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The great Gulrog Half-Orc horde has controlled the temperate Plains of Dungrah north of the Turku hills for centuries. South across the Turkus, the rocky waste of a dead mountain range, lies the much hotter Savannah of Li'vah. This is home to a myriad of chaotic Gnoll tribes and the ruins of a once mighty Centaur kingdom. For the past three generations the climate has been growing warmer, causing the Gnolls to slowly brave passage into the northern plains and clashing with the halforcs. These Gnolls look for easier land as the fragments of the ancient centaur cities continue to protest their presence in the savannah region. It is still unknown to the Horde why such mindlessly violent tribes would band together at all, let alone in the dramatic present times. Prairie fires have been exceedingly prevalent. Large portions of the Dungrah landscape have been blacken. Left dry, ash covered, and lifeless; roughly half of the once great prairie is now gone. Lately the Gnoll raids across the Turku hills have greatly increased along with a dramatic
display of nature’s wrath.
You sit at a great bonfire with two dozen of your brothers and sisters. Belonging to the Stone-Eater tribe, Gulrog's very own before he united the Great Horde, those around you are both your only family and your largest rivals.
Tonight is not filled with bickering though. The Gnolls have assembled an army on the edge of the Turkus. The Army and the Horde have been camped out for days, awaiting for a signal to crush the other against the ashen, burt prairie beneath them. A lightning storm is beginning to roll in as the twilight hour approaches under a Sapphire Moon.
"Ta hag's child says this blue light shows the shadow of fate. I'm going to see a pile of Gnolls at my feet." Ma'greh chatters as she spits a bone shard into the ash dirt and then returns to her leg of meat. The 'Hag's Child' or Jirge is a Half-Orc with Changling blood flowing strong in his veins, a mute that only speaks into the thoughts of others.
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"I should be in the Gnoll camp right now. I could kill their leaders in their sleep." Dur'rok takes a deep swill of his grog. The taste is harsh, fiercely alcoholic.
And I would be, too, if Gulrog didn't order me to stay. "I can't risk it" he says. "I can't risk a mistake, not now." The High Warlord has grown soft. No need for all to risk their lives - I could end this myself.
Dur'rok never was modest or humble. But he was always mean, bloodthirsty, and looking for an edge against his brothers.
I should kill Gulrog in his sleep. Then I'd be free to infiltrate their camp at will, and would be named High Warlord when I returned victorious.
"You rely on your weapons, Ma'greh. I will kill more with my bare hands than you with your steel."
Tonight is not filled with bickering though. The Gnolls have assembled an army that hides on the edge of the Turkus. As the Horde has been camped out for days, searching for the heart of this Gnoll host so that they can crush it, the Gnoll bands have been attacking the Horde's outskirts in chaotic guerrilla warfare. They have created great distress to the Horde's moral and numbers, killing a third of the half-orc warriors while suffering minimum casualties themselves. Tonight a lightning storm is beginning to roll in as the twilight hour approaches under a Sapphire Moon. Time again for the shrill calls of Hyenas to rise outside the edges of the Horde's camp.
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Dirge nods to Dur'rok's sentiments. "They pick away at us while Gulrog fails to find their true host in the hills. We should be living in the night haunting them, not this way around. I'm tired of sitting within the Horde while these dogs kill our warriors slowly." Dirge kicks a burning log like the frustrated child he is.
Also, there should be some note about what Gulrog has been doing in this time, be it sulking or sequestering himself, just so the players know he's living and present.
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As the tribe sulks around a large fire, another Half-Orc approaches. The others only become aware by the clicking sounds on the rocks, as if by impatient fingernails. Burzum's yellow eyes glow in the firelight, and the cruel talons on his feet tap the stone he stands upon.
"What has happened since I left to make the great horde cower around their fire and die to Gnolls?" Bor'gol Stone-Eater steps forward from the shadows, his raptor companion Burzum at his side.
He tosses something furry and wet into the fire. It is a severed Gnoll head, and it hisses and flares as embers rise around it.
"Tomorrow we will hear them scream, and feast on their tattered flesh. My arrows will strike them down like bolts of lightning. The dead piling up at your feet will have my arrows in them."
In odd unison with Bor'Gol's words, the howls of Gnolls and Hyenas begin to fill the air, creating an uncomfortable hair raising mood. The camp around you starts to grow restless.
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Dirge is a small half-orc, much more the size of one of the extinct races like Human. He makes up for his physical disadvantage with something rare among the Half-orcs though, a keen knowledge of the world and people.
Picking up some dirt in his hands, Dirge holds it to his face and takes in a deep breath, smelling the soil. With his lungs filled, he blows the dirt out of his hands and across the great fire before him. He looks to the cloud for answers of the night, attempting to draw on his ancestral Sylph blood and the element of Air.
"...There is something different about tonight.."
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"I sense it too. Something looms before us, just out of sight."
The hunter draws up by the fire and rests his back against a rock. Even with the horde's entirety, and many deadly gnoll attacks, there are still thousands of orcs and half-orcs. And out there in the darkness as many or more Gnolls.
"Wake me when the killing starts. It's been a long journey."
Bor'gol returned to the horde after being away for years. He had traveled for two weeks. Unwilling to miss the chance to fight for his clan, or to let them die without him.
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Dur'rok has spent the last ten minutes applying poisons and filth to his blades - the shuriken and axe knuckles. The concoction smells so bad that those around him begin to wonder if he is smearing them with shit or bile.
He looks annoyed by the others having a normal discussion.
"The f*&~ are you two fairies on about? Some mystical namby-pamby bullshit, no doubt. I'll tell you why tonight's different: it's the last night those furry-cocked motherf#$!ers spend on this planet before we wipe them from existence."
He takes another deep swig from his grog. "You pussies want to survive the battle, stick on my heels like shit on a leaf."
The clashing of metal on armor and bone begins to ring out, joining the howling of the Gnoll perimeter raids. The intensity soon grows to surpass what has been heard in the past week. As you start to question whether this is more than another test of defenses, a fellow horde member stumbles into the firelight out of breath.
"YOU! Continue this alarm!" He yells pointing at a man next to Dur'Rok, indicating that he is to run on to the next fire. "This is no skirmish, the Gnolls attack in full force from the direction that I came. They seek to break the Horde tonight, LET US FEAST ON THEM INSTEAD!"
There is commotion at the fire, your brothers and sisters begin to stand and gather their arms. Some seem stunned but most are screaming in ecstasy as adrenaline begins to coarse through their veins. The messenger then turns to run off towards where he came, he only makes it a few steps before he is lifted off the ground with a spear head piercing through his back!
As the Gnolls press in two fellow Orcs drop to thrown spears!
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Bor'gol springs to his feet, longbow in hand.
He plants his feet and takes on the aspect of a Bull and gives Burzum the same aspect .
In a low and raspy voice he casts on Burzum, who was standing and hissing the moment the other Half-Orc rushed up to their fire. Potent yellow acid begins to slough out from his mouth like slobber. It bubbles and smokes where it drips on the rocks below.
"Burzum, SOOF!" He points his calloused hand to the nearest Gnoll and sends his raptor companion charging off towards their foe.
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"Well f+@& me, my wish came true."
Dur'rok springs to his feet, excited that the fight has finally come after days of waiting.
moves towards the nearest gnoll (that is not currently targeted by another character), his large hands balled into tight fists.
"This one's mine! I'm going skull f#~% you with these hands, you rat f!&~."
The other members of the horde jump to their feet, several make ranged attacks with javelins or throwing axes. Four Gnolls fall in the onslaught.
The Gnolls and Hyenas continue to encroach and attack the gathered Horde members, two more half-orc falling to their spears.
The Gnolls approached by Burzum and Dur'rok jab attacks at them while chattering wildly in the night.
Burzum eviscerates the Gnoll while Dur'rok is unable to connect with either of his blows.
The orc horde lashes out! Killing two enemies.
The Gnoll take action again, first two attack Dur'rok! One Gnoll lands a blow for 11 damage..
Then two attack Burzum but they both are unable to catch the elusive raptor.
The next attacks Dirge and misses as well.
The rest of the gnolls attack the horde, all failing to slay.
The reptilian-killer, Burzum incapacitates another enemy. The orc horde then strikes out! Giving Dur'rok some needed aid.
The Gnolls make their attacks, knocking Dur'rok out and kill 3 more horde members.
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Seeing his horde brother fall, Bor'gol looks to fill the gnoll that dropped him with arrows.
It only takes well placed arrow through the neck to sever the spine of the gnoll that beat his brother down. Bor'gol then turns his attention to another gnoll and fires another arrow.
To his pleasure, the half-orc sees that his raptor friend has taken it upon himself to continue attacking new enemies as they come into range of the firelight.
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Dur'rok looks down at his abdomen. The hole in his chest wheezes as he breathes, and another attack opened his belly so his intestines try to push their way out. He clutches them with his left hand and scowls. "Killed by a gnoll...F*%+ing pitiful."
Before he drops, Dur'rok makes one last strike at the gnoll that killed him.
He misses again. "I f@*@ing...deserve...this." Dur'rok falls onto his back, hand clutching the worms trying to crawl out of his midsection.
With a flurry of successful attacks Bor'gol and Burzum take down three more Gnolls! The horde rallies to this and lashes out at the Gnoll army, killing 2 more gnolls!
"Keep your ground in the light!" Yells one of your brothers, "They're falling like puppies!"
The Gnoll army then lashes out at the horde, but the horde holds true and defends well. Only one member falling.