Tales and Whispers

There has been a skirmish between two groups of orcs south of Castle Sulafrait; a large warband is said to have ovenvhlemed a raiding party of 50 or so orcs. Maybe an all-out struggle for power between orc war leaders is brewing (DM note: this may just be wishful thinking).

Just north of Cantona, a mile in from the coast, orcs and human slaves have been seen at work constructing some great iron cylinder, perhaps some unknown type of war engine. It’s said that a dwarf, probably a slave, was acting as an engineer on the project. Surely a Greyhawk strike squad will do something about this soon?

An orog party has taken over Castle Sulafrait, and this time, the orogs want to take it for keeps; they have human slaves rebuilding the castle. The orog are really nasty specimens; one of them is said to be a high-ranking priest of Gruumsh. Some of those human slaves may well be zombies-after all, zombies don’t get tired and they don’t need food to keep working.

There’s an elf/orc war brewing in the eastern Welkwood. Fires have been seen miles away, and a spy in Castle Mastryne says that a renegade orc warband has set off to burn out wood elves and raze the land as far as the Jewel river.

The orcs may be learning about sailing after all. The Pride of Zagyg, sailing out of Hardby, sank a cog southeast of Cantona which was laden with orcs, and the marines say that they had learned how to use bows from perches in the rigging. They weren’t much good at firing in the daylight, but if they learn, they’ll be a real menace.

The Narwell militia boys came back astonished from one patrol westward-rolling across the plains came a huge, glowing, yellow ball of light, yards across, which sped past them and dispatched twenty or so chain-clad, horse-riding bandits a few miles further on! The horsemen raided a farmstead, killed the family, stole livestock and horses, galloped back into the glowing ball-and vanished! Of course, the militia won’t say exactly where this happened for “security reasons: but even the Baron is worried over this one.

Three druids passed south of Narwell recently, headed for the Welkwood, accompanied by a great number of tigers-nearly a dozen. The great cats wore brass banding on their forelimbs and collars with gemmed pendants which were said to radiate magic when checked by some young whippersnapper priest‘s acolyte. It’s a druidic warband, but what do they seek?

Within the Welkwood, beside the Jewel’s east bank, a group of voadkyn have been seen forming a tight defensive circle, excluding any forest travelers from an area a mile or so across. They are clearly guarding and waiting. They are said to have arrived at their current position a week after a violent storm’s lightning felled many trees, and the river churned with great violence, so that its waters were discolored by brown- green mud for days afterward. Some say a mon- strous river eel, a score yards long, emerged and laid waste to land around until the giant-kin slew it. What they are guarding, or who they are waiting for, are completely unknown.