Once more our heroes are summoned to the great hall, where they were met by the Castellan and six women. The Castellan informed them that the women were the wives of trappers, and had traveled from Belton to Obanhold when their husbands had not returned as expected when the trapping season ended. The Castellan charged our hero to find the missing trappers, and gave orders for the women to be given lodgings. When the women had left, the Castellan confessed to our heroes that he though the chances that the trappers were still alive was slim, but he nevertheless wanted our heroes to try, and to also travel to East Hall Tower to see if the orcs had occupied it.
Enree, Mala, and Rokas (see PC profiles here) sought out Clovas, the leader of the band of trappers whom they have met at West Hall Tower earlier, but learned that he and the trappers had left Obanhold. Enree attempted to contact him psychically, but it only caused the man to panic. They then sought information from Barrick the trader, but learned nothing to aid their search.
The next day the trio traveled north towards West Hall Tower, which had since been re-garrisoned. As they passed the Plains Camp site they detected the smell of carrion, which led them to a small copse of wood. There they found that a few plains hyenas had dug up a shallow grave and were eating the corpses of a few men. Our heroes drove the hyenas away, and fighting back the urge to retch, examined the corpses. The bodies numbered six, buried in threes in two separate shallow graves, and were dressed in the manner of trappers. The bones bore the marks of violence from blades. Nothing of value was found of them. With no way to identify the corpses, our heroes decided to take one boot from each of the bodies, hoping that that would be enough. They then continued to West Hall Tower, where they purposed to learn more about the way ahead while they rested their horses.
At West Hall Tower they learned from Tugh and the garrison that there had not been sighting of orcs. After learning where water could be found in the way ahead, our heroes set off once more.
At noon that day they dismounted at a stream near the East Hall Tower, where they planned to water their horses and take lunch. However, they were ambushed by four orc warriors. After a quick fight, two of the orc warriors laid dead, while two had been captured. Our heroes then noticed that the orcs were juveniles. Attempts to interrogate them were unsuccessful as they did not speak the Northern Tongue. Fearful of further attacks, our heroes decided to return to West Hall Tower will their prisoners in tow.
At the West Hall Tower, the sight of the orcs and the wounded Mala and Rokas caused a stir, as the soldiers called for the prisoners to be beheaded and their heads set on pikes on the tower's ramparts as a warning to the orcs, but Enree cited the Castellan's authority and ordered them to be held inside the tower until they could be brought back to Obanhold for questioning with the relief party, which was expected in two days.
That night, sentries reported sighting of orc scouts, which caused fears that the orcs would launch an attack to try to free their comrades. In an attempt to allay their fears, Enree used his magic to conjure an illusion of the decapitated heads of the two prisoners on a pike, and set it upon the tower's rampart.
The next day, three orc warriors approached the tower. Unlike the juveniles, these were adult warriors who bore symmetrical scars upon their faces and arms. Their leader was Chogan, one of the orc mercenaries whom our heroes had met at Fort Davelmag. Chogan swore vengeance for the slain orc warriors, and told the garrison that they and all the humans would be swept away from the plains when the Thunderbird came. When he saw our heroes, he bade them to flee the place while they still could, or they would be killed when they next met upon the field of battle.
Our heroes now decided to free the orc prisoners, which caused unhappiness in the soldiers, who feared it might be taken as a sign of weakness to the orcs. The two orcs were cut loose and sent out of the gate of the palisade wall, and in a misguided attempt to placate the soldiers, ordered them to shoot arrows near them to drive them on. By design or accident, one of the arrows struck one of the orcs, who was fortunately not killed by it. Chogan and his men quickly got to the prisoners, and left.
The mood in the tower was decidedly cold thereafter, as the soldiers shunned our heroes for the next two days and the return to Obanhold.
Prepping and Running the Game
The 'plot' for the session was a continuation of the development of the events that had taken place in the earlier sessions. I had sent the PCs to the northwest part of the map partly to divert them from the northeast part, where Gatton and Yngley are, so I could have some time to think about how events would unfold there. The next session will see them attending to events there.
I had expected the PCs to make it further to East Hall Tower, where they would gain an idea of the true size of the orc threat, but they had decided to take prisoners at the first encounter and cut short their trip - in their minds their mission objectives had been achieved, and little could be gained by further endangering themselves.
I did manage to introduce the Thunderbird as an antagonist, and give the players some inkling of the mystical forces they are up against.
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