This is a Campaign Log/Story of a warband adventuring in and about the Broken Lands of Mystara. We are playing D&D3.5 rules, and I attempt to subtly modify things as needed, hopefully without taking away from the flavor of the setting. I've posted some questions here before, and hope that you'll enjoy the story of my players' adventures. I keep this updated on a local message board but thought it would be appropriate to post here as well.
When we started this game as an alternate to the FR game we play, it was conceived to give Hellstar a break. As I had not played D&D since 2nd Edition AD&D I was a little rusty and wanted to familiarize myself with the new rules, and provide a completely different style of game.
To that effect I proposed a few guidelines:
- An Orcish warband, the party would be Evil-based, Orcs, Goblins, Half-Ogre's, Maybe a Shadow Elf, or renegade Dwarf in the party.
- There would be low healing magic in the game, and few, if any, spellcasters
- We would use the Broken Lands (Mystara) setting(modified) as I still had plenty of material for this world, and had not yet invested in any of the other gaming worlds, for all the time I have played or DM'd over the years, since the early 80's.
- We would play when Hellstar was not prepared, or preferred to play that evening. I believe we are moving towards alternating campaigns now, however.
- Not only would the party find enemies without, but from within, as there should be contention within an Orcish warband and tribe. Against the normal Taboo that characters should not hurt, maim, kill each other.
- Character death would be probable, due to the nature of Orcs and combat.
We now operate under the following guidelines as well:
- Hero dice are now awarded for heroic/anti-heroic acts
- Bonus XP awards for quotes/game notes
When we complete a session, I now post an outline of the session within a couple days, so the group can comment on them. Armed with my outline, maps, notes, adventure data, quotes, player notes, my updates will become easier.
I'll be glad to answer any questions. If not, I'll comment more about the game in a few days, and start posting updates.
This starting adventure was one of the suggested campaign starters in the Gazetteer for the Broken Lands. I turned it into a raid on a farming community, with the promise of not much gain without taking on the local watch tower. Darokin rapiers with a -1 in damage are not good and proper weapons for Orcs.
GW
Beginning at Dusk the Vile Runes tribe is gathering quickly by the outside firepit, for Garnash One-Tusk has called for the yearly coming-of-age test to be given to the next batch of younglings in the tribe. There is an excitement in the air, as there is much discussion and argument over the fitness of the new batch of younglings to be full tribal members.
The Vile Runes, is a tribe started by Garnash One-Tusk an up and coming member of the Drippin' Blades tribe. Hoolg Redmane, the Red Orc Horde leader saw his ambition, and gave him a dangerous area of the Broken Lands to attempt to tame, 2 Tribes have failed in this area previously.
This part of Red Orcland has the Vesubian River on the Western Boundary, (With Ogre Tribes across the river on the entire bank) and the rival Fat Lip Tribe on the East. Horde lands are to the north, and the border with Darokin to the South. Any new lands for the Vile Runes must come from the Fat Lip Tribe, Darokin, or as a last resort, within the Ogre Tribe lands.
If the Tribe can hold these lands, it is theirs to keep and expand. This puts the tribe in near conflict with the Fat Lips Tribe. An older and more powerful tribe that was looking to expand into what is now Vile Runes land.
The Vile Runes Tribe is comprised of Red Orcs, Goblins, and Ogres(Half Ogres as well). There are some human slaves in the tribe used for general labor, and the occasional meal when times are hard.
Red Orcs are a sub-race of orcs, recognizable by their generally red hides, and more simian features. Red orcs are about the size of a tall human, with small round ears. They have Long, shaggy hair, bright orange to dull red. They are more muscular and aggressive than normal Orcs. Whenever possible, they favor black, studded leather armor and hoods.
Discussion and arguments about the current batch of younglings are centered around the possibility that they would make excellent tribe members, if they can just survive the trial.
The younglings are:
Gorga, a young Orc who has been training with the scouts and hunters of the tribe. His wilderness knowledge and skills mark him well as a future leader within the tribe, if he can survive the rivalries he will engender in the tribe.
Scrag, a young Orc a little more feral than some, his battle frenzies have been a sight to witness among the youngsters.
Rhgl,(Pronounced Huggle) a young Goblin with skills in fashioning weapons. If he can hone these skills into making War Machines, he will be an important member of the tribe. His ability to let others take charge is wily and calculating.
Iirkh, is a Half-Ogre/Orc cross between one of the Chiefs guards, and an older Orc female in the tribe. With his extraordinary strength he has been hard to manage by the women, and has had to endure several beatings by the males in the tribes, to get him to obey when the females need him to. His strength will make him a powerful warrior.
Drusilla, is an odd one in the tribe. She was found in the tunnels below the tribelands, left behind to die. The tribe adopted this young Shadow Elf and she's been a wild one in the lands around the tribal outpost. She is learning the hunting skills and lore of the lands to become a full member of the tribe, and not a breeder, her disfigurement has given no Orc cause to challenge the claim.
Sharraxtharkhul, is another goblin to cause contention in the tribe. This one has allied himself with a Wolf Companion, and learned to live out in the wilderness. He shows a spark of magic born of the land, and will surely draw the ire of the shaman of the tribe, if, he lives long enough to be a rival for power.
Magrax is his Wolf Companion
Tyco, is an angry Orc, found captured in Darokin Lands. His memory of the death of the Screaming Monkey tribe still haunts him as he joins up with the Orcs out of the Vile Runes tribe. He is considered pariah until he can prove to be a valued member to this tribe.
NPC's
To Be added. Members of the Eagles warband kept around in case of character death, visiting players, fodder, and to round out the warband numbers. So far their morale is good, and they trust in Gorga, when he remembers to give them orders. They can see that he rewards those in the warband who do well.
Hobna
Shglsnor
Gilnak
Adventure Synopsis and Campaign Start
As the Vile Runes tribe gathers, Garnash One-Tusk signals for silence and the tribe quiets down. The Ogre guards flank him while he stands near his seat of respect. He speaks in a commanding voice for the entire tribe to hear.
"You who have lived under the protection of the Vile Runes, must now prove yourselves. If you do, you become full members of the Tribe. If you fail, you will be dead or cast out as pariah.... Step forth all who would be members of the Vile Runes!!"
The six who are to undergo the ritual step forward to be presented to the Chief. The tribe Shaman comes forth and begins casting his spell, waving his Gri-Gri around and dancing in the firelight.
Garnash speaks again:
"I lay upon you, the quest for weapons and armor. Bring back a suitable amount and you will win membership in the tribe."
The shaman continues dancing and wailing to Wogan the patron of the tribe, smacking each of the younglings with his Gri-Gri. Ierkh is restrained by Gorga, and Scrag from retaliating on the shaman, which would be a mistake for sure.
Garnash shouts his final commands:
"Let none aid them, on threat of death. If they return with enough armament, they will be full members. Let them die if they can not succeed. The nearest Pinkskin village is 3 days to the south, may you return as Vile Runes!!!!"
With that a war cry goes up from the tribe, and the younglings are chased from the only home they've ever known. Spears and knives are prodded to speed them along. Women and children cheering from the palisade, hurl rocks to show support.
So Begins the first adventure from the Broken Lands.
By the way...
... Maybe a Drow ...
:OMG! He said the D-word!
Well, Mystara - as you probably know - has no drow.
We have Shadow-Elves.
But the Orcs indeed adopt their babies (although they don't know they're SE) - so it fits in with Drusilla's character anyways.
Sounds interesting! I'm waiting to hear the rest. :whatsthis
By the way...
:OMG! He said the D-word!
Well, Mystara - as you probably know - has no drow.
We have Shadow-Elves.
But the Orcs indeed adopt their babies (although they don't know they're SE) - so it fits in with Drusilla's character anyways.
You're right, I said it. I'm playing them as the Shadow Elves, but the players still call them Drow. I am duly shamed. :embarrass And will work harder to disabuse them of the Drow notion. I'll go back and edit my post.
GW
Rhgl sidles up to Gorga and says, “We should prepare spears and clubs for weapons. I can help fashion the rough weapons from wood and rocks."
Gorga announces this to the rest of the younglings, “Everyone try to find something to use as a weapon” and begins making his plans to take control of this motley band of creatures. All seem to agree and set about finding something to use as they go. Rhgl makes a mental note of Gorga’s seeming desire to lead and begins planning how to best take advantage of it.
Ierkh grabs up a rock the size of an Ogre’s skull and takes a few experimental swings with it, snarling at imaginary foes. Everyone gives him a wide trail for this. “Rock good.” Is his final pronouncement.
They all locate saplings that would make spears, and Rhgl finds some sharp stones for crafting the crude weapons. The issue of food and water is not brought up until later that night. Moving quickly through the scrublands, good time is made heading south. Gorga stops occasionally to gauge their direction by the stars and, Sharraxtharkhul is in agreement that the direction is correct.
Gorga and Drusilla forage for food and water as the rest of the group takes a breather from their overland travel. Sharraxtharkhul slinks quietly into the brush.
Scrag calls out to him, “Don’t wander far unless you want to be a meal, something follows us.” Sharraxtharkhul ignores him and skitters out of sight. “Stupid Goblin, something’s gonna eat it.” A low howl is heard from nearby as Scrag says to no one in particular “See, told you.”
Everyone gathers together near Ierkh and prepares to fight with sticks and rocks at the least, tooth and nail if required. Sharraxtharkhul skitters out of the brush, with a large wolf at his side, with head down, and tail out straight.
Sharraxtharkhul see the others prepared to fight. “He’s my friend, he’ll help us along the way.” Everyone takes him at his word. Ierkh reaches his hand out and ruffles its’ fur. “Nice little wolf, Ierkh not hurt you.” The wolf is visibly distraught at being handled by such a large creature, but Sharraxtharkhul helps to keep him calm, and thereby from being crushed by the huge half-Ogre.
Rhgl turns to sharpening and shaping spears for most everyone except Ierkh, whose boulder needs no modifications. A lizard, and a slow moving bird along the trail found out the hard way, as Ierkh strength and deceptive speed left nothing but stains behind in the aftermath of trying out his “good rock.”
Scrag wonders if the wolf would make a good pelt to cover his head and back, but decides to see if the wolf really helps out or not. The wild Orc wonders if any of its’ bones would make strong enough weapons as well. Sharraxtharkhul notices the penetrating stare, and takes the wolf to the far side of the clearing.
Drusilla and Gorga return from hunting after a while, and share out the melons, and roots they’ve been able to find. “This will keep us alive, for when we take food from the pinkskins.” Gorga ponders his statement for a moment, and decides to make his opening gambit for control of the group. “If you want to stay alive, to raid pinkskin settlements, follow my lead.” Everyone knew something like this was coming, but no one was prepared to gainsay the statement. “Gorga good, bring food.” is the only comment made, by Ierkh, and everyone seems OK with Gorga taking leadership, for now. No bloodshed or bruises for the first contest of leadership in the makeshift warband.
Next Up: Assault on the farmhouse
everyone seems OK with Gorga taking leadership, for now.
Lol. Reminds me of the joke in our campaign, "the leader of the party is the one who wins initiative".
As dawn approaches, the Drusilla and Gorga look for a likely place to rest, sheltered from wandering pinkskins for the day, with shade to protect all the light sensitive eyes. Drusilla finds a large grouping of scrub Oak trees, and tells Gorga about the location. “This way to make camp for the day” commands Gorga. Each Orc picks a place among the trees to rest and is soon fast asleep.
At dusk the Orcs rouse slowly and stretch knotted muscles from the nightlong trek, which has brought them this far, near the border of Orc lands and Darokin Empire. Gorga and Drusilla are already out searching for food, and more roots and some grubs this time, are the fare for the morning meal. Ierkh gets up and scratches his back on one of the trees. The groans and moans of pleasure emanating from the Half-Ogre are abruptly cut short as the tree gives way with a snap. “Ieerrrrkh!!!” is the next sound that is heard, and wisely, no one laughs as he gets to his feet and finishes the job on his back with the fallen tree. With that taken care of Gorga goes around and makes sure everyone is ready to continue.
Gorga and Drusilla again lead the way south into Human lands. There is anxiousness among the Orcs, not born of fear, rather born of the feeling that battle and conquest is near. The night passes with a single stop for food. The scrublands are have been changing dramatically as they move through the night. The surrounding land has become plains and farmland, this close to the Vesubian River. Scattered trees dot the landscape, with moderately rolling hills the primary features. About three quarters of the way through the night, a path is found heading south. Looks are exchanged between Gorga and Drusilla; a pinkskin settlement must be near.
The path wanders through some low hills, until the edge of some tilled land is spotted. A small farmhouse can be seen across the field of food planted in rows. Sharraxtharkhul crushes one of the fleshy orbs hanging from the plant, smells and tastes it, and says simply
“Tomatoes.” And drops it to the ground. “These are good to eat, and will replenish some water.”
Ierkh’s comment “That not food, that what food eats!” makes his idea of food quite clear.
The farmhouse is quite small, and made of clay brick and wood. A quick discussion ensues, to formulate a plan.
“We charge across the field and kill everything we see!” raves Scrag.
“Let’s not warn every pinkskin for a league around.” Gorga snorts.
Rhgl has the idea that is used. “I can sneak quietly up to the farmhouse and they’ll never know I’m here. I’ll come back and tell you what I see.” With a nod from Gorga, Rhgl is off with no sound in his wake. “Little guy make no noise.” Is the only comment made. But everyone is surprised at how well Rhgl remains silent.
Rhgl makes it to the side of the small house, and sees an opening up on he wall, big enough for him to fit through. With little time for thought, he is up the wall and looking inside. The sound of yard birds on the other side of the house is nearly drowned out by the snoring coming from the far end of the single room building.
He makes a quick assessment, and returns to report to Gorga and the others. “There is a single room in the building, with two pinkskins sleeping on the far end. A large table at the near end of the room, and some woodcraft around the room are the main furnishings. The door is wood with a wooden bar across it.”
“Ierkh will smash door.”
“What if they have magic?” is Drusilla’s reply.
“Ierkh not scared, Ierkh strong.”
Rhgl offers, “I can go back in and open the door from the inside, and let you all in. They’ll never hear me with all the sleep noises they make.”
Gorga approves of this, and they all cross the field. Rhgl is up and through the window before everyone else can get around to the front of the house. The door quietly opens, and Rhgl’s gleaming eyes and sly smile poke from behind the door. Ierkh squeezes into the small hut and move to where the humans are sleeping. Gorga follows, and goes to the other side of the sleeping mat. With a thud that jars the floor, and a crack shattering bone, Ierkh’s hand brings down the “good rock” he’s been carrying. The male is now missing a head, and never knew what happened. The female awoke long enough to take a wooden spear through the chest by Gorga, with little but a gurgle coming from her mouth. The human farmers were dispatched without trouble at all.
Next up: Not so quiet assault on a town
With the coming of dawn, the place has been ransacked. Anything of seeming value has been claimed. Some kitchen knives are taken as secondary weapons; a blanket is used to bundle up belts, clothing and anything else that looks useful to the Orcs. Until now, the only clothing has been animal skins to cover themselves. Drusilla heads out to the front yard, and tries to catch a white-feathered bird the pinkskins were keeping. Ierkh is caught up with the same task and tends to smash his. Meat “is” on the menu today, even if it is from rangy little birds. “The pinkskins call them “Chickens,”” says Sharraxtharkhul. “They are kept as a source of food.” No one seems to care, as long as they are worth eating.
Rhgl begins studying the table and insists that he can make a shield out of it for Ierkh, if given enough time. He begins looking for materials that would allow straps to be attached and hold the weight during combat. Gorga directs the other Orcs to carry the bodies out to some high grass by the field, he is sure they won’t be found during the coming day. The light outside causes everyone to retreat to the interior of the small house, to settle in for rest during the daylight hours. Sharraxtharkhul communicates to his wolf companion, that he should eat some birds and find a place away from the pinkskins to rest for the day. The small house will be crowded enough without the wolf taking up room. The windows are covered over to keep most of the light out, and everyone finds some space to claim. With much crunching of bones and slurping of marrow, not much is left of the birds when everyone is done eating. They take turns watching throughout the day for pinkskins to come up the path, but no one comes to visit the small farmhouse. With an overcast sky, Dusk approaches more quickly than the day before. The small farm is searched again, and Drusilla grabs a rake that was left out by the field.
Gorga leads the group south along a path, with the assumption that it will lead to another farm, or the nearest settlement of pinkskins. He is right. The wolf joins up with Sharraxtharkhul and the two scout out away from the path on the right, and Rhgl scouts out on the left. After about 30 minutes of scouting, Rhgl comes back.
“Gorga, there’s a settlement you can see over the next rise. Come see.”
They move down the path, with Rhgl skittering along beside Gorga until the town can be seen. Sharraxtharkhul and the wolf join up with them from the right side, and Gorga begins forming a plan. He’s been training under the other scouts and leaders in the tribe, to learn the best way to use Orcs and their abilities in combat. He takes in the lay of the town. There’s a large area of Trees off to the left that grow in even rows. Some kind of low fence is around them. Just to the right of that is a structure with a wall around it. There are a couple of trees inside the wall. A couple of smaller structures, one of stone, the other of wood, are between the walled area, and the path they are on. Across the path is another group of wood structures, with smaller huts and shacks off to the right of them. The walled structure looks to be the place most likely to have weapons or armed resistance.
Gorga decides to attack this place first, and then move on to secure the rest of the town quietly. He makes his wishes known to the other Orcs.
“We will move off the path about 150 steps from the town, and come around behind that fortification.” As he points to the walled area to the left. “Ierkh can see over the wall, and tell us what is waiting beyond. It looks about the height of an Orc, so we can get over it easy.” “We kill every pinkskin we can find. Keep it quiet, so we don’t alert the town.” Ierkh grins, and everyone is getting excited for the battle to come bloodlust rising. “Let’s go.”
They leave the path and start moving up on the Eastern side of the fortification. As they get closer, Ierkh can easily see over the wall. He says to Gorga. “One pinkskin over there.” He points to the North end of the building, inside the wall. As they move up on the South end of the wall, a gate is seen about halfway down the wall. Gorga to Rhgl, ”Up the wall and see if anyone is on this end of the courtyard. Open the gate for us, if no one is there.” Rhgl nods gleefully and quickly scrambles to the top. Without a backward glance, he goes over the wall. In moments the gate is open and Rhgl stands there with a grin. “Welcome.”
There is a small path leading form the gate, to a door on the stone structure in the middle of the walled area. The walls are about 8 feet high, with a slanted roof made from flat pieces of wood, overlapping each other up to the top, somewhere up towards the middle. There are no openings in the wall of the structure, only the single door on this side. There is no visible means to open the door from this side, short of bashing it in.
Gorga tells the others. “I’ll go around and take out the guard, Rhgl you go that way. In case he bolts.” “Everyone else, wait for a 20 count and follow Rhgl.” With that Gorga slinks around the corner to the South, and Rhgl sneaks around the North side of the structure. Gorga slides along quietly along the side of the building, and comes to the SouthEast corner of the building. He snickers quietly to himself when he sees the obviously non-combatant standing over by a gate on the East wall. A quick move up behind him, and the human never sees what grabs him from behind and forces more than a foot of sharpened wood into his back and up into his chest. A strong and oddly smelling hand has grabbed him over the mouth, but he had no time to scream. Rhgl is watching quietly from the other corner of the building. The rest of the makeshift warband come up behind Rhgl, and they all move to the East end of the building. There is another door on this side. Gorga shoulders the body and heads off around the back of the building. He doesn’t think to tell the others to wait for him, which may have been a mistake. While Gorga is off to hide the body, Rhgl gets antsy and decides to check the door. No handles or latches on this side. He takes a look at the wall and is up the side before anyone can say a word.
The roof slopes up but there is an opening in the middle of this structure. A fountain dominates the middle, and the walls on the inside of this area have multiple openings high up, and a couple of doors. The openings have some kind of fabric covering them from the inside. Rhgl does not see anyone on this side, and lets himself down near the inside of the door. Quickly the door is opened, and Ierkh strides in, followed by Drusilla, Scrag, Sharraxtharkhul and his wolf. The courtyard is well ordered with small bushes, plants and trees surrounding the fountain. The fountain bubbles quietly with a soft soothing sound. Clearly defined paths show the way around the courtyard. Rhgl opens the nearest door to the inside structure, on the right side. In a blink, he is in, and checking out the nearest room. Ierkh squeezes his bulk in, the other five squeeze into the room as well.
There are a couple of large basins with water in them, as well as a couple of metal buckets here. A cabinet is in one corner, and there is a bench along one wall. There’s some kind of sitting place in the corner that stinks quite a bit. On quick inspection this is obviously used for leaving excrement behind.
Drusilla picks up the buckets, and says. “These might be useful.”
Gorga sneaks back in, and is quite angry with everyone for not waiting. "You wait for me, I lead this warband!"
Ierkh peers down at him, "Ierkh not scared of pinkskins."
Rhgl is quick to latch onto this, "You are wise Ierkh, we should find them now."
"You smart goblin, Ierkh like you. You lead."
This not being quite what Rhgl had in mind, settles in beside Gorga, and they continue to explore.
[Gregan Donnels is sleeping peacefully.] It’s been a beautiful day with a leisurely stroll through the orchard, and watching Marilyn bouncing the baby and feeding her this evening. Retirement has been good, this is what I was meant for, not being a burglar in Corunglain. A successful early career in burglary and an early retirement away from the city, this is the life. I wonder…
{Gregan… Gregaaannn, wake Up!! I hear something.}
Gregan is quickly shaken awake by his wife, the fear in her voice is apparent, and the hallway does not look quite right to him, too dark for normal night. He reaches for his sheathed short sword next to the bed. As he stands, he hears a snarl
“He thinks that little blade is going to stop us.”
“Run Mari, run” are the last words he speaks. A large Orc, with a Wooden spear in hand, charges into the room, a black-skinned female elf at his side. Both run him through with wooden spears, as two more creatures emerge. A small wiry looking Goblin runs across the room to the cradle, and the forgotten baby inside, it’s cries are silenced before Gregan hits the bed. An over-powering smell fills the room, as a hunched over Ogre reaches across the room, and shatters Marilyn’s back with a boulder, as she tries to escape screaming down the hall “Orcs, Orcs,!! Guuuhh.” Gregan falls into a less peaceful sleep, some would call hell.
Gorga hisses at Rhgl, “Not the child, oh nevermind. Go check the hallway.”
Rhgl starts down the hallway, and hears a door slam in the distance. “Hey something just went out the front door!”
Rhgl peers around the corner, and can see the window coverings askew, as if someone crawled out. He quickly climbs out the opening, and sees the other Orcs running out the inside door. Thinking quickly, he gets to the outside door and opens it for everyone else, knowing they would be slowed down in pursuit, if they bunch up at the door. Ierkh is the first one past, rolling like a juggernaut through the doorway, 3 steps across the front yard, and he is jumping over the fence out front. Everyone else rushes past, with Drusilla opening the outside gate for everyone. Rhgl heads for the wall and perches on top to see how this plays out. Two pinkskin females are running for their lives, Ierkh puts on a burst of speed, and runs right over the first girl, a foot right in her back from the 9 foot Half-Ogre, sends her to the ground with a crushing finality. This is the only thing that slowed down Ierkh and allowed the other pinkskin to reach her goal. The town square has a large bell in front of a large stone building.
Rhgl can hear her wailing, and yanking the chain of the bell. KLANGG, “Orcs!!” KLANGG, “Orcs!!”
The young woman can hear the running behind her, and ducks down below the Bell for some cover, any cover from these brutes.
Ierkh reaches down to grab her, saying “Head, meet rock.”
Grabbing the small woman by the head, Ierkh miss-judges his strength, and the head pops in his hand like a melon. “Frail Pinkskins.” Is his comment as he drops her to the ground. The Orcs fan out to see what the bell calls.
Next up: A cleric saving lives
I'm sorry for being so sensitive and spoiling the party.
Ignore this if you wish.
I really like reading this, but... err... is there a possibility that there will be less baby-bashing in the future?
I'm sorry for being so sensitive and spoiling the party.
Ignore this if you wish.
Yes, It was the one instance, and it kind of surprised me at the time. A few more innocents get killed, then it's on to soldiers, and back into the broken lands and other monstrous humanoids as the antagonists for the group. I apologize if you were offended. I'll put a notice on the beginning of that post.
Thank you,
GW
Anyway, I'm still here and waiting for more. Not sure who I'm rooting for in this campaign though, the players or the DM ;). I hope the DM gets a few shots in soon.
“I don’t know what I’m doing.” The good father thinks. “Who knows how many Orcs are waiting out here to kill me and eat my heart. I’m a cleric to the Holt, god of harvests, not Hextor, or Heironious.” With trepidation pushed quietly and resolutely aside, he discharges one of his duties; protect the people of this town.
“Wait!! Stop the killing!! What are you here for?! Are you here to kill everyone? Or are you looking for something?" Father Gilthen realizes that he may have just pushed the limits of Orc intelligence by asking all these questions together. He holds his mace above his head, in a non-threatening way, with palms out.
Common is understood by some of them at least. “Drop your weapon pink-skin” Gorga growls at him. “Or you die a slow painful sleep.” Father Gilthen knows the Orc means death, but he’s not about to try correcting his grasp of Common right now.
“Stop killing my people, and I will help you find what you want.”
“Drop your weapon, NOW!!! No more will die, and we will leave soon, if you surrender, and tell me where I can find weapons and armor for my Orcs.” Gorga steps forward, the others all look on with interest. The Cleric complies, and his mace falls to the dirt at his feet and nods his agreement. He almost wishes he was clergy to a more combat oriented god, but realizes the end result would be little different, he is biding time for the people of this town, and a swift death in combat would not buy much of it.
Gorga grabs him roughly by the collar, and forces him to his knees, with a kick to the back of his legs. “Now, off with your armor.”
At this point, the door to the smithy opens, and Dubro the town smith makes his entry to the town square. Two Goblins, and a wolf meet him at his door. He has a torch, and a forge-hammer for all the good it will do him. Ierkh ambles up to the smith, and towers over the big man.
When Dubro tenses up for a fight, Father Gilthen shouts out to him, “Don’t fight them Dubro, they’ll kill you and the rest of the town, let me talk to them.” Ierkh pats his rock and starts to grin. “Rock Good” he repeats to himself. Dubro gives his hammer and torch to the waiting Goblins, and they roughly search him, and move into his forge and hut. Quickly searching through the hut, they find some blankets, a cot, a table and chair, a couple of eating knives, and more equipment for the forge.
The wolf stalks back and forth behind Dubro as Sharraxtharkhul commanded. Gorga continues to strip the Cleric of anything useful, and slides the Chain shirt over his frame. It’s a little snug in places, but it’s better than nothing. The cleric is a little worse for wear, with cuffs and bruises through the ordeal.
The Goblins come back out of the hut, “Where is the money pink-skin? We found nothing inside.” Rhgl seems to plead with his beady little eyes as he asks his question.
“I only have what’s in my pouch, these farmer’s are poor, and they pay with food and drink.”
The Goblin can tell he is lying, but does not try to force the issue. Gorga gives direction again “Check under the Anvil Ierkh, maybe it is hidden.” Ierkh pushes the smith out of the way, and squeezes under the overhang. “This?” as he picks up the large hunk of metal mounted on a block of wood, big around as a tree. Sharraxtharkhul rushes over to pull at the dirt under the Anvil, “Yes Ierkh, now no dropping it on me.”
Gorga resumes his questioning of Father Gilthen, and learns that there is a Keep down the road, with the only supply of weapons and armor for miles. He sees the Cleric is speaking the truth, and tells the others to search the nearest buildings. With the search at the forge completed, Sharraxtharkhul and Ierkh come back to the town square. Scrag calls for Ierkh to open the door to one of the larger buildings. The door is quickly smashed open, and the town store is busted open for looting. A short fat human is trying to hide behind a counter; When Scrag takes command of the room. The town general store is quickly looted, and the shopkeeper’s box of money added to the pile of loot. The shopkeeper wets himself with fear, while handing over the box.
They now have backpacks, rations, water skins, rope, sacks, blankets, and many other items to bring back to the tribe. Some means to carry what they found is now at hand.
The last building to be raided ends up being the Tavern, which used to be the area jail. Stonewalls and thick oaken doors, and barred windows are surely strong enough to deter these Orcs. Maybe a normal group, but this group has the best darn door opener known to Orc kind; A Half-Ogre. Two massive kits from the Half-Ogre and his “Good Rock” and the door brace snaps in half. Scrag, Ierkh, and Drusilla all file in, to gather some barrels of pink-skin liquor, and the money box from the tavern-keeper as well. The cudgel taken from his grasp as a final insult.
Gorga calls for Scrag, “Come get the Human Shaman, he comes with us.” Gorga stalks over to Dubro, and gets face to face with him. “Now where is your stash of Gold human?” The menacing presence and threatening glare, not to mention foul smell, convinces the smith to answer. “Buried in the corner, under the bed.” Gorga waves the Goblins back in the hut, “Now find it this time!” After some digging, the Goblins reappear with a metal box.
Everything is gathered together, and the Smith and Cleric tied up. Dubro watches as everything is packed up, and the Orcs head west, out of town. “Thank Moradin and Holt, they didn’t search all the huts.” He thinks. "The women would have been taken as well. May the gods watch over father Gilthen.”
He can still hear Gorga shouting orders, “Rhgl, Sharraxtharkhul you and the wolf scout ahead!”
Next up: Some Darokin Soldiers get tangled up.
I think you handled it ok in your writing of the event. It's gruesome (and probably to be expected from orcs and such), but you didn't dwell on it.
I agree.
Thank you for dealing with the matter - and in such a kind way.
Keep up the good work!
Gorga pokes father Gilthen in the shoulder, “Who is this Cleric? Why does he live so far from the town?”
Rather deflated the Cleric gives his answer “That would be Milton, he is supposed to warn the soldiers up the road when he hears the town bell.”
Gorga and the warband start to laugh at this and mocks him. “Your defenses have served you well Cleric.”
They bypass the hut, and continue to head east for almost 2 hours. Sharraxtharkhul and the wolf return to report a fortification around the bend in the road. Gorga gags the Cleric, and emphasizes the need to remain quiet by pulling a finger across his neck with a certainty the Cleric does not miss. Quietly the group moves off the road, to follow Sharraxtharkhul through the bushes and scrub trees in the area. At the top of a small hill, the fortification can be seen through the bushes.
The “Roadside Keep” has a central tower between 40 and 50 feet high. The first level has an attached 10 foot building, about 30 x 50 foot connected to the back. This section, and the roof of the keep are both crenellated. A narrow path winds from the main road up to the large wooden gate. There is an Earth barrier surrounding the small tower at the center. Spaced periodically around the top of the Barrier, are large torches. The barricade is Twenty feet high along the outside. This is due to a ten foot deep ditch, which looks like it was emptied to the inside of the ring to form the barrier. Trees and brush have been cleared for 100 feet in all directions from the outpost.
Daylight is fast approaching, and two soldiers walking the barrier are extinguishing the Torches. Gorga begins questioning the captive “How many soldiers in the keep Cleric?” with an aside to Rhgl “Keep an eye out for pinkskins.” Father Gilthen is on his knees, with hands bound behind his back, Gorga pulls out the gag.
Father Gilthen takes too long to answer, and gets a solid backhanded smack from the angry Orc. “Understand me pinkskin I will know about these soldiers, one way or another.”
With a defeated sob father Gilthen says what he knows in hopes of discouraging the Orc's murderous intent “There must be 10 to 15 at any time, with patrols out during the day.”
“Where do the patrols run?”
“East and West along the main road here, they check in with the closest towns.” His thanks from Gorga is a kick in the chest sending him sprawling.
Gorga’s mind starts working, and splitting forces to take out patrol’s both directions, is dropped from the list of options quickly, as is, storming the keep outright. “We can take out one patrol and reduce the numbers in the tower, and get some weapons from them. If we have time we can circle around and get the patrol headed East. Rhgl you stay here and watch what happens. The rest of you Orcs we go to set a trap for this patrol. Scrag; bring the Cleric with us. We can gag him again to keep quiet.”
The rest is postponed with the sun coming up, and a good ambush site is picked about a mile back down the road, with a hill on the south side giving cover for the Orcs. There are plenty of grasses, brush and scrub trees on both sides of the road for concealment. They get in some shade, some crawling under bushes, and wait for the patrol to come along.
Throughout the morning hours, Rhgl struggles with the daylight to keep track of the two sentries, he is watching, on the barrier. A couple hours after the sun has begun to rise, a change of guard takes place on the walls, and 2 replacement sentries come out to begin the rounds. More activity from the door of the tower draws Rhgl’s attention there. 8 more soldiers file out, and form up into two sets, with a line of three and the forth off to the side of them. These differ from the Longbow wielding guardsmen on the wall in a couple of ways. The foot soldiers each have a 12’ Long spear. All of the soldiers also carry a sword, and wear padded armor of some kind, with a metal breastplate over the chest. The foot soldiers also carry a light buckler-type shield strapped to one arm. As they march towards the gate, the 2 sentries open the gates for them. Rhgl considers returning to Gorga to notify him of this occurrence, but decides to wait it out here. Besides, there’s no need to go back, and possibly get injured by those long spears. He decides to wait until Gorga returns with further orders. If Gorga is killed, then so much the better, maybe he can assert some kind of will over the Half-Ogre and achieve leader status in his place. These evil thoughts continue, as a set of four soldiers march East and West along the main road. The two sentries close the gates, and return to their rounds.
A few minutes later Sharraxtharkhul’s wolf companion tells him that something is coming up the road. He signal’s to Gorga, and crawls to the top of the hill to see the 4 soldiers coming.
Quickly Gorga sets the stage. To Sharraxtharkhul “You attract their attention, and get them to come at us to this hill.” To everyone “When they leave the road, Ierkh will come around the hill to attack from the side, the rest of us will come over the hill and go right at them. We will overpower them and our weapons will taste their blood.”
Sharraxtharkhul scrambles back to the top of the hill, and stands up. He starts gibbering and waving to get the attention of the soldiers. Unknown to anyone but him, he has prepared a spell today to take advantage of the natural growth in the area.
The inexperience of the soldiers will be their undoing today. The sergeant points at Sharraxtharkhul “Look a goblin, let’s get im!” They run towards the hill, and Sharraxtharkhul stands up to his full height and begins a quick movement of his hands, and chants “Plants of the earth, with nature’s might, rise up at my command, and hold them tight.”
The soldiers are quickly enveloped in a grasping tangle of weeds, brush and grasses, which have sprung to life at their feet. None is able to break free, or avoid the grasp of nature. The Orcs come over and around the hill, to see a forty-foot area of plants, grasping at the soldiers. Yells of surprise turn to shouts of dismay at seeing the rest of the band of Orcs coming at them. Not realizing that the plants would grab at them as well, the grasping plants quickly trap Gorga and Scrag. Sharraxtharkhul watches from the hill, his wolf companion sitting at his side. He didn’t intend for the others to become entangled, but they should have known better. Ierkh arrives and manages to stay out of the reach of the plants. Two of the soldiers attempt to bring their longspears into play, but have difficulty with the plants grasping at everything.
With the soldiers unable to break free, Ierkh manages to crush two of them with his “rock” and a combination of efforts by Gorga, Scrag, and Drusilla the other two are killed with Sharraxtharkhul looking on intently. They all look to Sharraxtharkhul to release them from the trap that is now grasping at them.
Gorga voices what they are all thinking “Goblin, free us from these plants!” Magic is a compelling and often rare power among Orcs and treated with respect or fear if not both.
Sharraxtharkhul considers dismissing the spell, but decides to let them sweat it for a while longer. “You must wait for some time more, until the power is gone. You will be able to get out only then.” He grins with satisfaction and sits along with the wolf.
Ierkh tries reaching into the area to pull out a longspear dropped by one of the soldiers, but keeps getting grabbed by plants at each attempt. A short fit of anger later, the Half Ogre has his spear. Shortly the spell dissipates and the foliage returns to normal. The human bodies are gathered up and stripped of anything valuable, including weapons. The rapiers the soldiers carry; hardly look like weapons a self-respecting Orc would use, but all weapons and armor are gathered. Gorga and Drusilla clean up the scene of the battle, and Gorga decides to wait and see if more soldiers come in search of these. After a few hours of waiting it looks like no more will come soon, and the order is given to “Move out!! back along the path to where Rhgl is waiting.”
A short time later the Orcs meet up with Rhgl, still watching the Roadside Keep. Rhgl speaks up first “Ahh, Gorga the pinkskins, they send a patrol east and west, numbering 4. I remained here as you would wish, did you see them?” as he eyes the new weapons that the Orcs now carry.
“Ierkh smashed them like cave rats.” Ierkh gleefully explains.
“Gorga, more news have I. A short time ago, the four soldiers that went east returned at a run. They went in the tower, and a single pinkskin came back out. Straight south he ran across the land.”
“Aaargh!! We waited too long to return. Can we catch him now?” Gorga grinds his teeth in anger.
“Catching him would prove most difficult Gorga.” Rhgl cringes back some to not be in range of a cuff showing displeasure from Gorga. Gorga rounds on the Cleric stepping forward with evil intent in his eyes “I have a job for you.”
Next up: Assault on the Roadside Keep.
A middle-aged Goblin sits up in his prison cell; three Orcs look to him for guidance. FillexHulkil had a vision in the last sleep cycle. He would be delivered from this prison, and the other Orcs with him. A warband of Orcs on a Coming of Age quest would shatter the tower door and set him free. His mission was not going as well as planned. Two weeks into his search for Orcs to swell his tribal ranks, and he was captured by a human patrol. Stripped of his Gri-Gri, he was unable to cast most of his spells. The three Orcs in his thrall now share the same cell with him. He whispers to them during the day.
"We will be freed today, we will travel with these newcomers for a time and see where their luck takes us."
Yes, freedom, and the chance to complete my task and gain acceptance from my Chief.
After Gorga dispenses orders, the tribe readies weapons, and moves down to the roadway to start walking toward the keep. The gag is removed from Father Gilthen’s mouth and he is pushed ahead of Gorga within an arms length. They take the narrow path winding from the main road up to the large Iron reinforced wooden gate. The gate is anchored in the barrier on both sides. There is a ten-foot deep drop off on both sides of the entryway to the gate, which is just over 10 feet in height. The warband jogs right up to the gate as the sentries wait with arrows prepared. Ierkh looks up a little at them both and starts grinning.
Gorga begins “Let us in, or the Cleric gets it.” Both sentries blanch at this, and one climbs down and runs for the tower.
“We can’t let you in Orc, you’ll kill the Cleric anyway.” Is the reply from the remaining guard as he shoots an arrow into Father Gilthen, with a look searching for forgiveness in his eyes.
Gorga spits out a command as he takes the Cleric to the ground, “Ierkh, over the gate and open it for us, it’ll be faster than smashing it.”
Ierkh moving with a speed that is unexpected, is up and climbing the wall in no time. Rhgl takes to the barrier on the left, and begins to climb, but miscalculates the danger of the barriers on the edge of the ditch, and uncharacteristically slides down into the ditch. As soon as Ierkh starts up the front of the gate, the remaining sentry scrambles down the back of the barrier, and runs for the tower as well. Father Gilthen cries out piteously as Gorga drives the arrow deeper into the wound. “Now you will pay for their treachery Cleric.” Gorga sets about making his chosen enemy die as painfully and noisily as possible. Father Gilthen tries remaining quiet and pray to his god, but this Orc is skilled in delivering pain to the right places. Agonized screams are what the men in the tower hear from beyond the barrier.
A huge Half-Ogre climbs over the top of the gate eager for what awaits him inside. Ierkh drops down on the inside, and easily rips the brace out of its anchors on the back of the gate. The door swings open, and the warband has made it past the first obstacle. Ierkh rounds on the fleeing sentry and breaks into a run. As the sentry makes it through the tower door, Ierkh has closed the distance by half. Sharraxtharkul stops to give Rhgl a hand out of the ditch, and his wolf companion paces back and forth, as if he’ll get to eat the trapped goblin when he is pulled up.
Scrag and Drusilla chase after Ierkh, and notice arrows flying from slits at the second level. Two more human archers have moved out onto the roof of the attached building, and begun shooting arrows at them as well. If Ierkh doesn’t get that door open, this will soon be a killing ground.
Gorga finishes up his grisly task, and rushes past Sharraxtharkul and Rhgl, “Hurry, and stop fooling around. We’ll need you inside.”
“They come. I am almost free”
Ierkh slams into the Iron-bound Oak door, and for an instant concern registers in his mind, shortly after; there is an explosion of wood, as the wooden bar on the inside of the door absorbs the destructive power of a charging 900 lb Half-Ogre. Ierkh roars in exaltation and a little relief as he bursts into the room. In a moment he is pierced with a longspear, while three others are too busy avoiding shards of wood, to make good an attack on the Half-Ogre.
In the middle of the room a round table has been thrown over, and 4 Darokin soldiers take cover behind, each waiting with a longspear for anything coming through the door. The room is round, with a ladder leading up to the next level. There is a barred door across from the entrance, and the voices of Orcs can be heard, from the other side, loudly shouting to be freed. The remains of a dice game are strewn on the floor Copper pieces lie everywhere.
Ierkh lays about him with his rock, while the others brave arrow fire to make it up to the front of the tower. Ierkh is filling the doorway, and hasn’t thought to make room for the others to come in and help him kill. Blood dribbles from the spear wound in his side, and he begins to weaken some. As Gorga makes it to the tower, he quickly sizes up the situation and yells. “Ierkh, make way so we can fight too.” Sharraxtharkul rushes up managing to clasp a hand on Ierkh’s leg, through the doorway, before Ierkh decides to move. He is able to channel the power of nature up from the ground, through his body, into Ierkh, halting the flow of blood from the wound, and sealing it into a dark bruise.
Rhgl gets a bad feeling, and a large rock buries itself in the ground at his feet. “Gorga, the pinkskins throw rocks from the tower top!” Scrag takes a glancing blow from a rock, and throws himself at the doorway, to squeeze past Ierkh. An opening is made between Ierkh and the doorjamb, and the warband makes it in the tower. Despite the reach advantage of the Darokin soldiers, they die quickly having inflicting few wounds on the Orcs.
Cries are heard from the prison cells. “In here.” “Release us.” “Don’t leave us to the pinkskins mercy.” “They have come as I said.” “Let me kill some Dar-O-kins too.” The shouts become hard to recognize, as the Orcs become uncertain whether they will be set free or not.
Rhgl and Sharraxtharkul begin searching bodies and picking up coins, while Ierkh prepares to muscle the entrance to the prison. Scrag and Drusilla guard the ladder, and the wolf looks to see if anything will follow in the door. Gorga gets a key ring from the goblins, and brings it over in time to save Ierkh the exertion of bending and breaking that would be required to get the iron cell door open.
“Quiet Orcs. I, Gorga will set you free today. We are of the Vile Runes tribe”
The barred door leads to a 30’ by 50’ prison, with barred doors guarding smaller cells. Manacles are attached to iron loops in the floors and the ankles of the Orcs. There are a dozen Orcs scattered in different cells here. Most of them are injured. The cells are relatively clean, but the Orcs manage to make them seem cluttered and filthy. One cell in particular holds 4 Orcs. 1 obviously touched by magic, the other three clearly look to him for direction. “I have foreseen our release at your hands, I am FillexHulkil” A goblin stands to greet Gorga from within his cell. He is small, but there is a power about him. “I must have my Gri-Gri, they keep it in the last cell. You will need my powers before the day is gone”
Gorga releases the Orcs, and finds that all have been severely beaten or injured during capture. Of them all only two would be capable of combat, one named Tyco, who keeps asking to kill the Dar-O-kins, and FillexHulkil a magic man, called a Wicca, from the Broken Lands. All the Orcs, except the Wicca are the remains of the Screaming Monkey tribe, which was recently decimated by Darokin soldiers. The Wicca strangely does not claim a tribe, but few question Orcs who use magic.
Gorga gives Tyco a longspear and a Darokin Rapier, and points him to the ladder. “More Darokin soldiers up there.”
Tyco clambers up the ladder, and throws open the cover, sword and spear in one hand fierce determination as his shield. The archers at their arrow slits turn quickly as Tyco jumps upon one, wrestling him against the wall, sword and spear were dropped as the spear would not come to bear through the hole into close quarters fighting. The others draw rapiers as the Orcs swarm into the room. The battle is short, and soon Tyco is directed to the door, which opens onto the roof of the prison. There is no one left on the roof, and Gorga points to the ladder again. The next level up in the tower is without combat. There are cots lined up in this sleeping room, and a small chest lies near one of them, it is locked, with no key found that fits the lock. Tyco gets his directions from Gorga again, and a storage room is found above. Crates of rations, extra weapons and armor are stored here. The Goblins begin taking everything they can carry down to the first floor, they’ve not been much help in the combat here and this is a useful task as Gorga sees it. They must leave quickly when the tower is cleared, for help is surely on the way from the city south of here.
After again being directed by Gorga to the ladder, Tyco is unable to open the ladder hole cover, to the roof of the tower. He braces and pushes, but is unable to generate enough force while standing on the ladder to get the trapdoor open. Scrag climbs up to take his place, and Ierkh reaches up and with a screech of metal on wood, helps force it open. Scrag is unsure at this point if he really wants to be the first through the hole, but Ierkh is impatient, and gives him a boost.
Scrag is suddenly struck by 3 arrows from different points on the roof, and he falls back into the room. The Orcs look at each other, and Tyco charges up the ladder, the others following behind.
As the Orcs swarm the rooftop and defeat is assured, a human reaches up to grab something, and jumps over the side of the tower, sliding down a cable away from the tower. As Ierkh squeezes through the trapdoor, Gorga yells to him ”Ierkh, break that rope!”
The soldiers die quickly as Ierkh runs up to the wooden post holding the wire in place. Seeing he has no knife to cut with, Ierkh does what he does best. Drawing back his “good rock” Ierkh smashes the post, and sees the human fall to the ground half way to his destination on the outer barrier. This man did not expect his escape route to be foiled so easily.
FillexHulkil was dancing around the fallen body of Scrag, pulling arrows from his body. Gri-Gri waving in the air, and uttering a low guttural chant calling the powers of healing from the spirits. The Orc sits up in time to hear the shouted command of Gorga up on the roof “Quick, he is getting away, out the main gate.”
Upon receiving healing, and hearing Gorga’s shout, Scrag springs up and begins rushing down the ladder after the fleeing human. Sharraxtharkul sees the Orc's coming down, and rushes down and out of the way on the ground floor of the tower. Rhgl looks up the ladder and sees death in the eyes of the Orc's above, and darts down and out of the tower running for his life.
"Orcs can be so fickle, what did he do anyway, just carrying some boxes to the ground floor. Why pick on poor little Rhgl and come after him? He would never hurt another Orc, unless he deserved it, and then there would be the sneaking and hiding, and the sharp knives to exact his revenge in the sleeping hours." Running towards the gate, Rhgl furtively looks above for the hail of rocks that he fears will soon follow.
FillexHulkil takes a different path, he heads up to the roof, and seeing the fleeing human, who has caused him so much trouble, begins calling upon the spirit world for another spell. The eerie sound washes over the Orcs, as they look on in awe and respect, if not fear. The spell culiminates with a word echoing with sinister intent "Sleeeep". The fleeing human falls to the ground fast asleep as he is running past the body of the Cleric outside the encampment.
Next up: Return to the home tribe
“Be useful Rhgl. Strip this one of weapons, and tie him securely, we will take him back to the tribe. He is strong and will make a good slave.” All of the Orcs have seen the slaves back at the home tribe. None looked as hale or strong-willed as this one surely was.
“And save that Bow for me. I can use it best.” To the rest of the warband and newfound pariah, “gather up all the treasure, weapons, food. Anything of value to the tribe will be taken. More pinkskins will come soon, many more, and we must not be found.”
Short work is made of gathering nearly anything that is not securely fastened to a wall or door hinge. Almost every thing here has some value to the tribe. Gorga gives the order to move out, and after leaving the path into the open lands to the North, Drusilla and Gorga begin the work of covering tracks of the passing Orcs. It is slower going, but once the Broken Lands are reached the chances of pursuit drop to almost nothing. Travel is pushed through the first night, and into the next day. Rest is taken once, due to the injured Orcs, but the trip, back to tribal lands, is made in just over two days. During the trip home, Tyco warns Gorga of the unusual relationship between FillexHulkil and the three Orcs who follow him. “They listen too close, and guard him like a tribe chief.” Gorga keeps an eye on them when he is not busy at the enormous task of keeping everyone moving.
As the warband comes nearer to the heart of Vile Runes country, a patrol is seen. They salute the younglings, and head straight back to the home tribe at a run.
Gorga warns everyone “They will let the tribe know of our return. We return with victory and spoils, let us hope they are enough to discharge our trial.”
The gates are open as the warband returns. Women and young line the palisade and call to the returning younglings. “Did you bring weapons? Treasure?” Cheers and shouts are leveled at the returning Orcs.
Garnash One-Tusk sits on his outdoor seat of honor, with the Shaman, Hargul Wolf-Tongue standing nearby. The elders Caasz Iron-butt, Huzzk Elf-Ripper, and Raorr Scare-Belly are all present to help judge the worthiness of the returning younglings. The warband in charge of security directs the younglings and new pariah to place all treasure at the feet of the elders, and to step back near the fire pit. The tribe gathers round the pit and a low rumbling of Orc voices can be heard, discussing the value of the treasure and the likelihood that these ragtag Orcs would soon be Vile Runes.
Garnash speaks “You return knowing what will happen if you have not gained enough weapons and armor for the tribe.” Hargul jumps down from the platform and approaches the younglings. “They have returned with pariah for the tribe, and a prisoner for me.” He eyes Sharraxtharkul and the wandering Wicca, FillexHulkil with a measuring stare. “Grown in magic already Sharrax… you will do well to learn your place.”
Meanwhile the elders are going through the treasure in front of them. Grunts of satisfaction are made, and the elders turn and nod to Garnash. Huzzk offers ”It is as we expected, padded armor and skinny swords favored by the Darokin pinkskins.” Caasz announces, “Gold and goods make up for the shortfall. If any of these pariah prove themselves, the tribe grows more.” It is obvious to everyone that the pariah will not be included in this ceremony.
Garnash speaks again “You younglings have proven yourselves to the tribe, tell us of your battles and you will be given fitting names in the tribe.” Hargul begins to dance around and pray to Wogan to see the truth of the new tribe members’ words.
Gorga steps forward and begins,
“Oh Great Garnash and honored tribesmen, this is my tale and that of my warband.
I lead our band through the lands, finding food, water and shelter. We found good strong trees and with the great skill of Rhgl were able to fashion weapons with which to slay our enemies.
We soon found the pinkskins' lands and dispatched many of them easily with both stealth and strength. We took their leader hostage and made their only brave warrior cower in fear. We allowed the village to stand so that we could plunder them again in the future.
Then, I lead the mighty band through the border lands where we scouted the pinkskin's fortification. We ambushed one of their patrols and slew them easily with use of our weapons and some magic from Sharraxtharkul.
Then we proceeded to attack their fortification. We used the spiritual leader as a hostage and demanded them to allow us entry. Although they hesitated, eventually they forsaked the leader to protect their lives. A mistake, for we left none alive. His usefulness at an end, I ended the leader's life myself.
The great Ierkh leveled the door to the fortification and allowed us entry. We slaughtered all the pinkskins weakening their outpost. We then captured their leader, freed the other orcs and plundered the fortification for the glory of the tribe. We brought back the leader of the fortification for you to do as you see fit.“
Gorga grabs him by the arm, and pushes him forward, and continues with his speech.
”All of the band acted bravely and brought honor to the tribe.“ He points to the piles of treasure and goods at the feet of the elders. “We returned with these spoils to enrich the tribe. I, Gorga, hope my actions and those of my band please you, Great Garnash.”
A grin splits Garnash One-tusk’s face. Hargul continues to dance around and suddenly rushes up to Gorga looking into his eyes and announces. “I name you ‘Gorga Manhunter’, you honor the tribe.” With that he spins back around and continues dancing and praying as only an Orcish Shaman can do, Gri-Gri flailing, and Wolf skin flapping as he goes.
One of the elders directs a nearby guard to take the human prisoner to Hargul’s hut for questioning later.
Garnash continues, “Gorga, as our Shaman says, you honor the tribe.” Pointing at Drusilla Garnash commands, “You darkskin, tell us of your battles.”
Drusilla steps forth and speaks. “Great Garnash, I have traveled with these Orcs, hunted food for them, and killed with them. Humans fell at my hands, and I yearned to kill more. I used my skills, learned while hunting in the lands of our tribe, to disguise our trail, and keep the humans from following us back here.” Somehow the Dark Elf managed to keep a level of refinement, even after living with Orcs since her childhood.
Garnash nods to her, and Hargul dances up to look in Drusilla’s eyes. “You do honor to the tribe, your name is now, 'Drusilla Wolf-kin'.” He abruptly turns away to return to his dancing and prayers again.
Garnash points to Scrag. “You there, what did you contribute?”
Scrag ambles forward and begins what he thinks are his exploits. “Scrag looking forward to maiming of unworthy creatures, leaping up from the dead and being the bane of all bent twig with string wielding creatures. Mostly, Scrag thirsts put down all who cowardly refuse to bring their challenge axe to axe and instead fling treachery from a distance.”
Garnash looks on in astonishment at the Barbarian, and looks to Gorga, who explains. “Scrag fought bravely and fell to many arrows. He was healed by the Wicca FillexHulkil and has hatred for archers now.” Garnash nods, and Hargul comes dancing up again to look in Scrag’s eyes, not seeing much more than his reflection he announces. “You do honor to your tribe, and you did service for your warband, your name is 'Scrag Limp-stick'.” A roar goes up from the relatively quiet surrounding tribe, and laughter is heard at this name.
Garnash silences them with a quick wave of his arm. “Enough... Limp-stick is one of us now. He can earn a new name in future battles.” Hargul returns to his dancing and praying, while Garnash calls upon Ierkh, “Ogre, come forth and give us your words of battle.”
Ierkh tells his “Tail.”
”O Garnush won tux: warband leave home to siek pinkskin viillig az ewe no. We are finding little hut, two pinkskins making strange noises insiid. Little goblin doesn't let Ierkh crash door, insted climes wall and opens from inside quietlee. We smash pinkskins while they sleep, it is most satisfying crunching noyz when Ierkh hit with his gud rok. Shardaxbartool tells Iirkh to eat little red fruits from plants outsiid, but Iirkh eat bit of pinkskin insted. Pinkskin tastee.
We then attack pinkskin town, kill more miserable pinkskins as they sleep. But little orx and puni goblinz make too much noise, Ierkh has to chays pinkskin servints to gathering place where filthy pinkskin starts hitting big mettal can to waik warriors. Ierkh crush one under his great foot, pull off otherz hed with his mighty fist. Iirkh like to kill pinkskins. Iirkh glad to kill pinkskins for glory of traib.
Filthy pinkskin shaman comes out of hut, tries to talk to warband like they are pinkskins. Little Gorga gets shaman to surrender, Ierkh makes sure tiny pinkskin no he will face quik deth if not listen. We get villig to set down weponz, they are so afraid of Ierkh. Shaman leads us to little pinkskin fort. Little Sharxmexbarkul thros magic into pinkskin patrol, tangles up orcs and Ierkh with filthy pinkskinz inside thorneevines, but we crush their hedz with mighty rock swings and stikpokes. We takes their spears and Gorga planz attack on fort.
Mighty Ierkh leaps over little gate, tramples pinkskinz and makes mash of their braenz. Little pinkskin warband leeder tries to exkape, but great Iirkh breaks his flying stik with Rok. Sharnextarmool has no magiks to stop little pinkskin, other little shaman -- Felnixbignose -- makes it sleep insted. We take all wepuns and relees ork priziners from pinkskin cage. Ierkh strong, carry many trophies for band, for little orcs and puny goblinz can't carry prizes on their backs.
Ierkh proud to swing Rok for honor of Vile Runes!” Cheers go up at this Ogrish mangling of what happened. Nearly out of breath, Ierkh smiles at the response and hefts his rock for all to see, stained dark from all the recent blood.
Hargul dances near and looks up at the huge Half-Ogre. “You honor your tribe. You are now known as 'Ierkh Stone-Fist'.” More cheers from the tribe, and Gorga pats Ierkh on the arm. “Good show Ierkh.” Ierkh is beaming at all the praise.
Garnash calls for quiet again, and points to Sharraxtharkul. “You Goblin... What did you do?” Hargul dances around Ierkh for a second longer and casts his eyes towards Sharraxtharkul.
Sharraxtharkul steps forward, with his wolf companion at his side. “Oh Great Garnash One-Tusk, I have traveled far with these Orcs, and used magic to aid them. I made the plants come alive to trap Darokin pink skins for an easy kill, and to heal Ierkh when he would have fallen in battle. I humbly submit my magic to the tribe and this warband.”
All take notice of the powerful totem of the Wolf that Sharraxtharkul has at his side. Their God Wogan was known as the first and best rider of wolves, when the horde was searching for a home. This new spark of power could mean a shift in the tribe if Sharraxtharkul continues to gain in his abilities.
Regardless of his feelings, Hargul dances up and looks into the eyes of a possible future rival for power in the tribe. With an evil grin, Hargul begins “You have brought honor to your tribe, I name you 'Tangle-foot'!” A shock rushes through the tribe at this insulting Halfling-style name. Hargul dances happily away to continue his prayers, knowing he will hear about this from Garnash later. But tradition is tradition, and none will gainsay the shaman’s naming.
Still slightly shocked, Garnash points to Rhgl “Goblin, the other one. Tell us what you did.”
Rhgl moves quietly forward and puffs himself up with a big breath.
”Our Great Lord Garnash One-Tusk, this is my humble tale of a party of great warriors sent to invade the pinkskins.
After we leaving the safe-safeness of our home, we, the small band of young and eager warriors headed to the most dangerous borders. Gorga and Drusilla are able to gather what good we needed, while little ol' Rhgl was tasked with fashioning the first weapons that we are to use, simple spears.
Finally we made our way, after a few days journey, to the edge of the pinkskin village. A small hut made of wood and clay stood before us. Poor, little ol' Rhgl sneak-sneak over to the hut. Peering inside the hole, I see our first pinkskin. Sneak-sneak back to the rest of the young warband, I tell them what is inside. Gorga, being the smarted of the group, agrees we should kill what is inside.
Poor ol' Rhgl sneak-sneak back to the hut, and up up and inside the opening I did enter. Making my way to the door, I opens it for the band. Inside Ierkh lifts his massive rock, and BOOM! Off comes the head of the pinkskin. Off comes the head of the second one.
Soon after we make our way to the village. We see a hut, with walls around. Gorga thinks this place has something we want. Gorga is wise. Up up over the wall, Little Rhgl goes. I open the gate and lets us all in. Gorga, wise, heads around to the front, I go the other way. We make sure no pinkskins are around.
Gorga spots a pinkskin, and with his weapon in hand, he cuts off the head of the pinkskin. The head rolls-rolls to my feat, and stares blankly up at me. Inside we sneak-sneak. Entering the sleeping chamber, we see more of these ugly pinkskins. Ierkh easy mashes head of one of the pinkskins. I not see what kill the other, but it's head came off as well. Who would have known pinkskins die-die so easy...?”
Garnash waves his hands in the air, “Enough, we will be here all night.”
Hargul dances forward to look at Rhgl. “You honor your tribe Goblin. Your name is now 'Rhgl Story-teller'.” He then dances off, with both Goblins staring death at his back, to finish the prayer. As he finishes, Garnash One-tusk stands to address the tribe.
“Vile Runes!! I give you our newest members. They will make up a new warband to join the others. The Eagles. Gorga Manhunter has proven himself to be the most fit and will lead this warband.”
The tribe begins cheering again, and fall silent with a wave of Garnash’s hand.
“Tonight we celebrate our growing tribe, we will grow and take over the lands around us, the Ogre lands to the West, The Fat Lips and Kobold lands to the East, and Human lands to the South. The Vile Runes will be known and feared throughout the Broken Lands.”
After the cheering and yelling die down, Garnash finishes. “You will be given all the benefits of tribe members from this night forth, see Gynk Lip-biter on the new day, for your first assignment. You may keep the weapons you have used for your own as your share. Let the feasting begin!!!”
Hargul Wolf-Tongue points at the fire pit and begins chanting and waving his Gri-Gri. A fire roars into being and the celebration begins.
Next Up: A visit to the Wayrest Trading Post
While the Eagles shuffle around to find seating, Gynk finishes his study of the maps and reports, and moves to address them. “Wolf-Kin, … Drusilla, you’ve been assigned to the Lynx warband, you’re out.” Drusilla nods and quietly heads for the door. None look at her as she leaves; there is little place for sentimentality amongst the Orcs. They grudgingly allowed her a place in the warband, with two marks against her; female, and non-Orcish. Some Orc women made excellent warband mates Drusilla was not really an Orc, maybe she’ll fit in better with the Lynx warband.
Gynk reads off a list of the Wolves, “Gorga Manhunter, Ierkh Stonefist, Scrag Limpstick, Rhgl Storyteller, Sharraxetharkool Tanglefoot, Gilnash One-eye, Shglsnor One-fang, Tyco, and Hobna.” Looking at Gorga “You can find the pariah after this meeting is over, make them into assets for the tribe.”
The Lip-Biter clears his throat and spits on the floor "Listen up you raw meat. I have a job for you. Outside Vile Runes' land to the East the Fat Lips hold sway. Across the river to the East of that is the Kol horde. These sneaky swamp-suckers are trying to horn in on lands we will claim in Darokin. Our spies have returned with news that a tribe of Kobolds is taking over an old human stronghold in the hills near Alfheim. I have a map for you; our spies have once again proven to be the best in the Horde.”
Gorga speaks up; “What is this place you speak of? Why is it important?”
”Oh, you want some history of the place eh? … Well you did bring back some human whiskey for the tribe; I can give you some time for that. A couple of human adventurers built some kind of stronghold up in the hills away from other humans, I can't say as I blame them.
They joined forces with the Darokin Army to help stop our invasion in the summer of 967. In a crucial battle, at the border of the Broken Lands between the human Fort Runnels and the ruins of a pinkskin city, Ardelphia, Now that was a sacking to boast of. They appeared unexpectedly on the battlefield and combined their force with the Darokin soldiers and ran our boys back home.
Around 979 they decided to take the fight to us here in the Broken Lands and of all things ran into a force of Trolls crossing through our lands to a new fort they were building outside Alfheim in Darokin. The poor fools never knew what hit them. They weakened the Troll forces somewhat, but they were never seen again. I was one of the scouts watching the invading forces that day. Never seen that many Trolls in one place before.
Anyway, see, that left their stronghold to fend for itself without reinforcements. Over the years it was found out, and the Kobolds have recently made a nest there. You have to clear them out, and hold the place for our boys to come take control of it. It will mean a bonus share for each of you, and names for the pariah in your warband, if you are up to the task. You'll be cleaning latrines at the next Horde-meet if you're not. You'll need to send a Scout back when you've taken control of the place. This could be one of the breaks we'll need to expand our tribe holdings and increase our status in the horde.
Go over the map with your Scouts and give me a yell when you have questions. You have seven days to prepare. Now enough talk, time to get some food." Gynk points to 3 fire hardened clay pots and directs his comments to Gorga. “Take these three pots of healing slime. You seal over wounds with them. If the situation is dire, you can drink it, just take care not to heave it back up, or the magic will not work for you.”
Over some moldy bread and ‘giant ant stew’ Gorga makes plans with his warband. After some typical bickering, it finally comes down to the need for provisions, weapons and armor that the tribe just doesn’t have for them. They’ve heard over the years of, and some have visited, the Wayrest Trading Post half a day into Ogre lands to the West. A visit here to settle on weapons armor and additional provisions will be needed before the trip through hostile lands of at least two races. Gorga gathers the pariah, Tyco and Hobna and quickly fills them in on their duties. Tyco is a rager from the looks of him; he’ll be a front line fighter if he can make a name for himself. He still has a longspear and Darokin rapier, which points to the need for this side trip. Hobna is an exceptional looking Orc with roguish skills suited to the wilderness. His only weapon is an Orcish Shortbow. Both are former Screaming Monkey tribesmen, and they know what it means for an Orc tribe to fail.
Rhgl wants to stay and improve weapons that he made previously, but with some stern convincing from Gorga he decides to accompany the warband. The Wolves set out West to find the trade route through Vile Runes territory. From there it will be a simple task to find the way to the trading post. The trail is found, and patrols bypassed with quick signs from the Orcs.
The well-traveled trade route through the broken lands is the only real way to reach the Wayrest Trading post. The warband set out West to the trade road, and started heading North along the well traveled path. The fording of the Vesubian River went fine; the waters were slow enough, and shallow enough at the ford, to be no problem. Fording the Vesubian River would normally be the roughest part of the journey, if not for Ierkh who helped get the shorter members of the warband across.
Hoofing it along, occasionally a rock rolls down a nearby hill, disturbed by lizards or some other broken lands creature. Sometimes a lizard is seen scurrying away from the source. An estimated hour’s travel from the Trading Post, everyone begins feeling like they are being watched. The trip had all the earmarks of being uneventful when this feeling hits the warband. Through furtive glances and intent study, nothing untoward is discovered until the warband reaches the middle of a 50’ long gully. A whistle from the right side up on the slope sounds, and 2 Ogre’s come around the next bend in the road, at the top of the gully.
Gurt the Ogre hollers to the warband “Give 10 gold each Orc to pass unharmed.” He is a large ugly cuss, with a greatclub over one shoulder, and a fancy earring in his left ear. His hide armor is almost visibly stench-ridden.
Ever the smart-mouth Rhgl yells back to him “Each Orc must pay 10 gold to pass. Very well I accept. You pay us ten gold to pass.”
“No tricks Goblin, you pay 10 gold to pass.” Gurt turns to look at his partner Filp, another Ogre of stereotypical proportions, and shakes his head no. Filp is hefting his Greatclub in anticipation of battle.
Gorga tries to keep the discussion open while signaling to the warband to prepare to fight. “Why do you want to charge us to cross this bloody rock?”
[color=Sienna]“You pay Ogre 10 gold Orc, I let you pass.”[/color] Gurt single-mindedly sticks to his plan.
Ierkh comments to Gorga “Maybe should pay ten gold.”
Rhgl either bravely or foolishly starts to head up the left incline, to get height on the two Ogres. With this move, Gurt gives a yell, and with clouds of dust, Hobgoblins erupt from the dirt and rocks on both sides of the gulley. Most of them are at or above Ierkh’s eye level. He yells to the warband, “you take 20 on the left, I take 20 on the right.” In actuality, there are 14 of the goblinoids, and all armed with javelins and longswords. This is a practiced and well-executed ambush on their part. Filp gives in to the moment, and charges for Ierkh, and the battle is begun.
During the battle, Ierkh, Gilnak, and Scrag are all injured by multiple javelins. The Hobgoblins retain their height and terrain advantage, as the Ogre charges into Ierkh, moving him back to make room for Gurt to join the fray. Filp is down in short order; Ierkh, Scrag and Gilnak soften him up, with Gorga placing the final arrow deeply into the ogrish skull. “The cost of the toll just went up!!”
Sharraxtharkul shouts, “Now it is time for them to burn!!” while calling fire into the palm of his hand. Once it is fully manifested, he begins hurling fire at the surprised Hobgoblins. Margrax the wolf tears into the nearest Hobgoblin up the right side of the gully. Fire soon blazes about this Hobgoblin as the Goblin supports his companion. Two more javelins sink into Ierkh, deemed the largest threat by the Hobgoblins, and Tyco yells to him, “But now you have some javelins to throw.” Scrag, blood dripping from multiple wounds, is heard to shout from the midst of his battle rage “You die good!!”
Gurt goes down, as do several more of the Hobgoblins. Ierkh stakes a claim before the battle is completed “Greatclub Mine!” Of the last two remaining Hobgoblins, two make a run for it, one being pulled down by Margrax, and finished off by fire from Sharraxtharkul. Rhgl shouts after the fleeing Hobgoblin, “Now you must pay us 20 gold per Orc for us to pass!” with a gleeful grin on his face. He and Tyco managed to flank a couple of the Hobgobbies and dealt death to them together.
Gorga takes stock of the situation after the battle. Ierkh is wounded some, and is stripping the armor from one of the Ogre’s. He’s already claimed one of the Greatclub’s as his own. Scrag has come down from his battle rage, and looks ready to fall over. The Goblins and wolf are fine. The rest are either undamaged or only damaged slightly. Gorga sees the earring on one of the Ogre’s and grabs it up, forcing the bauble through his earlobe. Tyco sees this and moves to grab one from the other Ogre, which causes Ierkh to stake his claim. “Mine!” as he yanks it from Tyco’s hand. Any response from Tyco is summarily ignored owing to his status as a pariah. Ierkh mimics Gorga’s move and plants his trophy firmly in an earlobe.
While the warband is binding wounds for the injured, Rhgl disappears over the rise. Gorga leaves Sharraxtharkul to finish binding wounds. Tyco looks at the Goblin “your name is Shar? … Sharax tharkool… right, Shar.” It is difficult for Shar to bind Ierkh’s wounds, as the big Half-Ogre is testing out the heft and swing of his new club.
Meanwhile, Rhgl has come out of the Gully, and around the corner of the next hill. A lean-to is here, built out of scrubs and slabs of stone. The Ogres and Hobgoblins have been stashing treasure here that was taken from passing caravans and travelers. Rhgl approaches silently and quickly, and peeks into the gloomy interior. A large open chest is the centerpiece for this structure. Gold, Silver and Gems are visible with assorted weapons lining the wall behind it, an iron shod staff, a greatsword, an Orcish double battleaxe and a Battleaxe of excellent quality. Rhgl quickly begins searching the chest, and secrets some of the gems in his personal pouch. The approach of footfalls is registered by his acute hearing, and he quickly exits the hut, as if to run for Gorga to tell him of the find. As expected, Rhgl sees Gorga bearing down on him like a menacing Ogre. “Great Gorga, come quick, see what I have found, many, many sparkly’s.”
By this time, the other Orcs are on their way, and no one seems to have bought into the innocent look on Rhgl’s face. He waves Gorga in, and begins to dig through the coins. Gorga’s hand shoots past Rhgl’s face, as a ring is exposed, to snatch it up. Gorga calls for Tyco and Hobna to drag the chest out of the structure. The chest is brought out and weapons claimed. Tyco finds the short end of the stick again, as Gilnak relieves him of the Masterwork quality Battleaxe, and gives him the one he has been using. He manages to grab up the cloak that no one else was interested in, and tromps off to gather weapons from the Hobgoblin bodies. Not surprisingly the Goblins have already relieved them of any belt pouches.
The remaining treasure is bound up to be carried by Ierkh, with the intent to spend much of it on equipping for the mission.
Next Up: A visit to the Wayrest Trading Post
Makes me want to start up a humanoids campaign
You're not the only one!
You're not the only one!
I'll second that.
Cool stories.
Take care and have fun.
The warband follows the caravan trail twisting and climbing through the hills, into the mountains of the Ogre lands. The trail opens up into a mountain pass, where it runs fairly straight and level for a space. At least twenty broken foundations lie on either side of the road, mostly hidden in the tall grass. Here and there, the stump of an old chimney is visible. Farther up the road lies a sprawling ruin that must cover an acre or two, and in the middle of that stands a massive stone building with shuttered windows and a great oaken door. Four chimneys, very much intact, stand at the four corners of the edifice, and curls of wood smoke stream steadily from two of them, both to the left of the massive door.
The stone building looks like a war-scarred veteran that was scrubbed clean and dressed up for a holiday. The building is constructed from huge blocks of dressed stone. Old pockmarks, some as a big as a Orc's fist, others bigger than a Orc's head, dot the walls. Most of the shutters stand open, but the windows are more than 10 feet above the ground, so even Ierkh would have to jump or climb to see inside. Orcs can be heard shouting for drinks through the open windows. Nine sets of eyes light up at the thought of a good drink after surviving the ambush earlier. Scrag is still hurt pretty badly, Ierkh is hurt some, and the others only have minor injuries if any. Gorga had made the decision not to use any of the healing slime on Scrag. They were intended for the mission to root out the Kobold tribe and really, the Orc ‘was’ still walking.
The door seems unusual. It's big enough to admit a caravan wagon or two Ogres, and it has a smaller portal, roughly Orc sized, set within. Ierkh sets the large chest off of his shoulder and sticks it under his arm.
Sharraxtharkul approaches Gorga “Let me summon the spirits, to see if any treasure we have found holds magic. It should be done before we enter and try to sell it.” Gorga nods and grunts his assent. “MMmm, go ahead”
Sharraxtharkul begins waving his arms, and barking out words of power. “Spirits of the Earth and Sky, make clear magic’s power nigh.” As the magic takes hold, he begins to see auras around some items the warband is carrying. The cape, Tyco is wearing, the earrings worn by Gorga and Ierkh, and the ring snatched up by Gorga and the clay pots of healing slime. Other items and weapons do not show the mark of magic. Sharraxtharkul points the items out to Gorga, who seems a little dubious of the results. All have seen the Mystic power of Hargul Wolf-Tongue, the tribal shaman, and this kind of casting by the Goblin Druid is not the same as the Gri-Gri wielding madman they have all come to know, if not fear.
Gorga directs Hobna and Shiglsnor to open the larger door, and the warband has come to the Wayrest Trading Post.
Beyond the strange door, the Orcs find a cool, lofty chamber. A low fire at one end and Windows covered to block most of the sun makes for a firelit room.. All the furniture in here looks battered and rickety, as though it has been forced to endure too many fights. The bar is a sight, though. It's a split-level affair. To the left, the bar is about waist-high to an Orc, and a few humans and Orcs are seated there on battle-scarred stools. To the right, the bar stands considerably higher, with stools to match. A muscular giant, gray-skinned and bald-headed, is seated there, drinking from a tankard the size of a barrel. Another is seated at a corner table sized for giants. Two Orcs sit together at a table near the Orc-sized bar and they drop their conversation to low tones as the Eagles enter the room
"Welcome to the Wayrest Trading Post," says a stout dwarven woman behind the bar, smiling broadly. "What can I get you?"
The warband falls all over itself in the rush to order drinks. Everyone who wants one gets their first taste of drink since coming back from the coming of age outing. Back at the tribe there is some mushroom grog brewing, but it won’t be ready for another week or so.
Sharraxtharkul takes an interest in the fireplaces that are not burning. He quickly makes his way to one on the East wall, and pokes around in the ashes, looking for charcoal.
After drinks have been arranged, discussion ensues about the disposition of treasure from the recent battle. It comes down to who needs armor and weapons the most. Wosroe the Dwarven barkeeper calls on Kerd to come around and watch the bar while she runs into the back looking for items the ‘Eagles’ are looking for. The giant at the corner table steps over to the bar, and takes his place behind it. Shortly, Wosroe returns with the tally. There are no great swords for any sized humanoid, much less the Half-Ogre. With the exchange of gems, and almost all of the coin treasure, they come away with Studded Leather for Ierkh and Rhgl, Hide armor for Sharraxtharkul, and a decent dagger for both of the Goblins. The sight of Half Ogres and Goblins stripping down and donning new armor is shortly the afternoons’ entertainment. Ierkh had pulled on the over-sized hide armor that one of the Ogres recently wore. The smell and look of it was quite disturbing, to the nose and eye.
While the warband is discussing the battle, the two Orcs at the nearby table, seem to be listening in on what the ‘Eagles’ have done. Their tribal affiliation is not readily apparent to any of the “Eagles” who look over. Much boasting is done all around, and it isn’t hard for anyone at the bar or the nearby tables to hear what happened. It was a great victory for the “Vile Runes” to hear it told. Rhgl makes the decision to see if he can find out more about these Orcs, if not then see what they have for the taking. Rhgl not only drops down unseen near the table, but manages to sneak under the table, and relieve one of the Orcs of his money pouch. Little can be heard of their private whispered conversation in this rowdy place. He slinks away to examine the meager contents, of the pouch, on the other side of Ierkh, who is having a dilemma of his own. He keeps hearing voices whispering in his ear. Every time someone nearby says his name, he can hear some of what is said, as if he is standing there. Gorga is experiencing the same effect. Ierkh notes that the beer is very good to make him hear voices. “Good Beer!” Gorga looks around, and sees others in the warband saying the same things that he is hearing repeated. The magic earring must be the source of this. Gorga reasons ‘I did not put the ring on, and Sharraxtharkul did not warn me of any other magic.’
With little more need to remain, the “Eagles” have a few more drinks, and Gorga rounds them up to head back to the Home Tribe.
Back on the trail, the “Eagles” run across 2 enormous black birds, feasting upon the remains of the Ogres. Tyco sees Scrag begin to run into combat, and runs up behind him, smacking the Orc from behind. With all the blood loss of the previous battle, Scrag goes down with a lump on his head. Tyco turns to Gorga and shrugs “He wuz gonna get killed. We need the bodies to fight Kobolds.” Rhgl gets a little too close to the birds, and is nearly carried away. Quick work is made of the Dire Ravens with arrows, and a few well placed sword blows. Sharraxtharkul begins humming to himself, and takes out his charcoal from the Trading Post. He begins marking the Ogres’ bodies with runes and drawings to protect against evil spirits. The eagles watch from a distance and stay out of the way, as the young mystic performs his rights.
The “Eagles” return to the tribe home late in the afternoon. There will be a full moon this night, and a special ceremony. For now, Garnash One-tusk calls for another tribal meeting after hearing about the fight with Ogres and Hobgoblins. Three pariahs from the “Eagles” warband are up for acceptance.
“You younglings have returned from a battle with the Ogre’s of the West. They are powerful enemies. Tell us of your deeds in battle and you will be given fitting names in the tribe.” Hargul Wolf-Tongue begins the naming dance to see the truth of the new tribe members’ words
Hobna stalks his way to the front. “Garnash saw fit to give leadership of the Eagles to Gorga Manhunter. Gorga led us in battle, sending Hobna to the left flank to fire arrows at the Hobgoblins. The Ogres charged and I fired many arrows at them as well. I killed many Hobgoblins with my arrows this day.
Hargul dances up with his Gri-gri flailing, and comes to stop in front of Hobna. “Pariah Hobna, I name you Hobna Gob-stopper.” A cheer goes up from the tribe at this prestigious name. “May you wear it well.” Hargul dances away to listen to the next petitioner making his claims.
Shiglsnor steps forward. “In battle with the Hobgoblins, they had higher ground. The Goblin Rhgl went up the left flank to scout. Hobgoblins appeared all around him. I braved the javelins and swords to rush up the left embankment, to fight Hobgoblins on even grounds. At least 5 died by my blade and that of the Goblin who fought as my teammate.”
Hargul dances up to Shiglsnor, and proclaims “Shiglsnor Back-biter, you are now a member of the Vile Runes tribe and the Eagles warband.” He then moves on as before, gathering spirits to him with his gri-gri.
[indent]Listening to Hobna and Shiglsnor, Tyco remembers the fall of the Screaming Monkey tribe. Darokin solders had surrounded the tribe’s hold. They had made several attempts to storm the gate, none successful. Every attempt weakened the reserves of the tribe. Warriors were falling too quickly. The chief lead the Screaming Monkeys like a warrior should, cleaving Darokin soldiers in half. The chief must have slain dozens of Darokin, but there were too many. During the Darokin’s third assault the chief was mortally wounded. The elite guard stood watch over dying chief, and the chief’s son Blorg. Blorg watched his father die. Then he commanded the gates be opened. We would make one last charge, break through the Darokin and flee to the woods. As the gates opened, Darokin rushed in. The last time Tyco saw Blorg, his head was on the tip of a Darokin lance, carried by Darokin cavalry. [/indent]
Garnash One-Tusk looks over the warband, “You, Orc. What do you say?” Tyco stepped forward and was somewhat slow to respond, he couldn’t help picturing his new home covered with dead human and Orc bodies.
[indent]Tyco remembered, when the Darokin began pouring through the gates of the Screaming Monkey hold, he stole an axe from a dead Orc. He was not yet a full member of the tribe, weapons were forbidden to him. He remembered screaming a battle cry, then everything turning red as he flew into a rage. [/indent]
Tyco presents the eight fine longswords won in battle to Garnash One-Tusk and the tribe.
[indent]Tyco remembered the end of his fury at the Screaming Monkey hold. Tyco watched a Darokin lance come out of his stomach. It took awhile for Tyco to realize he had been charged from behind. Tyco was pretty sure he died. Perhaps his body was too stupid to realize it should be dead. His mind knew nothing beyond that charge. He had vague images of Blorgs head and lots of walking, but no real memory. [/indent]
”There was a hail of javelins thrown at me by the Hobgoblins. Gorga shot an arrow into one of the Ogres, and I ran up and finished it off with a wicked slice to the stomach. It is easy for me, I am already dead. With few left to battle, I climbed the slippery rocks to hunt down and kill the last of the Hobgoblins.”
Garnash seemed pleased, if a bit suspicious. Hargul dances forward again, and looks into Tyco’s eyes. “You, once a pariah of the Screaming Monkeys, survived the massacre along with others who have joined the Vile Runes. This day, you become a member of a growing tribe. Your name is Tyco Gut-Wrench.
It is getting later in the evening with the completion of this boast. Orcs cheering and slapping the Eagles on the back is commonplace now.
Garnash raises his hands for quiet. “It is the night of the full moon. Hargul Wolf-Tongue will lead us all in the proper respects to Wogan, our benefactor. Let every Orc worship and feast.”
Another roar of approval goes up from the tribe, and the flames begin to dance in the fire pit. None of the Eagles have been privy to this ceremony before and all are curious to see what will happen.
Sharraxtharkul catches the eye of FillexHulkil, and gets the feeling that something just isn’t right with him, and the group of Orcs around him. Dancing and howling begin, and food is brought out by the females. As the festivities continue into the night, midnight brings about a change that leaves the “Eagles” a little shocked. Hargul begins to howl loudly, and begins to change form. Muscles and bones bulge out, and the normally hairy Orc begins to grow a fur coat as he transforms into a hybrid form of Wolf and Orc. Hargul finishes howling as the final throes of the transformation diminish. “All pay respects to Wogan and his might. He allows me to take this form, and teach you all his wisdom; the wisdom of hunters and wolf riders. We no longer ride wolves but we honor the memory.” Hargul begins howling again, and leaps from Garnash’s platform, and lopes out the main gate to hunt.
The next day, Gorga tracks down Gynk Lip-Biter to get further briefings on the path to the Kobold lair. Gynk pulls out the map again, and points out a path through the Kobold territories, Darokin lands, and around the edge of the Elven forests. Gorga soaks up the information and gets some questions answered. “Do not cache food and water. It may be found. Patrols are haphazard at best around the lair. This is unusual for Kobolds.
While gathering rations and water for the trip over the next couple of days, a few of the warband members see FillexHulkil, and are uneasy about how he behaves in the Vile Runes holdings.
The eagles take a long trip which is uneventful, good maps keep them from getting lost often. The path the Orcs take is overland and rarely traveled. Occasionally the spoor of other races, Kobolds, Humans, or various creatures is found. The maps guide the Eagles to a disused path that leads through the brush up to a cave entrance.
No patrols are seen while the warband waits. Gorga tells the others “Something must be wrong for the Kobolds to not patrol the lands around here. We will enter and attack what we find. Scrag spouts off “Let’s kill all inside!” Everyone gathers around to hear what the plan is.
Gorga waves him off “We enter and work to the right,” As he holds up his right hand. “And leave nothing behind us.”
Nothing looks special about the place, other than the placement on the mountain. It is not a natural cave opening. Brush lines the path on both sides, and while not moving, seems to reach for hide, clothing, boots and skin as the Orcs walk by. The path winds back and forth in the hills and cliffs leading up to the entrance. The opening is somewhat obscured by vines and branches. Beyond the vines a 10’ corridor leads straight into the rock formation.
Down the corridor, there is an old door with some chipped wood around the edges, as if it has been forced, and used recently. Some human bodies of little note are found, but the fourth body, is that of a kobold, this kobold is slightly shorter and lighter than normal. The scales bear dark coloration, with black shading. The body is sprawled on the floor with grievous wounds.
Another dead kobold lies on the floor face down. There is a small sheathed dagger on a belt that this one is wearing. There is a dark slimy substance on the blade when drawn. The body has a smashed skull. These two appear to have been lost when the adventurers where overcome. No one has returned to dispose of the bodies yet.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown
“They send the goodest tribute.” Butor paced at the head of the table of leaders. Butor stopped and turned in front of Hacek; a meaty finger reaches out to poke the Hobgoblin in the chest. “What is your warband?”
Hacek straightened his back, preparing himself to die bravely. ”Mighty Chief Butor, We are the Leg Breakers.”
“Ootah’s boys. MMmm; He sent you in, to avoid the beating of bad news.” Butor turned back to his pacing. “You say to Butor, it is Orcs from across the river? Red Orcs cross the river, and kill my warband. Orcs good warriors to kill, and not lose any Orcs.” With a glance back at Hacek Butor addresses the other Ogres. “The Vile Runes will learn that Ogres not easy to kill. We show them up close.” Butor steps away from the table and reaches a hand over to a nearby stewpot, large enough to hold a full-grown troll. With the other hand, Butor points at the shaman waiting in the shadows. Butor grins at the Hobgoblin “Tell Ootah that shaman is getting hungry, report by warband leader only.”
Hacek stares at the cauldron with eyes opening in fear. It is rumored that the shaman will cook someone alive, in that enormous pot, and eat the meat from the bones. Nodding, Hacek lets out a sigh of relief. “Yes Mighty Chief Butor, I will tell him.” Understanding that he was dismissed, the Hobgoblin turns and hurries for the room’s main exit.
Stepping back to the table of leaders, Butor slams his fist down. “Now we plan war.”
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Eric stood looking over the work on the Roadside Outpost. Eric is a tall man, powerfully built, with the look of someone trained for battle. After the death of his brother Martin, and the soldiers here, not to mention the townsfolk from down the road, this outpost was picked for an upgrade. Eric volunteered for the upgrade project. Much of the work was completed already and new soldiers were assigned for duty here.
The dead Cleric told the story of a brutal group of Orcs out searching for weapons and armor. They are almost a new breed of more powerful brutes, eager to kill and smarter for survival. His death was brutal, and slow. He did not want to be resurrected to remember those long minutes for the rest of his life. He had pieced together from bits of conversation, that they were on a coming of age ceremony to become full tribal members.
The soldiers were killed, and all of the Orc prisoners released. Darokin patrols will be increased to watch for more of these raids on the borderlands. Maybe some of the patrols could push farther North, along the trade routes through the Broken Lands.
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Ugoora Redscale sat pondering her schemes from her throne room in Vuushkek, her fortress city in the underdark of Kol, the kingdom of Kobolds. There have been reports from all holdings across Mystara, except for the new tribe in Darokin lands. Attempts to contact Buimbu, the Sorcerer have been fruitless. Attempts to reach the tribe leader have gone unanswered as well. That sorcerer better not have killed everyone with one of his experiments. His last message was disordered and not the kind of detailed work required of operatives.
[INDENT]“My Queen. I have advanced the schedule for integrating abilities from other races into the Kobold lines. So far I have three strains that are useful, I am sending examples of each to you for further study and breeding if you approve. This facility has increased the yield and shortened experimentation time more than I could have hoped. In a matter of months I can breed you a small army of super-Kobolds. There have been mistakes, but the losses have been acceptable. I have summoned assistance from the beyond. I knew you would not mind. Some of the soldiers are resistant to my needs, and I required unquestioning obedience. In response to your inquiries, I have not seen Tribe Leader Vetnor in days; I hope that he is well. A new batch of the greens is about to hatch, I must return to my work. I will communicate again soon. Your loyal servant, Buimbu”[/INDENT]
Making a decision, Ugoora settles back into her throne. “Guard, summon my advisors, I have something to discuss with them.”
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The Master sits in a cave waiting patiently for the return of his agents. It is time for reports, and let none of them be lacking. It was not good to let these Orcs think they can shirk their duty. Power is all they understand. At least one will have to die again, as an example to the others. If only they didn’t taste so bad.
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Enamaendra, Tiery, and Babushka sit around a campfire fire, discussing how they will track down the taint that has taken over this part of the Duchy. Duke Stefan called them together to root out the cause. Trade North to Darokin is having trouble North of Kelvin. Undead have taken residence in the swamp, and are killing anything traveling on the road. All previous attempts to disperse the problem have met with failure and none have returned. As the most powerful of the nearest vassals, these three were called up to investigate. Tiery managed to turn nearly two-dozen Wight’s to ashes earlier in the day. All evidence leads to a Dragon who lairs further to the East.
“I’ve turned nigh on 20 of the beasties so far today.”
Enamaendra sat polishing his armor and sword. “I can help with that, if you are overwhelmed my friend.”
The nearly civilized Babushka looks at both of them in the late afternoon. “We camp too early. Our enemies will come looking for us while we are at ease.”
To illustrate her point, the crashing of trees can be heard from the East, along with the soft counterpoint of the flapping of leathery wings. A huge minotaur comes stomping through the swamp and scrub trees. “What are you doing in my Swamp?”
[INDENT]
Large even by minotaur standards, Kuurnok is an imposing nine feet of blackened steel and horns. Most of the flesh has rotted away from his skull, exposing the bleached bone beneath, and his eyes have completely disintegrated, leaving only flickering, red pinpoints of malice within his sockets. Kuurnok’s head is the only portion of his body that is visible; the rest is encased in the armor he never removes. He proudly displays the symbol of Baphomet on his breastplate, and even has the demon lord’s sigil engraved into the visible portions of his skull. Kuurnok’s mere presence seems to drain the light from his surroundings, and a smothering cloud of terror follows him wherever he goes.
[/INDENT]
Flying along with Kuurnok is Thenebrenar.
[INDENT]
Eternally trapped in the third age of a dragon’s life cycle, Thenebrenar has had to rely on assets other than physical might to best his enemies. At just over 15 feet in length, he is by no means a large dragon, and his dry, shriveled flesh makes him appear even smaller than he actually is. Thenebrenar’s undeath is readily apparent to those versed in necromantic lore, as his entire body is gaunt and shrunken, as if it were merely an empty husk. The flesh around Thenebrenar’s head has almost completely rotted away, exposing much of his skull, and the eerie green pinpoints of light that flicker in his empty eye-sockets are enough to spook even the most seasoned adventurer.
[/INDENT]
These three seasoned adventurers stand and move towards their foes. Enamaendra quickly calls upon the power of his god to turn the undead. No dice, these guys are beyond his ability to affect. Meanwhile his world is shattered by Abyssal blast from the Fist of Baphomet (Kuurnok), who has called upon the dark powers of his deity to smite the Paladin and Cleric before him. The little ball of fury, which looks like a female with a greatsword, manages to avoid the opening blast by the minotaur.
She does not, however, avoid the blast of acid, as Thenebrenar swoops down, and manages to line Babushka and Tiery in the disgorgement of his acid breath. Flying past, Thenebrenar turns at a distance for another pass. He never gets the chance. Tiery turns and calls upon the power of his god to “Destroy these undead abominations, I beseech thee.” Thenebrenar is shaken with the power, and circles back around to flee directly west, as fast as he can possibly fly.
Kuurnok laughs off the power of the Cleric, as he is bolstered by the power of Baphomet, and his abilities as a divine champion. The next thing he is aware of, the woman is trying to chop through his legs with her greatsword, leaving barely a scratch.
Seeing his attempt to channel his gods power fail to affect the minotaur, Tiery unleashes a pillar of fire staggering the Death Knight, who flies into a rage. Enamaendra moves in to battle his counterpart, and unleashes the power of his Holy avenger upon the beast, opening wounds much more damaging than the frenzied berserker and her greatsword.
“Your weapon must be empowered with GOOD to affect this beast.” Kuurnok steps back and unleashes the powers of his halberd upon Babushka, three quick blows, and she is staggering under the vile damage and acid bursting from the weapon.
More ineffectual attacks by the Frenzied Berserker, and Kuurnok inflicts enough damage upon Babushka to kill two people. As Kuurnok is busy with pounding Babushka, Enamaendra steps in to an unguarded flank, and nearly beheads the minotaur. Kuurnok is hurt badly and not amused, and brings his weapon around to someone who he might be able to kill.
As he moves forward, Tiery holds his Holy Symbol up high. “May this healing bolster my allies, and heap goodness upon my enemies.” With a nearly audible thump, power emanates from the Cleric as his spell spreads outward from him. Healing the enormous damage done to Babushka and any done to Enamaendra.
Kuurnok manages to throw off the affects of the spell and bring about the power of Divine Wrath on the hapless paladin, with multiple slashes from the empowered Halberd, Enamaendra drops to the ground lifeless.
Tiery calls upon one of the most powerful spells in his arsenal, The Miracle. “My Lord, please bring this worthy soldier back to life, so that he may finish this battle, and continue to smite evil in battles to come.”
With lacerations from cuts and sizzling from spells slowly healing, the minotaur steps back to attack again, as both warriors crowd in to finish him off. “Baphomet, lend me strength to defeat these humans.” The plea falls upon deaf divine ears. Attempting to smite Infidel, Kuurnok makes a final attack on Enamaendra, and manages to hurt the paladin badly again.
Finally, with cuts from the Holy avenger in Enamaendra’s hands, and the greatsword in Babushka’s hands, Kuurnok falls. Just in time, as Babushka begins coming down from her frenzied state.
[b]“I guess Baphomet will be needing a new fist.” Enamaendra laughs.[/b]
The cleric turns to his friends. “Now, where did that Dragon get off to?”
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Kuo-Toa warriors slowly drag the body of a netted Orc back into the water. Orcish yelling and shouting can be heard further along the underground beach. “The fish-men attack, grab weapons! Eerk ”
The leader of the raid looks around. The edge of the forest is nearby, just on the other side of the beach. These Orcs were not very smart, but they will make good strong slaves. His orders were to raid Orc encampments around the underground sea, and bring back as many slaves as possible. Trouble is expected, and defenses must be built.
With a wave of his spear, and a burbling call to his warriors, Kcha-Kurrun backs slowly into the water. This raid has been successful.
Footnote: Thanks to BlackDirge for his Monstrous creations Kuurnok, Ugoora and Thenebrenar; they made for an evening of fun. See his article on the articles page
Down the corridor about twelve Shins* in, there is an old door with some chipped wood around the edges, as if it has been forced, and opened recently. Gorga motions for the Goblins to come forward. Rhgl comes running forward in his peculiar little gait, Sharraxtharkul and his wolf companion not far behind.
“Rhgl, go scout the doorway ahead.”
Rhgl can’t pass up the opportunity to show himself as faithful. “Yes great Gorga, I go sneak sneak up to the door for you.” Gorga hears what Rhgl says, along with an echo in one ear. He has come to understand this as the magic of his earring. He wonders to himself how this can be used, and if Ierkh's earring works the same. Silently the goblin sneaks down the hallway, fearful of anything that might burst through the door and swallow him whole. He almost disappears in the shadows around the door, and suddenly is back in front of the Eagles.
It’s amazing how quiet that goblin can move, and he’s hard to see. He could walk unseen through a desert with two suns beating down on him.
The warband gathers around to hear the report.
“The door is un-trapped and unlocked great Gorga. I hear nothing beyond.”
Scrag announces, “Scrag will open door.” Gorga nods at him, “Good, after Scrag, the Goblins go through and scout to 12 Shins out. Next, Ierkh, then me and Tyco, Shglsnor, Gilnak, and Hobna guard the rear.” With a grin Gorga continues “Weapons out, let’s kill some Kobolds.”
Within the first 7 shins, there are 1-shin deep wide and tall openings on opposite sides of the hallway. Searching, none yield anything other than dust, leaves and refuse. As the Goblins scout ahead 4 more shins to another set of alcoves, a disembodied mouth appears in the opening on the right, and speaks in a booming voice in Darokin Common. “Who dares enter this place and intrude upon the sanctuary of its inhabitants?”
Rhgl and Sharraxtharkul cringe at the sudden accusation, and Margrax the wolf yips at the sudden sound. The Eagles come running forward to investigate. Rhgl is about to answer, when another disembodied mouth appears in the opening to the left and answers the first mouth. “Only a group of foolhardy explorers doomed to certain death!”
The Orcs all look around for the death that has been promised, with weapons ready.
Both mouths shout in unison “Woe to any who pass this place—The wrath of Zelligar and Rogahn will be upon them!” A raucous laughter follows from both of them. Sharraxtharkul moves into the opening on the right, and pokes at the mouth with his spear, which passes through the mouth with no affect. The laughter and mouths slowly fade away and are now only a memory. “See Gorga, I sent them away.” Sharraxtharkul takes credit for the mouths disappearing. The goblins translate for any of the Orcs that do not understand Darokin Common.
Tyco observes, “Stupid voice. We are still here.” Everyone mills around for a bit, looking for secret doors, or enemies to appear out of nowhere, and finally Gorga sends the Goblins ahead to scout again.
A few knucks ahead, there are two steps up, and an intersection of hallways leading off in all directions. The remains of a small battle lie strewn about the intersection. There are five bodies, and the goblins move to investigate.
The first human has been stripped of his armor and valuables. His weapon, a broken sword is nearby, with the blade sheared about 3 inches from the cross guard. Margrax sniffs at the body, while Sharraxtharkul searches for anything beyond the pool of coagulated blood.
The second human is impaled against the wall just past the intersection. The killing spear still thrust through the body. A large section of wood can be seen behind the body on the wall. The robes on this one are bloodstained and ruined. Rhgl finds a small pouch with 2 gold coins of a mint he has not seen before.
The third body is that of a Dwarf, face down in the corridor just east of the intersection. In his right hand he still clutches his war hammer, and it appears that he crawled, wounded to this point, since a trail of sticky blood leads back to the battle location. A sack turned inside out lies alongside the body, now empty. Rhgl takes the war hammer, and tosses it to Gorga, who snatches it from the air, and puts it in his pack after a quick inspection.
The fourth body is that of a kobold, this kobold is slightly shorter and lighter than normal and appears to be a runt of the litter. The scales bear dark coloration, with black shading. The body is sprawled on the floor with grievous wounds and a broken sword blade protruding from its’ belly.
Another dead kobold lies on the floor face down. The body has a smashed skull, apparently from the Dwarf’s war hammer. No one has returned to dispose of the bodies yet. There is a small sheathed dagger on a belt that this one is wearing. There is a dark slimy substance on the blade when Sharraxtharkul draws it out. He recognizes it as some form of poison and quickly gathers up the sheath, and claims the dagger as his own.
The Orcs come stomping in while the goblins finish up searching, and Tyco pulls the spear holding the human in robes against the wall. The spear comes apart, and the body falls to the floor, exposing writing on the wall, which none of the Orcs can understand. “Quasqueton”
Gorga directs the Goblins down the right-hand hallway, and the scouting begins anew. As the Eagles round the first corner, Sharraxtharkul marks a sigil on the wall, with his charcoal. Every 20 shins or so, he marks the wall again to help keep track of where the Orcs have been. Following the Right-Hand rule that Gorga has established, the Orcs come upon two doors. Tyco and Scrag move up front to the furthest door, and Gorga directs Ierkh and the rear-guard to wait here. Rhgl checks the door and hears some scratching sounds from beyond the door. The goblins give way, as Tyco and Scrag move up to open the door.
With a kick and grunt, the door flies open before Tyco. Four bestial looking kobolds rush forward as the door slams open; they were ready. They stand around the same height as a dwarf. Their scaly hide is broken by a ridge of horns that runs from the forehead down the length of a rat-like tail. They have a dog-like head watches the Orcs with golden eyes, and long paws that end in sharp bone talons to slash with. The bed and tapestries that used to furnish this room have been broken and shredded to make nests, which can be seen around the room.
Tyco is immediately attacked by three of them, with the forth stalking back and forth behind its pack mates. Bleeding from a couple of superficial wounds, Tyco roars and slashes back at them with his axe. Scrag tries to reach around the corner at one, but has trouble bringing the Orcish Battleaxe to bear through the doorway. Gorga stands behind Tyco and Scrag, looking for an opening to shoot an arrow. Tyco gets irritated with the Kobolds biting and clawing at him, and pushes his way into the room forcing one of them back.
Less than a minute has passed for the Eagles, when muttering is heard from the rear guard. “Ierkh, why do we wait?” After hearing the question twice, once from Gilnak, and again through the magic of his earring, Ierkh shakes his head as if he has a bee in his ear. “I hear you. Ierkh not see.” This gets everyone else grumbling, as Gorga is not giving direction to them with his eyes and bow trained on the combat before him.
With the wet sound of a butcher’s block, Tyco chops his Axe down into the kobold in front of him. It does not move again. The horned kobold that has been pacing behind its’ pack mates, moves back a few steps, and with a roar, runs towards the fight, leaping over the fallen kobold, clawing and biting at Tyco. The muscular Orc swat’s the kobold away with little effort. Scrag continues to have problems with his new Axe, and can’t seem to hit anything but the doorjamb.
The goblins start to confer with each other.
Rhgl and Sharraxtharkul in turn:
“Why do they get all the fun?”
“We were not told to help.”
“Just get out of the way goblins.”
“We will open the door.”
“What about the other Orcs?”
“And the Ogre, don’t forget him.”
“They want to kill kobolds too.”
“Hey, I wonder if there are any behind this door.”
“I’ll listen.” Rhgl leans to the door to listen; Margrax tilts his head at the goblin. “Nothing here. Hey Ierkh. Want to go in here and find kobolds?” Rhgl manages to push the door open with a little help from Ierkh, and sees a hallway headed off straight, with another door on the left, 5 shins away.
Meanwhile, Scrag has worked his way into the room, and the determination of Tyco and Scrag is wearing down on the kobolds. They are hard to damage with the ridge of horns on their backs which turns away many of the Orcs axe blows.
Ierkh shakes his head sticking a finger in his ear. “Me first.” Squeezing through the doorway, Ierkh heads straight for the next door, and slams it open. Three more horned kobolds rise from their nests with a snarl.
Finally able to flank one of the creatures, Tyco gives Scrag the chance he needs, to sink his axe into the face of one of the scaled beasts. Gorga manages to put an arrow into one, and the kobolds are soon dead. As strong as the Orcs are, when they finally get a good hit, the damage is too much for the kobolds to survive.
As soon as Ierkh squeezed through the door, the goblins and rear guard, Hobna, Shglsnor, and Gilnak, wanting to stay near the big guy, followed behind. The goblins moved on to the end of the hallway to scout around and find a hallway that skirts the room West and South, only to continue back West again the way they came. The three Orcs followed Ierkh into the room on the left to fight the three horned kobolds alongside the Half-Ogre. Whatever was stored here has been broken and shredded to make nests for these beasts. Three Oaken tables in the room are all that remain.
Ierkh brings his greatclub, taken from the Ogre highwaymen, down but only manages to bounce it off the wall. With his height and the ten knuck ceilings, it is hard to wield the weapon with any overhead smashes. Gilnak and Shglsnor rush into the room behind Ierkh and make their way around some tables to engage the kobolds who have moved up on him. After a few tries, Ierkh finally catches a “Hornsy” between the wall and his club, leaving little more than a smear. “Heh heh, smushed Hornsy.” This lightens his mood somewhat as trying to hit the little kobolds was difficult for him in the tightly packed room.
Gorga finally notices that the rest of his warband is missing. “Those goblins will be the death of us.” He pinpoints the catalyst to the separation of the warband. “Tyco, Scrag, search and follow through this other door.” Gorga runs off to find his warband, as Tyco and Scrag turn look at each other, and shrug.
Meanwhile the goblins and Hobna are securing the hallway, while Ierkh Shglsnor and Gilnak take out the remaining “Hornsy’s”.
Gorga comes through the door to the south, and runs up to the goblins. “What happened? Why did you leave us?” The goblins look at each other, and to the open door that Ierkh has gone through.
“Ierkh wanted to come this way. Who are we to stop him? We secured the hallway as you would want Great Gorga.” Rhgl looks a little twitchy while he responds, but Gorga does not refute his claim.
Back in the room, Ierkh yells. “Who say Ierkh’s name?”
With a few bites and slashes spread around, the warband regroups in the hallway outside of the room that had three “Hornsy’s” as Ierkh has named them.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 2 “Dire Weasels die easy.”
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Hands as a unit of measure
Sharraxtharkul slaps on a horrible smelling paste to the wounds, but who can tell with the smells coming from the Half-Ogre and Barbarian Orcs. Gorga points Rhgl off around the corner to begin scouting again.
The warband readies weapons and slowly move off behind the goblin about 8 shins behind, listening for squeals of pain from up ahead. Rhgl, for his part, pulls off quiet sneaking as well as ever. The hallway turns back around the way the Orcs came in, turning back before it meets up with the original hallway. After coming to split in the hallway, Rhgl waits for Gorga and the others to catch up with him. Straight ahead or left; Rhgl points the two directions with a questioning look on his face. Gorga points at his right hand, scowling, then further straight down the hallway and shoots his foot forward as if to kick the goblin.
Rhgl hurries down the hallway thinking vile thoughts back at Gorga. He sneaks up on a large room, with pillars supporting the vaulted ceiling. Two large creatures covered in fur rest at the far end of the room. He quickly backtracks to the warband.
“Great Gorga, huge furry creatures are in the large room. Two of them, and rock pillars rise to the top.”
Gorga considers this. “Show me.” Looking back to the others in the warband. “Wait here for our return, the creatures might be angered and follow behind us.”
Gorga and Rhgl move quietly up the hallway to survey the room from the dark hallway. 8 Pillars keep the roof off of the floor here. Hallways lead off in two or three other directions from this end of the room. More exploration will come soon. Rhgl points out the resting forms in the room, and Gorga pulls out his bow, claimed from the leader back at the roadside keep. As he is preparing to fire an arrow, one of the two creatures jerks its’ head up and begins sniffing the air. Gorga lets the arrow fly into the one that has just been alerted. It turns just in time to be on the receiving end of a masterwork bow propelled arrow, screeching in a near deafening high pitched voice, it leaps up and begins running towards Gorga and Rhgl. Gorga hisses, “Run for it!” and looks down to find Rhgl gone. You don't have to tell him twice.
The creature is up and scrambling across the floor towards Gorga, hissing the whole way. Gorga turns and follows the retreat of the goblin as quickly as he can muster. Racing down the hall, with a large furry quadruped quickly gaining on him, Gorga sees his warband waiting with weapons ready. As Gorga passes the front rank he sees Rhgl peeking out from behind Ierkh’s leg. Hobna fires an arrow into it, and Tyco and Scrag both lay into it with their Axes. It falls just in time for the second one to come running down the hallway. Arrows, and a smashing blow from Ierkh’s club, and both enemies now lie dead on the floor.
Sharraxtharkul approaches and investigates the bodies. With a grunt he picks at the fur, turns and looks at Gorga and the others. “Dire Weasels. Kobolds train the beasts as mounts.” Some of the Orcs nod sagely at “Shar” as if they knew it all along. Scrag cuts a haunch out of one of the Dire Weasels, and begins munching on it. The warband moves up to investigate the room further. “Shar” marks the wall here again, and Ierkh drags the bodies back into the room, blood trailing the whole way.
The room is large, 8 by 12 shins at least, with 8 large stone pillars. There is a raised platform with two white marble chairs sitting atop it, in the center of the far end of the room. Tattered sets of draperies hang on the far wall behind the chairs. There are large sleeping nests in front of the platform. After searching the room and finding nothing of value, Gorga orders the warband to secure the room, and tells Ierkh to “Come with me.”
Gorga and Ierkh move to investigate the hallway that heads back south. With the hallways that have been traveled already, Gorga doesn’t think there will be much this way. They follow the hallway back and around to a wooden door. Only this door has a leather skin covering, with some brass bits hammered into some kind of writing. Gorga points and gives the order “Open it.”
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Glick was having a bad day. Minsk was surly today, and kept nipping at the whip. The Kobold friends were agitated all morning, as if they knew something was going to happen. Glick did not understand, and the whippings were not too severe. Sitting on the old human bed here, Glick looked around at the fine harnesses he was teaching the females to make. Soon there would be enough for all of the Dire Weasels. Now if the breeding program goes as expected, most of the warriors will have a Dire Weasel to ride. All trained by Glick.
A loud screeching that sounded like Minsk drew his attention away from his daydreaming. Glick moved over to the wall, and picked his training harness off of a peg and began to don it. That weasel was in for it for sure. It takes some minutes for Glick to pull on the leathers, and just as he was admiring their fit over his small wiry legs, the door slams open, and an ugly Ogre and scary looking Orc are standing there. It looked like the day would get worse.
------------------------------
Meanwhile there’s trouble back with the warband. The goblins are bored again, and Tyco keeps trying to test the powers of his cloak. “Hobna, shoot an arrow at me.” As Hobna moves to comply, with a wicked grin on his face, the Goblins head off down one of the Northwestern hallways, just to investigate.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 3 “We didn’t do it.”
”Tyco is being dumb again... Stupid Orc. Scrag is too busy eating to do anything. Goblins learn early to not get in the way of an Orc when food is about.”
Rhgl shakes his head in disgust.
“Gorga is romping around, trying to claim personal glory, bah, what a leader. Gives no glory to others. I should talk to Tyco about that, he is a stupid Orc, he may be able to do something about the quality of leadership this group has. With a goblin backing him, Tyco may work just fine...”
Gorga, on his way to find the keeper of the dire weasels, hears. “Gorga is romping around, trying to claim personal glory, bah, what”
Rhgl taps his head thoughtfully.
“If I can get him to face Gorga. I can get him to lead. Then I will lead... Yes. yes.. Plan works. Tyco will lead. Backup plan, a good goblin has a backup plan. Ah, I will think of that later.”
Gorga, on his way to find the keeper of the dire weasels, again hears someone speak his name. “Gorga, I can get him to lead. Then I will lead...” He is beginning to understand the magic of this earring, but can not tell who is speaking yet, maybe that will come with time.
Rhgl begins to wander around the large room, and sees Gilnak guarding one hallway, and Shglsnor watching two more hallways.
”Hmm, I wonder if Shar wants to go scouting. We have not ventured this way yet.”
With a mischievous grin, Rhgl seeks out Sharraxtharkul.
”Hey Shar! We sneak this way. It will be good. Make sure no hornsy's are about. Come on.”
Rhgl and Shar grin at each other, as only goblins can, and proceed down the hallway followed by Margrax the wolf. Shglsnor shakes his head at the two goblins as they wander off down the hall. There’s a door on the right that they pass, to make it to a door on the left. The hallway turns off to the right here, and the goblins can see it turn back again, several shins away.
Both goblins approach the door. Hobna can be heard cackling wildly as Tyco squeals from the pain of his testing arrow. They look at each other, back at the door and shrug. Rhgl reaches out and knocks on the door and there is no answer. Nothing answers, and he tries opening the door. It won’t budge. Shglsnor looks on with as much incredulity as an Orc can muster.
“Rhgl, our leader will return soon.” Shar warns the other goblin. Rhgl nods, and the two reluctantly turn back the way they came. After no more than 20 steps, the door opens, and a dark-skinned kobold runs out the door, and up the hallway away from the goblins. He is gone beyond the goblin’s sight past the corner, quickly.
Shglsnor calls out the other Orcs, and Scrag, Tyco, and Gilnak run down the hallway that the warband originally approached the old throne room. The hallway ends at a North-South hallway, and the kobold appears out of the dark from the North, never to make it to warn the rest of the tribe. Hobna takes up guard at the hallway the Orcs went down in case they need arrow support.
The goblins and wolf run back to the door the kobold came out of. It is shut again, and the goblins draw weapons. Rhgl moves to listen at the door and is nearly surprised, when it swings quickly open into the room, to be replaced by a dagger wielding Black-tongue Kobold. This is a living version of the creatures found dead, at the entrance to this complex.
With quick reflexes, Rhgl shoves his dagger forward in a two-handed thrust, which comes in under the creature’s ribcage, killing it instantly. A dagger buries itself in the doorframe next to Rhgl, and another clatters off the wall nearby. Seeing this, Shar and his wolf companion rush into the room to engage one, while the remaining creature exits down stairs on the other side of the door.
Shar calls out to Rhgl, as he points to where the kobold fled. “One gets away, there.”
Rhgl tries to follow, but the kobold had a lead. While Sharraxtharkul is finishing off the kobold he and the wolf attacked, Rhgl is finding that there is a large room below and possibly backup for the retreating kobold. He ascends the stairs to take stock of the situation with Sharraxtharkhul.
“Did you catch him?” Shar looks expectant and hopeful.
Rhgl shakes his head. “He got away. Too fast he was, and knows the way.”
They collect the daggers and few small kobold-minted coins the creatures carried. Not worth the escape of one enemy and the risked ire of Gorga. Rhgl sees the dark fluid on the daggers and the saliva of the kobolds, and puts 2 and 2 together. He starts wiping the daggers on the kobolds tongue to get more of the poison.
Sharraxtharkul bemusedly shakes his head. “It does not work after they die. The poison only lasts a short while.”
They settle up and leave the room, shutting the door behind them. Shglsnor sees them come out and guiltily head back up the hallway towards him. “No good can come of this.” He says to the goblins.
The Orcs return, jostling each other and talking about the squeals the kobold made, when they killed it.
They all settle back down to camp in the old throne room, and begin setting up camp.
Rhgl and Sharraxtharkul have a little talk in heated whispers.
“We say nothing of this.”
“He will find out.” Shar grumbles.
“Not if we stick together. Say nothing.”
“Ok.”
They don’t have long to wait, Gorga and Ierkh return from the little trip to kill the Dire Weasel trainer. Looking around, Gorga can see that they have been up to something. Rhgl is giving his best “We didn’t do it.” look. “What happened?”
Scrag pipes up, “We killed kobold in the hall.” Tyco and Gilnak nod in confirmation and no one else speaks.
Gorga knows something is not being said, and takes Sharraxtharkul off to the side. The young mystic is gaining in power, and Gorga has to handle this right, if he wants support from him in the future.
“Sharraxtharkul, what happened while I was gone?”
Thinking about his desire to support the other Goblin, Shar also considers his place in the warband, and the possibility of expanding his own power.
“Rhgl and me investigated one of the doors. A dark-skinned kobold rushed out and we killed two more in the room. They have poison Gorga. I know not what kind. These are not normal kobolds. Their tongues are black, and skin is dark.”
Gorga looks at him thoughtfully for a moment and a grim look crosses his face. Soon he has cuffed the remainder of the story out of the Orcs and Rhgl. There is one exception to this. No one tells him about the kobold who got away into the lower level. Before anyone can rest, or sleep, the only door in the room, on the west wall between hallways, must be investigated. It has been a long day and Gorga wants the Orcs rested for the next stage of the assault.
Gorga gathers the Orcs around, and Scrag opens the door.
Next Up: Who are these guys and where did they come from?”
The following are posted, with issue 4 posted today.
Broken Voice Issue 001
Broken Voice Issue 002
Broken Voice Issue 003
Broken Voice Issue 004
Best viewed with ForgottenUncial, pretty cool to look at, if you have it. I was able to download it for my PC with a search at Google. Forgotten Uncial Download
There are spoilers for the story in the newsletter at times, in case that matters to you. I hope to see more of others campaigns posted in the Mystara forums as well. If you have any comments, positive or negative, please post them here.
GW
Broken Voice Issue 005
Gri-Gri's are needed to cast spells, in much the same way as holy symbols are used to cast spells, only they are required, a limitation for PC's and NPC's that is just there as far as I am concerned. I am also working to take some of the "Tongue in Cheek"ness of the names out of the game, which was part of the Broken Lands Gazetteer. This is preferred by the players and I. We like "The Blood Orc Horde" over "Red Orcland". Names like High Gobliny, and Bugburbia, South Gnollistan, just do not make sense to our game.
Any comments are appreciated, even if you don't agree with me.
GW
I am also working to take some of the "Tongue in Cheek"ness of the names out of the game, which was part of the Broken Lands Gazetteer. This is preferred by the players and I. We like "The Blood Orc Horde" over "Red Orcland". Names like High Gobliny, and Bugburbia, South Gnollistan, just do not make sense to our game.
Ya, I'm not a big fan of those names either. Actually, something I've been looking into alot lately is Mystara's extensive history and thinking about having place names and lineages that are more detailed and complexe (i.e. more RW-like).
For instance, imagine how many names the humanoids have had for areas in the Broken Lands, from small canyons and hills, to the regional tribal lands. The Broken Lands would be immensly complexe due to how frequently the "political" situation changes, etc.
Anyhow, I for one wouldn't mind hearing any of the names you come up with. Of course, if they end up in the Broken Voice I'll see them there.
The Owls opted to travel across Fat Lips tribe lands, over the Streel River, and through Kol (Kobold held lands), along the Southern end. The Owls were well known for stealth and scouting prowess. Trouble began, when the warband veered too far south and tried to use the forests there for cover. Winged creatures were spotted overhead, very large winged creatures. Fearing dragons or worse, the forests looked safer than open hills. The forests were full of elves who resented this, and sent the Orc warband on its’ way, minus two Goblin members. The forest came alive with arrows and magic, shortly after the warband posted a watch, and settled down to rest. Filker and Sleach went down in the first hail of arrows with at least 10 arrows deeply embedded in each. As if that weren’t enough, vines and roots came alive to grasp, tear and rend the bodies as they fell to the ground. Three Orcs and five Goblins emerged from the trees with arrow wounds and hurt pride. Not only did the watch miss hearing the ambush being set, but also no Orc was able to raise a weapon in defense.
Limping and wounded, the Owls skirted the northern reaches of the Elven wood. After another couple days of travel, and a narrowly missed encounter with a patrol of Trolls, the Owls reached the area they were looking for. They scouted around until they found signs of kobold hunting parties. The kobolds look disorganized and with little direction, which is contrary to normal kobold operations.
The war leader, Grigler Red-Snout sent two of the best scouts back to the home tribe with maps of the area and notes on how to get to the new kobold lair. This left Grigler and the rest of the warband, 5 Goblins, Snig, Snucker, Knas, Goxr, Nazs, and 1 Orc, Drigka.
Boredom sets in for the warband with a week passing with little sign of kobold activity; until. During a sleep shift, the number of Orcs in the warband was brought down to two. The kobolds had not remained unknowing of the Owl’s presence. While Snucker 9-toes was on guard and napping in the hot glare of the sun, 15 Kobolds snuck into the camp, and killed the sentry the warband leader, Knas, Goxr, and Nazs. Drigka and Snig were left alive, One Goblin and one Orc for experimentation as ordered by Buimbu. Buimbu is a sorcerer and an Ancestral kobold, with red dragon blood flowing in his veins. Recently he took control of the kobold tribe, eliminating the kobold leader, and dumping the body. No one has been able to gainsay his rule, and live to tell about it.
After being brutally mobbed in their sleep, the Drigka and Snig are brought to the vivisection room used by Buimbu for experimentation on subjects. When conscious the two notice the remains of some poor green-skinned creature that has been flayed, cut up, and the skeletal remains hung from the ceiling.
After a failed escape attempt by Drigka, he was gagged. Drigka is a well-known Orcish Bard. His marching chant is used throughout King Thar’s Horde. It became popular nearly three cycles of the seasons ago. Drigka hums it through the gag as best he can, waiting for the release of death, or the respite of rescue.
Onward, dogs, to strife, to war
Whips at back drive feet that's sore
With gnash of tusk and fire that's red
No resting now unless you're dead.
Gralar! Gralay! With blood and clash of steel!
Yahoy! Yahay! We fight for our next meal!
No pause, no cease, no give or retreat
Fight on in cold or wretched heat!
They tell us fight for Hoth and Hai
I say be damned until you die
No light no water for another day
Who needs that garbage anyway?
Broken tusk and aching back
We battle now, cities to sack
Then we crawl back to the pit
Your doom now in blood is writ!
Onward, dogs, to strife, to war
Whips at back drive feet that’s sore
With gnash of fang and fire that's red
Life is pain and then you're dead!
For his part, Snig continuously tries to escape from his bonds, leaving bloody streaks running down his wrists. Both pass the time thinking of ways to have revenge upon the kobolds, and Buimbu. They do not know, that Gynk has already dispatched the newly formed Eagles warband to kill the kobolds and bring glory to the tribe.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 4 “Don’t open the trophy door.”
“Nothing for us here Gorga. A pit for sacrifice to a demon or devil of some kind.”
Orcs start laughing, and Tyco runs in to show his bravery by relieving himself in the sacrificial pit. Others soon join him as Sharraxtharkul quickly makes his exit, muttering about Orcs and lack of brains getting everyone killed. Gorga nods at the Orcs and grins, the same instincts that drive them to defile a pit for sacrifice, are the same ones that will send them to fight for him.
With this door investigated, Gorga is ready to call for a rest and gives orders for Gilnak and Hobna to take watch. Rhgl and Sharraxtharkul check out the rest of the room. It may have once been a throne room, with two large stone chairs and a raised platform at one end of the great hall, and two rows of stone pillars leading away from it to the west. The two Orcs take up positions at a juncture of hallways at the northwest, and southwest areas of the room. The Orcs use the nests for the Dire Weasels, and settle down for a much needed rest. Shar and Gorga move from Orc to Orc making sure that all have water, or bandages and poultices that can be applied. This would soon become a regular ritual for the Goblin and the warband leader. Shar as it is his duty to the warband, and Gorga to know the strength and disposition of his troops.
Rhgl makes his rounds, checking out weapons and binding or repairing any that he can. Time drags by and Shglsnor and Scrag take the second shift of guard duty. Ierkh keeps himself occupied knocking over one of the large stone chairs to see if anything is underneath. The rest sleep when they have a chance.
Gorga calls the warband together and prepares to move out. The goblins are in back with the wolf, and Scrag jumps forward to open doors again. There’s one more door to investigate before this area of the stronghold is left behind. The door is stuck, and it takes Ierkh to muscle his way through, leaving a shattered doorframe behind. This room is covered in a fine layer of dust. Covering most of the north wall is an immense dragon’s skin. At the west end of the room is a statue of a large six-legged lizard of some kind, of which none can tell, even Sharraxtharkul. On the east wall is the skeleton of a Dwarf suspended from the ceiling by manacles, giving the whole place a dark feel that does not bother the Orcs.
Gorga moves in beside Ierkh, and they investigate the room. Hanging on other walls are found, a pair of gigantic moose heads, four dragon paws with claws extended, a stuffed bird of some kind with the head and body of a *****erel, bat wings, and the long tail of a lizard. Of import to the Orcs, especially Ierkh, is a large Black shield sized right for him, and a pair of crossed swords. Other items of note are an entire door, frame and all bearing religious symbols of a dark and foreboding nature.
Sharraxtharkul waves Rhgl over, and the rest of the warband moves into the room, to see what is happening. Before anyone can start picking trophies off the wall, Sharraxtharkul looks to Gorga.
“Wait, let me ask the spirits if there is magic here.” The warband leader nods his assent and everyone steps back, as Shar takes a cross-legged seat in the center of the room. Pausing to gather his senses, the Goblin begins muttering in a guttural tongue that none of the Orcs understand. With a few passes of his hands and a shake of his spear, he begins to look around the room with sight attuned to magic. Looking around the room, the Goblin stands and approaches the large black shield on the wall.
“This has good magic. Ierkh should take this, it will make him mighty in battle.”
Walking by the door etched with runes, he carefully avoids it. “This is magic as well.”
Something catches his eye, and he moves around behind the strange stuffed bird. With a yelp of triumph, he pulls a leather mask hanging from the back of the creature.
“This good magic too, for Sharraxtharkul.”
As he let’s the magic fade, Gorga inspects the two swords and discounts them as not sturdy enough for Orcs to use. He motions for Ierkh to take up the shield. Hesitantly the big Half Ogre takes the shield off the wall, and hefts it on his arm. Magic is not to be trifled with. Unless you are Tyco and Scrag, who are messing around near the door covered in runes.
“Open it Scrag, It is magic, it could make you stronger.” Hearing this, Sharraxtharkul quickly makes his way out the door; others take notice of this, and make a hasty exit as well.
“What is inside?”
Tyco looks at Scrag and shrugs. “Wogar knows. Open it.”
As Scrag reaches for the door, A group of heads is watching from the door to the hallway on the south wall. Tyco quickly backpedals and gets behind the statue of the 6-legged lizard. Scrag yanks open the door from the frame, and there is an audible intake of breath from the rest of the warband, which is quickly drowned out by the explosion that ensues, hurling Scrag backwards a good 7 knucks. The report leaves a ringing in everyone’s ears and most are dazzled by the sudden brightness.
Scrag sits up and shakes his head. “Boom, heheheheh.”
Tyco quickly makes his exit past a glaring Gorga, and immediately spies Ierkh who has taken time away from the spectacle to heft his shield and inspect what might make it magical. The Orcs move back into the room, and pick Scrag up off the floor, some clapping him on the back in appreciation for the entertainment.
“Ierkh, your shield is magic, my cloak is magic, but I do not know how. Maybe it protects from shields. Hit me with it.”
Ierkh, never one to miss a chance to smack an Orc, and Tyco surely needs it, winds up with the shield, and takes a swing at the Orc with a wild look in his eye. Both have a rather wild streak in them that is not soon to be tamed. Having never used a shield before, Ierkh swings wildly and to the dumbfounded look of the goblins, misses the Orc who didn’t take a step to avoid it.
“Magic against shields.” Declares the Orc. “The cloak protects me from shields.” The goblins snicker and laugh together, and no one notices, probably to the benefit of their health. Ierkh looks puzzled at his shield and begins to wonder how he can use it with his great club.
A blackened Scrag emerges from the trophy room, followed by the rest of the warband, it is time to move on, and Gorga gives everyone a look as if to say, “I will not tolerate more foolishness now.”
The next few doors are opened without incident, and few are able to hear anything beyond the ringing, and the occasional chuckle from the Orcs behind. All open into hallways, and one is followed around to a door that seems to throb beneath Scrag’s fingers.
“Gorga this door is strange.” Gorga moves forward, and looks back at the warband. It is difficult to see much of anything beyond the Half-Ogre, but he calls for Rhgl anyway. Putting his ear to the door, Gorga can only hear the ringing in his ears. Nothing beyond.
“Rhgl, get up here.” Soon the goblin has pressed past Ierkh and the rest of the warband to stand at the door.
“What do you hear beyond the door?”
Rhgl reaches out and feels the door throbbing beneath his touch. Leaning down, he can hear what sounds like the beat of a living heart. He jerks back away from the door, wondering what can make a door shudder like this, and be alive.
“Something is there Gorga, alive, I here the heartbeat, very big, yes, very big it must be.”
Gorga shoos him back, and looks to the warband. “Prepare for battle.”
Scrag looks with trepidation at the door, and grinning with mischief, Tyco comes jogging forward.
With a grin that says he knows Gorga is not pleased, “I will open it Gorga.”
Scrag thankfully withdraws a few feet, and prepares his Orcish Double Axe.
Tyco opens the door only to find a hallway heading left for 8 Shins to another door. The hallway pulses as if alive, and the Orcs feel as if they are entering a living creature as they move down the hall. The feeling is oppressive at the next door, having slowly increased as they moved down the hall. A puddle of unrecognizable slime is on the floor at the door, and seems to seep down through any crack in the door. No one wants to put an ear to the door. Nothing but the presence filling the hallway would be heard in any case. Tyco braces himself to open the door.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 5 “What’s that smell?”
Broken Voice Issue 006
Also Issue #1 has been re-named to match the naming convention of the rest of the issues.
Let me know what you like and dislike about these please.
GW
Issue 6 of The Broken Voice is now posted.
Broken Voice Issue 006
Also Issue #1 has been re-named to match the naming convention of the rest of the issues.
Let me know what you like and dislike about these please.
GW
I never cared for writing orc speech with deliberate misspelling. It gives off an aura of being stupid and ignorant I think, and humaniods (at least IMC) are brutal, cunning and dangerous.
On the positive side, I really like the rumours. Place names like Wogar's Breath makes me dream up all kinds of interesting locations. I might just use some of this IMC if I ever send my party into the Broken Lands.
Keep 'em coming! :D
:-) Jesper
I never cared for writing orc speech with deliberate misspelling. It gives off an aura of being stupid and ignorant I think, and humaniods (at least IMC) are brutal, cunning and dangerous.
On the positive side, I really like the rumours. Place names like Wogar's Breath makes me dream up all kinds of interesting locations. I might just use some of this IMC if I ever send my party into the Broken Lands.
Keep 'em coming! :D
:-) Jesper
Thanks for the note. That section is starting to bother me a bit too, and I'm writing it. I don't go for that stuff in the game normally. I'll ask the guys what they think.
GW
Broken Voice Issue 007
Let me know what you like and dislike about these please.
GW
Directions on setting up the proper files.
I created The TrueType subdir of default, and modified the fonts.cache-1 with an extra line showing the TrueType subdir. Then moved the .ttf file into the subdir, correcting the permissions to rw-r-r. Then restarted the X server. I'm now able to read the Broken Voice from my Core3 Fedora box.
http://www.dafont.com/en/font.php?file=forgotten_uncial
Grabbed the font from the link above.
GW
Issue 7 of The Broken Voice is now posted.
"Droom is known for stomping on the fingers of enemies who were hanging from a cliff. His warband chased a group of kobolds into a landslide. Those able to hold on, soon fell to their deaths as Droom found each and drove his dwarven boots down upon them."
I love it. That's hilarious! I really like the Rumorz -n- Tailz section; good stuff.
I love it. That's hilarious! I really like the Rumorz -n- Tailz section; good stuff.
Thanks Hugin, I'm trying to accomplish a few things by making sometimes outlandish claims here.
-Working in current happenings throughout the Broken Lands.
-Working in plot devices and curiosities for the party to explore.
-Working in game evolution outside of the party's control.(Things do happen even when the party does not take care of them.)
Truths, half-truths and outright fabrications are used. So far they have not attempted to investigate any of the fabrications.
With the kind of game this is, I tend to let a bit of free-form go where you will happen, but I have to give them something to go on.
GW
-Working in current happenings throughout the Broken Lands.
-Working in plot devices and curiosities for the party to explore.
-Working in game evolution outside of the party's control.(Things do happen even when the party does not take care of them.)
It's good to give the players the sense that things happen beyond their immediate surroundings. Campaign Newsletters are such a great tool!
Truths, half-truths and outright fabrications are used. So far they have not attempted to investigate any of the fabrications.
That's one of the reasons why mine is called the "Hear-Say". ;) I can't believe I've done 13 of them now.
With the kind of game this is, I tend to let a bit of free-form go where you will happen, but I have to give them something to go on.
Allowing the players freedom to chose really gives them the sense that they are the masters of their destinies. Once this has been established, your plot hooks will never be accused of railroading, even when you do! :D
Btw, what about
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 5 “What’s that smell?”
I'll track it down and post here. I started a new job, and haven't worked on an update for a bit. That will change again here soon.
GW
With practiced ease, the warband moves into the oppressive room, fending off hurled javelins and poison-coated daggers. The Eagles have learned of these tactics and are adept at combating them. An unanticipated problem, through the combat, is the sharp glass and metal strewn inside the door, hidden by the ankle-deep fluid. Tyco, Scrag and Gilnak cut their feet and begin to feel the creep of poison into their wounds. Kobolds attempt to swarm Iirkh, with horned kobolds, running and leaping at him, while others attack with spears. With his great reach and great club, many are smashed into the floor, before they get close enough jab at him with spears. Gorga and Hobna dutifully send arrows across the room into kobolds unable to reach the warband. The Orcs of the warband, Tyco, Scrag, Shglsnor, and Gilnak, form a ring around the goblins and bowmen to allow them uninterrupted attacks. Sharraxtharkul keeps his wolf back out of the way, while he surveys the chamber, looking for clues that might help in the combat. Rhgl begins hurling daggers, as kobolds can be seen between the broad shoulders of his Orcish companions.
Within minutes, all of the kobolds are dead, and Gorga and Sharraxtharkul tend the injured Orcs, back out in the hallway. A weak Orc is a dead Orc, and the strength draining nature of the poison would soon hinder their combat effectiveness.
With injuries bandaged, Sharraxtharkul turns to Gorga. “Let me study this before you order it destroyed. It may bring power to the Vile Ruins.”
Gorga nods and grunts his assent, and the Goblin rushes off to investigate, his wolf companion at his side. Rhgl searches through the fluid, for dropped and thrown daggers, his own, and those used by the Black-tongue kobolds. The rest of the Orcs move about stacking bodies and searching for anything useful, magic, food and coins. There are a few coins, but little else of use.
After a boar*** of inspecting the growing hatchery, Sharraxtharkul returns to Gorga.
“Some of these will hatch soon. Kill them, and leave the rest for the Shaman to study. We can not use the poison in the fluid, it stops working away from the rest.”
Gorga looks around the warband.
“Rhgl, Tyco, kill the sacks of kobold.”
The Orc and Goblin turn to the task and bring axe and dagger to bear on the hanging globes of fluid and forming kobolds. While bringing them down, both are sprayed with fluids from the “kobold sacks” and neither is adversely affected by it.
Gorga rounds up the rest of his warband, and the door to the room is shut. With the warband suffering minor injuries all around, Gorga orders a short rest back in the old throne room for binding of wounds and healing. There is some grumbling, to return there so soon, but no direct disobedience from the Orcs.
Gorga confers with Sharraxtharkul and Rhgl. “They knew we might come. Glass and metal to cut at our feet. Rhgl, you will scout ahead now. Something tells me this is your fault.”
Understanding the nature of his magic earring, Gorga gives an additional order. “Say my name and I will hear what you say.”
Rhgl tilts his head and looks at Gorga like he’s been drinking the fungal brew that some Orcs drink back at the tribe. “Yes Gorga, you will hear me.”
Rhgl moves away to prepare for scouting while muttering to himself. “Lousy Stinkin, Gorga, says he can hear me. How does he do it?”
“I heard that Rhgl.”
Rhgl yelps and ducks away from the expected cuff, and moves off to prepare.
Soon Gorga has the warband up and continuing the extermination efforts here in the stronghold. With Rhgl scouting ahead, Gorga has Tyco and Scrag nearby for quick heavy support, with Iirkh following behind. Sharraxtharkul and his wolf are next, followed by Shglsnor, Hobna, and Gilnak guarding the rear.
Moving quietly and disappearing from sight, Rhgl moves ahead of the warband around twists and turns in the corridor. He stays about 8 shins ahead of the warband and is expecting to call back an all clear, when he hears a sinister voice in his head.
“Come to me.”
Shaking his head to clear it. He peers into the dark hallway ahead.
“Come to me.”
Getting a little scared now, Rhgl turns to call back to the warband. This is when his world changes drastically. Magic swirls up around the goblin, and a sickening fog envelops him and much of the hallway in both directions. He screams out “Gorga, it wants us. Don’t hurt Rhgl, Nice Rhgl, not hurting anybody,” and begins retching.
The Goblin curls up on the floor, waiting for the bad smell and sickness to go away, whimpering quietly between retches, wondering if the Orcs will brave the fog to save him.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 6 “No hurting the Kobold.”
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Hands as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
“Come to me.”
Gorga shakes his head in disbelief. Gorga begins calling to his warband.
“Come join the fight, the cloud stinks less than Scrag’s feet.”
Scrag and Tyco begin to move down the 2 shin wide hallway, with Hobna, Shglsnor, and Gilnak bringing up the rear. Sharraxtharkul moves off to the side, to allow them to pass. Just as the Orcs are about to enter the cloud, one of the demonic creatures activates a magic ability, and puts fear into the mind of the warband leader, while Iirkh manages to resist the effect. Stumbling through the obscuring cloud of noxious fog, the Half-Ogre nearly steps on the whimpering Goblin, a creature reaches into the stinking cloud and rakes a claw across Iirkh’s arm. He reaches down, grabs the Goblin, and tosses him out of the way of combat. He feels Gorga brush past him as he heads through the cloud back towards the warband.
“Retreat, Retreat.”Calls Gorga, as he comes running back out of the cloud.
Sharraxtharkul has had enough, he moves into the cloud to see what is causing so much trouble, as the cloud begins to dissipate. The goblin has heard of these wretched creatures, Dretches. They have some magical powers and resist damage, but they can be killed. Hobna moves up behind the Goblin and lets an arrow fly at one of the creatures.
It simply sticks and falls to the ground offering no real damage to the outsider. Iirkh begins pounding one with his Great club, and the other sees this as an opportunity to retreat.
Stay Away, Stay Away. Iirkh can hear in his head, as the Dretch runs leaving the other to the tender mercies of his club.
The Orcs look at each other and begin to wonder at the conflicting commands by the warband leader and his retreat past them. The look of fear was evident on his face, and the Orcs looked about with trepidation. Within two ***spits Gorga comes right back past them, the look of fear gone from his face.
“Come help me kill them. Two small creatures will die at our blades.”
A door slams around the corner North.
Sharraxtharkul tells Gorga. “We must follow quickly, before it can summon allies.”
----------
Little does he know that it is too late. Upon entering the room, he begins summoning a demonic replacement for the Dretch killed by the Orcs. The Dretch has already warned its’ master of the approaching Orc warband, and Buimbu begins casting spells.
“Let’s see, Fly, Seeming of the Dragon’s Blood, Mage Armor.”
Buimbu looks over at the Dretch and its’ newly summoned companion.
“Two of you should be able to handle a few Orcs.” He thinks at them, with disdain laced through his thoughts. “Now pour that Oil on the floor by the door. I will make it hot for them.”
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The warband finishes off the Dretch, and moves up to the door. Scrag is ahead, with Shglsnor, Iirkh, and Gorga right behind. He braces himself and heaves against a door that will not budge. The warband looks at him, with a few smiles cracking, and Iirkh steps forward.
“I will open door.”
With a push of one mighty hand, the door is flung open. Iirkh sees two Dretches about 4 shins away, across a pool of something on the floor. Flying in the air some 8 shins away to the right, is a kobold, tinged red, with horns beginning to form on its’ head, and down its’ back and tail. He draws up with arms spread out wide, with a cape draped across its’ arms.
“Hello Orcs, You are becoming quite the problem for me now. Keep back, the floor is covered with Oil, and I’ll set it afire with my flaming breath."
Gorga is anxious in the hallway. “What do you see?”
Iirkh snickers a little and says back over his shoulder. “Tiny kobold that flies. More Demons.” As Iirkh begins to step into the room, the kobold intones a spell. Iirkh stops cold in his tracks while the spell seeps into his mind convincing him that this kobold is one of his best buddies.
“Please my good friend, keep them from harming me, they want to see me dead.”
Iirkh nods. “Ok.” Turning around he speaks again. “No hurting the kobold. You go back now.” Iirkh does not need to move to block the hallway, which is a dead end off of the nearest hallway 4 knucks back south.
No one else enters the section of hallway, and Scrag and Shiglsnor try to force their way past the Half-Ogre.
Not wanting to hurt the warband much, Iirkh braces himself, and keeps the two Orcs from pushing past him. For a short time, there is a standoff where the Half-Ogre refuses to move, or let anyone past.
Tyco takes it upon himself to begin taunting Iirkh. “Come on you big dummy, get out of the way.”
With the calming words of Buimbu in his ear, Iirkh doesn’t rise to the challenge, and stays put, to the consternation of the warband. If they anger him enough, some Orcs will die trying to fight past him. After some time of futilely trying to push past Iirkh, and Tyco trying to taunt the Half-Ogre, Scrag decides to play dead, and falls to the ground peaking through half-closed eyes.
Even Iirkh can see that he is faking it, and reaches down, picks up the prone Orc, and tosses him down the hallway to land in a heap.
Buimbu begins coaching the Half-Ogre to get the Orcs to move back the way they came. Having heard many of their names now, the Sorcerer puts them to good use.
“Iirkh, convince the Orcs to move away, and keep them away down the hallway you just came through. This will make me feel safer. That Gorga is very dangerous, and Tyco wants to hurt me.”
“You move away. You gonna hurt the kobold. He is my friend.” Iirkh continues to block the doorway, and pushes Shglsnor back two shins.
Buimbu casts a spell on himself and can no longer be seen. He communicates with the Dretches to await his command. He doesn’t want them to get too close to Iirkh.
With the argument continuing, and Tyco trying to anger Iirkh, Gorga steps up to try taking control of the situation. With that move, Buimbu knows who the leader is. Chanting is heard in the air behind Iirkh, and a dog with flame for breath appears next to Gorga and Scrag. Buimbu meanwhile entreats Iirkh to remain and keep defending him.
“Iirkh, please stay here and defend me. If you go to fight that Hound from Hell, Tyco will run past you and hurt me.”
Convinced, Iirkh holds his ground, blocking the way for anyone to get past him.
Tyco just won’t leave him alone however. “Iirkh, that little kobold is controlling you. Come fight me now, I think I am stronger. Step away from the little runt, and prove you are Ogre and Orc enough to fight me.”
With some convincing from the kobold, Iirkh does not take the Orc up on his challenge.
The Hellhound breathes fire injuring Gorga, Scrag and Gilnak, but at a final cost as all three carve it up in retaliation, sending it back to where it was summoned. Buimbu, seeing Tyco as a threat for taunting his new bodyguard, invokes a Dragon Bolt, blasting the Orc with four streaking Red Dragon shaped bolts of energy.
Gorga begins arguing with Iirkh.
“Move Iirkh, I order it. This is the slime we have been ordered to kill.” He spits to the side in disgust. “Kobolds, vermin, we must destroy this nest of them.”
“No hurting the kobold, he Iirkh’s friend.”
With more argument going this way, little is accomplished, and Gorga decided to try a new tactic.
“Iirkh, we will go back then, and rest from our battle here. You come along, when it is safe for your friend.”
Scrag starts inching over to the hallway to the left, as the rest of the warband is gathered to head back the direction they came. Buimbu is flying behind the Half-Ogre, pointing out those that do not leave.
Gorga calls out. "Get over here Scrag." But the Orc will not listen, and has his own plans.
Rhgl and Tyco pass by Iirkh and move along with the rest of the warband. Scrag runs off into the darkness, and Iirkh is satisfied. Making sure that none can sneak around him, Iirkh heads off after the warband. As soon as Iirkh moves off to the south, Buimbu directs the Dretches who are able to communicate in his mind, “Chase down that Orc, the one they call Scrag, and kill him.”
Realizing that he is being chased by the demons, Scrag begins running, and soon finds himself at the entrance to the stronghold. He runs outside into the sun, hoping that they will not follow him.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 7 “A Kobold can Breathe Fire?”
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
Broken Voice Issue 008
As always, I appreciate your comments. I've gone Non-cannon in a few places, with the leadership of the kobolds most recently.
GW
“A Kobold can Breathe Fire?”
Curious
Curious
Yes, I'm using the setting, but our group is using 3.5/d20 rules. This is a prestige class for kobold Sorcerers, "The Dragon Disciple". they gain bloodline abilities in the Prc.
Definately not canon, but I've made note of that a few times here.
GW
Definately not canon, but I've made note of that a few times here.
Who hasn't branched from pure canon? Show me a 100% canon campaign and I'll show you a look of stunned disbelief!
What I was curious about, actually, was if the kobold was breathing fire like as a dragon, or if he got himself into an unfortuate situation where he breathed fire in instead of air! :D
.Can't wait to see what those humanoids do next.
Who hasn't branched from pure canon? Show me a 100% canon campaign and I'll show you a look of stunned disbelief!
What I was curious about, actually, was if the kobold was breathing fire like as a dragon, or if he got himself into an unfortuate situation where he breathed fire in instead of air! :D
Oh, sorry, I did not get a note that this thread had been updated again. He had taken the Ancestral Prestige class, which allowed for Dragon blood in his veins. it gave him a low level ability to breath fire. I'll post a link to the prestige class if you are interested.
GW
Broken Voice Issue 009
As always, I appreciate your comments. We play this week, and I am working on the next Story update.
GW
Gorga and Sharraxtharkul get any wounds bandaged, while Shglsnor and Hobna watch the hallways. Iirkh is standing in the doorway, making sure no one tries to get past him.
----------
“That did not go too badly.” Buimbu congratulates himself. The largest and most effective warrior has been neutralized, and the rest of the Orcs are wary of taking his measure. “I must have that one back.” A message spell should do the trick nicely, first however, the Dretches must be recalled. “Come back to me my demonic friends, let us regroup.” The answer is not long in coming.
“Yes, we come.”
That taken care of, Buimbu casts his spell. “Iirkh, return to me, your friend Scrag has attacked me, return to defend me.” The kobold begins to smile, and smoke wafts up from the edges of his mouth. He moves to the mouth of the hallway to his room, and lies on the floor, as if he dropped there after being attacked.
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Rhgl and Gorga see Iirkh turn his head as if listening to something, and watch him turn and run back down the hallway. He is heard to say. “Iirkh coming little kobold. Will stop Scrag from hurting you.”
Gorga turns to the warband. “Wait here, I will get Iirkh to come back.”
Rhgl makes his way over by Tyco, and begins talking to the wild eyed Orc.
“Poor little Rhgl feels as though the leadership in this band is not what it seems to be. While, Gorga looks out for us, he does not show the leadership needed. Another should take his place.” Tyco begins nodding his head.
In the hallway, running after Iirkh, Gorga hears ‘Gorga cares for us, he does not show the leadership needed. Another’, and the voice trails off. Still unable to discern voices, he is not sure who made the comment. It will have to wait; Iirkh can not be allowed to run off and get killed or worse; used against the warband.
Iirkh runs up quickly, to find the kobold lying on the floor in disarray, as if he was beaten up. “You Ok kobold? Scrag hurt you?”
“Yes Iirkh, yes but I will recover. I will go into my cave and get some healing magic. Please stay here and make sure that Scrag does not come back.”
Iirkh helps Buimbu to his feet, and the sly kobold feigns a limp as he walks back to his room. He flies over the oil pooled on the floor, as it may still be useful.
Seeing the kobold safely in his room, the Half-Ogre turns to guard the passage. Soon, the two Dretches come up the hallway, skulking as they go. Thinking the Half-Ogre under the control of the sorcerer, they attempt to bypass him and head to the kobolds room. This is where the sorcerer was not thinking. Iirkh, does not consider the Dretches allies, and did combat with one of them earlier, and Buimbu did not tell him not to attack the demon spawn. Within moments, the two Dretches are splatters on his club, and fizzle out of existence. Buimbu realizes his mistake as he hears the sounds of battle, and in his head hears the death scream of both creatures.
The heat of battle has cleared Iirkh’s mind, and he turns to gain vengeance upon the kobold that controlled his actions with magic so recently. Rushing down the short hall, he bursts through the door. Gorga rounds the corner and catches sight of Iirkh smashing the door. Scrag is also making his way back carefully, to avoid confronting the Dretches alone.
Seeing the focus of his anger, Iirkh begins to feel a rage building within him, which he has not released in battle yet. So far none have challenged or angered him so much. With a roar of rage, he begins a rush at the kobold, and promptly slips in the oil he is standing in enraging him further.
Seeing Iirkh slip to the floor in the oil, Gorga rushes up to aid the Half-Ogre in the combat he knows will soon follow. Scrag sees Gorga rush up the hallway and begins to rush forward as well. While wary of single combat with demons, the Orc is no coward.
Grinning wickedly, Buimbu recalls the required components for Slurm’s Smoking Spittle. Incanting the proper phrases, and hawking some saliva in an exaggerated manner, Buimbu spits forth a mouth full of saliva, which transforms into a burning ball of ectoplasm.. The little glob of fire flies from his mouth, and lands in the pool of oil, exploding with a sharp crack and a cloud of smoke. The smoke is mostly obscured by the blazing oil, but the smoky shape of a red dragon can barely be seen circling over the impact area.
Rolling out of the fire, Iirkh rights himself, and moves toward the kobold as the initial burn of the oil begins to die down. Gorga jumps through the edges of the fire to stand near the half-ogre, which is right where Buimbu wants them.
For months now, the kobold has been feeling the growth of his ancestral powers within. He has already used the culmination of this power to slay the tribe chieftain and take control of the tribe. He will use it again now. Sucking in a deep breath a smoldering furnace is kindled within, Buimbu breaths forth a super-heated gout of flame at the two dumbfounded Orcs. Both are burned badly, and Iirkh rushes into battle while Gorga sends arrows flying from a distance. The arrows have a beneficial side-effect of keeping the sorcerer from casting spells. The Half-Ogre stands up to the flying kobold, swinging away with his greatclub, while the kobold uses his ancestrally enhanced claws and bite to tear at Iirkh.
Scrag comes running into the room, and risking an attack by the flying kobold, manages to flank the creature, allowing Iirkh to land the killing strike. A wicked smash with the club sends the kobold to the floor, where he remains still, leaking fluids from ears and mouth.
With the object of his rage now gone, Iirkh slows and drops to his knees. The extent of his burns, claw and bite wounds become apparent. Turning a little pale, the Half-Ogre falls forward on his face.
Seeing his most powerful warrior fall, Gorga takes quick stock of his surroundings. The kobolds bed of coins and gems is nearby, and what looks like a small cache of potions. Rushing over, Gorga grabs what looks to be a powerful healing draught. Rushing back over to the fallen compatriot, Gorga rolls Iirkh onto his back, and begins pouring the potion down the half-ogre’s throat.
Iirkh begins to sputter and cough, and sputter, but Gorga directs him to continue drinking.
“It is healing you Iirkh, drink it.”
With Iirkh back on his feet, the three begin searching through the treasure of a Kobold tribe. Iirkh rips the bracers from the dead kobold, spitting on the body.
“These mine now.”
How he intends to use them, neither Gorga nor Scrag asks him.
With some effort, Gorga sends Scrag back to gather the rest of the warband.
“Tell them, Buimbu and the Dretches are dead. We have treasure to claim.”
Scrag runs off into the passageway, wondering what will be left when he returns.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 8 “Gorga gains an ally.”
Please keep up the good work!
Gordon
When Scrag reaches the rest of the warband, he makes his message quick.
“We kill little dragon, Gorga and Iirkh take treasure.”
Never have his words caused so much quick movement within the warband. Scrag stands around proudly as everyone races off down the hallway to find Gorga and Iirkh and is soon alone. Noticing this, the simple Orc runs off after his companions.
Rhgl is the first to come into the scorched room, and sees Gorga slipping on a set of Bracers while Iirkh is still scooping up coins, and having trouble picking up individual coins with his large fingers.
“Gorga, you take the glory, and pick the treasure? What of the goblins, and the other Orcs? Did we not fight too? Where is our share of treasure?”
Gorga turns on the goblin, as the rest of the warband enters.
“I will share the treasure as I see fit, goblin. You would do well to see to your place in this warband.”
Iirkh puts in his two coppers as well. “Gorga good, Gorga give Iirkh magic to bring him alive.”
Seeing the situation about to come to a result that might have one fewer goblin in the warband, Sharraxtharkul steps in to mediate.
“Great Gorga let me council you to ensure the growth of the warband.”
Sharraxtharkul pulls the warband leader aside, and gives him the status of the warband. They have been fighting with no reward. This makes for unhappy Orcs. Reward them well now, and they will cease their griping for now. If Gorga would allow Sharraxtharkul to inspect the treasure, some magic may be found, and will increase the loyalty of the warband greatly if given freely. With Sharraxtharkul acting as spiritual advisor to Gorga, the warband can only be stronger.
Seeing the wisdom of the goblin spell caster, Gorga gives his assent to examine the treasure and help give it out to the warband.
Rhgl backs down now that he has had some time helping Iirkh pick up coins. Looking back to Gorga and Sharraxtharkul, the goblin curses to see the shaman toadying up to the warband leader. He will gain favor for sure, and leave Rhgl to languish in the warband without support from the only other goblin.
Sharraxtharkul begins waving his arms, and barking out words of power. “Spirits of the Earth and Sky, make clear magic’s power nigh.” As the magic takes hold, he begins to see auras around some items the warband is carrying and most of the items from the small hoard. Turning to Gorga, Sharraxtharkul speaks.
“These bracers you claimed have magic to them; they are a fit claim for the warband leader.”
Rhgl rolls his eyes as Sharraxtharkul continues.
“This armor of plates is magic, and will serve One-eye well.” Gorga takes the armor, and presents it to the grizzled Orc Gilnak, who quickly strips down to try on the armor. Sharraxtharkul searches through the rest of the items, a spear for Rhgl, Chainmail, a heavy steel shield, and the gems giving them to Gorga with a suggestion as to who could use them the best. The scrolls and the wand, of course, are reserved for the goblin with magic knowledge to “study”. Most everyone is pleased, and much to Rhgl’s shock, Gorga comes off as a hero saving Iirkh and sharing the treasure so well.
With all the treasure gathered up for tribute to the tribe, or given out to the Orcs in the warband, it is time to heal again. These short brutal battles are taking their toll on the warband, and there was little healing in the short time before Iirkh ran off to the defense of the kobold sorcerer.
Sharraxtharkul makes the best of his healing knowledge, and is able to bring Tyco, Scrag, and Iirkh back up to fighting strength in the span of a night cycle. Everyone else who has been injured gains some benefit from his healing as well.
Gorga calls for the warband to gather after a meal of rations.
“We continue our cause. All kobolds must be killed here." Using some of the Druid’s charcoal, Gorga sketches out the remaining door and hallway to be explored, and taps the location of a door.
“Here is where we will go. Near the Kobold Sorcerer’s room.”
Soon the Eagles are ready for battle, and Scrag is at the door listening.
“There is a sound like a bird here.”
Gorga looks at him.
“A bird will not kill you Orc, open the door.”
Scrag returns to his task, and opens the door to the sound of wind whistling through the doorway. There are two kobolds mounted upon dire weasels in battle gear. Not being one to show fear where others can see it, Scrag rushes in to attack, and is promptly bitten and savaged by one of the creatures. Gorga follows Scrag into the room, and is flanked by another dire weasel who rushes in and bites deeply into the Orc’s shoulder. This one does not let go either. Iirkh squeezed in through the door, and strikes one weasel so hard, that his club continues on into the weasel holding onto Scrag. The rest of the warband piles in, and in moments there are three dire weasels and two kobolds lying dead on the carved rock floor.
The Orcs begin searching the room for anything of value, and any other doors out of the room. None are found, but Tyco and Rhgl investigate a wall made from scrap wood up at one end of the room. With a creaking sound as prelude, the wall suddenly slams down. Both the Orc and goblin are able to avoid being flattened. Two more kobolds on dire weasels rush to attack. The first bites into Tyco’s upper arm, and latches on shaking a bloody wound in the arm. Rhgl somehow manages to get out of the way, while Scrag and the others move up to take on this smaller challenge.
Tyco pulls his arm free, and attempts to staunch the flow of blood. Between Scrag and Iirkh attacking by hand, considerable damage is done to the weasel and kobold
Suddenly, a whistling noise is heard, and the door the warband just entered through, slams shut.
The second rider, seeing his chance, turns his mount to run for a door at the far end of what seems to be a wide hallway. The dire weasel bites into Tyco again, but for only moments, as Gorga and Hobna plant arrows deep into the creature finishing it off. The kobold rides his mount to the floor, and begins growling and yipping at the warband. Sharraxtharkul, with considerable backup, steps forward and screeches out the words to a spell, while holding his hands spread out before him. The kobold turns as if to run, but does not make it anywhere, as a sheet of flames engulfs the hapless creature, and sets his dead mounts’ body aflame.
The kobold reaches the door, and slides off the side of his dire weasel mount. Rushing to the door, he begins to fling it open, and quickly rebounds off the door. Yipping and growling, he calls out to someone on the other side of the door.
“Let me in. Orcs come. They kill us.”
Sharraxtharkul rushes forward and dons the mask he found in the trophy room. He has suspicion that it is a mask of fangs. His thoughts prove to be true, as he is suddenly able to control the weasel, and for the first real time, can communicate mind to mind with his wolf companion.
Siezing control of the newfound power, Sharraxtharkul jumps up on the smouldering dire weasel corpse, and throws his arms out wide. Although the words are unnecessary for commanding the creature, he must show his power to the rest of the warband.
“Kill that kobold, he must not escape.”
With the words said aloud, Sharraxtharkul uses the mask, to make the same command. The dire weasel plays his part well. With a squeal, it turns on the kobold. The result is a bloody mess, as the kobold is flailed around with sharp teeth.
Gilnak, not having seen any combat here, has gone back to the door, to open it, and see if anyone was there to close it. Opening it is somewhat difficult, but there is no one in the hallway.
Sharraxtharkul feels his control waning, and calls for Iirkh to kill off the beast. Scrag also helps, with Gorga putting an arrow into the weasel as well. Within a spit***, the creature is dead. With the death of the last enemy, the warband turns to look at the door that would not open for the kobold.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 9 “Battle Frenzy, Orcs, naww?”
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds
The html version of the Broken Voice Issue 010 has been posted
The Broken Voice Issue 010
As always, comments positive or negative are appreciated.
GW
With the quick death of the Dire Weasels and their riders, the warband is confident to take on any kobolds that might be beyond the door. Gorga takes stock of the warband. Tyco is badly wounded with multiple bites and scrapes, Scrag is a little better off, and Gorga as hurting some as well. Adrenaline is pumping through them all and the fury of battle is like a bandage to their wounds. Gorga listens at the door the Kobold was trying to get through, and hears barking and yipping in Draconic. He nods to the warband.
“I don’t know what they say, but more kobolds are beyond the door.”
Scrag steps forward. “Scrag will open door and kill kobolds first.”
Gorga steps aside and lets the proud Orc pass to the door.
“They will likely be ready for us. Rush the room and spread out to fight as many as you can. They will fall like tears of a young human.”
Scrag flings the door open to a hail of sling stones, one knocking him solidly in the shoulder. He steps in and finds a makeshift 4'wall of cots, wood, and stools. Kobolds are behind it, reloading their slings. With a yell of rage, he rushes into the room and at the barrier to meet his foes, ferocity beginning to cloud his judgment. More than thirty kobolds await the rush, on the other side of the barrier. Wait two barriers. The room is quite long, and two barriers have been put together across the room to afford the kobolds some protection from the invaders.
Gorga moves into the room on the wake of the stones pounding in around Scrag, and makes a quick assessment of the situation. A fortified weak enemy, it will be tough, but we should be able to take them. Gorga moves in, and takes a position against the far wall, and begins shooting arrows at the kobolds, making himself the primary target for the next barrage of sling stones. One knocks him in the head, blurring his vision some.
The first row of kobolds drops their slings, and grabs spears, to fend off Orcs at the front barrier. Hobna moves into the room, and takes up a position similar to Gorga’s, loosing arrows as quickly as he can, taking one kobold by surprise, turning his left eye into the latest target for his arrows. Gilnak rushes in, and swings his axe wildly against the barrier and kobolds, trying to find a way through. Shglsnor comes rushing up beside Gilnak, grabs a hold of the nearest piece of the barrier, and begins shoving it back towards the kobolds. He does not get far, before two spears reach over the top, transfixing the Orc like a scarecrow guarding a crop.
Gorga grimaces at the loss of his first warrior, it won’t be that last this day. Tyco takes a seat on the floor outside of the room, and Sharraxtharkul snorts at the orc as he rushes by with his wolf Margrax. Entering the room, the canny goblin calls a ball of fire into existence, immolating one hapless kobold on the far side of the first cot barrier. For his part, the wolf attempts to jump the barrier, but is met with a spear, impaling the wolf with a sharp cry of pain. Sharraxtharkul feels the loss of his trusted companion, and directs his ball of fire towards the kobolds that did the deed. With everyone in the room but Tyco and Rhgl, Iirkh squeezes his way into the room, to a hail of sling stones. With little more than bruises to show for it, he rushes the barrier, slamming part of it back five shins into the room, bowling over half a dozen kobolds in the process.
Three kobolds closer to the far end of the room, direct the actions of the militant kobolds, ordering slings shot at one foe, and spears to thwart another. Gorga spots them from the far end of the room, with the keen eye of a leader on the battlefield, and begins direction his bowfire into that area.
With a great swing of his axe, Gilnak splits the barrier in two. Scrag wastes no time in grabbing a piece of it, and charging forward, igniting it on the ball of fire controlled by Sharraxtharkul, who curses in disgust. A rush of flame causes Scrag to pull back in pain. Followed by a rain of no less than 15 stones, which bloody his face, and crack open his skull. Gorga curses again, and changing weapons, rushes up to stand beside Iirkh, who is being swarmed with kobolds. With a single swing of his club, Iirkh crushes two of the pesky kobolds with a sure finality. Hobna brings down another with his sure shooting, and Sharraxtharkul manages to redirect his ball of fire towards another kobold, who manages to drop and roll out of the way.
Chaos in the large room is as sure as any battlefield, enhanced by the thick smoke coming from the burning furniture. Gilnak rushes through the smoke to take the place of Scrag in the line, and the warband loses sight of him for a moment. When the smoke blows back the other way, his body is seen slumped over the crouching forms of two kobolds, with spears set into notches in the floor. Gorga grabs up a kobold, and grappling the struggling creature, takes a bite out of his neck, ending his miserable life. Using the body as a club, Gorga begins beating at the kobolds around him. Iirkh begins to take the brunt of sling stones now, and begins to get angry. A kobold directing his soldiers looks up at Gorga, with grim determination on his face, and takes a jab at the impressive orc with his spear.
After being attacked by a kobold Sergeant, Gorga glares at him, wipes the kobold blood from his chin, licks it and barks at the kobold. Seeing the lifeblood of his companion on the face of his adversary, the kobold blanches and begins backing away towards another group further back.
Gorga barks out. “Those kobolds that surrender will live, all others will be eaten sloooowwlyyyy.”
Finally getting the kobolds that killed his faithful companion, Sharraxtharkul begins to scream. "Burn, s c u m, burn!" making himself the target for a dozen stones hurled from slings. This is too much for the up and coming shaman, and he falls to the hard floor, bleeding from multiple blunt force wounds. Gorga begins to realize the depth of his danger, as he looks around and only sees, Iirkh, himself, Hobna, and Rhgl sneaking over to stick a blade in an inattentive kobolds’ back. There are still nearly twenty kobolds remaining. Realizing most of his backup is now lying either dead or dying, Gorga yells to his warband.
“Kill them faster.”
Iirkh taking the queue smashes two more of his opponents with a back-handed blow.
“They keep coming Gorga, Iirkh kill them when they stand still.”
A sling stone cracks the wall near Rhgl, and his attention is grabbed as he pulls his dagger from the back of a kobold warrior. Using the body as a shield, Rhgl hunkers down behind it, awaiting another chance to sneak around the battlefield.
Iirkh is bleeding from multiple wounds, and begins to feel the rage of battle fill him, as he sweeps his greatclub around killing at least one kobold with every swing. Taking a look around the room, and being able to count to five, and know when there are more, Hobna begins inching towards the door, while loosing arrows at kobolds around the smoky room. Reaching the door, he sees Tyco sitting against the wall, with a small creature perched upon his chest. He’s never seen a Quasit before, but the paralyzed form of Tyco, and the creature disappearing before his eyes, firmly implants the image for the rest of his short life. Not paying attention to the battleground has cost him a spear to the kidney, and a dagger to the stomach from two stealthy kobolds. They turn and rush back in to attack the raging half-ogre from behind.
The din of battle manages to drown out the sound of flapping wings. Gorga looks up suddenly, as Iirkh swats at the back of his neck. His resistance all but useless, the large creature feels a sting again, under his left ear. With his blood pumping quickly from the heat of battle, Iirkh is quickly overcome by the paralyzation poison injected into his bloodstream. His body goes inert, and the creature, visible now, swoops down at Gorga.
Rhgl, from his vantage point, relatively close to the door, realizes that the battle is over, the Eagles can not win this fight now. It is up to Rhgl to escape to tell the tale of what happened. Using all the skills taught him; Rhgl sneaks to the door, and hides behind the fallen body of Hobna to view the final moments of Gorga Man-Hunter. With a small crowd of kobolds surrounding the large muscular Orc, a low growl can be heard from him, as they approach on all sides. With a cry from the kobolds as a group, Gorga is swarmed, a dozen kobolds pulling him to the ground, stomping his face, stabbing his arms, crushing his kneecaps with rocks. Incapacitated, Gorga lies there, as the kobold leader steps forward. Kneeling down, speaking directly into Gorga’s face, the kobold says, in halting orcish, with a toothy grin on his face.
Orc S c u m, we eat YOU now.
Gorga spits a bloody trail at the kobold, who ends his existence with a dagger thrust under the chin. With the battle dieing down, the kobolds move around to finish off any lingering Orcs. Rhgl takes his queue to sneak off to the exit of what has become the death of the Eagles. But not Rhgl, he will survive. Goblins are survivors.
Next Up: Rhgl makes his way home. Alone.
I have a lead of updates that I've already posted, while I am slowly updating the state of the game updates. I took time off getting ready to sell our house, move, unpack at the new one, and get settled. I'm back to updating again. And really in the mood to work on this telling of our game again.
GW
“I don’t know what they say, but more kobolds are beyond the door.”
Scrag steps forward. “Scrag will open door and kill kobolds first.”
Gorga steps aside and lets the proud Orc pass to the door.
“They will likely be ready for us. Rush the room and spread out to fight as many as you can. They will fall like tears of a young human.”
Scrag flings the door open to a hail of sling stones, one knocking him solidly in the shoulder. He steps in and finds a makeshift four knuck** high wall of cots, wood, and stools. Kobolds are behind it, reloading their slings. With a yell of rage, he rushes into the room and at the barrier to meet his foes, ferocity beginning to cloud his judgment. More than thirty kobolds await the rush, on the other side of the barrier. No, there are two barriers. The room is quite long, and two barriers have been put together across the room to afford the kobolds some protection from the invaders. Where the first was constructed of cots, stools and pieces of wood, the second barrier is stout wood tables roped together for protection. Scrag manages to catch a kobold in the mid-section with his axe, drawing first blood for the battle, and he roars with glee.
Gorga moves into the room on the wake of the stones pounding in around Scrag, and makes a quick assessment of the situation. A fortified weak enemy, it will be tough, but the warband should be able to take them. Gorga moves in, and takes a position against the far wall, and begins shooting arrows at the kobolds, making himself the primary target for the next barrage of sling stones. One knocks him in the head, blurring his vision some.
The first row of kobolds drops their slings, and grabs spears, to fend off Orcs at the front barrier. Hobna moves into the room, and takes up a position similar to Gorga’s, loosing arrows as quickly as he can, taking one kobold by surprise, turning his left eye into the latest target for his arrows. Gilnak rushes in, and swings his axe wildly hacking at the barrier and any kobold nearby, trying to find a way through. Shglsnor comes rushing up beside Gilnak, brandishing his Axe and chops into the barrier as well.
Tyco takes a seat on the floor outside of the room, and Sharraxtharkul snorts at the orc as he rushes by with his wolf companion Margrax. Entering the room, the canny goblin calls a ball of fire into existence, immolating one hapless kobold on the far side of the first barrier. "Burn, s*****, burn!" For his part, the wolf attempts to bite at kobolds on the other side, but is fended off by the spear wielding creatures. Seeing Sharraxtharkul enter the room, Gorga calls out. “Shaman, bind their souls to this room so they may not escape even in death!” in hopes of lowering the morale of the enemy. There are a few yips and howls in answer and Sharraxtharkul yells back. “Silence you yipping dogs!"
Scrag sees Gilnak and Shglsnor attacking the barrier, puts his axe handle in his mouth, and with a feat of strength, rends an opening in the barrier. With everyone in the room but Tyco and Rhgl, Iirkh squeezes his way into the room, to a hail of sling stones. With little more than bruises to show for it, he rushes the barrier, slamming part of it back two shins* into the room, bowling over half a dozen kobolds in the process.
Three kobolds closer to the far end of the room, direct the actions of the militant kobolds, ordering slings shot at one foe, and spears to thwart another. Gorga spots them from the far end of the room, with the keen eye of a leader on the battlefield, and shout directions for Hobna to release arrows into that area. Each kills another kobold with an arrow. That longbow with extra pull, gathered from his fallen enemy at the roadside keep allows Gorga to drive arrows with extra strength. Moving forward, he yells for them to surrender, and they will not be killed. The look the kobolds give him can only be deciphered as scoffing; that or constipation. Who can tell with kobolds?
Within the next spit*** ten more kobolds are dead. Gilnak and Scrag each kill one with their axes, Gorga and Hobna kill one each with arrows, and Iirkh kills two with a thunderous blow from his club. Margrax bites another, tripping him. The creature attempts to crawl past Iirkh and the Half-Ogre swats it on the back swing.
Having heard the sounds of battle, Tyco manages to staunch the flow of blood from his wounds, and comes rushing into the room. He finds a spot behind Iirkh who is moving into battle. Soon he will have a chance to capture one of these kobolds to put on a leash. A little pet kobold, won’t that be nice? A trap finder and ambush marker, armor cleaner and all around slave.
With the barrier split by Scrag, and partly shoved out of the way by Iirkh, Gilnak charges through the opening and hacks into a group of kobolds who are busily switching weapons from slings to spears. Scrag wastes no time in grabbing a piece of the mess of canvas and wood and charging forward, igniting it on the ball of fire controlled by Sharraxtharkul. The goblin curses in disgust at the barbarian. A rush of flame washes over Scrag, but with no real damage, he pulls his axe from his teeth and grins at the next kobold to die.
Gorga barks out. “Those kobolds that surrender will live; all others will be eaten sloooowwlyyyy.” A few kobolds look like they might consider it, but seeing Scrag menacing nearby, they choose wisely not to drop weapons. Gorga rushes up to stand beside Iirkh, who is being swarmed with kobolds. With a single swing of his club, Iirkh crushes two of the pesky kobolds with a sure finality. Hobna brings down another with his sure shooting, and Sharraxtharkul manages to redirect his ball of fire towards another kobold, who manages to drop and roll out of the way. Sharraxtharkul decides to call to an ally of nature to assist his wolf companion. Another wolf hears the call, and the two close in on a kobold, worrying him to the ground.
Chaos in the large room is as sure as any battlefield, enhanced by the thick smoke coming from the burning furniture. Tyco rushes up to the second barrier, as quickly as he can move now and attacks the final group of kobolds. Gorga grabs up a kobold, and grappling the struggling creature, takes a bite out of his neck, ending his miserable life. Using the body as a club, Gorga begins beating at the kobolds around him. Iirkh begins to take the brunt of sling stones now, and starts to get angry. A kobold directing his soldiers looks up at Gorga, with grim determination on his face, and takes a jab at the impressive orc with his spear.
After being attacked by a kobold Sergeant, Gorga glares at him, wipes the kobold blood from his chin, licks it and barks at the kobold. Seeing the lifeblood of his companion on the face of his adversary, the kobold blanches and begins backing away towards another group further back. Gorga calls after him. “50 gold for the one that brings him to me.” Appearing out of the haze of battle Rhgl offers the quip. “But, Mighty Gorga, where we get 50 gold?” Gorga hurls the body into the midst of the kobold leader and sergeants. Not wanting to die like that, a group of kobolds grab hold of him, and start to bring him forward. Scrag, still raging, cuts down another kobold warrior just after the near compliance. Seeing this, they set down their leader with little shame, realizing that they will be killed at will by the Orcs, and each prepares to fight as long as he can. Gorga glares daggers at Scrag and ticks off a mental checklist. “Final straw noted.”
The battle is not long in ending. Gilnak, Scrag, and Iirkh step up to the final barrier, and force through it. Shglsnor having been at the back of the combat up to now, demands to be let through to the front of the battle, so that he can kill at least one enemy.
“Out of my way, I must kill some kobold.”
Trying to make the defeat worse for the kobold, Gorga picks up bodies and hurls them at the remaining kobolds. Rhgl even manages to sneak up to the line of combat, and slip a dagger neatly into a kobold from behind. “Hehehe, I got one!” All are killed except for the war leader of the kobolds. Gorga sees that he is securely trussed up for interrogation and possibly capture.
Gorga and Sharraxtharkul look around to take stock of the warband, and see that besides Gorga, Iirkh, Tyco, Scrag, and Gilnak are all badly injured as well. Sharraxtharkul makes his rounds with bandages and poultices in preparation for the next day of healing that will be needed.
Rhgl suggest to Gorga that some scouting might be in order, to see if there are other groups of kobolds who might attack while the warband is resting. Gorga sends him off with a cuff to be careful of being spotted. Hobna and Shglsnor are assigned guard duty at the entrance to the former kobold barracks. Rhgl comes back some boars*** later with a report of all clear.
With the warband somewhat settled for a while, Gorga questions the prisoner. With very little torture, Gorga is able to glean information about the kobold horde and the change in leadership there. The leader, Kol, has been deposed by Ugoora Redscale, formerly one of his advisors. Some minor tribe information is gathered as well, and Gorga decides that he is finished with the prisoner, for now.
Scrag moves forward with intent to kill the prisoner, and that is when the chaotic nature of Orcs begins to shine. Tyco tells the wild orc to hold. “I have more questions for this one.” . Seeing the trouble brewing, Rhgl slips around the group in the shadows. This wouldn’t be the first warband to rip itself apart from infighting, and Rhgl isn’t about to be on the losing side. Disregarding Tyco’s request, Scrag moves up to slit the prisoner’s throat. This earns Scrag a ham-fisted punch from Tyco. With the battle so recent, and blood in his ears, Scrag decides to escalate the disagreement with his axe. Not one to be outdone Tyco pulls his axe out and returns the favor. In less than two spits, Scrag is on the floor bleeding and unconscious.
Tyco moves forward to finish the deed, and Gorga, thinking of past trouble created by Scrag, says. “Kill him.”
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 10 “Et tu Rhgl?”
Footnotes:
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
Just out of curiosity, any particular reason you post here so far (months) behind the posts on your own site? I'm guessing it's to encourage people to visit your site (snotling.org), which I have been doing, but am interested in whether it is that or something else.
BTW, the campaign sounds like great fun, and I think I would enjoy playing or running such a game.
Gordon
Hi, and welcome. No real big reason. I just started posting here later, and figured there was no harm in just posting one at a time as I finished a new update. My idea was, that I could post an update here when I was going a little slow, and eventually catch up to my current updates. That happened once really. So that idea is out the window. I will probably just update this thread to current over the next few days, just to make things easier.
When I complete an update now, I post to our local website, post to Enworld, then find the update that needs to be posted here, and then post that one here. It'll be easier to just post it three places and be done with it. I'm starting a rogues gallery of the NPC's and creatures, which I may post here as well.
The game can be quite fun. I caution anyone who does this kind of game to consider laying the ground rules before starting the first session. We established early on that there is a good possibility that there will be character death here with limited possibility of resurrection. Greater than a normal game, just from the nature of Orcs and monstrous humanoids. There was a little tension with the first character loss, but it seems the group has warmed to the idea and likes the chance to try out different character types within the same campaign.
Anyway, from this, there was a reason, which did not pan out, because I was so gosh darn busy moving. I will do away with the delay within the next few days.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate comments and ideas concerning the game.
GW
Tyco steps forward to finish off Scrag with an overhead chop.
Eager to see it over, Gorga commands one more time. “Finish him.”
The Orcs see Rhgl appear out of the shadows behind Tyco, driving his dagger into just the right spot on the big Orc. The axe falls from fingers that no longer feel what they are holding. As Tyco falls lifeless to the floor, Rhgl steps back, removing his favorite dagger from the spine of the dead Orc. The remaining Orcs look at the goblin in stunned silence. Rhgl manages his best innocent look, shrugs his shoulders and says.
“But... you said finish him.”
Gorga huffs for a bit. “I meant Scrag.”
Another shrug and sincere look from the goblin, and Gorga resists the urge to kill the Goblin himself.
As the warband turns to see what can be salvaged from this, Gilnak steps up and finishes off the badly injured Scrag.
“I got him for ya Gorga.”
Gorga just shakes his head, and walks away hoping he can finish this raid with the Orcs he has left. The remaining warband members look at each other, and quickly begin dividing up the weapons, armor and other items carried by the pair of barbarian Orcs. They are Orcs after all. Rhgl and Gilnak claim first choice, and everything else goes quickly.
Gorga manages to gather the rest of the warband together, to go back and finish investigating the other doors in the sorcerers’ room. With Rhgl scouting out front, the warband returns, to find some streaks on the floor. Gorga looks around and determines that the body was dragged out of the room, and the streaks end about 3 to 4 shins* outside of the room.
Two doors are investigated in the sorcerers’ chambers, and one contains some old books and belongings of the previous inhabitant. The other contains an illusion of treasure, and the charred body of a kobold. Since math is not a strong ability among Orcs, they do not put 2 + 2 together, and realize this is the former chieftain of the kobold tribe. Finding nothing else of value, the Orcs move out, continuing to follow the “right-hand rule”
Rhgl continues to scout ahead through multiple turns of the hallway. The warband waits at a closed door, while Rhgl scouts the rest of the hallway. Around the corner some 6 shins* away, the goblin disappears, with a loud clang, and shortly thereafter a splash. Gorga brings the warband forward to find that a large section of hallway has opened up into a pit, with an opening into a cave below. Swimming around in a pool, 8 shins* below is Rhgl, struggling to stay afloat with his backpack and gear. Gorga quickly lowers a rope, and in short order the goblin is back with the warband. Iirkh leans out to bash at the door that Rhgl was headed towards, and quickly finds it to be a false door, and a lure to get unwanted visitors to fall in the pit. Without as much as a thank you, the warband is on its’ way again.
Doubling back down the hallway, the warband continues to scout out the hallways and doors in this area of the stronghold. One door of note looks to be newly replaced. Listening at the door yielded no information. Iirkh opens the door, to find a grisly sight. A large stone table dominates the room. That is not so bad, but the remains of skin organs, sinews and tendons make even the Orcs pause for a second. Something has been cleanly and neatly cut apart and investigated. The skeleton of the creature is noticed hanging from the far wall, tied back together with sinew. Some muffled grunts are heard from the far side of the table, and the warband moves into the room to silence any resistance.
Rather than an enemy, the warband finds two trussed up creatures, the captured orc and goblin from the Owl warband. Both are stripped down to keep any weapons away from them. Even naked, the warband recognizes the resident Battle Drummer of the Vile Runes Tribe. Drigka is ungagged, and his ropes cut while he explains how he and the goblin came to this ignominious state. The six knuck** orc calls out to Rhgl, who is going through the pile of armor and weapons in the corner.
“Goblin, leave off stealing my things, or I’ll sing a dirge of your passing.” Rhgl gives a discerning eye to the orc, and tosses the drum mallet back in the pile.
The goblin is a rangy thing named Snig, comes out of his bonds spitting and calling out for revenge on the kobold shaman “Booboo.” The warband figures out that he means Buimbu and informs him that they have recently killed the vivisectionist-sorcerer. It seems the kobold had multiple talents.
“One less thing to do on my list,” says Drigka.
Gorga welcomes the orc and goblin into the warband, at least temporarily, and permanently if they prove themselves. Sharraxtharkul pokes around the remains of what turns out to have been a Troll.
Back up to full numbers, the warband moves on to a door further down the hall. Rhgl reports the sound of flapping wings from within. When the door is opened by the orcs, nothing is visible. Iirkh steps into a room prepared for summoning spirits and daemons. Written in some abyssal language across all the walls, the floor and ceiling are curses and protections against what is summoned here. Iirkh hears the flapping of wings nearby, and the sound recedes out the door past the orcs. A few hear it, but none can catch whatever it is.
More searching of the hallways and rooms of the stronghold, and the warband finds a room for sleeping quarters, and a pair of rooms using teleportation magic to confuse the unwary. Gilnak of all orcs is the one to figure out the truth of the misdirection. He’s heard to say, “I have one eye but it is good.”
Gorga decides that he’s had enough of hallways, invisible creatures, missing bodies, and the lack of enemies, and that he’s not concerned about being quiet anymore.
“Drigka, we haven't heard a good home song in a while, how about giving us a song.”
Drigka, lashes his standard to his backpack, and begins playing on his battle drums.
More scouting of the seemingly interminable hallways and Rhgl opens the door to another room. He is promptly met by four thrown daggers; two of which slam into the door nearby, while the other two manage to drive into a leg and shoulder, weakening him some. A group of 4 Black-tongue kobolds can be seen leaping off a ledge, into a hole in the floor. Rhgl moves in to see, with Iirkh right behind. Rhgl hurls a dagger back at one, knocking it from the rope it was climbing down, and it falls many shins** to its’ death. Iirkh grabs up the ropes, and begins shaking them. Two more fall to their death on the hard cavern floor below. One manages to roll with the fall, and can be seen running off into the dark to the North. Gorga orders that the warband finish scouting out this level, before going below.
After a minor run in with a few monstrous spiders, and non-combatant kobolds, the orcs find themselves in a slight maze of passageways. Snig moves to the front for scouting, with Rhgl recovering from poisoned daggers and spider bites. Through all this, Drigka continues to pound his drums, hoping to instill a sense of dread in his enemies.
Near the center of the circling hallways, the warband is set upon by a pair of creepy-crawlies. Coming around a corner, and rushing forward on the ceiling, face to face with Iirkh, are a pair of disturbing creatures, with a mouth full of teeth surrounded by writhing tentacles. Snig is attacked by one, which nearly grabs him to run away. The wily goblin bounces and rolls out of the way, bringing his axe to bear on the creature. He was able to force the creature to touch his axe with tentacles, and nothing else. Iirkh on the other hand is not so lucky. With a twitch, the Half-Ogre becomes a living statue, effectively blocking the hallway. Snig shows the first creature what an axe in the right goblin hands can do, and moves to help Iirkh. Gorga manages to place a telling arrow in the creature, and Snig jumps in the air to slice gashes into the creature hanging from the ceiling. Not having the easy meal that it had hoped for, the creature retreats through a hole in the ceiling, away from the dangerous orcs.
Drigka eases off playing the drums, and the warband settles down to await the recovery of Iirkh. Sharraxtharkul pokes around and proclaims knowledge of this behavior and begins estimating the time to recovery. Meanwhile, Gorga is planning the assault into the caverns below.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 11 “Ready or not, here we come.”
“Where the worm?”
Snig points to the hole in the ceiling, and Iirkh moves over to shove his club up the hole.
“No squishy.”
Iirkh pulls his club out and looks at the goblins as if he will stuff one of them up the hole to find the creature. Gorga stops any further ideas along those lines and tells the warband to move out.
“Let the others clean this mess up when we are done. We will secure the rest of the stronghold.”
With nothing but hallway and empty rooms around, the warband returns to the room with stairs going down. The Dire Weasel bodies are still in place; Shiglsnor and Gilnak are soon put to work clearing them out of the way. The stairs down are about 5 knucks wide, and Iirkh must squeeze down the whole way. Scouting ahead a short distance, Snig is the first to see the level below.
A mining operation of some kind had been abandoned here, there are piles of rubble all around with old mining carts, timbers and mining tools strewn about. Snig moves off the stairs and into the room, and sees a barrier across the far opening in the room. Moving forward, he trips over a chain that was cleverly hidden. When he hits the floor, kobolds jump up on the far side of the makeshift barrier, and begin hurling daggers and slinging stones at him.
Seeing this, Gorga charges down the steps, missing the chain trap just inside the room, he runs halfway across the room before a board falls off of the kobolds’ barrier. A fusillade of darts comes flying out of the opening, a few hitting the powerful Orc. With no time for a wince at the pain, he lets out a roar and leaps over the wall, charging into the group of kobolds, knocking many of them over. Gorga stands up and growls,
"After we kill you, we will feast on your young!"
He spears one kobold as it gets to its’ feet and begins to run. Iirkh squeezes into the room allowing for some of the other Orcs to come out of the stairway as well. More kobolds turn to flee, as the Eagles tear into the room with kobold blood in mind. Gilnak has trouble climbing the kobold barrier, and the goblin Snig can’t seem to climb either. Iirkh comes running along,
"What you think, little one, want help up?"
Iirkh scoops up Snig on the run and jumps over the barricade with a thud as he lands. Drigka strides pointedly up to the makeshift barrier, and looks at Gilnak, as he walks right up the side of the barrier, without missing a beat of his drums. Over the top, and hopping down the other side, inspiring courage in the Orcs, the entire way. Thus begins the first known act in the legend of Drigka BattleDrummer of renown.
Spurred on by Gorga's greatness of course, Iirkh does well enough not to smack his head on the ceiling. The kobolds are routed, and hunting in the tunnels commences.
"Come here you little runt!" says Gilnak before slipping on kobold blood.
The Eagles regroup before heading through the cave opening. Where the room was carved and cut, the doorway beyond the barricade opens into an uncut cave. Gorga begins following kobold tracks in the dirt and debris of the cave floors. A web covered passageway is avoided by order of Gorga, and the warband continues to search for the not so escaping Kobolds.
"Keep running; it will just take longer for us to eat you!" Gorga growls after retreating kobolds.
Soon tracks are found leading to the living area for the Females and young... Most are killed, along with the remaining fleeing kobolds, and a couple young are strapped to Gorga and Iirkh in hopes of avoiding sneak attacks by Kobolds. Unbeknownst to Gorga, Almost all kobold resistance is dead at this point. An entire tribe wiped out by a warband of Orcs.
Snig takes up point again, and comes across a room with four more of the Horned Kobolds. The warband makes a quick one-sided battle of it, and the kobolds are soon dead on the cave floor. Seeing only nests for the creatures here, the warband moves on.
In a cave nearby a rock, glowing as if by magic is found. Sharraxtharkul tosses one of the kobold young on it. The kobold cries out but does not seem to have any magical ill effect. Sharraxtharkul directs the investigation and has Iirkh knocking off some flakes. The flakes stop glowing after a few minutes, and with no immediate resolution, Gorga urges the warband to move on.
In caves further along, glowing fungi is found, and again Shar tosses a young kobold into it with no apparent ill effect. It is determined to be just some harmless glowing fungi, by the goblin druid.
The warband comes across a room that has been boarded up and painted red. Gorga elects to move on to the only other door found here in the caves. Near the kobold warrens a door is found that was barred and locked. The door is kicked in using the power of the Half-Ogre. The door crashes to the ground, and 10 ugly blood-wetted muzzles turn to look at the intrusion. One of their kind is lying dead on the floor, a meal for the others. This new intrusion holds the promise of a variety to the meat. Six of them have a greenish tinge to their skin, and are much larger than average kobolds. The other four are misshapen with malformed heads, legs or arms, or they have discolored skin with patches of fur. Either mistakes from genetic engineering, or set here to see which are strong enough to survive, none are alive to mention the intent.
The floor of this room is sloped from the edges down to the center. The slope of the room is nothing to deter the Eagles. Drigka begins belting out an impromptu song to inspire courage in the warband; “Kill the blasted kobolds.” The battle does not last long, the Eagles figure out that the green-tinged kobolds must have troll blood, as they are harder to kill than the mutants. Margrax and Snig are injured badly by the rending claws of these creatures, and the battle goes for the kobolds, until Iirkh can swing his club into the mix after squeezing through the doorway. At one point he smashes a kobold that was previously incapacitated, back to the ground.
“Iirkh say stay dead.”
Sharraxtharkul manages to summon a fire elemental, for the first time, and between it and his fire summoned to hand, the kobolds are unable to return from the battle strewn floor.
Sharraxtharkul investigates the bodies after they have been soundly burned, and performs rituals over them, so they will not return from the dead.
Next Up: Return to In Search of the Unknown part 12 “Orcs vs. Undead, yeah right.”
Footnotes:
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
Every Orc should know this stuff.
The Broken Lands are divided among ten hordes under the powerful orcish chief, King Thar. Humanoid hordes are equivalent to human nations, each being under the horde chief’s command. Hordes break down into a multitude of autonomous tribes obeying the Horde chief, each containing several racial clans.(Goblins, Orcs, Ogres, Hobgoblins etc…)
Rumorz –n- Tails
- King Thar is possessed by a demon that causes him to act crazy and change his mind
- Kuo Toa warriors have taken up residence in Lake Gum, and have begun raiding in lower Blood Orcland
- A Dragon has taken control of an Orc tribe
- The Seeress Megdlen can enchant armor for added strength and protection, for a price
- The Ogre Chieftain Butor, is seeking revenge upon the Vile runes tribe for killing his favored warband
- Ugoora Redscale, Queen of the Kobolds, has different mates, to increase the powers of her progeny
- An Elven war party is slowly making its way into Kobold lands to find a lost Elven temple
Link here for the full version.
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Forgotten Uncial
Pointing the way for Rhgl, the warband finds its’ way back to the door found earlier. Ignoring the red warning paint, Iirkh and Hobna, rip the door open. The smell of death and decay billows out from the room, causing some coughing among the orcs. In the darkness, twelve of the walking dead begin shambling forth, almost eager at the change to their routine, of waiting dormant, for orders that stopped coming long ago.
Sharraxtharkul begins shouting and cursing at the undead to return to death, but it does little to deter them. With verbal reprimand not working, he calls forth another flaming sphere to burn them. One zombie is burned badly, but continues towards the orcs.
Shglsnor is shaken somewhat at the sight. "Um, Gorga, it's on fire and still coming at me!"
Drigka begins pounding out a song about the sacking of Ardelphia in the Darokin lands, and the Orcs are emboldened by the tune.
Gorga, Hobna, and Shglsnor have trouble doing much damage to the undead, but Iirkh, using his greatclub, smashes through one, driving his weapon on into the next zombie; disintegrating both. Swords and daggers seemed to have little effect on the creatures born of negative energy and the bodies of the dead. Rhgl manages to hurl some daggers in-between his companions, but none stick and harm the creatures. The goblins conspire to create a new game called Zombie Darts, but first they need to convince Iirkh to hold a zombie down so they can paint a target on its’ face.
Gorga takes a clubbing and Shglsnor as well. Iirkh fends off the questing zombie hands, with little trouble. Drigka weaves some magic into his song, inspiring Gorga but to little effect, as he just can’t seem to finish off more than a single zombie.
Feeling a bloodlust, Gilnak slashes his hand and flings blood at one of the zombies hoping to attract its’ attention. Soon, room is made in the warband for him to come forward and combat the zombies toe to desiccated toe. Gilnak does manage to put two of the zombies to dust with his Axe, and between Iirkh and Sharraxtharkul, the rest are smashed or burned.
Sharraxtharkul begins marking the bodies that remain, and cursing to the spirits that summoned them to unlife. He finds the finger bone of one, and wrapping it in some rags feigns putting a spell upon it, for the good luck of Iirkh. Iirkh proudly takes the charm and attaches it to his hide armor.
Out of Iirkh’s earshot, Rhgl quips “For those hard to reach places.”
After Sharraxtharkul is finished with his rituals to keep the dead, dead, and some healing is called upon for Gorga, the warband moves on to explore the remaining caves. One cave is found with a pool of water and all fill up their water skins. Many drink directly from the water as well.
With Snig injured, and Rhgl somewhat injured as well, Gorga decides to scout ahead for a time. He finds a large cavern, with a beam of light coming from high up on the far wall. There are sounds coming from the room, as if a large number of small creatures has been disturbed. Moving back to the warband, with thoughts of rats in mind, Gorga asks Sharraxtharkul to investigate.
Moving to the cavern, Shar brings about magic that allows him to speak with animals. From a short conversation, he is able to find out that there are a large number of bats in the cave, and they want to be left alone. He quickly searches for tracks, and finds some left behind by kobolds, who did not leave return tracks. They have been obscured by guano and are at least a week old. Shar returns to Gorga and reports his findings.
“It would be better to investigate when it is night outside. The Bats will be hunting then. There are two old sets of tracks left by kobolds.”
Gorga nods at the information, and directs the warband to move on to another cavern for exploration. Still scouting ahead, Gorga manages to dive clear, and avoid falling into a covered pit, as it opens below him. Within the next few minutes, black-tongue kobold bodies are found, and looted. These are the ones who tried to swing on ropes, down to safety. Soon after, a cave is found with a statue, pointing to the wall in the Northeast end of the room. To the North in this cave, a strong Iron-bound door is found. Attempts to listen at the door are foiled by the two kobold younglings strapped to Iirkh and Gorga. They are silenced, quickly, if not mercifully, and the bodies tossed aside.
With nothing heard, even after the kobolds were silenced, Gorga turns to Rhgl, thinking to have the goblin check out the door. "Can you do anything about this door?"
Rhgl looks at the door, and at Gorga. "Of course."
He turns to the warband, and points to the door, calling out "Iirkh!"
Iirkh smiles and moves toward the door.
Gorga shakes his head, as the Half-Ogre goes about the noisy business of bashing in the reinforced door. The large cavern on the other side, is devoid of any creatures. If there had been, the bashing at the door, may have been encouragement enough to leave by other portals.
Expecting to find something here, the warband spreads out and searches the walls. Gorga is the one that finds a secret door, activating it with Rhgl looking on. All of the Orcs are dazzled for a minute as the secret door opens to sunlight. At least the sun is going down. Gorga steps out to look around, and in moments the door closes behind him. There is no latch to be found on the outside, on the ledge. Gorga finds himself on a ledge, hundreds of feet above the rocky bottom of a canyon.
“Let me back in, there is no handle out here.”
Rhgl contemplates his position a moment, before activating the catch, and letting Gorga back in. He receives a quick glare for his trouble, as Gorga comes back in.
Noting the location of the alternate exit, the warband moves on to the remaining cave to be explored. The one covered over in webbing.
Gorga leads the warband in, with a torch at the ready. Moving in slowly, he burns away a section of webbing, to allow for passage. Reaching a turn in the cave, he is suddenly struck by a stream of the sticky stuff, spun at him, by an enormous spider. Rushing forward, the large spider bites Gorga, weakening him greatly. Seeing his warband leader in trouble, Iirkh rushes in to engage the creature. Following the path that Gorga burned through the webbing, Iirkh steps forward with a mighty swing of his Greatclub, squashing the creature with a single mighty strike, proving again that he is a great asset to the warband and to Gorga in particular.
Gorga is not weakened so much that he doesn’t still have a sick sense of humor.
"Next time we make dinner, we need to use Iirkh's club to season the soup."
Iirkh smiles and holds up the recently freshened Greatclub.
With all of the known caves explored and secured, Gorga is eager to complete this mission, and send for an occupying force. He decides to send Sharraxtharkul, Margrax, Hobna, and Shglsnor back to the Home Tribe.
“Return to the Vile Runes, and report to Gynk Lip-Biter. He will send a warband or two to defend this place. Avoid the Elven woods, travel as often and quickly as possible.”
The rest of the warband is given a chance to rest and heal, before working to make sure the stronghold stays clear of wandering creatures.
Over the next few days, Gorga investigates the cave of bats during the night. Thousands of bats are observed leaving the cave at night. With the bats out hunting, they offer no problems for the warband, other than walking through their droppings. Within the cave, a small set of stairs leads up to a short room, only a shin high, and several shin’s back. The goblins move to investigate, and hands reach from far off, and grab Rhgl by the neck, choking him. Quickly Snig moves up the stairs, and renders the small rubbery creature quite dead. Nothing of value to the Orcs is found in the room, and they return to the task of keeping the stronghold secure.
Several days later, Shar and company return with the Hawk warband, lead by Mugluk Scar-Snout.
“Greetings Gorga Man-Hunter, Gynk Lip-Biter sends his warrior’s salute.”
Gorga recognizes the least favored warband in the tribe with a small sneer, and begins showing them around the stronghold. It takes nearly a day before Gorga is satisfied that the Hawks will keep up the tasks he feels important, such as feeding the Carrion Crawler some kobold bodies every few days to help it heal, and making sure the zombies stay dead, and burning out the rest of the spider webs.
The Eagles begin preparations for the return march, and Sharraxtharkul shares the experiences of the return trip to the tribe. Most notable, was the fly over by a pair of Wyverns. The Orcs hid, until they were no longer in sight, and continued moving. They were not seen on the return trip.
Packed up, rested and healed, Gorga calls for the march back to Vile Runes home territory. Not two days into the trip, the warband is attacked by a pair of Wyverns.
Next Up: The Warband Earns a new Name
Footnotes:
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
Every Orc should know this stuff.
The Immortal Wogar led his goblins and Orcs to the Known World before reaching immortality. Wogar, also called Maglubiyet, was a great war leader and the best wolf handler ever seen. His Shamans are reputed to have the ability to change into werewolf hybrid form once per moon. Wogar is the patron immortal of the Vile Runes tribe, and many others in Red Orcland. Wogar is not exclusively worshipped by the Orcs of Orcland, Goblins to the North and East worship him as well.
Rumorz –n- Tails
* There is a great civilized city of orcs, hidden somewhere deep underground.
* King Thar has a Palanquin that is carried by 4 Ogres, which he uses during large campaigns.
* Hoolg Redmane is actually a vampire, who drinks the blood of Orcs.
* Wizards in Glantri capture Orcs, Ogres, and Trolls to use as slaves and for experiments.
* The art of riding wolves to battle is all but lost to the Red Orcs and Goblins. There is an old trainer in the sacred cavern who can help return the ability to the horde.
* Undead creatures abound in the Grand Duchy of Karmiekos to the South and East.
Link here for the full version.
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Forgotten Uncial
Elfblood returns the look with one of her own. She is slightly larger than the male, and brooks little backtalk from him. They will have Orc meat today, with a little goblin and Ogre thrown in. Using the tree line for cover, the pair of Wyverns swoops in for the kill.
-------------------------------------------------
Moving along at an easy pace, the warband is alert in lands so near the Elven forests to the south and kobold tribes to the north. Darkhunt, Hobna, and Sharraxtharkul all notice the Wyverns flying in over the trees.
Hobna calls out “Dragons!” as Darkhunt begins to growl. The warband is alert for trouble as the Wyverns dive in to attack.
Rhgls’ yell is lost in the sound of spells, Wyvern roars, and battle preparations.
” Not me, me small, get him (points to Iirkh) he big!”
Iirkh readies his greatclub as Hobna manages to release an arrow. Sharraxtharkul quickly casts a spell, causing a misty vapor to rise up for 4 shins around the goblin, obscuring sight for Margrax, Rhgl, Gilnak, Gorga, and Snig.
Ringscale flies in, thinking to take out the biggest threat, Iirkh. He is sorely surprised when he receives a crushing blow from the Half Ogre’s greatclub. He barely manages to rake a claw over Iirkh and stay aloft long enough to continue flying past.
Gorga steps out of the mist and releases two arrows at Elfblood eliciting a shriek of rage from her as they bite deeply. Swooping in with rage, the Orc easily avoids the grasping claws. Snig runs wildly off to a nearby hill, and Rhgl, obscured by the mist, begins digging a hole.
Gilnak steps from the mist into the path of Ringscale, and suffers a vicious bite as he leaps up to deliver a deeply cutting strike to a wing, nearly severing it from the Wyverns’ body. Ringscale manages to land on his feet, and avoid an attack from the goblin Snig.
Elfblood flies on and turns to attack again, not realizing the danger she is in. Gorga and Hobna plant three more arrows in her in the blink of an eye. When she falls to the ground, Iirkh is waiting for her, putting an end to her hunting days with a quick powerful finality.
“Who’s your Ogre? Who’s your Ogre?”
Meanwhile, Rhgl continues to dig.
Gorga announces that the battle is over, and Sharraxtharkul ends the mist spell, as everyone turns to see Rhgl rapidly digging a hole. Rather convincingly, he tells the warband without shame.
“I knew we would win, this is a fire pit. Rhgl was not hiding. Let’s roast some dragon.”
The warband begins chanting “Eagles, Eagles, Eagles…” in celebration of the victory over the Wyverns. Gorga decides that they will make use of the fire pit, and the warband makes camp. Drigka begins playing a victory chant accompanied by his battle drums. Sharraxtharkul and Gorga oversee the grisly job of cutting up the Wyvern bodies for meat and trophies. The warband feasts into the night, with a large fire in the pit. If any eyes are watchful from the Elven forest or the kobold lands to the north, they know well enough not to mess with a warband that has just taken down two Wyverns on the hunt. In the morning the remainder of the meat and trophies is packed up in the skins for transport back to the Home Tribe.
The remainder of the trek home is uneventful for the warband. Cutting across a few miles of kobold lands, and the Fat Lip Orc territory the Eagles are back in Vile Rune tribe lands within a few more days of hustling.
The Eagles come back to the Vile Runes tribe home with their chests puffed up; bearing gifts for the tribe. The whole tribe turns out for the presentation of the Wyvern hides and meat. At the direction of the tribe shaman, Hargul Wolf-tongue, the women take the meat for preparation, and two of his apprentices take up the remaining claws, horns, skulls skins and various viscera that won’t be eaten. As Garnash One-Tusk exits the main tribal cave, Drigka is asked to give a tale of the Eagles’ adventures.
Taking the high ground near the tribe cooking pit, Drigka tells a stirring tale of the defeat of the two Wyverns at the hands of the Eagles warband. Pounding his drums to set up the feeling of the battle, he weaves a masterful tale of the warband setting up the Wyverns for a quick downfall by pretending to be unaware of their approach, and springing a trap of magic and arrows upon them, chopping them from the sky with axes when they came further into the trap. A point is made in the story to describe Rhgls’ masterful preparation of a feasting pit for the cooking of the dragon meat after the battle was sure to end in a glorious vanquishing of the two Wyverns.
The entire tribe hoots and yells at the story. Gorga is summoned before Gynk Lip-biter, and Sharraxtharkul is invited to participate in a ritual with the Shaman. Hobna presents a scroll case with scrolls to the Shaman and requests some form of magical protection. After studying the magic within, Hargul nods to Hobna.
“I will use the ritual tomorrow to create a protective token for you.”
There is a celebration and the tribe eats heartily of dragon meat. Drigka tells tales of the Eagles conquering the kobold tribe in the stronghold to the East, and the death of his former warband the Owls. During the gathering of the tribe, Garnash One-tusk calls for silence.
“We have Wyvern killers in our tribe now, and tribe killers.”
A cheer goes up from the tribe.
“This calls for a new name straight from the tribe chief. I give the Eagles a new name. One that will be feared throughout King Thar’s lands. I give you the Wyverns.”
Uproar unlike many the tribe has seen begins in the tribe, most are cheering for the new name, and the power it holds. The newly named Wyverns puff up their chests with pride, and endure many back slaps and similar congratulations for some time. Garnash calls out to the tribe again,
“This feast is in honor of the Wyverns, they will bring glory to the Vile Runes.”
A few within the tribe are not so happy about this turn of events. The Wyverns have been elevated to the top of the pecking order, from near the bottom, in the hierarchy of warbands. The Wolves warband takes umbrage at this, and a look and nod is exchanged between all of the members. The wolves are lead by Droom Stomp-Foot and the rest are: Akrum, Billet Weird-O, Fibern Bug-stomp, Gunduk Hammer-Head, Igniss Arrow-Kill, Kleenk Squint-eye, Krinzt Orc-Blood, Mustuk Red-eye, and Skeebs Trip-Trap. The time has come to put these punks in their place.
A sucker punch from Akrum the Ogre goes awry and Iirkh is nonplussed. Who is this, and why is he trying so poorly to hit Iirkh while Iirkh is trying to get food?
Gorga is soon set upon by Droom, “You Eagles have been strutting about like pea*****s!'”
With a fist back at Droom, Gorga yells “And now you will see why!”
Two others gang up on Sharraxtharkul. A hand-to-hand unarmed melee ensues, with the Ogre barely able to land a fist on Iirkh. Shglsnor, Hobna, Drigka, and Gilnak take down Gunduk and Igniss, and Drigka comes to Rhgls’ defense. Rhgl looking for a chance to avoid the brawl mistakenly runs by the Ogre within reach, and is knocked unconscious by a back-handed blow from the brute. Seeing this, Iirkh redoubles his efforts at the Ogre and knocks him to the ground in a daze. Proud of his showing in the fight with the Ogre, Iirkh announces his skills, “Dodge like a puny Goblin, smash like an Ogre.”
Garnash’s Ogre guards laugh at Akrum’s inability to take out the Half-Ogre, regardless of how his mixed heritage has somehow enhanced his strength.
Meanwhile, Sharraxtharkul has taken offense at a figure in control of magic being grappled by unclean hands. He brings fire into the fight, and burns the hapless goblin in multiple places. Margrax gets into the act and the Goblin is soon unconscious and dying. The Tribe members witnessing this call out for a fair fight, no magic. Gorga calls out from his battle with Droom,
“Leave it to the Wyverns to bring magic to a fist fight.”
Iirkh moves on to a new foe, and Igniss is not too happy about it. After a huge fist catches him in the temple, he yells out in frustration.
”CRAP! Where's Akrum?!? “
Fibern Bug-stomp is unable to effectively engage with Margrax biting and growling at him. All Vile Runes respect and will not try to hurt ally wolves of any sort. The tribe shaman moves over to heal the injured Goblin smiling wickedly.
Seeing a chance to enhance the mystic reverence of a shaman of the tribe, Hargul calls out to the tribe,
“See what happens when you lay hands upon a Shaman?”
Soon after this, Gorga takes out the wolves’ leader without a minute to spare. His strength was beginning to ebb with each blow from the raging Droom. At this the Wolves throw up their hands in defeat and the tribe cheers for the new top warband, [b]“The Wyverns”[/b].
[OOC:
”My rolling is just atrocious.” The DM in rolling frustration.
”Thank you.” Gorga’s player
I couldn't roll a too-hit for the NPC's to save my life. I tried to make the combat one that could have gone either way, and the Wyverns win or lose prestige in the tribe. They won.]
Next Up: A Wyvern is lost in battle
Good party! The Eagles come bak with good meat. Was fresh dragon meat. Some say they killed 5 dragons! There was lotz of meat for hole tribe. Garnash give nu name, "Wyverns"
Then the Wolves got jealous. Tried to beat up the Wyverns. But Wogar was with the Wyverns. Accrum was striken by the Gods. Could not fight. The women say he can no longer get it up. Ha Ha!
Poor Ogre is laughed at now.
Droom did well, but Gorga is younger and stronger. Kicked the snot out of Droom. Gorga hardly had a scratch.
Nasty goblin spirit-walker attacked with fire magic. Almost killed one of the Wolves. Should be driven from the tribe. Nasty goblin.
Now the Wyverns are the bestest of the tribe. Where the Grog? Thirsty work telling story.
Whoz’ Who? Hargul Wolf-Tongue–
Hargul is the Shaman for the Vile Runes tribe. He was recruited by Garnash One-Tusk, at the sacred cavern before coming south and starting the Vile Runes.
Hargul is a shaman to Wogar, and has the ability to change as a werewolf. This power is granted him as a shaman to Wogar.
Hargul is skilled at brewing potions, and is knowledgable on the subjects of magic and religion. He is of the Blood Orc (Red Orcs) line, and wears his hair shaved, except for a dreadlock horsetail in the back. He wears magically enhance hide armor from creatures he has killed, and wields a Gri-Gri in battle, when he is not casting spells.
Hargul is second only to Garnash in authority within the tribe. His loyalty is to the tribe, his god, and himself.
Every Orc Knowz
Every Orc should know this stuff.
Jammudaru is a god worshipped by the Ogres. As an ogre, he survived a terrible curse that turned him into a slimy horror. As revenge he boiled his foes in a cauldron of bubbling tar and green slime, and ate them afterward. A shaman of Jammudaru gains power by cooking and eating foes. Juju moss is soaked in the goo, and used for healing.
Link here for the full version.
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Forgotten Uncial
Having finished some errands, the newly named Wyvern warband does a stint at guard duty at the home tribe. They split shifts to cover the walls and cave entrance throughout the day and night. The warbands on scouting and patrol duty report to Gorga, who gives a daily report to Garnash. The Wolves moved off for a few days to accomplish a task for Garnash and return successful, but still with an air of defeat about them.
One report comes in of Ogre's and Hobgoblins scouting across the river and the Vile Runes have killed every one that they have found. Of course with their superior training in stealth, the Orcs have the upper hand in these small skirmishes.
Gorga discusses this with Garnash, and finds out that the Ogres have been probing the defenses of the Orcs for some time now, looking for a weakness.
“Garnash, we should drive off these Ogres.” Gorga looks up to Garnash on his throne, flanked by two elite Ogre guards, and wonders if he is going to say more than he should one of these days.
“We are still a small tribe Gorga. With enemies on all sides to defend against, can you and your warband put a stop to these raids?”
One of the guards spots a small skulking form in the far end of the hall. “You. Out. This is a private audience.”
Taking the hint, Rhgl sneaks back out the far hall, and out to the tribe courtyard.
“We are off of guard duty on the next cycle. I will take the Wyverns and scout in the Ogre lands. We will see how they like it. If we have the chance, we will strike for blood.” Garnash nods at Gorga and waves for the Orc to go and do as he has said. So far this one has not let him down.
With a quick explanation to the warband, of what needs to be done, the Wyverns head to the area south of the normal river crossing along the western caravan route through the Broken Lands. They find a fording place in the river, and Gorga leads the scouting across into Ogre lands. Less than a mile into Ogre lands, Gorga finds tracks. 2 maybe 3 warbands headed North, and One Headed West. The ones headed north are suspected to be heading to the main crossing at the caravan route. Figuring that the tribe can handle them, Gorga decides to scout out the group heading west. Scouting along the makeshift Ogre path, the warband scouts west and finds an encampment with 4 tents, and a large bonfire burning. 12 sentries are spaced out around the camp. The sentries are Hobgoblins in groups of 2; some with bows, and others with swords and shields. 3 Ogres and 2 more Hobgoblins are at the bonfire.
The warband makes camp about a mile from the river and gets together to plan the assault on the encampment. Rhgl, Drigka and Snig will come in from the North, and Drigka will attempt to put 2 of the Hobgoblins to sleep. A bowman and foot soldier together. Then Rhgl and Snig will move in and kill them as stealthily as possible. Rhgl is to speak Gorga’s name, and what is happening, if something goes wrong. Gorga assures Rhgl that he will hear what is said.
From the South, Iirkh is being beefed up with multiple spells and potions to be a killing machine, hard to hit during the battle. From a distance Gorga and Hobna will fire arrows into the battle, while Iirkh, Gilnak, and Shglsnor move in for close quarters combat. Sharraxtharkul will give spell support as needed.
This did not work as Gorga had hoped. The sleep spell by Drigka fails to take hold on both of the targeted Hobgoblins. They begin to look around for the source of the spell, but do not call out a warning yet. Rhgl sneaks toward them and is spotted by the bowman who uses the goblin for target practice. Snig charges forward to defend the other goblin, and Rhgl cries out that everything is not working.
“Gorga the spell did not work, Rhgl does not like arrows.”
Gorga moves up within bow range, and Iirkh charges in to engage another pair of Hobgoblins, hit one and it did not go down right away. Hobna moved up to support Iirkh with arrows, and Gilnak charges in to fight another group of Hobgoblins.
The Ogres at the fire see what is happening, and call out to the tents, “We get attacked.” The warband leader Ootah comes out and rallies his troops.
"We Legbreakers. Who we fight?"
Gorga calls out from beyond the range of the Ogre’s eyesight "We are the Wyverns, and we have come to slay you!"
Ootah takes some Hobgoblins in tow and moves to attack the Northern assault that he can see. Rhgl runs for cover and Drigka goes uses a spell to turn invisible. Within a few spits 3 Ogres and a Hobgoblin lay dead or dying at Iirkh's feet, but not before shouting for aid from the encampment. Sharraxtharkul managed to help the Half-Ogre further with a spell to soften the ground beneath the Ogres.
In an unusual act of bravery, Rhgl tumbles past the bowman and drives his spear into a vulnerable spot in the Hobgoblins’ armor. One of the hobgoblins is killed by Rhgl before Ootah can join combat with the goblin. Snig, seeing his fellow goblin under siege by hobgoblins and a mighty ogre, steps up to Rhgl's aid. Unfortunately for him, the Ogre swings at Snig twice and batters his body with two blows of his great club.
Snig goes down.
"Gorga not going to like this. Snig has been killed!" Rhgl mutters while running off into the dark, beyond the Ogre and Hobgoblins’ vision.
Ootah leaves Snig dying on the ground after the 2 brutal hits. He should be dead in moments, and he runs to support his dying Ogres down south of the encampment. The Hobgoblin heads back to his post and bandages his wounds seeing no further enemies here. Rhgl manages to sneak back through the darkness and stab the Hobgoblin in the back taking out the final guard in this part of camp.
This is when the Ogre Shaman makes himself known, and begins casting spells. Spun Cook of Jammudaru is about 9 feet tall, with shamanistic ornaments all over. He is wearing a necklace of neck bones, boar hide armor, and a sharpened bone through the septum of his nose. His gri-gri is a long wooden staff, with a spoon bowl carved into the end.
"Who dares attack Butor camp?" He begins dancing and calling upon spirits for magic, but his first spell seems to fizzle on Iirkh.
The Hobgoblins are ordered to form up and defend Spun, the tents and the rest of the encampment. Drigka saves the first party member of the day, by healing Snig who was slowly bleeding out onto the ground. Rhgl moves in, and sneaks into the nearest unoccupied tent, searching it for anything valuable or useful. Coming around, and grunting thanks to Drigka, Snig moves in under the tent behind him. They see more Ogre's in the tent across the way.
"Uh oh. Gorga not going to like this! 3 more ogres in that tent." Gorga increases the enemy count with this information and begins to wonder if retreating might be a good idea. Not yet with Iirkh fighting like he is.
Butor the Ogre chieftain and his bodyguards move out of the tent to see what is going on. These guys are big and mean looking. Both bodyguards look rather bestial with sharpened teeth, Tattoos and piercings showing them to be barbarian warriors of the Bear Eater tribe.
Butor yells, looking for Ootah. "What's going on?!?"
"Nothing, go back to bed!" drawing attention to himself, Gorga yells at the Ogre Chieftain.
Gorga and Iirkh move up to the other side of the tent on the southeast, putting Iirkh in the position to attack any charging enemies. Ootah charges and is taken out by Iirkh and Gorga in two spits of the boar, taking only minor injuries themselves.
Meanwhile, Shar, and Hobna are trying to fight off multiple Hobgoblins, exchanging arrows and spells versus arrows of the Hobgoblins. Sharraxtharkul heals the Orc as he is nearly knocked unconscious with all of the arrows sticking out of him. Someone has to be around, if he and Margrax are threatened.
Seeing Butor, his guardsmen, and the Shaman moving up Gorga calls for a retreat. This many fresh Ogres and a Shaman added on, will be too much for the weakened warband. Iirkh is hurt, Gorga is hurt, Hobna is hurt, and Snig is hurt.
"Wyverns! We have crippled the Legbreakers, withdraw from the attack!"
Snig sneaks back out the rear of the tent, and moves out southeast to the campsite by the river. Shglsnor and Gilnak disengage as well. Spun blazes flame in a trail after Iirkh as he retreats, scorching the ground where the Half-Ogre previously stood. As a last spiteful act, Sharraxtharkul called upon the spirits to blast the bodies of the fallen enemies with fire, to keep any from being healed, who might still be holding on to life.
Drigka makes his way across the encampment invisible, and retreats with Iirkh and Gorga, who are being chased by one of the bodyguards, Duuk, who Butor can not call back, because he is mad with battle rage. After 3 spits of running, Gorga, Iirkh, and Drigka turn to fight, and what a fight it is.
Duuk charges in and attacks Iirkh twice, hitting once, for a crushing blow to his shoulder. Combined with the damage from his previous wounds, Iirkh is knocked unconscious. When Iirkh goes down, Drigka moves over and administers some magical healing to him. Gorga hits the Ogre with his glaive, cutting deeply into his side. Iirkh gets up avoiding a backhanded swing from Duuk’s greatclub and strikes him with a glancing blow of his own. Duuk is confused by his multiple foes for a moment, and attacks both of them, normally quite able to crush both enemies in a turn of the spit. This time is like every other. Gorga goes down bleeding badly, and Iirkh's head is smashed in, killing him instantly. "Oh crap!" are Iirkh’s final words just before his head is caved in by Duuk. ****
Drigka is left with a dilemma, try to get some healing to Gorga, and risk getting hit, or run for the hills and leave him to die with Iirkh. In a final act of bravery and desperation he pours the healing slime down Gorga's throat and takes a crushing club strike for his trouble. He turns and runs as fast as his legs can carry him.
"I hope that helps cuz I'm not sticking around to find out!" He runs for the river camp to see who else has survived. Who knows, if Gorga is gone, maybe Drigka can assert his dominance over the warband.
Gorga rolls to face the Ogre and drives his newly acquired glaive into the Ogre's belly killing him. Nearly in shock at the loss of his best warrior, Gorga cuts off Duuk’s head as a trophy and proof of the kill. His head beginning to clear, he finds the remains of Iirkh’s ear, and pockets the magical earring. He takes Iirkh's ear off leaving it behind, and throw's the body over his shoulder. Even though he is wounded badly he makes his way to the river to join up with his warband to break the bad news.
* Shins are equivalent to 5 Knucks, or about the length of an Ogre’s Shinbone
** Knucks are equivalent to feet, Ogre Knuckles as a unit of measure
*** Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
**** A 1 in 400 chance critical hit (Two 20's in a row). This was one of the most difficult character deaths I’ve had to deal with. Awesome rolls on behalf of the NPC . It was a popular character to all of us.
Next Up: A kobold slave, and Iirkh’s Half Brother, can we use them? Sure.
Raise dead is very uncommon among the humanoids. The tribe shaman did have access to reincarnate, which is why Gorga tried to keep the large part of the body.
The half brother, is the players next character, a full-blooded Ogre, the introduction may not flow real well, but it was worked into the game.
GW
GW
One time I had a player with an elven female character get killed. We brought her back as a dwarf male. She hated it, but played on and it was rather funny. A male dwarf with manners and an eye for elven men.
I admit it might have been a good roleplaying challenge, he would have had a lot to overcome, with a bunch of Orcs as tribe members, and warband members.
GW
Thanks for the interest. I was very much wanting to repeal the limited access to resurrection rule. It seems to have worked out ok however.GW
Whoz’ Who?
Mogor Dreadblade–
Mogar is the tribe leader of the Black Thugs tribe. Living in the NorthEast of Blood Orc Horde Territory, he keeps the goblins to the North, Gnolls to the NorthEast, and Kobolds to the East, in check.
Mogor came to power during a challenge to the previous tribal cheiftain. He is rumored to have some Demonic heritage.
Mogor is essentially a brutal thug infamous for his foul temper, murderous rages, and propensity for holding a grudge. He expects deference, and he punishes those who do not display it. But he is also far more crafty and calculating than most people imagine. (Mogar is a tanarauk type Orc from the Forgotten Realms setting, I like the idea behind them and frankly I wanted diversity among the tribe and horde leaders)
Rumorz -n- Tailz
- The hated Dwarves of Rockhome have a coming of age ceremony too. They send young Dwarves into the Broken lands to raid Orcs, Gnolls, and Kobolds for fun. (this is a modification of the Dwarves raiding into Alfheim note from that gazetteer)
- There have been skirmishes between the Orcs and the Kobolds over the last few weeks.
- Communing with spirits has mentioned the general location of the magical Greatsword "OgreBreaker" Hargul of the Vile Runes is the source
- The Ogres have suffered a resounding defeat by the Vile Runes Tribe and are licking their wounds.
- Giants have made a pact with Kobolds and are seen in their warbands.
Link here for the full version.
Works better if you have the forgotten uncial font on your PC.
Forgotten Uncial
The warband meets back up near the river. Drigka comes in later, then Gorga, with Iirkh over his shoulders. Everyone is dismayed. The warband’s most powerful warrior is dead. But many Ogres fell to his club. Gorga lays Iirkh’s body near the edge of camp. He was a good warrior.
Gorga tells the story of Iirkh’s final battle, and his revenge on the Ogre Duuk.
We turned to fight the Ogre chasing us. Duuk was his name, of Butor’s guards. Iirkh hit the Ogre with his club hurting him, but not enough. Duuk was in a battle rage, and was not feeling pain. After Iirkh’s death and the last of the Wyverns fled in terror, I Gorga Manhunter jumped to my feet and snarled at the Ogre, "You shall suffer greatly for this deed!" and drove a final blow through Duuk's heart bringing down one of Butor's Elite Guard with my glaive.
Sharraxtharkul calls for silence among the warband members. He pulls out his charcoal, and begins preparing the body to prevent him being raised as undead. With the final markings in place, Shar begins a death dirge for Iirkh Stonefist the foul.
Prayer to the Earth and Elements
Valiant spirits of the fire, earth, wind, and air,
Who subdued the demons and angels with blood,
For love of the Tribe, for pains and wounds of weary battle,
Hold thy shield over Iirkh, protect Iirkh,
Hold thy shield over Iirkh, protect Iirkh.
On his way to the spirit warrior's path
Spirits beloved and mother of calm,
Father of storms, shield, oh shield us,
And spirits of the life binding, hunters of the wild,
Safeguard thou our lives, encircle us together,
Safeguard thou our lives, encircle us together.
Safeguard Iirkh's spirit, and encircle Iirkh with us
on the warrior's path
And spirits of air, fire, water and earth, powerful, maker of all things,
Governors of the track ways of power,
Invoke the star of power upon the path,
Guide well thou ourselves, shield our procession,
Guide well thou ourselves, shield our procession.
Guide well Iirkh, shield him on the procession.
Crone of Wisdom! Hands of Fate
Be the spirit binder, the triad,
the now, the then and the tomorrow
Be with us day and night,
On the plain, on the mountain ridge,
On the lake bottom, or in the forest trees
Be the Triad with us and cloak us,
Be the Triad with us and cloak us.
Be the Triad with Iirkh and cloak him for all time
Now! Spirits of earth, wind, fire, and air,
guide well Iirkh to the resting of souls,
guide well to the cycle of battle,
guide well to the eternal cycle of earth, air, water and fire.
Iirkh, we have asked for the way so you must go!
The warband breaks into howls of the warrior to guide Iirkh to the eternal battle, and the ritual is completed. All look to Sharraxtharkul with respect at his dirge for Iirkh. He is growing into a spiritual leader for the warband. The body is left where it lies, until the return to the tribe.
Rhgl comes sneaking into camp and updates Gorga on what he learned while hiding in the tent. Pleased with the news, Gorga calls for rest here after the battle with the Ogres.
During Rhgl’s watch, he begins to think about Gorga being able to hear him when not close by. While Gorga is sleeping, Rhgl decides to give a little test to his theory.
Gorga... Rhgl is your trusted one
Gorga... Rhgl is very loyal and honest
Gorga... Rhgl....
Gorga, Rhgl good.
Rhgl mighty warrior!
Gorga becomes restless in his sleep, and Rhgl grins to himself.
In the morning after everyone has rested, and a dirty glance thrown Rhgl’s way, Gorga decides to take the warband North to try and follow the Ogre warband tracks headed in that direction. The tracks are soon rediscovered by Gorga, Sharraxtharkul and his wolf.
The Wyverns pick up the pace, with Rhgl scouting ahead, It is soon determined that the warbands are headed to the Vile Runes home. The warband crosses the river at the ford, and hustles back towards the tribe’s home encampment. Traveling across the last stretch of badlands leading home, the warband crests a hill to see a battle at the home tribe.
An Ogre of the Vile Runes tribe is fighting off three Hobgoblins, and there are multiple enemy ogres and hobgoblins at the gate. Garnash, Gynk, and Hargul are there, felling the remaining ogres handily. An unusual sight up on the walls is a Kobold is running along casting spells at Hobgoblins. Bolts of light fly unerringly to hit hobgoblin bowmen. The warband rushes in to help, but is too late to participate in the battle. Hargul casts lightning frying an Ogre, and Garnash takes down two with multiple slashes from his Axe. The Vile Runes Ogre clubs down the last of the hobgoblins, and turns to watch the approach of the Wyverns, alive and dead. One set of eyes follows the warband, not with approval of their return.
Gorga makes a point to count the dead Orcs to see how bad the battle went. Not too bad, only about 12 lost. Garnash calls out for the tribe to treat the wounded, and prepare the enemy bodies for a feast. Looking over at the returning Wyverns, he directs Gynk Lip-biter to meet with them.
The Wyverns meet up with Gynk, and tell of the route of the war party on the other side of the river. He is pleased, except for the knowledge that Iirkh is now gone from the tribe. Gorga requests replacement members for the warband. Gynk calls for Shglsnor to fight and possibly lead another warband. He gives Gorga access to Gaak, Iirkh's half-brother, the full Ogre fighting outside this day. Looking at Gorga Gynk makes a decision. Chupa, a Kobold sorcerer was purchased at the sacred cavern recently. Raised from an egg, the kobold has no tie beyond race, with kobolds to the East.
He will fit well with your warband Gorga. Gynk looks around the cave for prying eyes and ears. No one else will bother with the kobold, but he will grow powerful with you; an asset to the tribe. Gorga agrees to take on the slave, and the Ogre, if Gaak can be convinced to fight alongside the leader who saw his brother die.
Gorga begins to request a warparty to move in and finish off the Ogre tribe. Gynk smiles at the attitude of his protégé. You fight well for the tribe Gorga, but we do not have enough Orcs to hold the new stronghold, our lands from all sides, and new lands in the Ogre territory. We need more Orcs for the tribe. Garnash is busy; can you and your warband recruit Orcs for us?
Gorga commits to the task. Yes War-Leader, I will recruit new Orcs for the tribe.
Meanwhile, Sharraxtharkul has approached Hargul Wolf-Tongue to request a divination. We seek a weapon to use against the Ogres. Will you ask the spirits for us? It is beyond my power to find such knowledge. He leaves the unspoken word “yet” out of his request. Payment is arranged, and Shar takes his leave from the shaman.
Gorga locates Gaak, and requests that he join the Wyverns. He explains how Iirkh was killed, that Wogar must have sneezed to miss the death of a favored warrior. Gaak is not your normal stupid Ogre, and decides to see if Iirkh was lost to stupidity, or bad luck in war. Gorga welcomes him to the warband.
Finding Chupa is quite easy. The young goblins and orcs in the tribe have gathered around to tease and torment the kobold. He is mostly oblivious to them, but when bothered too much, he releases a little magic to scare them off. Gorga tells the young to scram, and gathers Chupa to the warband. Chupa, you will fight with us. Chupa nods, and follows Gorga, as he gathers up the warband.
Tomorrow we go to the Sacred Cavern. We will recruit Orcs to fight for the Vile Runes. There are no complaints. More Orcs means fewer turns at the boring duty of guarding the home tribe, and more time out in battle.
The Wyverns make the trip to the Sacred Cavern a short day-long trip. With a quick argument at the gate, the warband is let in with all their weapons intact. Gorga confers with Drigka, and decides that the warband can gather a following by having Drigka perform at bars. This ends up being fruitful for the warband.
The first bar is the “Drunken Orc”. Drigka rolls in, and can’t seem to keep his drums in order. A poor performance yields high prices for the warband on drinks, and a bar fight nearly ensues. On the way out the door, Sharraxtharkul voices his displeasure at the high cost of drinks; a whole silver for Wogar’s sake. I can get from a dwarf for less then that!... As an afterthought he adds In this city.
The second bar is a slimy affair off an alley, near the outer wall of the city. “The Open Sore” known throughout the city as a festering den comprised mostly of Orcs. Drigka has a great performance here, singing one of his own songs, “Rise of the Wyverns.” In the ensuing conversations, 6 orcs are recruited to the Vile Runes.
The third bar is a low down dirty affair, “Goblins Gas” by name, and the smell of the place matches. Gorga comments to Rhgl. Does this remind you of home? and to the rest of the warband Grab what you have, and keep it safe. Drigka has a decent performance here, “Blazing a Glory path to Wogar” is the song. 9 goblins see this as a calling to the tribe. Rhgl immediately begins indoctrination over a brew. Asking around, Drigka finds out about three more bars in the city that might allow public performances by the Battle Drummer.
At the fourth bar “SkullCrack Groghole” only Gaak is allowed in, until he mentions that Drigka is a Battle Drummer, and will play for the bar. An enjoyable performance of “A tale of Men and Entrails” keeps the bard from earning a beating, but little more. The 12 Ogre patrons are as friendly as expected, but none are especially thrilled.
The fifth bar is one of the larger, if not the largest in the city; “The Orc and Pastry.” A troll bouncer watches the warband and followers as they come in. Drigka chats up the barkeep, and agrees to a performance for the bar. He trots out “Blazing a Glory path to Wogar” again to good effect. After the performance discussion with several orcs and goblins over drinks, and 6 more orcs and 2 more goblins agree to join the tribe.
The last bar is filled with malcontents and obvious thralls. “The Dark Hole” is not a friendly place, and most of the new recruits do not want to go in. Gorga leads them out of the city, while Drigka attempts to bring some of the drinkers around with “A tale of Men and Entrails” one of his best works. Even a great performance by the Battle Drummer is unable to sway any of these hardened criminals to a life of working and fighting for a tribe.
A total of 12 orcs and 11 goblin recruits camp outside the city with the warband. Rhgl suggests that they have a small feast to make the march back to the tribe an easier affair. This ends up being a good suggestion, and may have kept some from deserting. Taking a couple of orcs with him, Rhgl heads into the city while Shar starts up a cooking fire. Soon, Rhgl has returned with a boar, and a couple of Mushroom Ale kegs. No watch is posted during the drunken sleep afterwards. After a good sleep, Gorga awakens everyone for a march back to the tribe.
After a day of marching, they return to the tribe home, Gynk is pleased with the warbands’ results. Twenty three new pariahs ready to earn names in the tribe. Sharraxtharkul goes to Hargul Wolf-Tongue to get the results of the commune with spirits.
Over the river and across the ford
Ogrebreaker is in the hoard
Ready fire along the way
Judicious use will win the day
There is also some bad news for Gorga and the warband. The shaman FillexHulkil presumably of the Screaming Monkeys tribe has disappeared with several of the orcs returned after the Coming of Age ceremony for the young warband. This personal affront to the Wyverns can not go unpunished. Gorga goes to Rhgl before the warband leaves. He has a new job for Rhgl which will require good communication with the goblin. Trying to impress the goblin, and garner additional support he explains to Rhgl that he has made a magic “Earring of Echoes” and that Rhgl should wear it, now that he will be scouting for the warband. Gorga makes a point to explain how he believes the earring to work. Rhgl recognizes the ring as the one Iirkh wore blowing Gorga’s bluff.
That looks like Iirkh's earring.
P*$% off, Rhgl, here take this. You’ll need it when you skulk
The warband strikes off in search of the missing FillexHulkil. Traveling North and East, they come across some tracks, heading towards the Fat Lips tribe home to the East. This begins to make sense, who but the Fat Lips would try to steal orcs from under their noses?
Gorga sends Rhgl to scout ahead. The way is unusual however. Normally when penetrating this deep into Fat Lips territory, there should be some form of challenge, today there is none. Continuing to scout ahead, Rhgl finds the vale of the Fat Lips. He can see that a battle has taken place here recently; there are dead orcs and kobolds, a siege weapon, that has been badly damaged, and a section of scorched earth near the palisade down in the valley. The warband moves up to join Rhgl at the pass, and notice a patrol approaching around the rim of the valley.
Rhgl continues down to scout out the damaged palisade and to get beyond the patrol. There is very little activity for a tribe here. He makes his way down like a quiet wind, and goes unnoticed by any of the Fat Lips tribe.
The patrol is comprised of a very large Orc with an enormous great axe, a large Orc carrying a great axe, 3 Orcs with bows, and 2 carrying great axes.
The Fat Lips patrol makes its way warily as it goes beyond the pass, and the Wyverns attempt to come up behind and parley. With the recent near-defeat in mind, they are in no mood to respond to kind words, and they make it clear with arrows and insults.
No one attacks Prince Ugreth!
Gorga shouts back Prince? You look like a pansy-A$%#d p*$sboy to me!
Battle is joined, with Gorga charging in ahead of his warband only to be laid low by the half-Troll Idiot Prince “Grung.” Drigka begins a drum solo, and uses the magic of his playing to inspire courage in the warband. Chupa begins sending his balls of magic energy unerringly at enemy Orcs, while staying out of the way of return arrows. Snig runs up to support, but the self-styled Orc Prince slashes him hard with his battle axe. Snig harries him and draws him off of Gorga for a short respite at least. The half-Troll Idiot prince charges for Gaak, and they battle it out.
Um gunna, get da Ogre. Gunna get him good.
Gilnak tries to flank the half-troll/orc to support Gaak, killing an injured orc with a powerful slash of his axe. Shar manages to ride his wolf guiding him around so he can heal Gorga. After Gorga's forced nap, he gets up survey's the damage. Noticing one of the few remaining Fat Lip Orcs, he charges him with his halberd. With a critical blow to the stomach, Gorga impales the hapless orc and with a show of strength, forces him into the air.
Finally, he drops the orc and spits on him.
Gorga takes stock of the battle. Gaak is trading blows with the Half-Troll, Gilnak lies dead, Drigka is playing his drums and chanting out a song, Gilnak is hacking away at Ugreth, Chupa is using his magic to good effect, Sharraxtharkul is using magic to heal Snig, and Hobna is putting arrows into the enemy.
Where is Rhgl he is missing the battle, ah never mind, he never does anything anyway
Gorga, I can hear you.
Rhgl, Good.
Gorga, I can see you.
Gorga shows Rhgl a universal hand sign.
Just in time to see the Half-Troll/Orc reach back and nearly cut Gilnak in half. The one-eyed orc dies the way he wanted, in battle. Hobna shoots arrows injuring Ugreth, and with orcs falling around him, he begins to rage. Grung begins to rage as well. Gaak takes a final slash from Grungs’ greataxe, and uses his greatclub quickly and efficiently, bringing down the half-Troll. Gorga returns to the battle with Ugreth, as Sharraxtharkul summons fire to burn the obviously half-Troll Grung.
The warband converges on the other Orc Prince and finish off Ugreth. With the two most powerful orcs in their tribe defeated; the remaining two orcs turn and run for the palisade and the hope of backup.
Gaak looks at Gorga with his barely healed wounds, Gilnak lying dead on the ground, and his own injuries. Next time, perhaps the Ogre should lead the charge.
Next Up: The Wyverns pay a House Call
Intro Gaak and Chupa. I posted some character info on the front page about these two.
Gaak is a full-blooded Ogre, fighter, smart guy, no dummy here. He's watching to see which way the wind blows before he steps in it.
Chupa is as innocent as he can be, having been raised a slave with sorcerous power. He quickly aquits himself as a valuable member of the warband.
Alas poor Gilnak one-eye fell to the greataxe 3d6 + strength..etc. of a raging Barbarian halfOrc/Troll. Luckily it was only him. Most of the game he was an NPC. We had someone join the game for a short time, and take up his reigns enough were he became effective in combat even. Then he died, which coincided (not on purpose) with the player deciding he had too much work to do anyway.
Of the 3 PC deaths to this point, 2 were Barbarian characters.... and counting.
GW
Gorga. He hears the frenzied yell of a Berserk Ogre, moving off to the
SouthWest. He also hears the call to bandage the wounded on the ground,
which still live. Not many still live from the sounds he hears. Many
spits pass, in to a Boar. There is some murmuring which he can not make
out, as there is too much distance. None enter the tent during this time.
Soon the command is heard to break camp, take down the tents, and head
East back to the nearest Tribe home. The Tribe chieftain must be
protected. There is shouting and Ogre cursing about Ootah not being able
to protect the chief.
Ootah, I kill you, if you not dead. No good guarding me.
There is a dull thumping, as if something is being kicked.
Pack up, move out now.
Rhgl hears the approach of footsteps to the tent he is in.
Rumorz -n- Tailz
- Counter-Attacks have been made against the Kuo-Toa fortifications at lake Gum.
- Blood Hawks have been attacking Orcs in the vicinity of Nakota's grave. This is considered an ill omen in the horde.
- A covey of Hags living in Wogar's breath, is able to cast powerful rituals and magics. they are guarded by Orcs and Goblins who can change into Ogre's and Giants to protect them.
- Kobolds in the Black Hills are being hunted by Bulletes. The creatures are hunting and digging up caves and burrows.
- A river dragon has taken up residence in the Gukank rapids between the Bugbears and the Trolls.
Every Orc Knowz
Red orcland was conquered by the Goblins up North, and was only freed when King Thar came to power. This is why there is a high degree of Goblin influence and population in Red Orcland. When the Goblins were forced to pull back to their own area of the Broken Lands, they took the Wolves, Dire Wolves of all kinds with them. There is nary a wolf in Red Orcland to be found. When Sharraxtharkul called to his own wolf, he had to the edge of the Orcland, and seek a companion. By luck alone was a lone wolf ranging far to the North of his old pack, and was called to be companion to him.
Link here for the full version.
Works better if you have the forgotten uncial font on your PC.
Forgotten Uncial
It looks like some of the thread went missing. I'll have to add the missing posts. I'll have them up shortly.
GW
PS Okay, maybe just missed the last update. :embarrass
Sharraxtharkul yells after the fleeing Orcs. Come back, Come back! Margrax is hungry!
Gaak quickly overtakes the first Orc, partially trampling him. The Fat Lip scout prostrates himself in surrender.
Gaak snarls at the other. Stop, or I Will bite your arm off.
Shar has some advice for the Ogre. Bite him on the head. The brain is sweeter.
No. If I bite him he won't be able to talk!
Both are quickly put to questioning by the warband. They are obviously scared, but more scared of The Master they keep mumbling about.
With Gaak enticing answers, Gorga questions the captured Orcs.
How many warriors are back at the tribe?
None, the kobolds and giants weakened us greatly.
What is Fellixhulkil doing?
Cooking a large pot of magic.
Who rules the Fat Lips?
The master.
Gorga assumed that the two Orc princes are the leaders of the Tribe, until Gorga thinks to ask what the master is.
A Red.
A Red what?
Dragon…
Rhgl whispers messages to Gorga through the power of the earrings. He sends back information on what is in the palisade, some Orcs, a cave, and a huge tree, known as an Ogre Oak.
Hearing about the Red Dragon, Chupa decides that being in the open is not the best place for bite sized kobolds, and mentions to Gorga that they might take shelter at the nearby empty guard tower. There is discussion of leaving, but The Master is awaiting the return of the warband patrol of the area.
Gorga and Shar estimate that they would not make it past the next valley before the dragon could attack them from the air.
Gorga tells Rhgl Let us know when the Dragon comes out.
Rhgl stands staring into space Gorga, a what.... Gorga, a what.... Gorga, a what.... Gorga, a what.... Rhgl then begins to dig a hole.
Gorga understands the feeling the goblin has, and waits for him to quit jabbering before answering. Rhgl, I know I am asking a great deal from you, Rhgl, but can you find out how big that dragon is?
Gorga, Rhgl thinks you have a greater chance to get special favors from a dwarf
The warband hustles down to the opening in the side of the palisade, and look in.
Rhgl climbs the wall, and sneaks quietly and unseen to the rope ladder hanging from the tree and the hut built within its’ branches. From the outside, Rhgl sees that the hut is built on a small, rickety platform, held together with a few pieces of rope, and probably a prayer from the Fat Lips shaman. Climbing swiftly and quietly up the rope, Rhgl sneaks into the hut unseen. Looking around Rhgl sees that the hut is filled with skulls, scalps, dried frogs, baubles, jars full of spiders, maggots and other weird objects he would expect to see in a shamans’ hut. A moth-eaten rug in the floor has some smoke coming out from under, and Rhgl pulls it back to reveal an opening to the caves below, down through a hollow in the tree. Climbing down, he peaks out from the hole to see Fellixhulkil dancing around casting a spell on a cauldron bubbling over a hot fire. Rhgl can also see the missing orcs, and a large wolf in the room. All bound with either rope or chains. Most are unconscious.
Rhgl decides to take on the shaman himself and tells Gorga using the magic of the earrings. Gorga and the others rush to the tree to prepare to back up the goblin sneak. Rhgl sneaks down out of the chimney-passage and stabs the shaman in the kidney, narrowly missing his spine, as a sudden movement in his dance turned the killing blow into a very painful one instead. Some Orc prisoners stir at the beginnings of a fight and the hope of escaping whatever fate the shaman has bound them for.
The rest of the warband is busy climbing the rope, and beginning the climb down the tunnel to the cave.
Rhgl hits with another dagger strike, as the shaman turns to see what is happening. Fellixhulkil is sorely wounded now and recognizes his danger. The shaman steps back to throw a handful of poisonous bugs at the goblin, which Rhgl easily avoids. Running for a shelf near the door, Fellixhulkil calls out for the master. From the wall near the door, the shaman pulls down a shield, and activates a spell rendering himself invisible. With none able to see him, the shaman sneaks out the door. Rhgl rushes for the door, to find he is the target of another handful of bugs which appear seemingly out of the air, as the shaman becomes visible in the hallway. Down the hall Rhgl sees scales in a room beyond the shaman. He slams the door and returns to the room to begin freeing Orcs. Someone has to fight that dragon, and it won’t be Rhgl.
Gorga is the first to join Rhgl in the small cave, and immediately helps the goblin to free the captive orcs. One Orc in particular immediately asks for a weapon, so that he may fight alongside the warband.
Guru fights with you. Who are you?
Gorga looks at the Orc and decides that he might be worth having in a fight.
I am Gorga; we are The Wyverns warband of the Vile Runes.
Gorga what should we do?
We wait for re-enforcements. At these words, Chupa leaps down out of the chimney-tunnel with a yip.
Guru looks at Gorga with doubt on his face.
Gorga shakes his head and explains to the Orc No, he is not the re-enforcements!
The rest of the warband piles out of the tunnel, with Gaak still following behind. He was the slowest, due to having to squeeze down through the tunnel.
Gorga’s attention is soon drawn to the most magnificent creature he has ever seen. A Worg is lying here to be ensorcelled by this shaman. There hasn’t been one in Blood Orc lands, since King Thar came to power, and forced out the goblin horde. Gorga releases the chains on this great beast, while whispering to her.
A warrior should not die in chains.
Hearing Gaak grunt and squeeze his way down the tunnel, Gorga calls for some preliminary action against the dragon. Gorga, Hobna, and Guru prepare arrows, while Rhgl flings open the door. They are met with the head of a dragon, breathing fire down the hallway at them. Rhgl and Gorga are badly injured by the flames. Gaak finally makes it down out of the chimney and activates a magic tattoo on his arm for resistance to fire.
Guru decides to charge down the hall to attack the dragon Orc to Dragon, and gets bit for his trouble. Making an about face the Orc runs back to the warband with a huge bite wound for his trouble.
Gorga says to him with sarcasm dripping from the words So, is it dead yet?
Fellixhulkil can be heard casting some spells in the room beyond the dragon. The dragon moves away from the door to await the Orcs next move.
Sharraxtharkul pulls something from his sack and throws it into the room beyond. A sound of crushing stone is the result deafening the dragon. The Master moves around after the debilitating attack, blocking entrance to the hall again, and breaths fire in return. Sharraxtharkul is the only one singed, managing to just clear the fringes of the blast.
Gorga calls upon Guru and Gaak to bull rush the dragon. We must bring the fight to him or we will be cooked in here. Guru and Gaak charge down the hallway, and against all odds, manage to push the young dragon back enough to allow the warband to rush into the room swarming around the dragon. The Master gives ground, but not without biting Gaak, and raking Guru with his claws. Frustrated with the lack of hearing, the dragon roars at the indignity of fighting personally with Orcs and goblins.
Fellixhulkil casts a spell, directing the affect at the warband leader. Gorga can feel a presence attempt to take control of his mind, and the oily feel of the Fat Lips shaman is left in his head as he shakes off the affects. Gorga shouts out to him, Betrayer, I will have your head!
Sharraxtharkul summons a black bear. The creature goes against all instinct and submits to the will of his summoner and attacks the dragon’s flank. Gaak brings his shiny new Greataxe to the battle opening a large gash in the dragon’s hide. Hobna is ineffectual with arrows from his short bow but keeps trying to hit from the opening to the hall.
The Fat Lips shaman is not without tricks and shakes his gri-gri in Gaak’s direction commanding him to Drop his weapon. Unable to resist the compelling spell, Gaak looks in horror as his own hands release his newfound weapon.
He yells out in anger I will kill you twice!
The dragon lashed out, injuring the bear, Gaak, and Guru, but he is unable to kill anything. Seeing the folly of staying to fight these powerful Orcs who have injured him near to death, The Master turns to flee the battle through the main doors to his chamber.
Sharraxtharkul commands his summoned bear to attack Fellixhulkil, and is rewarded with the sight of a vicious mauling. When the goblin hits the floor, Shar begins to cackle and dance with glee. Most of the Orcs are able to hit the dragon as he flees, injuring him further. Gaak and Gorga chase off after the dragon, and Chupa runs down the hall, intending to climb back up the tree to see if he can get a last shot at the dragon before he flies away. Rhgl skulks into the room, and spies a treasure trove.
Next Up: Wyverns 1: Dragon 0
Awesome battle with a dragon. Is this the characters first encounter with a dragon? My players are coming close to facing a young black dragon in an upcoming quest. Can't wait to see what happens next. The master must be furious.
After the fact I realized many ways the Dragon could have fought better.
Other than that, this warband has been real good at dishing out the damage. I feel I did not do enough justice to the weight, meeting a dragon should hold. But I learned.
:evillaugh 
The only other "Dragon" encounter, was a few updates ago, when they earned the warband name of Wyvern's. They cut down those poor Wyverns in 2-3 rounds tops.
The dragon lasted a few, as the warband considered how they were going to get down the hall with a dragon at the other end, and missle weapons not doing much damage. All they needed was for Gaak or Gorga to fall prey to a Charm person by the Fat Lip Shaman, and there would have been a hell toupe to wear.
GW
Whoz’ Who?
Droom Stomp-Foot–
Droom is the leader of the Wolves warband, in the Vile Runes. Droom and his boys are known for fighting dirty. The recent defeat at the hands of the Wyverns has put the Wolves on notice, with other warbands contending with them for rights in the tribe.
Droom is known for stomping on the fingers of enemies who were hanging from a cliff. His warband chased a group of kobolds into a landslide. Those able to hold on, soon fell to their deaths as Droom found each and drove his dwarven boots down upon them.
Rumorz -n- Tailz
- King Thar is calling for an invasion of the Elves. Some tribes are mustering for battle.
- The Seeress Megdlen recently enchanted the bow of an Orc in the Cave Marauders tribe. He has been key to pushing back the Gogglers down below.
- A Red Dragon has lain waste to a kobold tribe near the Blood Orc lands.
- Kobolds in the Black Hills are being hunted by Land Sharks. The creatures are hunting and digging up caves and burrows.
- Portents tell of the rise in power of the Ogres. All signs from the spirits point to the Great Horde.
Link here for the full version.
Works better if you have the forgotten uncial font on your PC.
Forgotten Uncial
Hmm. Ok. Question for you guys, assuming things go 'ok' with the rest of this adventure (we either get the dragon or it escapes but we don't get killed), what's next?
We would still need to:
o go through the treasure and divy it up
o search the rest of the area for other stuff
o bring the rest of the treasure back to the tribe
o bring back the orc captives and the survivors of the Fat Lips
Probably also:
o go to the Sacred Caverns and try to drum up more recruits (possibly with gold to buy some of them with...)
o buy additional provisions (healing slime, other support potions (Shar's idea of getting the potions of bull str, cat's grace were *very* useful against the Orges), other support items depending on our next quest.
Then what?
We could do some stuff for ourselves:
o tattooes?
o find magic items (Orge-beating sword, others?)
o animal/mount stuff (harness for Margrax? riding wolf for Rhgl's basket?)
o Troll bashing?
o ask around about other magic items we can go find
o Down time for skills and training
Or we could go on another quest to help the tribe:
o beat up on some Kobolds/Giants
o help hold the Fat Lip territory in some way?
o try to break up the giant/kobold alliance
o Kuo-toa threat
o Raid Darokin lands? (especially if we can do it in some way so we can get them to blame the Ogres or the Kobolds! With both of them (presumably) weakened, this may be a real coup for our tribe!)
o Raid Kobold lands?
Sounds like there is at least some interest in taking on some giants..
Rhgl, is there something we can go find to help build your basket of arrow-love?
Shar, are you thinking about the tattoo feat? Do we need to go find something for that? (inks, needles, etc.)
I'd like to check up on the cost of some of those tattoos. Gaak's resist fire was nice. A cure light wounds version may be handy.
Beating up on Giants or humans would be great. Trying to trick the Darokin into attacking the Kobolds or the Ogres would be pretty cool.
PS, I'm working on the next update.
PS, I'm working on the next update.
Looking forward to it!
“If I must die this day, perhaps a sending to look out for my revenge.”
----------------------------------------------------------------
Drigka sees Gaak and Gorga take off out of the room, and realizing that there was no leadership near, calls out to the other Orcs. “Follow the warband, we must kill the Dragon.” With that he turns and runs from the room, following sounds of Gorga and Gaak running further down the tunnel.
Quickly Rhgl makes his way over to the treasure pile, and makes a few select choices for his personal finances. Oblivious to Rhgl’s quick-handedness with a few gems, Sharraxtharkul continues to dance around the body of the Fat Lips shaman. "My foe has been defeated. Ha Ha Ha" In fact, none see the sneaky goblin’s quick work.
The rest of the warband, except for Rhgl, decide that maybe they better follow the kobold’s direction, and together, climb back up the hollowed-out tree.
Chasing after the dragon, Gorga has reservations about leaving the goblin back with the treasure. While running heavily after the dragon, he manages to blurt out, to the magic of Rhgl’s earring. "Rhgl, what are you doing?"
"Gorga, Rhgl is watching the treasure. The treasure is fine. Rhgl has not touched the treasure since you left."
Gaak and Gorga have chased “The Master” out into the open and continue to chase him back up the vale, heading towards a pass between a pair of low mountain peaks.
With the rest of the warband gone, Rhgl moves to hide behind a pedestal. The pedestal is in a small alcove in the room; lighting from the torches is seemingly directed causing it to shine and glint in the light. The goblin is intrigued and lets his curiosity get the better of him. On the pedestal is a carved bone statuette of a regal looking duck. He takes the statue and feels the odd desire to quack come over him.
Drigka sees an orc in the tunnel, leaning against the wall ahead. Thinking nothing of it, he continues to run down the passage. The floor opens underneath him, and he falls into the darkness, 12 shins* below. The orc walks over and looks in. “The Master commands we stop you.”
Sharraxtharkul climbs up out of the tree into the shaman’s hut. Quickly looking around, he sees Chupa looking out through cracks in the walls to the entrance of the caves below hoping for the chance to cast a spell at the retreating dragon.
“Hurry Chupa we must help Gorga and Gaak.”
The kobold runs for the rope and begins climbing down. Not waiting for him to get down, Shar starts down after him, as Hobna, Guru, and Snig come climbing out of the tree.
Unable to retain his grip on the rope, the kobold falls to the ground. Shar curses after him "Oh Drake dung! You clumsy kobold."
The strain of the extra talking while climbing must have been too much for the goblin druid, as his hands slip from the rope as well. He falls three shins to land on the kobold below the rope, and begins muttering various curses about worg dung and goblin balls after falling on top of Chupa.
The kobold can hardly contain himself. "Get off of me stinky goblin. Uh sorry Sharrax, don't curse me."
Drigka calls up to the orc with his most persuasive tone "Hey! You. Let me out of here. We will make it worth your while." His answer is the sound of the top to the pit being cranked inexorably shut.
Outside, shar makes his way over to the opening in the palisade where they entered, and climbs on Margrax. “Run Margrax, we must be there for the kill.” Pointing up the valley Shar guides the wolf. “That way after the dragon.”
The orc and ogre slowly gain on the dragon, as he nears exhaustion. Both stop short, as the dragon turns to make a final stand, weariness and blood loss plain to see. Sharraxtharkul comes storming up mounted on Margrax, and the three spread out to surround the hunted beast. Circling to the left, Margrax and Sharraxtharkul circle to close to the enraged and humbled dragon, who rushes up to badly maul the goblin. With a great force of will the goblin manages to hold onto the wolf as Margrax runs quickly in the opposite direction.
From a safe distance, Gorga calls out to the deafened dragon. “Your reign ends here.” Using the power granted by his bow, Gorga fires two final arrows into the dragon. With the magic enhancement and Gorga’s great strength, they penetrate deeply into the chest piercing his heart.
Shar manages to call upon nature to heal himself somewhat, and turns to survey the dead dragon. He guides Margrax back to make sure the dragon is dead.
With the battle done, Gorga’s mind turns to the dragon’s hoard and the whereabouts of his warband.
"Rhgl, Is the treasure safe?"
"Gorga, the treasure is fine."
“Rhgl, where is the rest of the warband?”
“Gorga, some went up the tree, Drigka out the tunnel.”
“Rhgl, I see the rest now. Find Drigka”
Rhgl sneaks slowly down the hall, and sees the orc standing against the wall. Ignoring him, he continues down the hall, and promptly falls into the pit Drigka found. Rhgl does not fare well from the fall, and is badly injured.
"Drigka, why didn't you tell Rhgl there was a trap there?"
"You weren't supposed to find the trap like that!"
The trapdoor does not close this time. Drigka looks on in surprise, as the goblin waddles over to the wall, and begins jumping and flapping his arms, in some strange manner, as if the goblin thinks he can fly out of the pit.
Shar begins stabbing the slowly cooling body and squeals out “I hate Dragons! You are very mighty with the bow, mighty Gorga. I hate Dragons, I hate Dragons!"
Pointing to the dragon, Gorga tells Gaak, “Bring it back to the camp; we will keep the useful parts of 'the Master.'" He begins to laugh at this his own joke, leaving the others staring at him. “Let’s go.”
The warband returns to the Dragon's lair, having met up with the rest on the way back to the palisade. They find many dazed and disoriented Orcs in the huts and tunnel on the way back. The Master is dead, and they seem to be affected beyond normal loyalty.
After a plaintive call from Rhgl, Gorga sends Guru and Hobna to get him and Drigka out of the pit.
With quick directions from Gorga, Sharraxtharkul and Gaak begin the grisly job of cleaning and saving bits and parts of the dragon carcass. The core of the creature is still quite hot, despite the recent death.
After grabbing some dragon meat Gorga heads straight for the room with the unconscious Worg, and begins to minister to the starved and weakened creature. Even weakened, he notices the powerful potential of the creature, and knows that this could be the companion he has been waiting for. “Is .... She, okay a she, is she worthy?”
Gorga slowly and carefully ministers his one remaining healing slime, from his personal stash. He also uses his skill in healing that he has learned in his training as well as what he has learned from Sharraxtharkul recently to bind and clean wounds.
While Gorga is starting to trust the shaman, he wants to do this himself. He does not want the Worg to have any divided loyalties, especially not now.
She comes around and he can tell that she's had a hard time of it. Weight loss, fur is looking a little sickly, and her ribs are visible.
Speaking in Goblin "Who rescues Darkhunt? I was to be slave to a dragon."
"I, Gorga Manhunter of the Vile Runes, leader of the Wyverns rescue you. The dragon of which you speak is now dead. Slain by my bow."
"You will not kill or enslave me?" Darkhunt turns to a sitting position and sets the gaze of her intelligent eyes upon Gorga.
"I have known little more than that since I was a pup."
"I have little desire to kill you and I have found a free-willed ally is more useful than a slave.
I believe we can become great allies. What is your goal? If you wish to leave, I will not stop you. However, there is safety and greater success when hunting in a pack. And my pack has been quite successful," Gorga grins widely and offers a hunk of dragon meat to Darkhunt.
Darkhunt’s head lurches forward, almost faster than Gorga can react. The Worg has taken the Dragon meat and gobbled it down, without taking fingers with it.
She peers carefully at Gorga.
"You have some power and are the pack leader. I would run with you Gorga. I feel strength, confidence and purpose from you. I have been the slave of giants since I was a pup. Can I join your pack?"
"You are welcome in my pack, Darkhunt. In fact, since I saw this place and you in particular, I somehow felt our destinies connected and I have need of a strong and loyal ally. Can I depend on you?"
"You may perform the bonding ritual, if you wish. But I would be your packmate. To fight for and defend you."
She nips at Gorga's hand, and licks his face, and begins sniffing around.
"Is there more dragon meat? I find my hunger returning. I need to regain my strength. I smell a little brother on you. Is he part of your pack?"
"It was a large dragon." Gorga grins again.
"There is plenty. Come with me." Gorga leads Darkhunt to the dragon remains.
"Yes, there is a wolf in this pack. He is a companion to Sharraxtharkul, the shaman of this warband. We may perform the ritual later, when you are stronger and we have more time."
Next Up: Umm, I thought Iirkh was dead
Gorga takes the time to give out some treasure to his warband and take count of what is here, unknowing of what Rhgl has taken for himself already.
Among the treasure, is found:
Bastard Sword – 2 – Magical
Bag - Magical
Boots – Magical
Half-Plate – Magical
Crossbow – 2 – Magical
Wand – Magical
Potions – 5 – Magical
Masterpiece painting
Fire Opal Pendant
Red Garnet – 5
Longsword – Magical
Dwarven Waraxe – Magical
Light Mace – Magical
1325 gp, 2207 sp, 3392, cp
From FellixHulkil:
Leather Armor – Magical
Shield – Magical
Gri-Gri – Magical
Dagger – Magical
Darts – Magical
Numerous Components
Potions – 4 – Magical
The bag is quickly discovered to be one that holds more on the inside, than would normally fit in a bag. Gorga shouts in triumph, and begins shoving treasure in the bag, after distributing a few items around the warband. Each warband member is also allowed to grab a fist full of coins to take as their own. Rhgl sees Gaak take his fistful and then looks at his own hand.
“Gaak, grab a handful for me.” Gaak smiles and obliges, and there is soon a line behind the Ogre, of those that were paying attention to the exchange.
The rest of the treasure is bound for the treasure coffers of the Vile Runes. Gorga isn’t willing to risk holding back too much of the treasure, and the hide and parts of a Red Dragon should make the tribal shaman happy.
The warband tracks back west, with Orc pariah from the former Fat Lips tribe, carrying anything that the warband couldn’t fit in the bag of holding. They would be brought into the Vile Runes tribe as less than full members to begin, swelling the size of the tribe. A few of the patrolling warbands from the Fat Lips, come out of the broken lands and join up with the triumphant warband, and the
Vile Runes warbands spot the incoming train of the Wyverns and the Orc petitioners following behind. They pace the group, until they reach the Home Tribe area, and only send a minimum crew back out for guard duty. With this group coming back, they all know a party is coming.
The warband is met with cheering and shouting, as has become the custom on the return trip for the group. There is some dissension and perhaps jealousy from some in the tribe, as the warband is again soon to find out. Garnash calls for a celebration, and the warband is treated to dragon meat for the feast. Provisions from the Fat Lips tribe are also used, and the former Fat Lips tribe members are allowed to participate in the celebration. Garnash as the conquering chief is looking to endear them to his leadership as quickly as possible. With this success, the Wyverns have doubled the lands, and tripled the number of Orcs under Garnash’s leadership.
During the celebration Miggle Dry-Mouth, leader of the Weasels warband, approaches Snig, and attempts to shove him. “What is so tough about you?” Having just returned from a fight with the remnants of an entire tribe, and a Dragon and his shaman, Snig is not in the mood. With a quick grab of his axe, he knocks the goblin senseless with a backhanded swing using the flat of the blade. With Miggle on his knees begging for mercy, Snig says to him “I am now the leader of the Weasels.” The Weasels let out a wild cheer, and with a nod, Gorga gave his approval for the goblin to leave the Wyverns.
The Wyverns make a special presentation of the magical tribute, and treasure from the Fat Lips tribe. Garnash is well pleased and calls for a great reward for the Wyverns. He takes on the mien of a benevolent benefactor.
“Gorga, your Wyverns please me. Accept these rewards.”
Herlk Wolf-paw brings forward 7 clay pots with healing slime in them, one of moderate power, 3 tribal tokens, and enough gold and silver to split 100, and 500 respectively for each of the Wyverns Warband.
“Take these tokens to the Sacred Caverns. There seek out one of the shamans who can tattoo runes of power. They will be enough for three of you. The triumph over the Fat Lips on behalf of the Vile Runes is the next step in the eventual rise of our tribe in the Blood Orc Horde.”
Gorga begins cheering Garnash’s name, and the rest of the tribe takes up the call. An enmity with the tribe leader would not be good at this stage in the young Orcs’ career.
Sharraxtharkul takes the Gri-Gri left behind by FellixHulkil and goes to Hargul Wolf-tongue to bargain. In exchange for it, Sharrax requests that the armor and shield be identified. The Gri-Gri is accepted as payment, and Sharrax is told to come back by the next mid-day for an answer. Sharrax also extracts a commitment form the tribal shaman to seek quests for the goblin to obtain objects that he might need to grow in power.
Garnash One-Tusk calls for a meeting with Gorga after the celebration has died down some, and fealty is sworn by all of the Fat Lips Orcs. Any who would not have sworn, have already run off to the Sacred Caverns, or other parts of the Blood Orc lands and beyond. There is shocking news for Gorga.
“Gorga, Iirkh has been reincarnated by Hargul. Some portents divined by Hargul Wolf-Tongue, told of the powerful Ogre being of service to the tribe. I could not allow such a valuable warrior to rest in the afterlife. There is a problem. Will you and the Wyverns be willing to take on the burden?”
“What is it Garnash?”
With a look on his face of having eaten the dung of a Stink-wiggle(4), Garnash continued. “Iirkh has returned to us, in the form of a Halfling.”
Gorga is dumbstruck by the statement, and develops the same look on his face.
“There are witches who can perform a ritual to change him into an Ogre. There is a covey of Hags at Wogar’s Breath (5) who can perform the ritual. Head east and North past the Sacred Caverns (6), across Natoka’s Grave (7), and through the lands of the Black Thug tribe to the River, Across in Gnoll lands the covey resides in a cave near the base of the volcano.”
Gorga thinks for a moment, and decides that they may take the quest, there are other thoughts to consider though, the Ogrebreaker in troll lands, the kobold threat, human lands, undisturbed for all this time.
“I will consult with my warband; it is likely that we will take this challenge.”
Garnash evaluates Gorga for a moment. He is already developing elders for a tribe of his own, and must be watched. He tells Gorga of the tribe to the north and east.
“Mogar Dreadblade is the chieftain of the Black Thugs tribe. Living in the Northeast of Blood Orc Horde Territory, he keeps the goblins to the North, Gnolls to the Northeast, and Kobolds to the East, in check. Mogor came to power during a challenge to the previous tribal chieftain. There are rumors that he has some Demonic heritage.”
He digs in a chest nearby. “Take this token of safe passage, it must be returned when you are done. Mogar does not bargain for them lightly as is his right. You will be able to pass through their lands without a fight, but your time will be limited. Remember the lands are Black thug lands, and Mogar expects deference when you walk them. Do not be too proud Gorga, or shout the Vile Runes name while you are there.”
The next morning Gorga tells Gaak, and the rest of the warband.
“We have been asked to take on an assignment. What do you all say?” He seems to be attempting to clear the distaste from his mouth, and tells what he has learned from Garnash. Upon hearing Iirkh was reincarnated as a Halfling; Gaak exclaims in near fury "This is an abomination!” The others echo his sentiment, with a little less feeling.
“This must be done!" Gaak shouts again.
Rhgl comments to Drigka and Sharraxtharkul on the sly. “Look at our great leader crumbling before Gaak's demands"
"Very well." Gorga reluctantly realizes the difficulty in convincing the Ogre *not* to take the mission in favor of others. “We will leave after mid-day, and head to the Sacred Caverns on the way.”
Sharraxtharkul returns to Hargul Wolf-Tongue to retrieve the armor, wand and shield. Hargul does not want to give up the shield, and reluctantly says that it is a casters shield, and the magic on the armor allows for minor additional armor protection, the wand is able to detect secret doors and traps. Sharrax attempts to haggle with the shaman, but Hargul is not willing to part with much for it, and eventually tells Sharrax to leave.
Sharraxtharkul gives the wand to Chupa, at Gorga’s direction, and Gaak retrieves the Halfling Iirkh for the trip. Gaak is obviously shamed, and even though the Halfling is in goblin clothes, it is still obvious that the Half-Ogre in Halfling form is traumatized.
“I knew you would bring disgrace to the family.”
The warband heads North towards the Sacred Cavern, and reaches the city with no trouble. The Orcs in this area of the Blood Orcs lands all seem to recognize the Wyverns from reputation, description, tavern song, or near battle. After a few inquiries the warband finds itself in front of a tattoo parlor owned by a Troll hag named Slisa.
After greetings at the shop entrance, and a quick discussion of the tattoos the Troll can create, a few are decided upon that are above the basic ones available. Gaak and Sharraxtharkul will get tattoos that confer the ability to Blur their appearance, and Rhgl will get one that will allow him the grace of a cat. Drigka negotiates with the Hag for a reduced price on the upgraded. During the discussion, Chupa makes a side comment about the sleeping habits of troll hags, thinking he is outside of her hearing.
"Who would sleep with a troll?"
Slisa yells at the kobold. “Get out of my shop. Now! Or there will be no tattoos for your warband today.” Chupa slinks outside, and haggling continues between Drigka and Slisa. After a price is reached, Rhgl attempts an even greater price reduction. Slisa mentions a liking for the looks of the Goblin, and he parleys it into a discount over and above what the Bard picked up. The goblin goes into the back room with the Troll and much time passes, with the screams of a goblin occasionally escaping from the back room. Rhgl returns with his new tattoo, a few bite marks and abrasions, and a look of horror to round it all off. As Rhgl steps from the storefront, Chupa sidles up to him "I guess you would." Sharraxtharkul and Gaak get their tattoos, and the warband continues on its’ way, with not a small amount of teasing going towards the goblin.
Travel to the Northeast takes the warband into Black Thug territory. They are met at the borders by a tough looking battle hardened warband of Blood Orcs. Each with Black coloration painted on their faces and palms of their hands. Gorga is holding aloft the token entrusted to him by Garnash. The Thumpers warband leader Grubba Spear-heart gives Gorga a challenging glare, but Gorga does not back down. Grubba seems satisfied, and waves the Wyverns to follow him.
“Mogar would meet the much-vaunted Wyverns of the Vile Runes.”
The Wyverns are led into the heart of Black Thug territory to the tribe home. The Black Thugs are a major tribe in the horde, and with enemies on all sides, their defenses are significant. There are sturdy Hobgoblin-built stone walls here, with ballistae and guard towers placed to cover the approaches to the encampment.
As the walk up, Chupa can barely contain what his thoughts have been churning over. "What do you think your children will look like?"
He dodges a cuff from the goblin, and snickers to himself as only a kobold can.
The Wyverns are brought to a lodge style building where Mogar is in the middle of a small feast. He offers none to the warband, and looks them over with a discerning eye for detail. He checks the token for authenticity, and quickly dismisses the Wyverns with little more than a curt wave. Mogar is sleek-featured, with red eyes, and reddish-black hair, and the Wyverns can see why he is rumored to have some demonic heritage.
The Thumpers escort the Wyverns to the Eastern edge of their lands, and are directed to a ford in the river. Rhgl begins flapping his arms, and runs out into the water to frolic and swim across. Drigka and Gorga have to reign in the goblin to stay on course.
A few hours later the warband comes to "Wogar's breath" and they search for less than an hour before finding the cave they seek. There are 2 orcs and an Ogre guarding the place. Gorga announces his reason for being here and the warband is led in to see the Hags. Darkhunt whispers to Gorga “I smell Giant and not just the Ogre.”
There are three Witches of the Under Mountain Covey; Gwinney, an Annis Hag, and two Green Hags who do not share their names. Gwinney is 8 feet tall, and quite ugly. After a short discussion of the ritual needed, The Hags agree on a price. They tell the Wyverns that the price for performing the ritual will be the hide of two land sharks from the Black Hills. They live to the South in kobold lands, in a grassy hills region of the Broken Lands. The price is agreed to by the Wyverns, and the warband heads south leaving Iirkh to prepare for the ritual.
The warband hunts, for a while, and sees kobold scouts in the distance, but no attack from the kobolds is forthcoming. Within a couple of days of hunting, with Gorga, Darkhunt and Sharraxtharkul working together, a rumbling from below ground. A land shark crests, and attacks. No one is really surprised. In less than a minute, the creature is nearly killed. Rhgl struck the first damaging blow, putting his dagger into a nerve ganglion behind the land sharks’ eye. Gaak is severely hurt by a death bite from the creature, as he strikes the killing blow. Magic is used to heal up Gaak and Guru, and the warband gets to work skinning the creature. Sharraxtharkul directs the task. The warband makes camp to finish skinning the creature, and to save any edible meat.
Next Up: Spirit-Tainted What?
Footnotes:
(4) Stink-wiggle – If you’ve read Sagiro’s story hour on Enworld, you know what this is. I stole it, common name for a D&D creature.
(5) Wogar’s Breath – Volcano on the south side of the Streel river, East of the Blood Orc lands. Named for the God Wogar
(6) Sacred Caverns – Home Horde location for the Blood Orc Horde, also the primary passage for Blood Orc Holdings above and Below ground. A large city for Orcs.
(7) Natoka’s Grave – Area of Badlands near the center of the Blood Orc Lands, burial grounds and horde meeting area with large pillars of stone, with enormous flat stones on top, often large enough for full tribes to camp on for Horde meetings.
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Hobna gathers his equipment, and prepares for the hunting trip for a second Land Shark. Arrows proved to be ineffective against the beast, turning away at its armored skin. Worry sets in about effectiveness in combat, and how useful a single Orc archer will be to the warband in the future. Gorga and the others are gaining in battle prowess, but that improvement does not seem to be spreading around to all the Orcs in the warband. Hobna watches as Gaak straps together the huge carcass of the Land Shark for transportation. There is an understanding that Hobna’s is the shoulder that will bear the other end of that burden.
Looking around, Hobna can see Gorga and the Goblin Shaman, Sharraxtharkul arguing. That was not an unusual sight. That goblin was a strange one. He is bound by nature, but not in the usual ways of the shaman. Gorga is heard arguing that the Bard should play his drums to attract another Land Shark, and Sharraxtharkul suggests that he scout from the air. He has learned some new form of nature magic. Looking around for the rest of the warband Hobna can see, Guru is practicing a battle with unseen enemies, Darkhunt and Margrax are exploring the scents of the area; Drigka is working on his epic story of the hunt, Rhgl is listening in on Gorga and a Raven?
Hobna quickly pulls out his bow and knocks and arrow, yelling out to the warband.
“Crappit! Something just turned Sharraxtharkul into a bird.”
As he runs forward to get a shot at the bird, Rhgl and Gorga interpose themselves, telling him it is ok. The Raven takes of with an ungainly flapping of wings.
“This is a new power Sharraxtharkul has learned.”
Hobna backs off of the bow, and returns the arrow to his quiver. With a hand up to block the ever-burning sun, Hobna can see the Raven that is Sharraxtharkul circle far to the South, scouting ahead of the warband. Looking back to the campsite Rhgl has disappeared again. The goblin has a propensity for running off and hiding, or sneaking around to poke you in the ribs. He is getting almost too good at it. Lately he’s been an odd duck in more ways than one. He’ll take to flapping his arms, or waddling like a bird for no apparent reason. He almost drowned at the fording of the river, thinking he could swim like a bird.
Trying to get away from the cleanup of entrails and skeleton, Hobna sneaks around a ridge to hear but not see Rhgl among some rocks.
"Gorga! Gorga! Help me! Help me! …………….. Gorga, just kidding."
After seeing that this spot is taken by the goblin prankster, Hobna heads back toward the camp. Better not to be found by that one, and used for practice stabbings, and sneaking.
Gorga is looking around for the goblin, as Hobna returns from is abortive attempt to skip out on work. He has a sneer on his face, and ill-temper to be avoided. The magic of Gorga's Ear ring is not to be abused. Sighing heavily, he stomps over to help Gaak with the Land Shark carcass. Soon Gaak and Hobna have the work completed.
The sound of squawking can be heard, as Sharraxtharkul returns from his flight. Everyone gathers around in morbid curiosity, even the previously unseen Rhgl, to watch Sharraxtharkul change shape from a bird, into a goblin.
Shaking off the last effects of the change, and readjusting to his normal physiology Shar tells the warband, “Not bad for a first flight."
Hobna sees Gorga looking at the Goblin, with some impatience apparent in his mien. Shar looks around at the gathered warband, and begins describing the lay of the land to the South.
Hobna listens in for the entire briefing. There are rolling hills, interspersed with copses of trees. There is a small kobold emplacement to the South and West. It looks like it has been attacked and damaged by something quite large. He was able to count 10 to 12 kobolds around the hill. Shar notes that there is probably twice that number around.
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Guinny wipes her eyes, as she backs away from the Scrying mirror. Extended scrying is taxing on the mind and body. The mirror swirls back from the view of the Wyverns warband gathered around the goblin to that of a normal mirror.
“It seems these Orcs are on the fast branch down the river to finding our Land Shark hides. They are hunting in Norvox and Muad lands, and they are not yet involved.” At a nod from Guinny the three Hags move toward the Cavern of Rituals, steadying themselves as they go. “We will be prepared for the ritual when they return.” Walking in silence until reaching the Cavern of Rituals, all three consider what the next topic of discussion will be.
“Our plans in Kol are moving along nicely, soon others will learn of the alliance between giants and the kobolds.”
Annselen eagerly responds. “Yes, that secret is no longer worth hiding. The D’Aisiswa, and Diashar-Derelle tribes contend with the Orcs of the Fat Lips tribe. So far that conflict has been kept quiet.”
Guinny looks at her sisters. “We will watch after these Orcs as we can. Trouble follows them, and they are involved in much that turns the Broken Lands.”
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Hobna watches as Shar mounts Margrax to lead the warband to the kobold outpost. With the order from Gorga for the warband to hustle, Hobna picks up his end of the burden, and tries hard to keep up with Gaak. Sharraxtharkul and Margrax take the most direct route through the hills, up and down, rather than through the lower elevations. Soon there will be battle with the kobolds.
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Hobna recovers arrows that are undamaged, and kills any injured kobolds still left breathing. Seven were captured of the five-hand still living here after the Land Shark attack. From what Gorga was able to get out of them, after a few minutes of convincing, there is a Spirit-Tainted Land Shark called the Cabres-Yudra. Hobna has to hold back interrupting the interrogation to ask, “Spirit-Tainted what?” One of the living kobolds saw it, and all have heard of its’ legend. It hunts periodically during the night. Beyond the body armor normally indicative of a Land Shark, it also has some horns pointing forward, red glowing eyes, and large wings. At that point in the description Hobna scoffed and looked at the skin that was already collected. If he knew this warband, the coming battle would go much the same.
Hobna ties up the kobolds, at Gorga’s direction, and the warband makes camp, in a small clearing, among some trees. While Drigka carefully picks the correct phrasing for his new epic story, Sharraxtharkul communicates with a bird. But what it really interesting, is listening to Rhgl detail a plan to use the Land Shark skin to disguise the warband to get close enough to next Land Shark.
Gorga explains to Rhgl. "At first I dismissed you as an idiot. On second thought, that idea has merit. Actually, no you are an idiot. Land Shark’s are territorial and will attack us in any case."
Sharraxtharkul pipes up with additional information “It is Land Shark mating season, and they have rough mounting skills.”
This seems to strike a nerve with the Rhgl. "Don't tell me about rough mounting! I know about rough mounting!" (2)
Hobna listens as Gorga hands out the watch assignments, and quickly beds down after being given a spot on second watch. Awakened roughly with a boot to the ribs, like usual, Hobna awakens to a dimming campfire, and the sounds of snoring Orcs. Looking around, he takes up a position on the far side of the camp from Gaak. You never know what that Ogre will do in his sleep.
After watching and listening at the ground for nearly a boar (1) Hobna hears a whooshing sound before a large creature comes crashing out of the sky, landing atop Gaak, and Rhgl. With a battle-cry, it awakens the Ogre, who rolls out from under the great winged creature. Who knew it could fly. Hobna, knowing the futility begins firing arrows at the beast, hoping one will hit a soft spot, or something vital. Rhgl begins squawking and flapping his arms like a bird. Gorga and Darkhunt charge in from the other side of the clearing, and Guru somehow manages to sleep through this. The battle is fierce, with the Land Shark biting, and swallowing the helpless shaman Shar, before tearing into the Ogre as he stands up. Guru finally awakens, and gets his feet beneath him, and an Axe in hand. Hobna can only watch in amazement as the goblin Rhgl darts in, and slices at something near the eyes, and Gaak nearly splits the monster in two with a powerful chop of his new Great Axe. Quickly Gorga guides the slicing open of the creature to recover the shaman. Gorga’s spiritual advisor is important to all in the warband. Especially with Gaak as wounded as he is now. With some sputtering, and wailing the goblin comes around, and calls upon his powers to heal the Ogre.
Two days later, the warband is back at Wogar’s Breath with the task completed. Two Land Shark skins, some Bones, and the meat wasn’t half bad. The Ogre and two Orcs are still at the cave, and one, Hobna hears called Grutch, runs in to notify the Hags. Hobna gets a weird chill, thinking about those three. He can see Darkhunt and Gorga talking about something. The idea of a talking Worg was still difficult to understand. They were creatures that the old Orcs and Goblins talked about. Generations had passed since they were seen in the Blood Orc Lands. Curses upon the goblins to the North. The huge Hag comes out to greet the warband, and Gorga haggles some money out of the Hag for returning with the carcass of a Spirit-Tainted Land Shark. She looks at Hobna for a moment, and he feels like she is looking into his mind. He shakes off the look, and can just see her grinning when she calls for her Orcs to retrieve the Land Shark bodies. The warband must make camp and wait a day for the ritual to be completed, and Iirkh to be returned to the body of an Ogre.
Some time during the next day, while Hobna is on guard duty, a lone Orc approaches the camp. Hobna gets to actually do something. “What is your business with the Wyverns? Vaunted warband of the Vile Runes.”
“I am Dignik. I come to learn the teaching of Drigka, War Drummer. I request the right of learning from him, as requested by Garnash One-Tusk.”
Hobna puts away his bow and finds the Battle Drummer.
Next Up: Giants and Kobolds, and Worgs oh my!
Footnotes:
(1) Boar – Measure of time it takes to skin a boar, about one hour. Spits are also used as a measure of time. A boar on a spit is turned over a fire 6 times in about a minute. So a spit is ten seconds.
(2) Rhgl had an experience with a Troll Hag, he will not soon forget
I have 3 updates burning a hole in my screen. I've decided to start an alternate thread, for Act II Orcs on a Mission. I'll link to it from here.
I'll update from the current timeline. I'll periodically update this thread with a new update, to slowly catch up with the current timeline.
Act II Orcs on a Mission
Thank you,
GW