The Missing Mages

Mages have been vanishing from across Andrim at a record number as of late, and parties such as Taze and many others are just starting to take notice, seemingly unrelated events now connecting as more and more of the threads unravel. The group of Free Lancers working The Assignment at Ockney's Hold first heard of the scourge of disappearances from Captain Bradley Tarves when he mentioned an old hermit by the name of Thanire who at one time was traveling into Ockney's hold to sell tonics and salves to the local populace for a bit of coin. He was a simple hedge mage, reportedly a reject from The Belestra Academy in Tor, not very powerful. When the group investigated his tree house, they found his journal as well as a spell book of his. In the journal Thanire slowly seemed to become disillusioned with his surroundings and left a final entry saying "I must leave this place, I'm going, farewell". The Treehouse was otherwise, undisturbed.
When meeting with Taze he mentioned the vanishing of a wizard by the name of Skoros from the town of Gravisford, who served as a kind of local advisory of magical things for the budding city. He stated he was traveling there to investigate her disappearance when he was last in communication with the party.
Blue orcs have been seen above ground lately in larger numbers, some tribes reportedly attacking caravans and slave runners alike. The party encountered a group of Dwarves of D'cann that had to fend off a group of these blue dwarves who attempted to take a slave from them, a small New Elbarian Eleven child who displayed magical powers when threatened by the orcs. His name was Xenthos and his story lead Noelle de Leon to surmise the orcs may be related to the kidnappings.