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Post by Ranger on Jul 17, 2006 18:28:01 GMT -5
Ranger lowered his head and thought about how he was going to tell the Sgt about this. He hoped he could even get into the town long enough to explain himself and ask for forgiveness. He continued along with the group knowing soon he wouldn't be worrying about this but about how to survive his encounter with the orc clan.
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Post by Draxas on Jul 18, 2006 10:33:39 GMT -5
The group continued towards the mountains, their way now illuminated only by the light of the stars and a crescent moon. It wasn't long before they could see the orc camp off in the distance, the entrance lit by torches and the rest surrounded by a tall but crude stockade. The shaman put a halt to the group before they drew too close.
"We need a plan," he said, "We can't simply walk through the front gate."
Gulg responded in orcish, which prompted the shaman to say, "That's suicide. No. We need a better plan than fighting our way through."
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Post by Ranger on Jul 18, 2006 22:50:57 GMT -5
"I agree," Ranger said, "I wish we knew the layout of the stockade. There are probably some patrols about too so we should be watchful. I say we look for a back way in though."
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Post by Draxas on Jul 20, 2006 13:27:00 GMT -5
"We must find some other way in," said the shaman, "The back seems reasonable. We should try to circle around to find something. Hopefully the darik will give us enough cover so as not to be discovered."
"Any objections," he concluded, glaring at Gulg. The orc scowled back and gripped his axe handle, but remained quiet.
"Good. Then let us go."
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Post by Ranger on Jul 20, 2006 14:34:47 GMT -5
Ranger decided sneaking was prolly out of the question with the big green machine behind him but he did try to go about circling the camp in as stealthy a way as he thought he could muster with Gulg and the goblins.
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Post by Draxas on Jul 20, 2006 23:21:15 GMT -5
Ranger was surprised to find that the goblins were about as good at stealth as he was. However, Gulg was uncooperative, unsurprisingly, standing tall (excepting his ever-present slouch) and brazenly walking around behind them with his axe drawn, obviously expressing his desire for a fight despite not running off to find one on his own. Before too long, the goblins just gave up, and tried to be satisfied with giving the stockade a wide berth while they observed the situation.
As the group moved clockwise around the settlement, the poorly-made stockade presented numerous avenues of ingress. It was quite a slipshod affair, with the individual stakes randomly placed and jutting up at all kinds of strange angles. However, the gaps were not terribly large in any case; while Ranger and the goblins could gain access with a bit of squeezing, Gulg would have to either find or make another way in.
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Post by Ranger on Jul 21, 2006 0:09:16 GMT -5
"Shaman," ranger said, "Why don't we have Gulg widen one of these gaps so he can get through... do you think he could?"
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Post by Draxas on Jul 21, 2006 0:17:12 GMT -5
The shaman glanced over at the hulking orc, who still seemed to be looking for a fight to come and find him.
"Probably," he grumbled, "But not without alerting the entire guard. This stockade is designed to keep out enemies that the orcs consider dangerous. In an orc's rather limited worldview, that pretty much means other orcs. Sometimes I wonder how they have any kind of coherent society at all."
"Anyway, we should keep looking; maybe they were clumsier in the construction elsewhere."
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Post by Ranger on Jul 21, 2006 0:51:09 GMT -5
"sounds good enough to me. At least we have a fall back idea if things go wrong," Ranger said as he moved along the stockade's exterior from a distance.
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Post by Draxas on Jul 21, 2006 9:39:08 GMT -5
The group continued around the perimeter of the settlement, evaluating their chances to sneak inside, but none of the avenues of entry looked terribly promising thus far.
As they began to approach the opposite end of the stockade from where they had first arrived, the illumination grew a good deal brighter. The group backed off a bit more to avoid discovery and continued to circle, moving very close to the sharp rise in elevation that marked the start of the mountains. It was quickly discovered that the back of the settlement had an illuminated and guarded gate just like the one in the front; this one led to a pass leading up into the mountains. They observed this from a good distance from both the gate and the pass, in order to better avoid detection.
"So much for a back entrance," said the shaman, "I'm not surprised. This clan originally came from the mountains, it makes sense that they would maintain the old trail. Of course, we have a problem now; we're going to need to cross the trail if we want to continue in this direction, and there's a good chance that," he glared at Gulg, "we'll be spotted."
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Post by Ranger on Jul 21, 2006 16:52:22 GMT -5
"We don't stand much chance in a headlong fight do we." Ranger said looking at the gate, "We have to find a way in even if we have to go back and pry apart the stockade. Between Gulg's strength and your magic we should be able to do it."
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Post by Draxas on Jul 23, 2006 3:33:43 GMT -5
"But the question remains," responded the shaman, scratching his chin thoughtfully, "Whether we would be better served backtracking and attempting to break through, or chancing discovery in order to exploit a potential weakness on the other side of the stockade."
"The number of unknowns in the second option concerns me, but it may be our best bet."
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Post by Ranger on Jul 23, 2006 19:08:04 GMT -5
"Well we are more then welcome to go and continue exploring our options."
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Post by Draxas on Jul 30, 2006 2:56:01 GMT -5
"Very well," replied the shaman, "We will only know if we try."
He turned to Gulg, and said something to the orc in a harsh whisper of his native tongue. Gulg responded in kind, rather louder and with a more dangerous tha usual glint in his eye. The shaman responded with more orcish in an even harsher tone, which seemed to end with a snapped command.
Gulg did not immediately reply. Instead, the orc readied his axe in his hand and drew himself up to his full height, glaring down at the shaman. He towered above Ranger; Gulg had to be nearly 9 feet tall at full extension.
The huge orc took one deliberate step towards the shaman, and uttered some terse, distinctly pronunced words in orcs. The shaman's bodyguards rushed to their master's side, weapons ready, but they looked terrified of the orc nonetheless. The shaman gazed back up into Gulg's face, expression as cool and unreadable as ever, but it seemed fairly obvious that some sort of contest of wills was being decided...
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Post by Ranger on Jul 30, 2006 4:13:42 GMT -5
Ranger stood his ground knowing getting involved in this fight would only leave him maimed by Gulg no matter what he chose to do. He hoped desperately the guards down at the stockade didn't notice the orc warrior who had completely thrown off any guise of sneaking he may have had. He was ready to run back to the cover of forest should something break out. He had a mission whether the goblins and Gulg helped him or not.
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