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Journal Entries - The Orcs of Lede Journal of Aravin de Tylmarade Journal of Fatso Fjalar Journal of Ruegoth Ulgon I awoke and met up with Aravin and Viktor in the common room of the sailor's inn. With Fatso nowhere to be seen, we headed up to his room and found the Dwarf passed out on the floor. Apparently, Fatso had had quite a large night filled with far too much beer and considering he was alone, not enough women. We left the dwarf to sleep off his hangover. We were shortly summoned to Mithril keep by a messenger. Barconius told us that the Landover was being attacked by Orcs and that they needed our assistance. Barconius explained that Landover was a strategic city as it is on one corner of Denev's triangle. If it were to fall, a lot of refugees would move to Mithril. When we reached Landover, we were to meet with Lleddwynn Stridekeeper. Unfortunately the first part of our journey was again on the Vigilant. I guess if one must travel on water it is best to do it in style, and one cannot get more stylish than having mages controlling water elementals to help us reach our destination faster. On the second morning, we were attacked numerous lizard men with webbed feet. Aravin, the crew and I battled with the beasts as Viktor animated one of creatures into a Skeleton. We fared very badly in that battle, with Viktor falling and Aravin and I getting badly injured. That evening we reached the docks of the small port of Agrin. Agrin was a small town with an even smaller tavern next to the gibbet. The Vain Roberts' Gibbet had a large common room with a quarterdeck. We sat on the quarterdeck drank an ale and ate some blood sausage that we bought from a vendor outside. We could not find a place to sleep so we headed off into the wilderness. This proved to be an extremely bad decision. During the night, we were attacked by a colony of huge bats. The bats swooped down on us and the last thing I remember is the bats biting into Aravin and Viktor before I fell to the ground. I awoke a few days later, back in the tavern with Elizabeth the tavern owner looking over me. Apparently travellers had found us near the side of the road and brought us back here. We rested up for a few days and headed off to Landover. The journey was again filled with danger, but this time with us getting the upper hand but not without me getting badly weakened by the poison of a giant centipede. While on the road, I had a chance to reflect on the adventures of the past. I spent some time reading back over my journal and reflecting on the experience. This caused me to remember some things that I had previously forgotten, but also allowed me to remember what stealth and combat techniques had worked in the past and which ones hadn't. All in all this turned out to be a surprisingly rewarding experience. We arrived in Landover, which was a small town showing a small amount of fire damage. We headed to the local tavern, the Lion Rampart for a relaxing drink before heading over to Lledwynn's house. The ranger told us that they had been raided by orcs five times in the last six months, with no apparent pattern to the raids. The orcs didn't particularly seem like they were interested in killing, with their raids more focus with causing chaos so that they could take supplies. On the last raid, the townsfolk attempted to resist the orcs but this resulted in one of the outlying builds being torched. As the townsfolk attempted to put the fire out, the raiders took off with the supplies. The orcs were always from the same band, with white skulls adorned on their armour. We were to find out later that they were from the scorched skull tribe. We headed out of Landover on the 4th of Vangalot after resting up for a few days to allow me to recover from my centipede poison. From the directions that Lledwynn gave us we knew that the orcs lived near a tributary of the blood basin, about 50 miles to the west and south, deep into the plains of lede. The plains of lede were a dangerous and harsh place, proven by the pile of sun bleached skulls that we passed along the way. You would have thought that we might have made a connection between the big pile of skulls and orcs with white skulls on their armour but for some reason we all seemed far more pre-occupied with watching Fatso crawl around in the nest of the giant ants that we had just killed. The nights were just as dangerous, with us getting attacked by two groups of hobgoblins in one night but all of this paled in comparison to what we were to face next. The next day, Aravin was driving the wagon that we borrowed from Landover when we say a large group of about ten orcs with skulls on their armour ahead of us. Aravin quickly turned the wagon around as we tried to escape our attackers. Unfortunately for us, another group of orcs was behind us. Cornered, we Aravin swiftly drove the cart away from the two groups but they were closing in our flanks. Just as we thought we were getting away from the two groups, we headed over a rise only to find ourselves faced with another huge group of orcs. The orcs quickly closed in, killing the horses with javelins. Knowing that we were surrounded, we stopped the wagon and waited for the onslaught. We all stood and faced certain death in our own way, I stood on the cart and yelled at the oncoming orcs, Aravin stood proudly awaiting the fray, and Fatso stripped naked and started throwing spells at our enemies. Just we were about to get overwealmed when another band of orcs rose over the hill. These new orcs, the gravel fists as I was later to find out, swiftly attacked the skorched skulls. The skorched skulls quickly turned away from us, and after a large battle, were all but cut down by the gravel fists. After the battle, Donnangar, the leader of the gravel fists who bore a great falchion, took us on a forced march back to their camp. After a gruelling night of marching, we were locked in a hut and allowed to rest. That next morning we given back our weapons and summoned to Donnangar's hut. Just as Donnangar was about to give us a speach, we heard the sounds of battle from outside. Donnangar quickly told us that his tribe were being attacked by "The proud", creature with the heads of lions and the bodies of men. A little reluctantly, we joined the orcs in the fight and were eventually victorious. After the battle, Donnangar told us of their problems and why the other tribes were raiding the human towns. One of the gravel fists had returned from a trip to Mullistown some time ago, and after he returned, came down with a disease and died. This disease quickly spread to the crops and killed them too. This has caused the skorched skulls and thorn hides to raid Landover for food. Donnangar asked us if we would travel to Mullistown to find the cause of the blight. We spent the next two weeks travelling to Mullistown and back, part of the way in the company of half a dozen orcs. When we reached Mullistowm we discovered that the iron mines had been recently been selling iron with a strange fungus on it. Viktor, with the help of King Jaren's library, found that the fungus was a strain that was in fact deadly to orcs. We warned the miners and returned to the Gravel fists camp, not without our escorts being slain by another large group of skorched skulls. Upon reaching camp we travelled to see the orc phophet Gortak. Before leaving, I started to realise that not all orcs were savage creatures and that this tribe was both honorable and noble. I bid the orc children I had been playing game with farewell before going to see the sage. Gortak was both old and wise. Once Donnangar told him of the blight, he told us that we would have to seek a cure. He did not know what the cure was, we would have to travel to Mithril to find that but he told us it would be in the Toe Islands. I remembered from my earlier discussions with a sea captain back in Mithril, that this would be a dangerous journey. Over the next few days we returned to Mithril. Donnangar travelled with us and showed us many times in battle, that he was truly a great leader and warrior. Our fights along the way seemed all the easy with him standing at our sides. Upon reaching the city of Mithril, the captain of the gate, Otharia, summonned a party of 20 paladins to escort Donnangar to see Barconius. For a moment, a spot of guilt looking him in the eye, after what I had to do a few weeks ago but I quickly regained my composure and explained our story so far. After hearing our story, Barconius told us that we would be escorted by 20 paladins, just as much for our protection as the people of Mithril. We spend the next few days at the great library, and after a fruitful few days, Viktor, Aravin and I all managed to research the names of the three herds that we needed on the Toe Islands, Neltok, Gensogar and Greshnar on the furthest of the Toe Islands, Thalean. We hired the service of the Ghostmaid with Barconius offering to cover the costs if we were indeed successful. As the previous captain, the journey was as dangerous as he predicted, with us having to fight off frog men along the way home. When we reached Thalean, we were heading towards the swamps where the herds recided, we we started to approach some buildings when and arrow whizzed out of one of them and brushed past Donnangar. A vicious battle ensued with Donnangar racing up to meet his attacker, and the rest of us ducking behind building to take cover. A great battle ensued with us fighting some Rogues, some barbarians and a wizard. With our skills Donnangar's prowess we quickly managed to take the enemies down. After searched the enemies, we searched the surrounding swamp and found the needed herbs. Just as we were leaving the sight of the battle however, Donnangar spotted an orcish rune, the rune for eternal life. Upon speaking the words, the rune slid back, revealing another stash of treasure and a bag of seeds. Planting one of the seeds, it quickly sprang into a tree. Donnangar was very thankful as he could return these seeds to Gortak to aid their failing crops. The trip back to Mithril was uneventful. We farewelled Donnangar at the gates of Mithril as he left for the plains of lede. It had been a very long journey over the last few months, but I knew a learnt a lot about orcs, the countryside but probably more importantly myself. Journal of Viktor von Haelsburg |