We rested and healed, and then gathered our wits to return back to the dungeon and go after the gnolls. However, during that week our friend Nepomuk had heard of a tragedy that had happened in nearby Holbeck, the small village where Rovan and Nepomuk had discovered (charmed) our Frogman friend.

By rumor, orcs had stormed the village and forcefully removed a maiden. The Baronet had already dispatched guards, but we found out from our friend Alda that those guards were just eight to ten, so we Darion reckoned they were not there to investigate or save the abducted one, but simply to sit tight and watch the village.

Damsels before Kobolds

With a kidnapping still active, we felt that our kobold friends would have to wait: we asked Alda to come along, picked up our newly charmed Hobgoblin, and travelled south – a great number of us now: Darion, Rovan, Apoqulis, Nepomuk and Heidel, with the Hobgoblin and Alda the Thief.

We left the Hobgoblin in the forest with something to eat and entered the village, presenting ourselves as willing helpers.

This heroic entrance notwithstanding, the tavern keeper did not budge on the prices, which were worryingly high for broke Darion. Luckily Nepomuk decided to pay for him.

Finally we could gather more details about the rumor: We heard that the abductee, one Gwelayn, had not only been “forced to come with the orcs”, as someone in Morgansfort had put it, but actively “picked up and carried away screaming”.
In addition the father of the victim, looking pretty down on his luck, explained that the orcs had actively looked for his daughter among all people.

Targeted Hit

That was weird – Darion asked about that detail: why just this particular woman? What made her special? A bad question to ask of a father – of course his daughter was special!
Anyway, doggedly staying on the topic Darion finally pulled the truth out of the villagers like a bad tooth: She was NOT the only victim. She had been taken away together with someone called Saril, a serving maid; but apparently not one that was missed much. Although, the both of them had lived in the same house.

Inspecting the crime scene yielded no more valuable insights: there were three rooms, one for the dad, one for his daughter Gwelayn, one for Saril. The orcs had struck down the man with the butt of a spear and dragged off the females.

A little Fee

Darion failed to think of it, but Rovan, Heidel, and Nepomuk suggested that we should get paid for the rescue.

The father offered 1000 gold for the deed; the group asked for 5000; he swore he didn’t have that, the group went down to 2000, even offered deferred payment, but no way: In the end we settled at the initial 1000 flat.

Finally we set out into the forest, followed directions as given, and discovered an orc cave with two guards standing in front of it.

Something off

Now, this is where Darion wondered: Why was it so easy to find, why were they standing there like that, why did they go into just that one house to grab girls, why did they strike down the father with the butt of the spear and not the point? Something in this story didn’t quite add up, and he wondered if it would not be smart to walk up to these guards and talk about it – and he would have, if it had been only one guard.
But there were two, and he did not like the risk that one of them would sound an alarm while he was busy talking with the other.

Anyway, by that time the others had made up their minds about attacking, and we burst forth and killed the two guards.

Alas, we had made some noise, so five more came out to check the situation. We attacked those too, and Rovan charmed one of them and told him that we were here to investigate the murder of the two orc guards. We killed one of the other four, but three retreated to fetch twenty more, and our future looked a lot like that of people running away through rough terrain.

All a big misunderstanding

Then suddenly a troop of orcs came up from behind, and one orcesse who spoke our language called “Halt! What are you doing!”

Well… with a sinking feeling we stopped, they stopped too, and the orcesse called Badushna sorted the situation:

The orcs had been forced to grab the girls, she told the tale, by an evil human, a necromancer, and they wanted nothing more than to be left in peace to live in tune with mother nature. And now three of their noble warriors lay dead at our unjust hands!
Well, awkward. But on the other hand: they had abducted the two good women, had they not? Sure, but that was all the fault of the bad human, they said.

Trust your instincts

Well… Darion felt very much responsible for this blunder; had he not felt the hunch that something was amiss? Had he not felt compelled to talk rather than kill?
But he had gone along, so those dead were squarely on him.

Don’t judge a book by its cover!

He explained to Badushna that in our culture the abducting of women was frowned upon, and she allowed that in orc culture that line of thinking was not totally alien. Hooray!

Unlikely alliances

Darion promised that we would rid the orcs of that necromancer. Initially, we only wanted to get the kidnapping-victims back to their homes, but now that we had blood on our hands we felt it our duty to help the orcs.
The others did not quite feel so guilty as Darion, but they nodded along.

Next the boss of the orcs came out, an ogre called Onik, and he stormed and stomped and raised his enormous club. Already Rovan started to spill his typical oil on the floor so we could run and light a big fire behind us. Indeed, Onik demanded that we remove the evil necromancer AND give him Rovan to kill, to make up for the three dead orcs, and he ignored the pleas of the charmed orc.

Darion stepped forward to stand right face to face with the ogre’s eight-pack, and bravely said that he took full responsibility for the slain orcs, and offered to accept being in a blood-debt to the tribe: We would KEEP Rovan, alive and well, but we would be in debt to the orcs and help them – now against the necromancer, and again in the future if they’d needed it.

Darion counted on the fact that the orcesse had already negotiated and not ordered her warriors to attack, so this Onik might also be not so quick to crush the little human’s skull with that huge club.

That worked out, and Onik and Badushna agreed to overlook the tragic loss of their guards for now.

They led us into the cave, past roughly a dozen others with sullen, hurt expressions, no concept of any wrongdoing about the abduction, but also no strong motivation to tear us to pieces to avenge their dead.

As we went into the necro-dungeon, Badushna gave us a helpful warning about deadly traps on our way. And then we were alone.

The power of Thieves and Dwarves

Thanks to Alda’s and Heidel’s sharp eyes and ears, and her skill at picking looks, and a bit of luck about a pit trap not triggering when Rovan walked right on it, we made our way safely to some sort of prison, where we found the un-loved victim whom nobody missed: Saril.

Darion broke open her cage with his crowbar, told her she was safe and let her share her story, and any hints she may know.

Meanwhile, six gruesome undead stalked up from behind, but Apoqulis stood up to them confidently and turned them in the name of the Faith.

We let them go – we were after the necromant, not after random shambling corpses.

Saril said that Gwelayn had been imprisoned in cage X, and that she had been taken away via a secret door in there.

More Oddities

Secret doors in prison cells … odd, but okay: Necromancers are odd, so that checks!

We inspected the wall, and after some struggle and with Saril’s detailed description, Heidel managed to find the trigger, and the wall opened, just as Saril told it.

In we would go!
But first: Time freeze, cliffhanger, and curtain.

More Morgansfort