The party hatches a plan to attack Orc Hill. Though they are successful, they must give it up as soon as they capture it to head off a new orc threat heading south.
October 23rd
It's after midnight when the party finally gets settled back in camp and ready to question their captive. The elves begin performing a ceremony for their dead while the party wakes the
Orc.
Carlos's universal speech allows him to question the
Orc, but his answers are translated by
Ellie sarcastically, creating an odd extended conversation with the
Orc. With the aid of zone of truth from
Roswyn, they inquire about the
Orc numbers, defenses, and their leader at Orc Hill.
Ultimately, they don't learn much beyond that the leader is
Lord Darish, son of
Emperor Crush. It turns out the orcs' strategies aren't very complex. They planned on raiding the area around the fort, disrupting supply lines, and harassing the armies to slow or stop reconstruction of the fort. The party spitballs various ideas of using the
Orc to infiltrate the fort, but they find out that the orcs strictly follow their hierarchy and are not inclined to betray each other for personal gain. The party resolves to stealthily attack the orc hill with their forces. After they kill the
Orc, they turn in for the evening.
The next morning, the group decides that they have spent enough time together to become very close. And before they brave this new danger of the
Orc war, they decide they should all get married to each other.
Roswyn officiates the ceremony for the party that includes everyone but
Ellie.
Ellie gets a coming of age ceremony instead.
The party spends the rest of the day marching towards Orc Hill. That night, when they get close enough,
Yarver casts Pass Without a Trace to sneak them and their forces right up to the cliff face at the base of the ruined fort. The party and their forces climb up the cliff face quietly while
Arya silently flies above the castle see what they have to deal with. To his surprise, there aren't as many forces as they expected; only a couple
Orc hordes, ogres, and some dire wolves. Determined not to underestimate the orcs and lose more elves, the party carefully sets up for another ambush on oblivious orcs. This one is much more successful than their previous attempt near the river.
The party starts to investigate the run down fort and see that it's primitively decorated, not very clean, and very disorganized. However, they do discover some very old, illegible elven documents from before the fort was inhabited by orcs. Concerned that the fort seems to be abandoned, the party debates returning to the Emerald Outpost.
October 24th
The party decides to start cleaning up and fortifying their new conquest. They spend the morning throwing out corpses and trash, building palisades, and repairing walls. In the late afternoon, they are summoned to the northern wall where a scout points out a couple warbands approaching them several miles out. At first they prepared and braced for an assault, however the orcs headed south on the west side of the river, following the cliffs and trees for cover. Upon seeing this, the party decides to abandon Orc Hill and head down to Emerald Outpost to support them if they need it. They send word to Emerald Outpost before heading south, making camp halfway.
