The King to Deor, “Not weaselly, truth. In the days of my father, when the tower was still standing this ancient fort held over a thousand orcs. We had but a scant 200 left and now less. I don’t know all the lower tunnels and I doubt I know all the secret ways. The fort is from before the tower was first built and some tales say it was once a human town in ages gone by.”
The sleeping and dead orcs have little of value but the King and his three strong arms are another story. The king carries a [COLOR=Blue]high quality pouch of possible elven origin. It weighs a good 10 pounds and does feel like it has coinage. His armor is high quality as is a knife he carries and behind the throne is a huge war-axe of great quality. Gwaelur guesses human made but well made. His crown is well made and valuable looking, possibly Dunedain or Númenórean origins is Gil-Gandel’s educated guess. He was wearing much, mostly gaudy jewelry. One of his rings is magical as is a ruby pendant. One of the scimitars is magic and the large orcs combines for about 180GP and 324sp[/COLOR]
Magic Items in blue
The King to his invisible tormentor (Mulligan), “Grilianch has favored us in the time since the tower fell by protecting us in exchange for her tribute. When larger or stronger tribes tried to take us over, she ravaged them and forced them to flee. I still have 80 strong lads outside along with those inside, we have no snaga left at this point. Are you offering me a chance to leave here rather than be destroyed? I will warn you, Grilianch will be most angry when she learns what transpired here.”
The King replies to Elfstan, “I don’t know if she uses magic, but she has stalked patrols to oblivion, leaving but one poor wretch beaten and tormented near to death to give warnings to their leaders not to mess with her chosen tribe. She can move quietly and attacks suddenly and armor seems to mean little to her talons of cruel steel. I have only ever seen her as a huge bat winged horror but I have heard she can move list a shadow or even a large bat.”
Working on keeping the king mentally off balance and hopefully unwary of the information he is giving away Elfstan interjects with, “You wonder if Grilianch is dead. That means you have considered the possibility. Have you observed any weaknesses with her?”
It would look like one of the groups has returned with news of some importance.
Gwaelur, Hodwain: I suggest letting some of them in and closing the door right behind. Get ready to bar it if there are too many.
Archers, cover them as they come in.
The rest stand ready.
Remember, they are expecting a group of Orcs standing around being concerned and are not expecting the current situation. Surprise is key.
Your Majesty, I suggest you return to your throne to receive him. I will be right by you. The idea now is to keep the rest of your tribe alive. You are going to have to trust me. Trust me when I say that we do not wish to kill you all, but trust me when I say that we can if we need to.
Everyone ok with that?
You know, I am beginning to wonder what the Orc King thinks of this disembodied voice.
Quickly hauling the many bodies out of the way and the 4 sleeping orcs (that are due to wake shortly so be gentle.) The Orcs outside sound suspicious as thy pound harder and call out, “Open the door; the front gate guards are dead.”
Renee interjects, "A few points please:
The King does not look very kingly at the moment.
You have not instructed him in what to say
There is blood all over the place
Upset tables
Far too many non orcs to hide for more than a few seconds"
“There is no time to make this look normal. I think it is up to the king to save the lives of these orcs. I say we let them in and bar the doors behind them if possible. If the king can get them to lay down their arms, they live. If not, they must die. Whatever we do, we can’t risk them running to warn Grilianch.”
With that Elfstan quickly moves towards the doors to help act as a blocking force after the orcs are through the doors. That is assuming that’s what we do. Elfstan will unsheath Sting once the doors are closed behind the orcs (or if they come through fighting of course).
Not the best plan in the world, but probably the best we can do under the circumstances. Thoroncir will help Renee swiftly take cover, and then will go to the doors to assist Elfstan and any others of our party who go there.
Gwaelur will pull his sheild back out and take up attack positioning near the doors.
Also, I am off to get married on Saturday, I will be gone until Tuesday. If anyone would like to play Gwaelur for the next few days feel free. I trust you all. Otherwise I leave him in the hands of our GM.
