The elves discover a small orc den in the environs of Dingradur. The party wipe it out and take an orc magician prisoner. Put to the question, he rats out a bigger orc den, ruled by a half orc called Rocca. He gives a detailed description of the location and Girindor is sent to reconnoitre. However, when the party approach it quickly becomes apparent that this is the wrong place and bears no relation to the location described by the orc magician. Girindor, this time accompanied by more reliable elves, Randir and Gambelion, is sent out to try again.
Once the correct location is identified, the operation goes pretty smoothly. A formidable force of elves, dwarves and men storm the upper levels. Rocca is slain along with his half troll wife, Yorla, and many orcs and half-orcs are killed. Crucially all this is accomplished without alerting the lower levels. Hilda gains them access to these by using her illusions to disguise the party as Rocca, Yorla and his half orc minions. This gives the party the element of surprise and the orcs there are also put to the sword.
Amongst the loot is a massive stash of weapons and armour which to Yspadadden’s eye are plainly of human manufacture, made to standard patterns. There are also quantities of other human goods – pitch, rope, nails, tobacco, salt etc. After a decade of “elven reconnaissance”, a node in the supply chain of the “orc traders” had been compromised. Unfortunately, with Rocca and his command group all slain, there are few immediate answers as to the source of all this equipment or its intended recipients.
Yspadadden is delighted. It gives him a stock of mundane weapons that customers like the centaurs and the Picts (shh! don’t tell William the Marshall) can actually afford. So he can put his personal efforts squarely into making magic weapons. He has his own theories about the origins of this equipment (Imperials via Chittagong would be his guess) but after all this time, the elves seemed oddly incurious.
E-8
OE Date: Winter 691
Characters: Yspadadden, Ranulf, Salrod, Wilf, Jason, Aranath, Alyena NPCs: Hilda, Randir, Gambelion
Real World: January 1997; Where – ?
See also Salrod’s Diaries