Orc Tribes Unite

July 23, 2020

The group spends the night, wondering if they will see more orcs.  They do.  In the early morning, Rolen watches as a group of orcs arrives.  As he watches them, Rolen doesn't think they have been here before.  Further, they seem on edge.  Not quite weapons out but hands near weapons and looking around.  After ten minutes, they settle down and set up their camp where the old one is.  Rolen is getting twitchy and keeps thinking about waking the others up or just using his bow but he forces himself to remember training by his uncle.  He waits, he watches, he learns.  It pays off.  

A half hour after the first group, which are obviously Grey Wolf Tribe, arrived, another group of Feasting Crows arrive.  Rolen watches as they approach each other.  It's not exactly the stance of a friend but nor is it the stance of an enemy.  Cautious and guarded.  Eventually both sides form two semi circles and the leaders from each enter the circle.  There is chanting of fight or greet?  Rolen never realized that the word could have a few different meanings.  He wondered how many more it might have?  The two leaders circled each other and then one punched the other in the chest.  The first one grunted and nodded.  Then a bit more circling and it was repeated by the one who was punched.  At that, they seem to be happy and then they start talking.  

Rolen stares in disbelief.  Is this orcs coming together?  Is this how clans and tribes of orcs come together and meet?  What did the punch mean?  As they start talking, Rolen wakes up the group.  

***

Kaji finds himself watching several burning fires.  At first, he watches in wonder as the flames jump and wave.  It's a smokeless fire, with just the purity of flames.  One is slightly blue, one is the normal yellow and orange, and the last has red.  He realizes he can't move, only turn in place, and the fires are happening at angles where he can only see one at time.  It's not fair!  He rarely sees purity of flame like this and now he has to choose.  As he switches from blue to the red one, though, Kaji finally has presence of mind to look around.  What he thought were fire pits with wood burning are instead towns.  Specifically, he sees Elkwall, Lowvale, and Westhold burning.  He looks down and the new thought is that he is hundreds of feet tall, looking down on them.  Movement has been happening at his feet and he sees orcs and maybe some others but they are lost in the dancing shadows created by the flames.  He looks back to the flames and now knows that Kossuth is not happy with these flames.  Kaji must work against the flames.  

***

Kaji wakes up at Rolen's shaking and says, "We must stop the orcs!"  Rolen covers his mouth with his hand.  

"I just said that," Rolen hisses in a whisper to Kaji.  "Now, stay quiet and get ready."  

Kaji shakes his head to clear it but the vision lingers.  Kaji hears Rolen waking the others and Gorstag has moved to the edge of the cliff, looking down at something.  Orcs.  Kaji knew it.  Kaji felt it.  He stood up and went to the edge of the cliff and saw the orcs.  As Rolen woke the others, and readied his bow, Kaji kne what he had to do.  He called upon Kossuth and felt the power of the flames roar inside of him.  Later, he was told that the fire burst from him, coalesced at his head, and he grabbed the ball of flame and threw it at the orcs!  It streaked down from the cliff into the camp and exploded!  When it cleared, the orcs were dead.  

Kaji turned to the other group of orcs and again fire bloomed around him and coalesced at his hands, which he formed into a ball and flung it at the remaining orcs.  Again, it exploded among them but did not drop them all.  Kaji was aware of Rolen and Gorstag shooting down at the camps when the fatigue rolled over him.  He had never used that much flame before!  It only took a few heartbeats to recover.  

"Did you see that?" he shouted toward the others.  "I took out most of the orcs!"  

"Git yer head down, ya fool," said Dio, slamming him down and covering Kaji with his own body and shield.  That's when the arrows starting hitting.  Dio had angled it enough so that the arrows deflected but still grunted as he was hit by one.  

"To the horses," someone whispered loudly.  The group obeyed, grabbing their stuff.  

Kaji finally saw the rest of the clans of both sides.  It was a lot and he was tapped.  He did grab his stuff and then paused to "eat" the heat of their own fire into himself.  It didn't fill him up enough to again create a ball of fire but it did fill some of the emptiness he felt.  

The group got to the horses and they secured the extras and moved off.  A few arrows whistled around them but none struck.  They kept going and soon had a large lead on them.  They stopped to consider their options when they were ahead but could see the clans of orcs heading their way.  

"Do we leave the horses," asked Kaji.  

"We leave them, the orcs eat them," stated Rolen.  "I don't like that if we can avoid it."  

"Agreed."  

"I can create a trap for them.  Once that is done, I can make it tough for them to follow us.  The question is where do we go?"

A few minutes later, they have decided to head to Westhold.  Rolen turns on their obvious path, with ten horses having made tracks, and pulls on nature's energy.  Soon, the grass and roots below the surface come forward and form sharp points.  Rolen smiles at the thought of the orcs finding these and is disappointed he want be able to see it.  

They head away from there and after another ten minutes, Rolen casts a spell to hide their tracks and they keep going.  After an hour, Rolen can't keep concentrating on the spike spell and drops it.  He hopes they have gone far enough to make it tough or near impossible to follow.  

By late afternoon they see Westhold and head toward it.  Again, they discuss options and decide to go speak to the mayor.  

They find the mayor's place.  They find the mayor and speak with her about what they have seen.  She thanks them for the information and asks if they would stay in the town hall, she has rooms for them.  She is going to gather the council and in case they have any questions for the group.  The mayor, Ina Medina, then mentions that, "Sister Nadia said this was taken care of."  The group hears this and shares a glance but don't say more.  They have a page show them the rooms and then they go to Moradin's Might for some shopping.  Dio is disappointed that Jariabek herself was not available.  They are speaking to an apprentice.  

They do find out there are some magical runes for sale but only ones that can enhance armor.  One of the enhancements would allow Dio to not be as noisy, so they are quite tempted.  After finishing up with their shopping, they head to the Chimera's Gold to eat and drink.  The locals are friendly and ask what they have seen and what is happening.  Although no storytellers, they speak about what they have seen and what they are doing.  They decide not to say too much about the orcs until they find out what the council will say.  

As they are drinking, a woman comes up to them and says she is there to escort them to the council chambers.  She introduces herself as Nadia and the group is cautious.  They aren't happy and try and question Sister Nadia but she merely leads them to the council chambers.  She takes them to the city hall and takes them to a set of doors, which open into a small ante chamber.  There are places to sit and wait, and it looks typical of most rooms before the actual council room.  She opens up the next set of double doors and they move toward it, with Dio in the lead.  And he stops at the doorway.  

"What is the meaning of this?" Dio asks.  "Why the spell of truth?"  

"You have brought us many troubling things.  We do not do this often but since this is urgent, we need to make sure what you say is true.  Understand," the mayor continues, "that I do believe you about the orcs.  Sister Nadia has said they are around and had assured us she was taking care of them.  If what you say is true, this means something has changed and we need to know about it."  

"Aye, things change," replies Dio, calmly.  "We have no reason to lie and have played it honest with you.  Why do this now?  Take our previous statements and leave it at that."  

"This is how we do things and it was not done lightly but we must know.  This isn't just for us.  If you have seen the orc tribes together, we must tell Elkwall, Lowvale, and Ashriver.  We have to start coordinating with them and let our farmers and herders who are out there without protection know."  

"Let us discuss it," replies Dio.  "Alone."  Dio looks pointedly as Sister Nadia, who nods and leaves.  They have the ante room as their own.  Gorstag is not happy and Rolen is worried that Nadia has already made it tough for them.  However, Kaji, due to his vision, and Dio feel the need to warn them.  "Further," Dio says, "if this means we leave after this, then that's what we do.  I can't help those that don't want it."  The group nods and goes back into the chamber.  The mayor introduces the council, who are business owners and high ranking clerics of the town.  

Gorstag explains what they saw with the orcs, the meeting, the potential joining, and then the orcs that attacked.  There are a few interruptions to clarify a few things and ask for numbers.  As Westhold is only two hundred strong, seeing a orc force of half that numbers rightly bothers them.  And they are worried about Elkwall, which is less than half their numbers.  After Gorstag is done, Ina extends the invitation to stay but says that the owner of the Chimera's Gold has offered room at his place as well.  They accept that.  Further, the mayor continues, would you be willing to help?  As independents but scouting or harassing the orcs?  The group is happy to help with that as well.  

They leave but not before they notice Sister Nadia going back into the council chambers.  Rolen can't help but wonder what is happening with them.  

They get rest that night.  They sold their extra horses and weapons but then did spend the coin on runes.  Rikard spent the evening enchanting items, compared to drinking, but was happy to do enchanting.  

They decide to head toward the orc village that they know about.  At about the half way mark, they find an orc scouting patrol.  They decide to attack and Rolen shows off a new spell that has nature itself help conceal them.  They get close enough that once again, Kaji calls upon the fires of Kossuth and blasts fire into their midst.  A few survive but not for long as they are then cut down by arrow or glaive.  After searching and burning the bodies, they decide to keep heading north.  

875 xp

GM Notes

• I see orcs as Klingons.  Warriors with a sense of honor revolving around fighting and personal achievements.   
• standard discussion of getting semi random magical items vs improving their own equipment
• I put my thoughts on this on the front page of the wiki.  
• Basically, should it be easy to improve their own weapons or should they find it?   
• I think my silver standard needs to be rethought.  
• There are two levels to it.  First, the non decimal part means it's tough to do quick calculations or conversions.  Second, I don't have a good list of prices.
• At the same time, the lower prices makes more sense to me.  Further, by having some level of uncertainty of cost, it's not a simple matter of "I go buy X, and mark off Y gold."  It forces the role playing to find out costs, which I like. 
• I think as they get higher level, money won't be as big of an issue and would rather see this but am thinking about it.   
• The zone of truth was interesting and it did work both ways.  
• There are many levels to the use of magic in interrogation.  
• Lots of discussions as well.  I think a passive zone could work but there are still downsides to it. 
• It must be remembered that with magic as existing, that I don't see how it could be ignored.   
• They are concerned about the Sisters.   

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