Lug the Mauled

* Portrait
* Sword
* Knives

"His had been the life of a maverick, never staying in one place for too long, if he stayed at all. That depended on who needed who killed, and how deep their pockets were. That’s what he did: kill. No questions, no objections. Didn’t matter who, or when, or where. He’d always been good at that sort of thing. Shanking, stabbing, crushing, choking, shooting, burning. Whatever it took, really."
—Age of the Ring Lore Compendium

A psychotic killer for hire, Lug the Mauled was infamous among the denizens of the Misty Mountains for his penchant for death and destruction. Though his body has been ravaged by years of dealing in death, Lug remains one of the most dangerous Orcs of the Misty Mountains due to his cunning and utter disregard of self-preservation. Loyal only to bloodshed and gold, Lug has silenced many would-be insurrectionists and enemies of the various chiefs of the Mountains. With a creature as unpredictable as Lug the Mauled, there is only one certainty: Lug always gets his man.

In Age of the Ring, Lug the Mauled is a recruitable hero in Misty Mountains.

## Age of the Ring Lore

Lug the Mauled is an AotR Canon character. Click **Expand** to read his entry in the AotR Lore Compendium.
*Tock, tock, tock.* The sound of Lug’s wooden leg reverberated through the cavern. *Tock, tock, tock.* He looked around - his one good eye flicking back and forth - over the many orcish eyes that were trained upon him, gleaming and glittering, reflecting the flames of the many torches that stuck out of the rock wall.

"Well," he spoke, his voice gravely and dark. "Go fetch him, would ya?"

He ungirdled a burlap sack from his belt, pulled at the leather string, and opened it upon the floor. A thud followed. Out rolled a head, its heavy beard full of glittering bands and stones, sticking to its bloodied skin. A number of huge hobgoblins dressed in ragged leather robes got up and disappeared.

"What are the rest of you lookin' at?" he grunted. "You boys wanna have me other leg? What's it worth to ya? Hey?" He bared his crooked teeth, threw back his scarred head, and laughed his harsh laugh. It spread and multiplied across the high walls of the cave, until the rest of the orcs joined in. Lug fell quiet and surveyed the room, one hand on his sword, the other on a jagged knife tucked into his belt. They wouldn’t know any better. The shaman might, though. He was crafty, that one. Knew all about Dwarves. Their names, their histories. He’d been involved in the Great War, way back when. Silly thing to do. Lug himself had been a young orc-lad at the time, and had managed to avoid his chief’s summons, never to look back. His had been the life of a maverick, never staying in one place for too long, if he stayed at all. That depended on who needed who killed, and how deep their pockets were. That’s what he did: kill. No questions, no objections. Didn’t matter who, or when, or where. He’d always been good at that sort of thing. Shanking, stabbing, crushing, choking, shooting, burning. Whatever it took, really.

“Lug…” spoke a voice, first inside his head, then louder, from the other side of the room. “Lug…” The roaring laughter ceased instantly. Orcs great and small bowed their heads. The shaman had appeared. A small, scrawny orc, ever-hooded and adorned with many strange objects. His dark magics had given him full authority over every nasty piece of work in the room.

"Urshak!” spoke Lug. “Long time no see, you old coot! I see you still keep a tight ship around these parts!”

Urshak stepped forward, his adornments shifting and jangling as he moved. He did not speak.

“Here he is," Lug continued, prodding the dwarf-head with his wooden leg. "The Lord of Moria.”

Urshak knelt down besides the dwarf-head. Lug stepped back, unwilling to stand too close to the shaman. He wasn’t a superstituous orc, for the most part, but staying out of reach was the sensible thing to do.

“Let us see…” spoke Urshak, his voice small and wavering. “Let us see…”

“Everything in order, chief?” asked Lug.

He wasn’t really lying, he thought to himself. The job was done. Just not entirely. He’d been staking out the East-gate for weeks, waiting for the right opportunity to turn that filthy dwarf-lord into a bearded pincushion and cut his head off. When the day came, he could smell it. He crawled over, careful not to scrape his leg and make a noise. There he was. Unmistakably so. The dwarf-lord of Moria, stood solemnly staring into a silly puddle of water. What did he hope to see? But then Lug smelled something else. Orcs. Lots of orcs. Lug looked up and around. There. Coming down a distant ridge was a horde of them, led by a brutish creature that could only be that bastard Muzgash himself. Though Lug wanted little more than to claim his prize and present it to his client, he wasn’t about to get in Muzgash’s way. Or even in his sight. Too much bad blood, he reckoned. Still, he wasn’t gonna back off without having his shot. He had to hurry. He slid down the rocks, nocked his black-feathered arrow, and let it fly. *Thwack.* The dwarf keeled over. That's all it took. Lug looked up. The orcs were scurrying ever closer. They were fortunate. He'd made it easy for them. No warning would come to the dwarvish invaders, and their defense would be leaderless. Curse the dwarf-lord's head, he said to himself. He didn't need it. He’d find another. Doll it up all nice. None would be the wiser.

“As you can see, I left the spoils untouched. All his bleedin’ shiny bits, all right there. Every last one of them.”

But he wasn’t so sure now. After evading Muzgash and his boys, he'd gone as fast as he could, towards a little-known pass used by Dwarf-merchants operating under the impression that orcs weren’t aware of their crossing. He was lucky: a train of dwarves had set off from Dunland not too long ago. He shot himself an old straggler, and cut his head off before his companions even knew what happened. This head he took to a local Stone-troll he’d known for years, and used some of his considerable leverage to obtain a few dwarvish trinkets from the troll's hoard to decorate the beard with. It looked good, the Stone-troll had confirmed. Lug agreed. He certainly wouldn't be any wiser.

“Good…” spoke Urshak. “Very good...”

Lug nodded. “Yeah, he never saw it coming.”

Urshak picked up the head and turned around, holding it up for all to see. “Orcs!” he screamed. “The Lord of Moria is dead! The time to retake our halls has come! The Shadow and the Flame are with us! Spread word through all the warrens!”

The orcs jeered and began to scatter. Urshak turned back to Lug, who was just quick enough to wipe his smirk off his face. “Any sign of that pretender, Muzgash?” Urshak asked, leaning in close, his voice reduced to a terrifying whisper. “On the way here, or otherwise?”

“Muzgash?” Lug looked puzzled, then pretended to remember. “Ah, yeah. Muzgash. That one. Nah mate,” he said, shaking his head. “Should be all clear. You can just swoop in, no problem. Say hello to that demon for me, hey? Put in a good word for old Lug.”

## Abilities

**Level 1: Toggle Weapon (W)** - Left click to toggle between throwing knives and sword.

**Level 1: Headhunter (R)** - Puts a price on an enemy hero's head, reducing their armor and speed by 20%. At level 3, reduces armor and speed by 30%. At level 6, reduces armor and speed by 40%. At level 10, reduces armor and speed by 50%. Left click icon then left click on target.

**Level 3: Goin' Down Swinging (T)** - Lug harms himself to temporarily gain +50% armour, +50% damage and +20% speed. Can only use with sword equipped. Left click to activate.

**Level 6: Scorched Earth (C)** - Lug sets fire to the earth and burns all friendly and enemy units. Left click to activate.

## Strategy

Lug the Mauled is a versatile hero with an ability set specialising in killing enemy heroes and dealing heavy damage to enemies at the cost of putting Lug himself at greater risk. He is one of the few Forces of Darkness heroes that can attack from range and stealth in trees. With his sword equipped, Lug deals relatively low damage but compensates with a high attack rate so that he is effective vs single targets (i.e. heroes) but is vulnerable to large numbers of elite units; his throwing knives deal greater damage but have a slower firing rate - these are more effective against regular units because Lug is able to deal good damage from a safer distance. **Headhunter** scales in strength and makes Lug a constant threat to all enemy heroes as it allows him to debuff enemy heroes' speed and armour - preventing them from escaping him and Misty Mountains' units. A useful combination is **Headhunter** and **Goin' Down Swinging**: enemy heroes are debuffed whilst Lug becomes considerably stronger (albeit at the cost of dealing self-damage) and faster so that he can easily chase down and kill enemy heroes attempting to escape. **Scorched Earth** can be triggered in the middle of an enemy's army to wreck havoc and disperse the enemy's units in order to prevent them taking fire damage; beware the friendly damage this power deals - Lug has little loyalty to friendly units.