Law wrangles everyone together and leads you all out of the camp, He's silent to your inquiries till your a good 10 minuet trot from the camp.
"Sorry about the rude Awakening Garret. This plan was hatched last minuet, And I needed men I knew I could trust. I think we have a spy in our camp, Worst we had our couriers take a very specific route, We where trying to avoid whatever had been stopping our previous couriers. Only a handful of people knew of this, If we do have a spy they are someone important. You Both where away when we had the meeting about the new route, and Gryn... I would believe the sky was green before I would believe Gryn betrayed me, That leaves the rest of the upper commanders, a handful of officers from the Light Infantry, And The Duke's seneschal. As much as I would like to think it was the one outsider, He has less to gain then any of my men would by betraying me."
Your crew rides hard for nearly an hour, Then the courier leads you off road onto a poorly marked goat trail in the eastern hills, you follow the trail for nearly three hours before coming up to the spot where courier claims the ambush happened.
"About 10 men, All mounted, All armed like soldiers though they bore no sigils, Attacked me and Mick, Mick took an Arrow and fell, I did what I was told and charged back to camp as soon as I was ambushed"
Said the Courier, It's still dark, so Law takes out his lantern and turning it up to look over the scene.
There is a clearing where two goat trails criss-cross, You can see the ruins of a single story stone building, The doorway of the building flickers with the light from a fire that appears to be inside the old building. Law draws an ornate looking Bastard sword that glows faintly, and cranes his neck towards the stone building.
"Lets see what that is." he whispered.
Garett slinks along somewhat unused to sneaking about. He pulls his falcata from it's sheathe and crouches low to the ground as he follows Law.
"I've got your back, Law."
As you approach the ruins you can hear a trio of voices drunkenly singing in goblinish and smell cooking meat. The voices seem too caught up in their merriment to notice the men approaching their camp.
"Goblins Goblins hunt and kill, Goblins Goblins eat our fill, Human meat is tastes so sweet, rip and tear, eat and eat."
When you peek through the old door you can see a trio of goblins, sitting around a fire, Near them you can see the dead body of a human and in the shimmer of the campfire can make out the apple tree sigil on his chest, this is clearly Mick.
Parts of Mick's dead body have been hacked off, chunks of flesh, as well as his entire left arm up to the shoulder, the cooking meat smell is coming from chunks that have been skewered over the fire and left to roast.
The trio of goblins looks practically naked, none of them have the look of a warrior and in fact they look half-starved
The days where goblin tribes threatened this area has long passed, once a major threat, their tribes where broken up long ago by local lords and attempts by the goblins to unite into large tribes have been attempted but to date have always failed. They still manage to survive in small bands, small enough to hide from head hunters, and live mostly by burglarizing human settlements.
In Akion the bounty on goblins is 5gp a head
"Tch, nasty blighters. The only good Goblin is a dead one." Garret spits as he recalls back in the day when one of Mick's pigs was slaughtered and devoured by a few goblins in the night.
Garett will creep up on one of them and try to cut it down in one fell swoop.
Garett steps up, the goblins turning their heads and collectively yelping right as you cut down one of their companions, the other two green skins screaming and scattering apart.
Both of them screaming things like.
"No Kill"
and
"We not kill man."
Before being set upon by Law and the courier, Following your example quickly finish off the starved goblins.
"Disccusting people eaters."
Said the Courier after removing his sword from one of the goblins. What's left behind is a fairly grisly scene, The corpse of the late Mick partially chopped up with bloody half roasted body parts impaled around the fire.
"Where there he is, a bad way to end up, we better gather what's left of him to give a proper burial when we return to camp, Though first, we ought to find out who's been attacking our men, You did say it was men, not goblins that attacked you."
Said Law, getting a nod from the courier.
"I'm gonna poke nearabouts, make sure we have no goblins hiding around, Garret, Ostfri, Poke around, See if you can find where the ambushers came from, and where they went. Or anything else if you can."
Ostfried is a skilled tracker and he sets himself to work figuring out where the men came from.
Meanwhile, you are left to look around while your companions do their thing.
Ostfried notes the direction he believes the abusers came and left from When he leads you over to show you the heavy hoof tracks he used to indicate this, You notice something caught up in a tree branch. It's a scrap of torn cloth of a dark blue with a torn weave of a thread-of-gold.
Garett kicks the corpse of the goblin he slew into the fire and sheathes his blade before poking around the camp ground.
"Any leads Ostfried?" Garett finally says after giving the search the ol' college try.
You find a few pieces of jewelry on the goblins, a ring and a necklace, you would describe it as peasant jewelry, Simple and cheap but quite a valuable heirloom to the poor peasant who's jewelry box these goblins must of raided for these. You also find a very simple map drawn on the back of a dog leather hide. It's hard to understand at a glance, perhaps purposely so.
Ostfried nods and directs you towards a goat trail.
"Heads further east, our friend was not lying, I count at least 10 sets of hoofs, so many people on horseback won't be traveling far at night, not in the woods. so they may have a camp set up somewhere."
Law and the Courier return and inform you that they found no other goblins, And are ready to move along down the trail.
If Garret is unable to decipher the map, Law asks him for it, And is able to work out what it is, And advises they hold onto it.
You start following the trail, and within a few hours come up to a small river, following it upstream you see what looks like wooden palisades, Some kind of walled structure with an open gate, beside the river. Over the gate is a wooden sign with some words written in Orcish, and then in common the words are repeated. "Blackfang Clubhouse."
Ostfried looks at the wooden fort and nods.
"An Orcish Clubhouse, That's where they lead, You said they where men who ambushed you right? not orcs?"
The courier confirms. It was beyond any doubt of his that the men who attacked where human. Either way the ambushers where here at some point.
"Ok then, Lets see what's up, be prepared to run if we need to. But we have no conflict with the Blackfangs. Best to not get on the wrong side of an Orc gang"
Said Law, raising his cloak up over his head.
Unfortunately Garett lacks the skills to decipher a goblin map and so hands it over to Law for safekeeping. Garett holds onto the jewelry.
"Orcs are tough and I'm sure they'll brook no soldiers trying to seek sanctuary in their clubhouse. As long as we don't look for a fight, but don't shy away from one, I think we should be fine." Garett pulls up his hood as well and keeps a hand on his blade.
"Let's ask a few questions."
Your group approaches the palisades, when you get to the gate there is an orc Sitting on a stump just outside the gate, He stands up to greet your groups.
"Otalgg, Who are you and what is your purpose here?"
Law steps up to answer.
"We are Travelers heading to Luma, We're staying off the main road to avoid the armies. This is a Clubhouse? Can we get some rest here?"
The orc seems satisfied with that answer.
"Smart, Got money?"
And when Law answered yes the Orc waves you in.
"Welcome then, Make sure ya read the rules before going in."
When you enter the gate, you can see a two story circular wooden building built in the orcish style, in the center of the grounds, a good distance away from the walls on all sides, you can also see tends near the wall as well as a campfire, there are several people sitting around the campfire though they are too far away to make out.
When you come up to the clubhouse you can smell the slight scent of decay, as two severed goblin heads have been hung by their hair next to the door, Also beside the door you see a wooden plaque with a list of rules written in common.
1.No Tabs, Pay for what you get when you get it.
2.Take all fighting Outside
3.Lushes without rooms sleep outside
4.Dwarves are not served here
Garett strides into the building and will take a seat at the bar if there is one available or a table if not. Once possible, he starts to gather a bit of information from the barkeep or servers after putting in an order for some cheap food and mead.
"Anything strange happening in these parts?"
You enter the clubhouse, The room is a circular one cluttered with chairs and tables around a central fire pit, rather than a second floor, there an upper balcony with many small rooms with curtains for doors. The Walls are adorned with ornamental falchions and the stuffed heads of monsters and animals, Plaques. One of the walls seems to be dedicated top to bottom with fishing trophies and accommodations. Anything that could bring honor seems like a valued use of time and wall space for the Black Fangs.
There are 3 Male Orcs sitting at a table near the pit Rolling bones, one of them is a big hulking Gray hair with the long tusks of an old Orc, the other two are adults.
You see a lone female Orc at a table in the process of butchering a buck, She too is gray haired and wrinkled.
And on a small stool you see a plainly dressed Gnome teetering as he drunkenly plays a fiddle.
When you inquire about the Innkeeper, the Female orc responds, Collecting a silver piece from Law
"No food cooking, But roast this if you want."
She said, tossing a good slice of venison onto the end of the table, and chopping it into four chunks, motioning towards the firepit where there where metal spits lined specifically for roasting things. She then goes to fetch four mugs and fill them up. When you ask your question the Female orc unhappily pipes up.
"Humans, Lots of humans these days, with the war going on we've been getting them coming and going more then normal, we got a big bunch of them today, More then I like."
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"You boys aren't deserters are you?"
Said the old Orc at the table, jumping into the conversation.
"You got the look of fighting men about you, and I reckon these men we got in are soldiers, the way that armored one barks orders."
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"Or Bandits! They look pretty mean."
Pipes the drunk gnome, Putting his fiddle down to drink from his oversized mug.
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"Other then that we got a goblin problem, Think there might be a nest of the buggers somewhere, they broke into our Root cellar and stole half a years worth of dried meat. Caught some in the Lauder but I got them good with the axe. The heads keep them away for a bit but sooner or later some will try again."
The old Woman grumbles.
"Anyway, What brings you here at this hour?"
"Where are these fighting men camped? Mayhaps we ought to join them. It's hard to find work with this war so close. Are they the ones outside?" Garett converses with the orcs with a spit roasting in one hand and in between sips of his mug in the other.
"Nasty vermin goblins. Might know where their nest is if'n your interested."
The Old orc nods.
"Yeah, The ones outside at those tents, and a pair of'em up in the rooms, The leaders weren't paying the rooms for the underlings and none of them wanted to pay either. Some started picking fights with the youngins so we sent them out with a barrel."
[b]"You know where they might be held up? If your info seems good I'm sure We can find some way to reward you."
The Orc wise from age gets the feeling you're not lying but you are withholding something, He does not seemed bothered by this though, He's pretty sure you guys are deserters.
You hear a whistle, Law is sitting with the gnome and waving you over. Seems like he wants you to come over once you've concluded your business with the orcs.
"Killed a few of the blighters and I think we have a map to their nest with some of the junk we found on them. It's all yours, I'll give it to you when we leave."
Garett follows over to where Law is.
The Orc nods.
"You'll save me and my wife a lot of grief if we can weed them out before they start being a real problem."
The Orc who you now realize is the husband of the female orc shows his appreciation and orders your party a round
The Orc showing thanks by ordering your party a round on the house, Specifically he ordered your crew a round of a Gin made in house, He calls it Blackfang Gin and boasts of the high ratings it's received from the Guild of Gnomish Mixology and points to a plaque that says as much.
When you head over to law and join him and the rest of your group, as well as the gnome. you see them discussing the current situation.
"Garret, sit down. Meet Wizzlebon."
Wizzlebon Tips a non-existent hat off his bald head.
"Wizzlebon, Musician in the employ of the blackfangs, at your service."
Said the tipsy Gnome.
"I was just telling Mr. Law here about how strange these folks are, We don't get many strangers around here, most of the humans we get are regular locals, mostly hunters , So getting strangers is odd and this many is even odder, You said that you where looking for one who might be wearing blue with lace of gold? One of them had a cape like that, The holy man, They got a holy man with them and a big guy leading them. The Holy man is upstairs with the boss, and the rest are outside."
The Gnome finishes telling you all he told law..
"I wanted to make sure before we did anything, but I think that makes it obvious these are the guys who attacked our boy. Probably sent to pester our messages. What do you think Garret? I'm inching for payback but how would we go about doing it?"
Garett rolls his shoulders.
"I think we should take out the two upstairs before taking care of the rabble. If we're lucky, they might not be armored up still or asleep. I feel a bit guilty about starting trouble in their clubhouse, but these soldiers have already gotten them involved by hiding out here."
Law frowns and seems unhappy with that response, but after a pause he nods with a sigh.
"Hate to admit, But that's the best action. Not fond of the idea of breaking our host's hospitality. But that's war for ya. To be clear, we don't harm any one else unless we're forced to, ok?"
Law then reaches into his pocket and hands the gnome a small handful of Golden Coins.
"Not a word, there is more later if you're quiet"
The gnome seems happy to take the Gold,
"I'm Going to tell the others and get us a room, then we'll wing it from there. "
Law goes off and informs everyone else, he secures you four small room, and also informs you that he found out there are two large rooms that are occupied, he's pretty sure that's where the men are at.
He orders a round for the Orcs and starts swapping war stories with them, he talks about his time adventuring and the time he spent in a mercenary company who he conveniently does not name, this turns to boasting which turns to arm wrestling, and finally someone proposes a axe throwing contest, at which point the orcs and the men go outside.
You can take part in the merriment if you wish, but when the Axe contest is proposed Law silently motions up to the second floor, leaving you alone in the Inn with a passed out gnome.
Garett nods sagely to Law's words on war and follows along with him.
"I don't think other folks are going to be itching to get caught between army matters."
Law heads out with the Orcs, Looks like he was just directing you to handle it while he distracts the orcs. Two sleeping people? Shouldn't be a problem right...
The Inn is empty save the Drunk Gnome who seems to be immune to rule 2 for whatever reason. There are no stairs, rather there is a ladder that heads up to the second floor balcony.