Orc Quest: Episode 6 - Elves.

I haven't been maintaining these as well as I should, but other matters have been calling my attention lately. I'll try to catch up in brief.

When we last left our heroes, they had just left a kobold cave and were heading south to find the road again. Upon the road they came upon a merchant and his guards slowly traveling to the west. Upon stopping them, it was debated whether or not our heroes should rob them blind or merely ask for directions. Ultimately, the latter was settled on and they gained some information:

The merchant was traveling from the eastern city, which had fallen to some catastrophe of unspecified nature [ed: I might just not remember, I'll be honest. With my luck it was foreshadowing some massive plot hook] and they were heading west towards the town of Hanaga in order to acquire new goods to trade. The roads were dangerous, as elven bandits have been spotted in the region.

Our orcish warband let them carry on their way unmolested and made camp for the evening. Cunnin and raph replenished their firewood stock and Cunnin acquired a pair of long, stout sapplings he could trim down into two staves - one long one of about his height, and a short one for their humie girl, Tuska. After they were whittled, debarked, and shaped properly the weapon was presented to the girl as her first weapon. The little girl beamed and squeaked and wrapped herself around Cunnin's leg and d'awws were shared all around.

Justice did a bit of sparring with the girl, taking the other staff and showed her some of the basic movements with it. Afterwords, the fire was stroked and everyone settled in for the evening for something of a heart-to-heart talk. Justice had some character development on the subject of faith. Cunnin and Taz collectively advised him that instead of hoping that Gruumsh will aid him, that Gruumsh was waiting for Justice to prove himself worthy of aid. After some time, it was discovered that Justice just needed a snickers, because he turns apostate when he's hungry.

Interrupting this bit of role-play, the wolves responded to movement in the woods at the side of the road. Before we could act, we were beset by a party of elven raiders!

Justice knew that this was the moment he must prove himself to Gruumsh and..stripped naked, for some reason... but no matter! The elves rushed in, several taking positions around the edge of the woods near which we camped, but a central party headed straight for Tuska. Taz made a B-line to cut them off, but several got around him. The wolves leaped in, tearing down a pair of elves before they could close. The hammer of Justice smote mightily, turning an elf to paste before him, but Raph was not so lucky. As he turned to face down one elf, another leaped onto his back, sinking a dagger deep into his flesh. For the first time, Raph felt the pain of mortals.

One of the elven raiders grabbed Tuska and was making back through the forest. Cunnin abandoned everything and jumped headlong after them, cutting down the first elf that got in his way and finally tackling the other, sinking his dagger in again and again until the raider ceased to gurgle beneath him.

When the dust settled, one elf was left alive and their captive. There was some discussion on what to do with it, the options ranging from "kill it," to "kill it with fire." Cunnin wanted the prisoner questioned, and so they let him do the questioning while Taz and Justice went back to check on Raph and ensure that Tuska was unharmed.

The interrogation became graphic as the prisoner was uncooperative. Cunnin responded by removing bits of extremities until the elf was feeling more cooperative. With the elf's tongue sufficiently loosened, we learned of an elf-queen who had sent the raiders after the girl. Unfortunately, before anymore information could be had the paladin of gruumsh stepped in and an argument was had on the comparative ethics of enhanced interrogation on a prisoner of war.

Losing this battle, Cunnin dispatched the prisoner quickly and put the elf-thing out of its misery. A better fate than it deserved.

They set in to camp that night, but none slept well. Cunnin remained at watch until daybreak, and they set off west towards Hagana to resupply - and to gather more intel.

Until next time,