Civilized Orcs and Chaotic Beings (Eisa's Journal)

[From the travel logs of Eisa Layaree]

Party Composition
Cyren – Wood Elf Ranger

Eisa - Half-Elf Cleric

Rodrigo - Human Fighter

Yippy – Gnome Wizard

Yoash – Tiefling Bard

Journal Entry
A half-orc named Ahghead (who knows how it’s spelled, it’s Orcish…) came to the tavern and requested aid for his tribe, which a witch had been causing trouble. Cyren assembled a party to investigate this half-orc’s claims. When we met at the tavern, we met the odd creature. He was not the barbarian in any way. He looked more human than orc, with short tusk and faded non-barbaric tattoos. Very odd for a half-orc in an orc tribe. His armor and large battleaxe were very well-crafted, maybe even by a master blacksmith.

Ahghead told us that his tribe lived on the border of the badlands to the west. They had left the larger orc group that had been working with (against?) the hobgoblins in the area. His tribe did not wish to further any conflict and to be left alone.

They had met this witch and she had promised them protection and safe haven, for a price. She requested “tribute” once or twice a month: a younger orc of either gender. Some of these young orcs never were seen again, but others did come back. Those who returned were shadows of themselves: traumatized and mentally gone, uncaring of anyone or themselves. Ahghead described the witch as an aged woman, maybe with orc blood, but still good-looking. She currently lived in a cave system near the orc encampment.

The orc chief was open to other possibilities to keep his tribe safe, but he was currently concerned about his son, who was the last tribute and has not returned. He is a level-headed fellow supposedly and reasonable.

After hearing his plight, Cyren decided to accompany him and investigate this witch. We gathered our belongings and met Ahghead by the stables, where he had a most unusual mount. The lizard-like raptor was fairly large and wore mail armor over parts of its body. Its muzzle was currently chained shut, just in case. But it was very well-behaved. Leading out of town, it was a sight to see this beast run effortlessly.

We still had hours of daylight left and headed immediately west for the next six hours through the familiar surroundings and entering the badlands. Ahghead did some sort of shamanic prayer before setting up camp and before eating, thanking the spirits or some such thing, all under his breath in Orcish.

After his preparations, Ahghead turned to all of us and asked if one of us would be willing to duel him. He wanted to test our mettle, and probably see how strong we really were. I believe Cyren was the one who agreed to it. The rest of us backed up to give them a ring. After exchanging a few blows, Ahghead was wearing a fierce grin. He suddenly turned to someone else (I don’t recall who; doesn’t matter). Before he could do anything else, I pulled at my magic and Commanded him to Halt. He completely froze for those next few seconds. After the Command faded, he turned to me and grinned even wider. He thanked us for the good fight and told us we had earned his respect as to our fighting prowess. We then turned in for the night.

During our watches, Eisa and Cyren saw vague bird-like creatures in the sky 2 miles north of us. They were circling something, but in a well-organized way. They widened their patrols and then vanished northwest into the badlands. Nothing else happened that night.

In the morning, Ahghead said we were only a few hours away but through difficult terrain for our horses. Heading north-by-northwest, we entered the rocky hills. After three hours, we saw another one of those flyers overhead. The creature had a rider on it, and they descended to meet us. Ahghead did not seem worried and greeted the orc as he hopped off of the creature.

The flying beast was similar to a bird, but had skin membranes for its wings instead of feathers. Like the raptor, it was a vicious looking beast that was well-behaved. Heeg, the rider, questioned Ahghead about bringing strangers into their home. It would be up to the Chief it seemed.

Heeg gave him a bag of small crystals, which he said we needed. Holding the prism up to one of our eyes, we could see a large encampment in front of us, which we had seen no trace of without the prism. I assume that was the warding spell that the witch had set up for the orcs. Ahghead said that without the prisms provided by the witch, we would never be able to find the camp.

We entered the camp and headed towards the chief’s house. The camp was the oddest orc camp that I have ever seen, nothing like that stronghold years ago. It was fairly clean with quickly set-up buildings for the most part. The chief’s longhouse was the most permanent fixture there, a well-built building that was ancient but maintained well. The orcs seemed apprehensive about us, but not hostile. There was no sight of the usual loud, violent, and bloodthirsty orcs.

We were led to the Chief in the longhouse. He was another very polite orc, so odd. The Chief addressed Ahghead in Orcish as the future ruler, which was interesting since the Chief’s son was missing. Ahghead seemed uncomfortable with the way in which the Chief addressed him.

The Chief then asked Ahghead to translate for him, but Cyren spoke up in Orcish to say that it was unnecessary. The Chief was very surprised that Cyren was speaking his language, and he became even more friendly. We all sat down to discuss what the orcs had requested assistance about. I translated the conversation between the two of them for the rest of the party.

Chief Urgg introduced himself properly and told us about the witch and their agreement with her. He did not tell us anything more than what Ahghead had already told us. When we asked whether they wanted us to kill the witch or simply come to another agreement, he told us to do as we see fit, but he was worried about what would happen if we killed her. The barrier protecting them would likely disappear and they would have to find another place to live. Cyren offered to relocate them to Port Herve, giving them some land near town in return for aiding us in protecting the town. Chief Urgg seemed interested in this idea, but he needed to talk with the elders before he made such a decision.

We decided to head out for the witch’s cave as soon as possible. Chief Urgg called two of his scouts, Yunkathu and Wuglat, to guide us. After about an hour, traveling north from the camp I believe, we saw some caves in the hills ahead. The largest cave was not natural; it was too smooth, too cleanly cut. Our guide said that they would wait at the cave entrance for one day; we would be assumed dead if we did not return by then.

The cave descended slowly, with a rather low ceiling at times. I adjusted my height a few inches to fit more comfortably; I doubt anyone noticed. We moved single file down the tunnel, being vigilant for anything unusual. We came to a small landing, a circular room with shelves cut into the walls, 5 levels high. There were orc skeletons in some of the crevices, and others looked like there had been bodies in them before but were emptied not long ago. At the second landing, we ran into a recently dead creature that I recognized as a hobgoblin, stuck on spikes from a trap in the wall. The bodies in the shelves that were undisturbed had their arms crossed over their chest in an X and a weapon at their side. Again, some of the shelves were occupied and others were recently emptied.

At the third landing, the gnome and I both felt something odd about the room. There was an altar of sorts in the center of the room and some of the bodies were disturbed but not gone. I called for everyone to stop. I drew up my ability to Detect Evil and Good, hoping that my suspicious were unfounded. But I did detect 4 undead signatures; four of the bodies in the room had been turned. Sharing my detection, we prepared for a fight and stepped into the room, hoping to get in a few hits before they fully woke up. It was a short fight, nice and easy.

During the fight, Yippy’s familiar had flown ahead to scout a bit. The wizard reported that there was a single person on the next landing, probably our witch. I suggested that we take care of the undead first by beheading them to prevent their rising again (it’s the most surefire way to keep them dead in my experience). While everyone was cleaning up the undead, I had the chance to sneak ahead and check out the witch. I doubted I would get a chance to really observe her if the others came in ready for a fight.

Easily slipping away, I quietly made my way down to the next landing. It was a fairly large rectangular room with another altar in the middle. An orc body lay on the altar with its chest cut open. Next to the altar was an older woman packing some bags. She did not look unusual, just sad and hurried.

I reached out to touch her mind and start reading her thoughts. She was most concerned with the ideas that the Master was not going to be pleased and that her work wasn’t finished yet. Delving deeper into her mind, I tried to learn more about this Master. In her mind’s eye, I found a man, a generic looking human but odd; he would stand out in a crowd, being striking and of average height, but his looks were a little bit of everyone. It was like my attempts to be no one in particular, trying to create a new cover to look like an average human, but failing because it looks forced. I could see cracks in his visage, so maybe it was more of an illusion than a true shapeshifter; he does likely not used to concealing himself or taking another form. Beneath his false image, I saw chaotic colors and dark shapes, reminiscent of nightmares. I still had no measure of his power at all, or a name.

I heard the rest of our party coming down the stairs, and it seemed that the witch had heard them as well. She went to the wall closest to her, where a lever had been hidden. I was reluctant to sever my read on her, and so did not try to stop her. She pulled the lever and I heard a grinding sound behind me. The stairs behind me had flattened into a smooth ramp, and I could hear the rest of my party stumbling and sliding down. I stepped out of the way of the stairs, hoping to remain hidden from the woman while the others made their way down. The woman turned back to packing up her bags, still worried about her Master.

Everyone came tumbling down the former stairs. It was a good trap she had set, I wonder if my family could make something like it. Picking themselves up, I revealed myself and we turned to fight. I doubted she would back down with her Master supporting her actions here. We took care of her surprisingly fast though, probably because I twice Commanded her to Grovel, making it impossible for her to wake her creation or do anything really. I was quite pleased with the results. We knocked her unconscious instead of killing her, a good decision I guess.

The gnome wizard and I went to investigate the body on the table while the others secured the woman. There was a beautiful stone glimmering the chest cavity of the body, embedded in the dead flesh. The glow seemed to pulse slightly. Yippy had heard stories of magical stones like this. According to lore, it could be a fragment of the magic that created the Shadowfell plane. According to an old folk story, the stone came from an ever-shifting plane of chaos, a limbo. The stones were said to bring about creatures of the night, dark monsters to be avoided.

One of the guards that was with us looking at the body saw the body twitch or move in some way. He yelled about it and brought his sword down to break the stone I assume. The body definitely moved then, and a pulse of magical energy burst from the body. I must have been standing just right, but everyone else close to the body was pushed back by this force and knocked down. In the pulse, four creatures emerged from the body somehow (a portal or a summoning stone?).

Two of the creatures looked like tadpoles, but they were very large with leathery dark red skin. The other two were a sort of frog humanoid (larger than the grung, and very unlike them in appearance) with leathery dark red skin, very long claws on their hands, a toothy mouth, and small hard spikes on their broad, hunched backs. They immediately jumped at us and started to fight.

It was a long, hard fight. The chaotic frogs were resistant to most of our magic and could take a lot of hits. We lost one of the guards that accompanied Rodrigo, and almost lost a few others. The monsters had this odd attack, piercing a person with one of their claws and then never doing that attack again on the same person. They looked to attack one of the guards again with a claw attack, but paused before his attack and then turned to attack someone else.

The fight only took a few minutes, but it felt like we had run a marathon. No one emerged unscathed, and three of us had been pierced by the frogs’ claw attack. None of us knew anything about a frog’s piercing attack, but we did agree that their behavior towards those already attacked was odd. Also, Cyren told us something interesting. When the first frog creature died by Cyren’s hand, it sent Cyren a telepathic message in a voice that sounded familiar to him but he couldn’t place it: “Yes. Good. Keep it up.” It spoke in an oddly cheery but uncaring voice, or something like it. I wonder who Cyren thought it sounded like.

We woke up the woman to question her. In all of the chaos, I had somehow maintained my connection to her. When she awoke, she was startled that we were alive, but when she saw the creatures dead on the floor, she was very happy. She hadn’t failed her master completely, since these creatures had come to this world. Sighing internally, I watched her as the rest of the party settled around her. Cyren asked her some questions, including what she knew about the frog creatures, their abilities, and that claw attack. She became more pleased inside when she heard about the claws, but she did not say a word about it.

Cyren had a magical helm that had the ability to read thoughts, similar to my own ability I believe. He wanted to investigate her and see what she knew that she was refusing to say. The rest of the party wanted to know as well, so they kept an eye on her and the room while Cyren delved into her mind. I followed him around to see what he would find. Cyren basically saw the same things that I did, although I am not sure if he got the same meanings from the images. He explored a few other paths in her mind and found her master’s name: Azathoth.

Further along, we saw a spinning stone or crystal that periodically shone and spewed out a few tadpoles like the ones that we had crushed in the room earlier. Maybe it was a spawning stone of some kind? I don’t know really. We did not see anything about the frog creatures other than the stone.

Retreating from her mind, Cyren relayed what he saw and didn’t see. With a stroke of inspiration, someone thought to use the spell Suggestion to force her to help us with the creatures. They cast it, telling her to cure or heal the creatures’ claw attacks and reverse their effects. She stood up, like a puppet of sorts, and approached the closest guard who had been attacked in that manner. Chanting some spell and placing her hand on his chest, something came out of the wound: a small sphere. She crushed the sphere in her hand and moved on to do the same thing to the other two.

After she crushed the third sphere, she came to her senses again. Looking around, she became enraged and started to cast another spell with a malicious gleam in her eyes. A few of our party had been on guard and had prepared attacks just in case she did something while we questioned her. Before she could complete her spell, multiple attacks found their mark in her, killing her instantly.

We burned her body, as well as the frog creatures. We weren’t sure what to do with the orc body on the table with the crystal in his chest. I almost crushed the stone with the pommel of my dagger, before remembering that the last smashing against the crystal had resulted in the frog creatures appearing. Instead, I carefully cut it out, not touching it with my bare hands. We agreed that it should be examined by more studied mages in town, but no one else wanted to hold on to it. Fine by me. I kept it in my pack, wrapped in a cloth and put in a pouch. No doubt whoever is interested in it will find me.

The others may have investigated the room while I was extracting the crystal, but I’m just assuming that. We headed back to the cave entrance. Only a few hours had passed since we had entered, so the two orcs were very surprised to see us return so quickly, or at all. We told them that the witch was dead, as were the orcs who had been given as a tribute to her. They were spooked and wanted to return to camp as soon as possible.

When we came close to the camp, we could actually see it in the distance. It looked like the witch’s protection spell had died with her. Cyren went ahead and spoke with Chief Urgg about our adventure. The Chief told Cyren that he and the elders had held council and decided to leave this place, especially with the dispelling of the witch’s spell that had been hiding them from their enemies. While not unanimous, they agreed to move closer to Port Herve and enter an arrangement with the town.

I assume our esteemed governor will work out an agreement that will be fair and favorable to both parties. I’ll leave him to deal with the politics, too many complications (and a higher chance of exposure…) there. Anyways, it took about a week for our party return to town, accompanied by a sizable band of orcs. Port St. Herve is becoming more interesting with each adventure we embark on. Until next time then…