The White Spear Massacre

An Orc generation ago, the War Chief over the Orcs at the Caves was Dro-Gorsk, second son of Hemira-Haashor the great Orc Queen, who established the Orcs as the rulers in the western wild lands and ruled what are now other tribes as well - She was Malbyish's grandmother, but Dro-Gorsk was Malbyish's Uncle, not his father. After her death and her firstborn heir's death in battle, Dro-Gorsk her second-born pursued conquest and honor five more years, and his younger brother Kugatesh, third-born, was his vizier and chief advisor, bringing prosperity, security and stability to the single tribe living at the Caves by managing the resources and activities of the warriors and the craftspeople. But as Dro-Gorsk's battles went further and further afield, Kugatesh became more and more disillusioned with his older brother's lack of leadership skill, and the fact he gave no credit to his younger brother's savvy management of the tribe's affairs and prosperity. No one doubted Drogorsk's ferocity, but Kugatesh was not the only one who called the War Chief's other leadership skills into question. While most problems with outsiders might be solved by a greataxe, internal challenges such as low birth weights, a scarcity of good iron and a need for more trading partners went unaddressed by the war chief.
So Kugatesh planned, and gathered allies, and made deals; he waited until Dro-Gorsk was waging battles far in the wild lands and then carried out these plans, seizing the throne from his brother Dro-Gorsk who yet lived and fought, hundreds of miles to the east; the plan did not include the elimination of his older brother. This was a peculiar event for the Blade Wardens, and for Orcs in general - one orc might usurp another's property and even the throne by force, under certain conditions, but that always included the irreversible step of killing the rival, and in truth Kugatesh loved his brother and had no desire to slay him. At the same time, Drogorsk was humiliated by the bloodless coup, and enraged at his brother's audacity, but letters from his brother sent before the coup had even taken place, in order to reach him in the field, cooled his rage as he came back from the front. Dro-Gorsk had to admit that he despised the small details and necessary diplomacy of leadership that distracted him from the pure, religious joy of hot blood spilling down his arms from the necks of his enemies; but he would not give up the title to his peacemaker, throne-stealer brother, either.
So at that time the single Blade Warden tribe split into two. The core group under Kugatesh remained the the Blade Wardens, recognizing him as their true war chief. His brother Dro-Gorsk took a new banner for himself and his accompanying troops under the name White Spears, a fearsome symbol sacred to Yurtrus the white-handed as well as to Gruumsh. After months in the field fighting Goblinoids and other enemies, he and his clan did eventually return to the Caves, and found that Kugatesh had split their formerly single lair into two. The presence of the former War Chief made things tense at first, but Dro-Gorsk had learned humility as well as patience in his time in battle. The two tribes eventually settled into a friendly rivalry with each other, working together and each coming to the aid of the other. And in his later years, Dro-Gorsk even advocated for diplomacy and good accounting.
Dro-Gorsk eventually succumbed to a degenerative condition seen in humanoids who have suffered significant facial damage over the course of their lives, a rapidly spreading sickness that causes the skull to become infected and begin rotting while the Orc still lives. It is an incurable and agonizingly painful condition that leads to sepsis and a thankfully quick death once it reaches the brain. Dro-Gorsk took the hand of Yurtrus long before his usurping brother, elevating the eldest of his surviving sons, Amdulgal, who was his fifth born, to his place as Chief.
Kugatesh lived many years more alongside his adult son and second Chief, dying eventually of a trivial thing, a bone caught in his throat while eating river fish at the Festival of Lost Eyes, after which Kugatesh was not discovered dead until morning. With the warrior caste eating, drinking, feasting and passing out from drink, no one thought anything was amiss until until well into the next morning, and it's likely Kugatesh was so drunk at his end that he was unaware himself what was happening. Malbyish, already a leader in the tribe, was elevated to War Chief and was a tough, pragmatic man without sentiment, not taken to much drink or feasting either after the death of his father that way, and resentful of Amdulgal who had already spent years as his clan's leader after Dro-Gorsk's death.
Malbyish was not, however, cut from the same cloth as his father and in his warlike pursuits he idolized and took after his Uncle Dro-Gorsk more than his own more analytical parent Kugatesh. He was not nearly the accomplished warrior his Uncle was, however, and even before the Long Winter he consorted with darker Orcish powers such as Yurtrus and Shargaas. Under the strain of the Long Winter, what Malbyish actually did in loyalty to them and in defiance of Gruumsh was unspeakable, even for Orcs.
Even average winters in the Border Marches are cold, pitiless, and long. And even the most mercenary tribes of humanoids must be organized and prepared enough to store up food and supplies, or they will not survive. Clans that live completely by raiding, as the Blade Wardens did, must endure three or four weeks in a row in most years, and sometimes several long dark months where the Trade Road is impassably blocked in snowdrifts. Amguldal of the White Spears, a more experienced leader than his cousin, regularly warned Malbyish to spend more time and effort stockpiling food rather than weapons, platinum stolen from gnome traders, and silk cloth, none of which can fill the empty bellies of the orc babies in midwinter. But Malbyish ridiculed his cousin, and year after year had brought only mild winters. Orcs lived on battle, not stolen millet and tasteless dried fish, Malbyish proclaimed. But in the end it was clear that Malbyish had been too frivolous with his generosity when it came to paying and feeding his warriors, at the same time that raids on caravans brought in less food. Amguldal, for his part, surely should have spend more time arming his own guards, however, because as the long winter settled in, the White Spears had food to spare, but too few guards and weapons to defend it against the Blade Wardens, who lacked food, but had plenty of hungry, angry warriors armed to the jutting lower canines.
Malbyish did what he could to feed his people, but the young and weak began starving, and the warriors had to decide whether to feed themselves and watch their mates and children perish, or feed their families but go without themselves. The better-stocked White Spears refused to open their stores to their cousins, arguing that they had barely enough to care for their own when winter came in Tenmonth and showed no sign of relenting in late Secondmonth of the following year. Malbyish re-instituted caravan raids, but in the deep snows Secondmonth there were no caravans to raid, and his warriors were too weak to mount an attack on richer targets like Raven's Rock Keep. His people were desperate, and though he was a man of war and action, he could do nothing as his wife Braha and son Flanshul went hungry and barely clung to life. On the day his infant daughter Geeta perished for lack of milk, he went out of his mind with grief and rage, and certain that Gruumsh had abandoned them, he blasphemed the Chief God of the Orcs and turned to Shargaas the schemer in his desperation.
Shargaas answered him. The Orc Schemer brought him a plan on his sleepless nights to fool the White Spears into believing Malbyish had plucked a bounty from a snowbound caravan, digging them out then slaughtering them and taking food and weapons and butchering horses. "Cousin, we have such meat and drink, but dare not store it outside in the cold where the Goblins will steal it, and it's too much for us to eat before it spoils in the warmth of our hearths. We will bring some over to share with you because it's too much for us alone."
Whether his counselors advised him against it or not, and whether Amdulgal was suspicious or not, we have no record. There is no way to know, because none of the White Spears escaped, or survived. Malbyish crossed into the White Spears' lair with his ten strongest men and a heavy crate filled not with food, but with chains and yokes. When Amdulgal let them into his throne room, Malbyish and his men easily killed his cousin and their guards, and then all the other guards, dragging them to the fires and roasting them there in front of the other Orcs of the tribe, who were chained and yoked, forced to drag supplies back to the Blade Warden's side of the lair. At first the plan may have simply been to recapture the noncombatants and eat the remaining stores of the White Spears, but Almdulgal had not been lying; they had precious little of their own to go around.
So Malbyish penned the White Spears, butchering and roasting them to make up for the meat he had desired but not found. He insisted that every member of his own tribe eat of the meat, to share in the crime, and promised that Shargaas would protect them from the wrath of Gruumsh, who was too weak to protect the White Spears and too cruel to feed the Blade Wardens, so he was too weak to be worthy of worship. Perhaps some Orcs of the Blade Wardens fought against it or refused to eat, but surely they too were slaughtered and turned into food for the desperate tribe.
Finally, early in Fourthmonth, the snows relented after nearly 14 weeks, and the snowdrifts quickly receded and melted away. That they had survived the Long Winter seemed to be an affront to Gruumsh, who had no reason to show mercy, so Voshagul, the Shamaness of the Blade Wardens, declared a curse on her own tribe, the Curse of Shargaas's betrayal; she said that Shargaas had given them over to Gruumsh for destruction and would not protect them. She banished Malbyish to the White Spears' lair, though she could not strip Malbyish of his power, and though her people could not refuse the assistance of Malbyish's remaining guardsmen because no one else could protect them from the predations of the Goblinoids or Lizardfolk. She prayed for forgiveness and purification, but was only told that the tribe was no longer the Blade Wardens; Gruumsh had rejected them utterly for Malbyish's detestable acts, in which all survivors had participated, and the name of their tribe and their leader would one day be stricken from all the annals of the Orcs. 
Now, they are simply the Dark Wardens, under the sway of Shargaas fully, though Voshagul is desperate to return them to faith in Gruumsh. Malbyish promptly returned to raiding caravans once the weather broke, but now he prefers taking travelers not for ransom as the Bugbears and Hobgoblins sometimes do, but as food. While this is acceptable to Gruumsh in extreme circumstances, the fact that he's developed a taste for sentient people because of his cannibalistic sins is utterly distasteful to Voshagul. She seeks his defeat, and some variety of redemption, but what shape it may take, she can't even speculate.

The Conflict

Prelude

The Long Winter, a period of time in which the Caves and the Keep were snowbound for over 14 weeks. It came to an end about 3 months ago.

Deployment

Malbyish and 22 of his warriors accompanied him to the unsuspecting lair of his cousin. He had another 8 guards remaining at home in case Amdulgal posted a bigger threat than he had anticipated.

Battlefield

The limited cavern passages of the White Spears, consisting of a single long hallway, a common room, a storeroom, a guard area, and the War Chief's quarters. The layout of the lair is not optimal for defense with many choke points and blind corners.

Conditions

In a fair fight, Malbyish knew the outcome would likely still favor his troops, as he had more deadly weapons, better training and stronger warriors, but it would be a bloody and desperate fight against Orcs defending their homes and families. So he created layers of deceit and counterintelligence to obscure his plans and protect the element of surprise.

The Engagement

The actual fighting was brief, with the few White Spears guards mounting a fierce defense of their home and hearth, but they were quickly overwhelmed because they were trying to merely injure or incapacitate and not kill their cousins.

Outcome

In the short term, Malbyish was able to overwhelm their foes, and convert them into calories for survival. His men feasted and his tribe fed as well, though less willingly. They all knew that by that point, there was no other way to survive, and having committed the sin none were in a great rush to the judgement of their pitiless god Gruumsh; survival was the only hope, to live long enough to do something to outweigh their sin on the scales after they took the hand of Yurtrus.

Aftermath

Had no food source been procured, it's possible both tribes would have starved to death; Malbyish certainly believed that it was better for one to perish than for both to die, and his pretty cover story was reinforced with some actual evidence when he discovered how thin the supplies were in the White Spears' lair. But in order to get to the head space required to eat not only your own kind, but in many cases your near relations - cousins and nephews - the Dark Wardens had to reject even the most violent and warlike of their usual gods for an even darker force. This in turn weakened the barrier between the realms of evil darkness and the material world, allowing something from the other side to begin punching through.

Historical Significance

Legacy

The collapse of the Orc colony tipped the balance of power in the canyon towards the more numerous and less picky Goblinoids, always a threat, and relieved the pressure on the Lizard Folk encampment further in the swamp which had at times been a target of Orc raids and plunder. It gave an avenue by which the bat-demon Camazotl might recruit an army of goblinoid Werebats to its cause, and snatch the Keep on the Borderlands from the grip of civilized, good people. Only time and the stout hearts of its defenders can tell for certain.

Battlefield Type

Land

Conflict Result

Ignominious victory for the cannibal clan

Location

The Caves of Chaos

Belligerents

The Blade Wardens

• The Dark Wardens

The White Spears

• The White Spears

Strength

• 22 Orc Warriors
• 3 Orc Spellcasters
• Orc Warlord

• 12 Orc Warriors
• Orc Warlord

Casualties

• 5 injured
• 3 killed

Annihilation. All combatants killed in combat.

Objectives

• Trick enemy into passive stance
• Overrun / overwhelm warriors
• Focus attacks on enemy war chief
• Keep the noncombatants neutral
• Ensure fighting stays in the White Spears' lair

• Defend homes and family
• Restrain or incapacitate enemy combatants