A gorthek appears as a strange combination of bison and rhinoceros, with a thick leonine head crowned by ram horns and framed by shaggy hair. Its hide is thick, wrinkled, and extraordinarily difficult to pierce. An adult male gorthek stands about seven feet high at the shoulder and weighs around 9,000 pounds.   Gortheks live in small herds, grazing across grasslands and sparsely wooded hills. They perceive almost everything else as a threat and will launch themselves at enemies, intent on sending them flying.   Orcs often bond themselves to ferocious warbeasts that they call gortheks, which may be mounts they ride into battle or simply trained fighting companions. Most often these are ordinary boars, bulls, or other strong beasts that have been brutally trained for war, but some gortheks are hideous crossbreeds scarred by orcish sorcery and spellcraft.   Orcs commonly raise gortheks from infancy as mounts and living siege engines. They are bonded with their future riders from a very young age, and orcs have fashioned the gorthek masks in order to magically facilitate this bond. In battle, gorthek riders sit on a specifically designed saddle and control their mount with spiked reins.