Mulligan leads the Hobbits towards the light, it is blinding as they approach the opening at last. A fair guess would be 2 to 3 pm.
What next?
Miron emerges from a stand of grass nearby, pulling his arrow from the string and carefully replacing it in the quiver. He peers curiously at Thoroncir as he takes the opportunity to dust himself off, wondering “Did you need something?”
I believe we were waiting for the orcs to leave and then we were going to follow them as long as possible using CiaS’s method for following distance. If possible, we want to see where they are taking the bats and what they are doing with them.
“When these orcs do leave, be extra careful. As much as possible we need to use our skills like we aren’t invisible. If we get led to the shaman, he might be able to see through this spell. That would just ruin our little adventure.”
Just a note: in Post 510 I mentioned that the Hobbit’s overhead the orc talking about getting the bats for the Chief or instead they would be on the menu of Grilianch. Thinking back about the context of what you overheard, you would be almost certain the bats are meant for eating by the Chief and nothing more special.
The Hobbits follow the Orc bat hunters back to the main hall. Here they take a left (heading North). The hall is well lit and a few other orcs pass the bat collectors and the Hobbits going the opposite way.
Listening to the Orcs hey appear to be pleased with the good haul and hope the hunters do as well outside so no one needs to be sacrificed to Grilianch. One Orc grumbles, why do we bother to feed that monster? What does he do for us? Another Orc replies that at least it is only rarely on of their own that have to go and the Vampire has always kept their tribe safe from the larger Orc groups in the area. It is our only defense from being controlled by the damn Shaman.
In more talk you realize that Grilianch is clearly the vampire and that the Shaman they seem to currently fear is the one controlling the Orc lair that you seriously set back last week. Apparently news has not traveled in detail to these 3 orcs at least.
You travel at least another 700’ and the Orcs open a large tall double door (on the right or East side) that leads them to a large vaulted main hall of good stonework. It runs 70’ to a huge chamber that is roughly 100’ wide and 150’ long. The ceiling soars to a height of 60’. There are many tables in the huge chamber and a large ornate throne on the far side of the room.
In the room are a dozen orcs working mainly around the North West corner that appears to double as a kitchen. There are normal size doors to either side of the throne and a small door in the NW corner and another in the middle of the south wall.
One more note, the double doors you came through were about 300’ from two massive doors at the end of the passage that quiet probably lead outside. They Hobbits saw two well-armed Orcs on guard in the distance. There were many, many doors off the main very long hall.
A big place, with good stonework? Sounds like this might have been part of Gondor’s fortifications to keep Mordor sealed off, long ago (as was Cirith Ungol).
Thoroncir smiles at Miron. “Good to see you again, my friend! I was beginning to wonder where you’d gone off to.” He brings the Elf up to date on their guest, the Beorning traveler.
Hmm, all good stuff eavesdropping on Orcs.
Almost tempted to start a whispering campaign while invisible that the Shaman is dead 
Asides To Elfstan,
*This looks like a much smaller tribe than the group we faced earlier, although the Vampire will cause problems. I wonder how they would react if they knew the Shaman was dead? Then again I don’t think they have a Shaman here.
The important thing is they still do not have a victim for tomorrow night so far.
We need to speed up and I think heading out through the batcave might be a good idea, so we know where our new entrance can be on the hillside.*
Can we get an updated map, please?
Miron nods gravely and thanks Thoroncir for the update, the paranoid elf whispering in case the Beorning traveler is a vampire (or anything else dangerous) in disguise. “I saw you had someone with you, but he seemed to be under control, and so I went off to harvest and prepare some medical herbs that I saw along the way. Do you want me to keep watch on the traveler, or have we decided to trust him?”
The hobbits quickly and successfully retrace their steps and squeeze out of the bat cave. The head back to Gil-Gandel.
I guess it’s time to go back and give an update to the rest of the Big Ones, while still invisible of course.
Cooking tonight could be fun. 
So we never did get much of a count of the orcs, huh?
As Elfstan and Mulligan head back to camp, Elfstan whispers, “Don’t forget about the Crebain. It looked like it the hill on top of the fort was a landing spot. If they are being controlled from there, the still could be a shaman with this bunch, or they could be under control of the vampire. I don’t think we know enough to figure that out yet.”
“Did you get the impression that the vampire might be living in the fort with this bunch?”
“Ghan is going to be livid when he hears about those animals! We need to clear this nest of orcs out soon!”
“I wonder what’s for supper? I’m starving! You think we will have time for supper?!”
The Hobbits and Gil-Gandel return to camp by 4pm.
Elfstan lets out a low whistle in exclamation when he sees Hodwain.
To Mulligan:
“Talk about Big Folk! He’s huge!”
Thoroncir tells Miron that he thinks Hodwain can be trusted. He welcomes back Gil-Gandel and the two burrahobbits, and they take counsel together.
Miron is happy to attend the strategy session in the open, having been assured that Hodwain is (more or less) harmless.
Hodwain, “If you plan to assault the orcs while they are out on their desperate raid tonight, I will help and thus maybe we can free the various prisoners.”
Renee, “[sub]gulp[/sub] I would feel better if we had Riglo at least to help us. How would we all get in? We also used several spells up already today. This might not be a very good idea.”
Hodwain, “I can offer you one strong hope against the Orcs. I can brew up what we call the Mead of Life. This will provide many short term advantages. It gives an extra +2 HP and a +2 to AC and a much tougher skin, like a bear or Ent (B penetration value). It is especially good against arrows and bolts. It only last 20-40 minutes though and cannot be used more than once per month. I don’t particularly need it, but I would be happy to make it and share it. Get me into the main hallway and the Orcs won’t be able to stop me, you just need to take out the Shamans and Vampires.”
Mulligan will give a rundown of what they found in the Orc Caves.
The guards, general layout as seen, the room with the animals + beetles, the batcave + new hobbit entrance, the comments from the Orcs and what we saw and heard.
Also make sure to describe what those beetles looked like as well, in case anyone recognises them and make sure Elfstan gets checked out as he was bitten several times.
Thoroncir favors attacking immediately, but is willing to wait if that is either the consensus of the party or the order of Gil-Gandel or Ghan.
Elfstan feels fine (right?) and would rather not waste his invisibility if we’re going to attack the orcs tonight.
“We didn’t get a good look at the main doors, but I’ll wager Mulligan and I could figure out a way to open them. We can try to hold the passage after they’re open, but don’t be surprised if you see two Hobbits running out the doors with a fortress full of orcs chasing them! The rest of you will have to be ready to support us and keep that door open.”
Miron moves to see to Elfstan’s wounds as the party talks, hoping his limited medical skills will be able to take care of any immediately obvious problems without forcing Renee to waste any of her spells.
Regarding the assault, he obviously prefers to fight out in the open, where the party would (presumably) have the advantage, but he observes that it might be easier to take the fight indoors: vampires permitting, a surprise assault would let the party sweep most of the caverns before the orcs could mount an effective defense, while staging the fight outdoors risks giving the bulk of the orcs time to organize themselves underground and prepare their lair to repel an attack.
In any event, he would like very much to get this over with as soon as possible: now that the hobbits have been in the lair, the longer we wait the more we risk signs of the intrusion being discovered.
Quick double-post to check on some OOC matters:
First off, how long would it take Miron to try and prepare potions with the herbs he gathered earlier?
Second, I know he talked to Ghan a few game days ago about growing some ingredients for a paralytic agent. Has that happened yet, or will he have to wait until after the battle?
Finally, since this seems like it’ll be a major battle, I’d like to clarify where the party would like Miron: archery is obviously his main skill, but he has an abnormally high CON and could probably try to tank for one of the squishies in a dire emergency.