The Graveltooth Hosts

Ogre Free Companies — Quarry Camps and Siege Parks#

"They reduced the Varken wall in four days. A regular siege company would have taken six weeks. I asked the Host captain what he wanted for the next contract. He said a mountain. I am not certain he was joking." — Reach siege-lord, campaign diary

The Graveltooth Hosts are massive independent ogre free companies operating across every region where siege work, heavy engineering, and the category of military problem solvable primarily by the application of enormous force presents itself with sufficient frequency to pay competitive rates. Too undisciplined for regular state armies and too competent to ignore when a wall needs coming down, the Hosts occupy a permanent niche in the post-collapse military economy. Each Host comprises several hundred ogre warriors and a smaller cadre of mixed-species specialists handling logistics, siege engineering, and contract negotiation.

On long contracts, Hosts construct semi-permanent quarry camps and siege parks that function as temporary settlements with their own internal governance: elected captains, adjudicated disputes, and a rigid pay-before-deployment policy enforced with the specific form of emphasis that only a four-meter combatant can provide. Between contracts, they maintain these camps as bases, selling surplus quarried stone, forged ironwork, and engineering labor to surrounding communities. Several camps have been continuously occupied for decades and have accumulated informal authority over the territory around them.

The Hosts' political pattern is consistent: they carve out temporary mini-kingdoms around every long contract, establishing dependency relationships with local populations and collecting informal tribute while the work continues. They do not usually seek permanent rule, but the transition back to contractor status is managed on the Host's schedule, not the client's. Adventurers hired to negotiate with or through a Host need exceptional social competence or a very compelling display of capability.