Sam the Ork
Sam is a common or garden High Orc. He is, like most Orcs, a pacifist. He is also a Pacifist.
Sam is a gentleorc and a scholar. He can write far better than most guild members, and is learning not to eat his crayons. He also has etchings of many close personal friends available for perusal.
He is mastering the arts of digging, fetching, carrying, scrubbing and cleaning, as well as cooking and smoking. When people let him touch them, he heals them too. He isn't allowed to do nearly enough healing. He is already an acknowledged master of the arts of spitting, and applying goose fat. He also sells foul concoctions for horrendous prices, and works in a community centre.
Thanks to Gobbo, Sam is no longer regarded as the lowest of the low, and has now twice led parties containing at least 3 dwarves.
His girlfriends include: Skye, Melisande, Rahne, Mavric ... but he always has time to meet someone special. If you want to get to know him better, contact him at #1, New Pit Row, behind the Healers.
Goals
Sam's short-term goals are generally unprintable, direct, and robust. His medium-term goals are to become a better healer and carer for his community. To this end, he is trying to become a Master Healer, figure out how to summon Pacifistic Earth Elementals, and learn the special Earth magics of Blessing Unborns, Crops and Livestock, and Virility. His long-term goals involve setting up a peaceful commune with a number of nubile women, and leading a quiet, contemplative meditative life as an integral part of a happy and prosperous community.
Medical Research
Between Winter 807 and Winter 809, Sam has undertaken two solid years of long, hard, back-breaking research into hybridisation, with a particular focus on the amazing fecundity of Orcs, even when cross-bred with long-lived races with low natural fertility. This involved systematic hands-on experimental studies with significant sample sizes, predominantly in Seagate. GM: Rosemary Mansfield
Cross-breeding
- Orcs can breed with most other humanoid races.
- Almost all children take after one parent and inherit their GTN. Hybrid or chimeric children are very rare.
- Most (80%) cross-bred children are Orcs (that is, Orcs are the dominant parent)
- Exceptions:
- Cross-breeding with lesser Fey results in Goblins. Goblins then breed true.
- Cross-breeding with Goblins is unpredictable, resulting in Orcs, Goblins, or even a distorted hybrid race known as Hob-goblins.
- Those of mixed parentage are quite likely to give birth to the occasional Throw-backs, being creatures of other races. While this is easily dealt with in an Orcish community, it can lead to distress in other cases. Throw-backs are distinct from Changelings, which are caused by Fae or Goblins stealing children and replacing them with their own.
Multiple births
- Orcs don't always have litters of children. About half the time they have a single child, and half the time they have multiple births (above 5 is unusual). Birth litter size is [D-5]. In addition, the babies are more resilient as infants (even the multiple births) than the weaker races.
- Humans and Halflings have multiple births about 2% of the time, and 5% of those are triplets.
- Giants and Dwarves have twins about 1 in 1000.
- Elves don't have multiple births, except due to prophecy.
- ShapeChangers vary wildly depending on their race, and their shape during impregnation.
Conception
The natural conception chances for character races are:
- Dwarf 3%
- Elf 1% (at best)
- Halfling 4%
- Hill Giant 2%
- Human 6%
- Orc 10%
- ShapeChanger 5%
- Orc cross-breed half that of the other race.
- Non-orc-cross-breed 0%
Fertility Skill
As a special subskill acquired as part of Rank 8 Healer, Dr Sam has learnt how to influence fertility. A summary of the skill follows:
- Sam can detect pregnancy automatically, and can empathise the unborn child(ren).
- Sam can increase/ decrease fertility by 2 (+2/Rank), as per the Herbalist skill.
- Sam can predict and influence the number of offspring. Prediction = 90+Rank. Influence: add or subtract Rank from the D100 when rolling for multiple births.
- NB: Blessing/Curse on Unborn Child may influence the race and number of offspring.
- Sam's Resurrection will fix most temporary fertility issues. It will increase Orc hybridisation fertility to that of in-race breeding. It also increases the chance of Orc offspring to 80+Rank%.
- Sam cannot predict or influence the race of the offspring.