* badly want to read "Outlaws of the Marsh!" This is the one which features the sorceror unleashing demons from a cave in the mountains?
Not as a major plot point. There is a lot of Taoist sorcery involved, though; weather control, illusion, that sort of thing, all with the matter-of-fact treatment of "this is what Taoist masters do." (It's notable that in Journey to the West, the Taoists are generally villainous and the Buddhists benevolent, although reformed Taoist masters like Monkey are still allowed to use their cool Taoist powers in the service of the Buddha.) One character, Flea on a Drum, is also apparently the literary forerunner of every kung fu and anime hero that can jump thirty feet onto a rooftop or tree branch without effort.
Oh, further literary recommendation: Barry Hughart's Master Li chronicles. You can get a compiled volume of all three books from Phil & Kaja Foglio's website, I think. A very excellent fantasy China, but easily digestible for the Western reader. I love those books.
Emperor Valerian said:
I want to have a Mongol-type people in my campaign (as a possible plot device, BBEG should I swing that way maybe), but I want them to be something intelligent, but not human. Something frightening, as frightening as the Chin generals were when Chingis Khan's armies roared through northern China. Centaurs might be neat, but they're not dark enough. Any ideas?
I had planned to use centaurs because "dark" is a matter of presentation; it would depend on my players being able to unlearn everything D&D taught them about peaceful forest-dwellers (why in the world do centaurs live in forests and not plains?), and accept vicious horse-men in barbaric armor who are naturally stronger and faster than humans. The threat of being drawn and quartered might take on new meaning if the vicious enemies involved could do it as easily as four human soldiers could grapple a prisoner and cut his head off.
Anyway, there's the usual humanoids: orcs or goblinkin (I think I'd favor bugbears in this role), perhaps with a custom riding beast that's more dangerous than horses. You could perhaps use some slightly tweaked gnolls in this role as well; if a gnoll is able to ride a horse, his disproportionately long arms (assuming a more than casual similarity to hyenas) would make him excellent at reaching down and crushing foot troops. There were once cave hyenas in Siberia, as I understand it, so they might have access to "dire hyenas" without breaking the locale.
Ogres, maybe. If they're more intelligent than normal, they'd be a real threat; or maybe they're dumb but easily led by their ogre magi leaders. Giants are another interesting elite force or leader. Or how about minotaurs, who ride great big bulls (stats as bison, maybe)? Minotaurs are good at being a mix of savage and civilized, and they have the bonus aspect of being man-eaters. (As do gnolls, ogres, and even orcs or goblinkin, if you prefer).
I dunno. Depending on how tough the base critter is, you might have to adjust your idea of how big a "horde" of them is. A horde of minotaurs in the same numbers as Mongols, and you're gonna need one damn big and damn well-defended wall to keep them out.
