Investigations

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In the past

A weak tribe, the Shattered Spear, "owned" the Rustknoll area. They vanished into Orcdeath cave.

Rickan and Hamish killed the warleaders and chiefs of the tribes that came to fill the vacuum, until only one tribe remained, the Bloodtalon. Rickan killed and the chief and shamed the next in line, Grolthk. He forced Grolth into an agreement to only raid the outlying targets, which were set up by the farmers. The orcs could preserve their token battles to win spoils, and the town kept its most precious posessions and its people. The Bloodtalon believe the area is cursed, and Grolthk and Rickan keep it that way. Things were in equilibrium for a while.

About a year and a half ago, Grolthk named Helgu, a masked witch doctor, the tribal shaman. The Bloodtalon started getting some real magic and were joined by a band of War Drummers. The tribe chafes under Grolthk and wants to do more than allowed. Also, the area looks good to outsiders, so Grolthk is pressured from inside and outside the tribe.

Another problem is a group of outcasts from the tribes. They have banded together and have the advantage of numbers, equipment, resilience, and organization. They may have a weapon cache or something that other orcs have not found, they are so well equipped. Rickan and friends are worried that they may have found another dwarven Foundry, since many of their weapons are dwarven.

What we have seen

In The Grove: A band of four orcbloods took down a war party of seven full orcs in a grove. The three survivors left a half-orc worshiper of Szuriel on a pyre, removing his right hand and apparently taking it.

At Red Fox Drop:Another band of five orcs and a half-orc were at the dead drop location to pick up or leave messages.

What we have found

At the Red Fox dead drop:

  • A burrow covered by a rock.
  • The rock is marked with a fire blast rune that would blast downward into the burrow, incinerating any flammable contents, as well as up into the air.
  • A trap in the bottom of the burrow.
  • 3 leather strips (40" long x 2" wide) marked with runes and symbols from various languages.
  • The rock, when viewed through the smoked glass lens, had the a smeared thumbprint in a bluish-grey color

On the half-orc leader's (Venak's) person:

On the second in command (Thrukk) and cannon fodder:

  • A curved mark of a claw on their right forearms, about 3" long

On Thrukk alone:

  • A belt with the same symbols in the same places as Venak's belt.
  • An orc tusk necklace containing carvings of orcish runes for words paired with other runes that Lani identified as Aklo.
  • An orc double-axe with the haft wrapped with rune-scribed leather strip. The haft can be used as a message cylinder.

The dictionary:

  • Orc tusks - orcish symbols to Aklo symbols
    • Dwarf
    • Human
    • Elf
    • Orc
    • Giant
    • Beast
    • Kill
    • Find
    • Get
    • Hunt
    • Bloodtalon
    • Warband
    • Witch
    • Warrior
    • Leader
    • Magic
    • Weapon
    • Claw
    • Fang
    • Supplies
    • Mine
    • Farm
    • Ore
    • Black
    • Green
    • Red
    • Blue
    • Silver

The messages:

Leather Straps, from burrow

  • 1 - Aklo: dwarf made contact - says the mine was collapsed, but there's another way in
  • 2 - ?: a Runic Hammer in the deep forge. Take it, and all the ore you can carry.
  • 3 - Skald: --- through the Clanhome, which was sealed but not collapsed --

Venak's/Thrukk's belt

  • Key to substitution cipher

Thrukk's axe haft wrapping

  • Prayer to Rull, consecrating weapon and kills to them

Venak's greatsword haft wrapping

  • Prayer to Szuriel, consecrating weapon and kills to them

Note at Taran's addressed to "The girl from the Stable"

  • Address writing was in the forest language - Sylvan?
  • Inside was a magic mouth delivering a message: "First and final warning. Go back now before you start getting in the way and I'm still feeling playful."
  • Fiona surmises it is from a fae creature that she spotted in the stable during the night.

Quick fey at the drake ambush

  • You're better than they said. I won't underestimate you next time.
  • (re Fiona) Turned her back on a dragon. Wow. Didn't expect that. Too bad the thing was too blinded by its rage to actually take advantage of that.
  • You owe me for the bait, the signalsmoke, and the poison I used on the orcs. If you leave a handful of gold on the rocks, here, I won't have to come collect it from you later.
  • I'll give you a hint: it's a simple Ventriloquism spell. Don't forget to leave my money on the rock.
  • Oh, and go back to Lastwall, otherwise, I'll be seeing you all later... and I'll bring an even better surprise.

Three straps from Asha's kitchen table

  • Heart of the Forest unusable - broken by Bloodtalon
  • Caught a shaman's whelp trying to bleed it, killed them all
  • Lost Mozark -- preserved hand, still whole week since we left it

Five straps from Asha's kitchen table, wavy mirror, red script

  • Warning: contact says Lastwall sending warband
  • Start raiding farms -- make messes, plant gloves
  • Will be well rewarded for giving up trophies
  • Should keep humans busy and looking in wrong place
  • Farms have stump-powder, take, will blast through collapse

The attacks:

Rustknoll

  • 1 - Magic mouth note to Xia, first and last warning to go away.
  • 2 - Rickan's cellar: cat was dead with a blade wound in its side.The cellar was splashed with mold. The cat had mold in its mouth and throat (did it eat some?), skin blistered around the puncture site, thin-seeming blood, and lungs full of bloody foam - lots of poisons or venoms will do that. Rickan has a cough from the mold and a spider bite on his leg (possibly irrelevant). Scraping the mold left a very sticky black goo on blades, probably alchemical. The goo may have been an accelerant for mold growth or the cause of it. There were bits of food and fruit in the sludge, revealed by Xia's purify food and drink - an alchemical component? Maybe that's why the cat nibbled on the sludge - it smelled like food? Multiple jars of preserves had popped lids, more than usual in a batch. The day before, Norfin had been yelling at Rickan to hurry from the top of the stairs, but did not come down. Rickan said the cat was asleep when he was there, and Norfin never came down.
  • 3 - Evil rumors of cat sacrifice. The cat was put into a bucket of disinfectant and buried in it, so how did anyone know the cat was autopsied unless they were there (invisible - fey?) or dug up the cat (Norfin?)
  • 4 - Invisible fey dude (Quickling) knew we were on the way to the second drop. It attracted and riled up the raptor lizards during our trip, so we'd be met by angry lizards. It also stole an ash drake egg, lured the adult egg to the location, and irritated the drake by insulting it while making it appear as if the party were speaking. The six orcs poisoned by the quickling were all Bloodtalons.
  • 5 - Someone (guessing the quickling) knew we were on the way to the third drop. It kidnapped a shepherd lad and used him to bait in the landsharks and to force us to go in and save him, exposing us to the sharks.

Assumptions, Questions, and Speculations

  • The Outcasts are well organized and operate in bands led by a half orc
  • The half-orc is trusted (the second may be?) to fetch and read messages. So far, the half-orcs we've found have been Szuriel, Horseman of War, worshipers, while some orcs worship Rull the Thunderer. Szuriel loves wars and battles, but good ones, not pointless brawls. Are the Outsider leaders studying strategies and tactics as part of their Szuriel worship?
  • The Outcasts operate through a series of dead drops to exchange information. Hamish believes the Outsiders are working in bands, searching for the mines and Runic Hammer. He thinks they may use the dead drops to communicate between bands.
  • A dwarf is helping the orcs (!?!)
  • The dwarf/Outcast team has found the "Deep Forge" - another dwarven Foundry?
  • The Deep Forge contains a runic hammer that the orcs want
  • The Deep Forge has ore the orcs want
  • A mine used to lead in to the Deep Forge but has collapsed. There is another way in through a Dwarven Clanhold that is lost. The Outsiders are searching for it.
  • The invisible tattoo on the half-orc might have something to do with deactivating the dead drop fire blast rune. We did it a different way.
  • Hey... why Aklo?
  • Who rebuilt Asha's family's farmhouse? The orcs to use as a waystation, hiding in plain sight? The orcs also used it as an alchemical lab, storehouse, and experimental lab.
  • H&R have the flayed tattoos. Rickan says one looks like something on an old pirate flag they found in Lake Encarthan.
  • An obnoxious, nearly invisible fey has been around the town, making trouble. What is his agenda? He was certainly capable of being hidden in the room when the party was planning next actions, so prepared the dino and landshark traps for us. He messed with our weapons and spell component pouches before we would need them most. He didn't want us getting to the Orc message drops, so he seems to be a friend to Outsiders. Maybe he's a reincarnated Outsider? Yet he does not help them at all at the actual drop locations.
  • A fox paralleled us on the first part of our trip to the farmhouse. Sahar warned it off, and it seemed to understand and be offended.

Possible actions

  • Find and raid the remaining dead drop
  • Decipher the third strap and check the belt and haft wrap (we may not have looked at Venak's weapon wrap
  • Have Rickan and Hamish look at the tattoos and other markings we brought back
  • Have R&H look at the markings on the rune straps
  • Scribe a map on a pelt using the invisible ink and drop it near a dead drop - maybe decoy an orc party into an ambush? Merlan made up a message on blank straps that we dropped into the Landshark Drop.
  • Figure out what the acid is used for. Maybe that would have deactivated the glyph (brushed into the rock with the bristle brush?) Used to "erase" and reuse straps.
  • Tattoo Merlan with the invisible ink and see if that unlocks the blast glyph
  • We know where the collapse is from Rickan - 12-13 hours NE from the village. Rickan seems uneasy about Orcdeath Cave. Orcs planning to blast through the collapse - should we do something about that?
  • The other Foundry entrance is through a Dwarven Clanhold, which is NOT collapsed. We don't know where this one is - try to find it somehow. Captured orc said his group was looking for minecart rails to lead them to the entrance. Look for rails?
  • Destroy Outsider/Blacktusk bodies so they can't be reincarnated.
  • Check on bodies we've left to see if they have been de-handed.
  • Visit the orchard and see if the Acorn is still there.
  • Try to capture a Bloodtusk orc and see what it knows? Doubt we can eliminate them since they are fighting the Blacktusks/Outsiders.
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