Session 5 -- Orc Warren

Even though the party now has sufficient weapons for taking on the golems, they decided to tackle one more side quest for the XP drop.

The Cistercian monks are in the process of rebuilding Hore Abbey, but a shipment of building materials was intercepted and stolen by the orcs who live in the orc warren.  The orcs have been recovering from a plague, and they stole the shipment in order to take the bitumen used for waterproofing in order to make medicines. The monks are offering 200gp for the recovery of the building materials.

As they approach the orc warren. You can see a high palisade wall made of wood, and you’re pretty sure you saw some movement on top of it when you first came into view. One of the giant doors is slightly ajar, and it appears to be off its hinges. There is a general sense of decay and neglect about the place. There are also a number of large piles of burned timber and bone in the grassy area outside the gates. These piles stand ten to fifteen feet tall. Some appear fresh, while others seem to be years old.

Vedica uses her amulet of invisibility to sneak inside and scout the layout of the orc's village. She finds some orcs -- some guards patrolling and some sick families -- before she comes across a round hut near the back. This round hut seems to have been the residence of the war chief.  The doors have been broken off  their hinges and shattered.  Where the doors had been, there is a spear driven into the ground, point-upward. Skewered on the spear is the jawless skull of an orc. Inside, you can see the chief’s Great Seat, or what is left of it. In front of the battered chair, you can see the skeleton of what you assume to have been the chief, on account of the quality of his rusted armor. The skeleton here is headless, and it is obvious that the skull in the doorway belonged to him.  This are many barrels of bitumen being stored here.

In another hut, the broken down door and collapsed portion of the wall reveal what appears to have been a temple or shrine of some kind. There is a stone idol which has been smashed.  Later, when the whole party enters the village, promising to help the orcs, Tiv is able to tell the players that the idol was originally of Gruumsh, the chief orcish deity.   

They find a passage into the mountainside that is covered over with rubble. The orcs have sealed it up. The PCs decide to better seal the rubble using the bitumen and to tell the Cistercians about the issue when they return the rest of the building materials (the bitumen was for waterproofing the roof).

The orcs believe that whatever is in the mountain is the cause of the plague, and it was from there that they contracted the hideous wasting disease. A diseased victim has a -2 penalty on all attack rolls. In addition, the victim's wounds cannot be magically cured, and natural healing takes twice as long as usual. The disease is fatal in 2dl2 (2- 24) days unless removed by a cure disease spell. Tiv does not have cure disease, but the Cisctercian clerics do.

The party decides to go for the golems next.