Session II - Betrayed (2001-05-8)

Radagast and Drik were practically out of money after shopping for equipment and supplies. It was time to find something to do, soon, to get back on their feet financially. They headed for the sheriff's office.

Aelric was somewhat surprised to see them since he thought they had traveled with Aravis to her home village. But he was quickly musing over jobs that he would like to have done but did not have the men to do them. His first suggestion was to hunt down a manticore that was haunting Bjoric's land. Radagast and Drik hadheard rumors about such a beast, and decided it was too much for them.

Luckily Aelric had something else in store as well. He explained that Father Boris, the town priest, has had a vision of something bad happening to lord Khulven's nephew Allayn. Alain had just headed for an expedition to the Grove of Broken Swords to confer with the Black Sword orcs about trading. Aelric explained that it was probably nothing, they had only been gone for four days.

That seemed like a task Radagast and Drik could handle, so they queried more. They got the traveling instructions to the Grove of Broken Swords and a suggestion for guide. The Grove was in the Cursed Lands, after all, an area Radagast and Drik were unfamiliar with. Apparently the previous day an orc had arrived to the town and could be found in the Snortling Manticore Inn. Aelric also mentioned that Cordwellyn could give more detiled instructions on how to get to the Grove since he was trading with the orcs regularly.

At first Aelric was offering the regular pay of his deputies, five silver per day per man, which would have required the party to be sworn in as deputies and wearing the official guard cloak. Radagast and Drik were not happy about that, and wanted a regular mercenary contract. The contract effectively made the party a company, they would still get five silver a day but could wear whatever they wanted. In addition, the contract included rations for five days and winter cloathing. Aelric told his accountant Humphrey to draw up the contract. Radagast and Drik signed the contract for themselves and the orc, Hrun.

Radagast and Drik headed for the Snortling Manticore to meet the orc. As they entered, they saw a hugely musceled orc sleeping over a table (it was still morning). Radagast bought a pint of beer and placed it quietly on the table.

The orc woke up, but didn't seem to be in too bad a mood. In fact, after hearing him speak a little Radagast wondered if the orc could even think for himself. Hrun's sentences were sometimes hard to follow since he seemed to be leaving out all non-essential words. "Me Hrun, Broken Fist tribe," and slammed his right fist onto his heart, "Who you?"

After a little talk everyone ordered breakfast. Hrun did not like beer in the morning, so Radagast's money was wasted. Instead, Hrun ordered a steak. He also tried to flirt with the barmaid with expected results (what do you recon a human girl will say to an ugly, nearly imbesil, smelly piece of non-human?). He was strong allright (stronger than any human could ever hope to be with arms almost as thick as Radagast's waist), but that did not sway the head of that girl. It might have helped if Hrun was rich, but it was apparent he was also desperately in need of cash after fishing out three pieces of gold from his boot (his tribe had strict orders of which boot to use).

After explaining the situation to Hrun the party headed towards Cordwellyn's shop. Cordwellyn said he had just the right guide for the party, Venya. He instructed Venya out of the hearing of the party (even though Radagast tried to listen in), which was lightly curious. The next task was negotiating pay for Venya. It was agreed (Hrun turned out to be a sharp businessman!) that they would pay Venya two gold for the trip, or nine gold if there was fighting. Hrun added some conditions, like that Venya would not get a part of any loot and that he had to carry "stuff" or get nothing. Venya agreed. It was decided that they would leave the following morning.

Drik found a sleeping spot in the stables, Radagast rent a room at the Snortling Manticore for two gold a night, and Hrun spent the night in the bar. Again his attempts to seduce the barmaid did not proceed to anything, unless you count being slapped on the face progress.

In the morning they started walking along the river towards the Grove. They had made good progress until the wind started picking up, and it became apparent that they needed shelter, and soon. Hrun turned out to be invaluable: he built an "orcglu" from the snow, which provided good cover from the raging storm.

Hrun seemed to be at home in the wilderness, trying to find food as the party travelled onwards. He actually found some kind of nest with big black beetles that he claimed were delicious. Perhaps there is some subtle difference between the delicacies of human and orcish food since nobody wanted to try the beetles after seeing how green goo burst from a beetle as Hrun bit into it, the goo dripping down his chin and clothes. After stopping for the night Venya told that the destination was only one and a half days march away.

During the night, while it was Hrun's turn to keep watch, he heard some rustling in the bushes. He immediately yelled to wake everyone up, and run towards the sound. He found there was a group of Iron Claw orcs trying to sneak into the camp. Hrun challenged the leader into a duel. After a brief banter of insults and recital of origins the Iron Claw warband leader and Hrun went head to head. The leader was armed with a halberd, while Hrun had a huge greatword. The leader managed to hit first, missing Hrun. Hrun was first going to hit with the sword but changed his mind and tried a fist punch instead. He also missed. The leader got an attack of opportunity, and got a nasty hit at Hrun who seemed really surpised that somebody could hurt him so bad. That also stopped Hrun from playing around, and he swung his greatsword in a mighty arc nearly cutting the other orc in half. He was dead before he hit the ground. That must have surpised the rest of the Iron Claw orcs who quicly retreated.

Hrun did the ceremonial orc looting and stuck the halbed through the chest of the orc to point upwards towards his gods. That is an orcish way to show respect. The leader had died in an honorable duel. While Drik wanted to share the money Hrun had none of it. He just said it was a fair duel, and honorable orchish looting and that was it, even though Drik healed some of Hrun's wounds and explained that this is how they all participated, instead of just Hrun. There are just some things you do not argue with a mountain of muscle armed with a sword as long as yourself!

Now Venya was claiming that the incident counted as a fight and that he was now entitled to the raised pay. Hrun did not like that at all, and tried his best to make Venya break the contract. He said Venya must carry stuff, and he wanted Venya to carry the body of the dead orc. Venya explained that a dead orc is not "stuff", which lead him and Hrun into a long debate of what is "stuff" and what is not. Eventually they settled onto Venya carrying at least anything that had not once lived, and making decisions on a situational basis.

The next day Drik promised to heal Hrun some more if he would take a bath (Hrun was basically covered in blood and intestines). So Hrun stripped of his clothing and plunged into the ice cold river. Luckily for him it was quite shallow so he got away easily. It was unclear whether he could swim or not... "One of these days the impulsive nature and stupidity will get him into big trouble," were Radagast's thoughts.

During the day Hrun spotted a boar by the river bench. Everybody else wanted fresh meat except Drik. He wanted the boar to be left alone. Before he could argue his points Hrun had tried to explain that it would be a fair fight, the boar would have its change since Hrun was not using a bow. Since that did not seem to convince Drik, Hrun said he's was going to give the boar even a better change and charged the boar bare handed, dropping his sword at the feet of Drik. Everybody was somewhat stupefied by his actions, probably including the boar.

It became quite obvious that Hrun had met his match, since the boar was goring Hrun before he could get a good grip or punch. Even though Drik did not want to have the boar killed in the first place, he was the first to go and help Hrun. Drik attacked the boar with his battle axe, leaving his bow to Radagast, and yelling to Venya to grab Hrun's sword.

Radagast was trying to find an opening for a good shot, since Hrun might have objected to an arrow to the back of his head. Drik was slowly chopping the boar to pieces, and even Hrun had drawn an axe and a dagger after seeing Drik attack with a weapon (Venya was standing aside, holding the greatsword). Finally Radagast gave up and joined the melee with his longsword, but only managed to tangle it in the trees. Drik finished the boar with his axe. At that point Hrun, who seemed to be in some kind of rage during the fight, dropped to the ground exhausted. As soon as he was able to he dragged himself to a spot suitable for camping and fell asleep.

Venya and Radagast cooked the meat over the fire, and Radagast used a cantrip to spice up the meal.

The previous night Hrun had asked what was the preferable way to wake up a human to his guard duty. Much to his disappointment it was not the usual kick or a punch he was used to, but shaking up was preferred. So he had woken Radagast by holding him in the air and shaking him so hard Radagast's teeth were making loud noises. Now that it was Radagast's turn to wake up Hrun he felt it would be good to wake Hrun in the manner he wanted. So Radagast gave him a kick in the ribs and left Hrun wondering to himself how the boars in this area tasted so funny... He thanked his gods for good health, unaware that Drik had healed him while he slept.

The next day, when the Grove was already seen far away, they were attacked by a group of six bandits. Everbody was hit by crossbow bolts before the bandits charged. Radagast cast Mage Armor, but was immediately hit by a bandit sword and he fell to the ground, unconscious and bleeding. Drik made a heroic move and cast a healing spell at Radagast, immediately brining him about. Drik was really lucky that he was not hit, there were five bandits who had a chance. After the initial shock Radagast dropped one bandit dead by a swing of his sword, while Hrun and Drik finished another three. The remaining two started running away. Being pissed off Radagast tried to stop one by casting Magic Missile at the feeling man, but it was not enough. Drik tried to throw the other feeling bandit with Magic Stones, but missed. Then the bandits disappeared into the woods.

After the fight Radagast was the first to notice that Venya had disappeared. It all became clear now: Cordwellyn was behind everything, and him being evil the evil magical sword in his possession did him no harm. The party looted the bandits and retreated into the woods to gather strength during the night.

During the night they heard the sounds of wolves. They also heard some large flying creature attacking the wolves that were eating the corpses of the bandits. This they found out in the morning when they returned to the place of the ambush and continued their journey towards the Grove.

The scene that awaited them at the Grove was not at all something they had expected, much less hoped for. There were bodies, half buried in the snow. They counted three dead orcs and five humans. It seemed like nobody had bothered to collect the gear of the deceased since they found a bunch of swords, coins and other personal items. One of the swords was strange, with black blade. Radagast cast Detect Magic at the scene but did not discover anything magical. Drik found a letter from one human, which he hoped would help identify the people. All of the humans wore the crest of lord Khulven. One crest had a slash accross it, which might mean the carrier could be lord Khulven's nephew.

Before they were able to investigate further, a band of orcs rode up to the clearing on some unidentifiable scaly beasts (the Cursed Lands produces all kinds of weird creatures). The newcomers did not attack, but started asking questions; who were they, what were they doing there, why were they stealing their comrade's belongings, and most of all, what did they know about the attack. Radagast et. al. did not know much, but explained what they knew. The orc leader, who turned out be Krag, explained that it was their ambassador who was killed. He also stated that the black sword, "bone of a dragon", could only be wielded by a Black Sword orc and that all orc belongings must be returned at once.

Krag wanted everybody to follow him to his camp to straighten things out.

The camp turned out to be pretty well fortified, with wooden stockades, gates and all. As they entered the camp, horns were blown and everyone gathered at the center of the camp.

An old orc was carried on a litter to address the humans and Hrun. He asked what Hrun was doing with humans, and where he was from. Hrun explained things in his customary terse vocabulary, adding that he had come to challenge the mightiest Black Sword orc to battle for honor, but he would wait since the Black Orcs had suffered a loss with the death of their ambassador. Hrun also told about the ambush and betrayal of Venya, and that Hrun and his companions had nothing to do with the killing at the Grove.

The old orc seemed satisfied, and said Hrun's words had a ring of truth to them. They would need to wait a little while their fate was decided. The party was ushered to a cabin with two orc guards, one at least ten feet tall! Nevertheless Hrun boasted he could best the guard, even if Hrun was killed (sometimes his orc logic did not make sense). They did not have to wait too long to be summoned back.

The old orc explained that they would have to pass a test, and if they were successful their word would be trusted. Krag lead the party half a day from the camp to an entrace to a cave. He called it the Path of the Dead. The entrace was a hole in a cliff wall, and the wind made howling noises as it rushed in through the opening, spilling snow inside.

While Radagast, Drik and Hrun were pondering their fate (or who knows about Hrun, he might have been thinking about his delicious black beetles), Krag motioned for Radagast to have a private talk with him.

Krag gave Radagast a hard stare, and said that Radagast had not been totally honest in their last meeting. He dug up a book from his pack. Radagast's hopes, and feares, soared up - it was his old spellbook. "You are a wizard, are you not?" Krag asked. Radagast admitted. Radagast asked if Krag would be willingt to sell the book back to Radagast. Krag asked if it was true that there were schools in human cities where the gifted could study to control their extraordinary abilities and learn more about them. Radagast told him this was true. "very well, I have a younger bother who has the gift," Krag told, "and I want you to teach him to control his gift." Radagast was taken by surpise. He felt desperate - it would take years to teach someone to become a wizard. He tried to explain this to Krag, that Radagast could perhaps visit the camp every now and then to teach Krag's brother but he could not stay for the complete duration. Krag again surpised Radagast. "I want my bother to travel with you, to learn from you," he said. To this Radagast had no objectsions, if his companions would accept the deal. As it happened, he also had the perfect apprentice spellbook at hand, bought from Cordwellyn.

Later Radagast couldn't help but think: "What irony! I was the worst student in my wizard school, yet here I am becoming a wizard teacher myself!"

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