Well, how the plot thickens!  It would seem as if we may have stepped in a
much deeper pile of nastiness than we first thought.  But to begin where it
is best to begin, and that is at of course, the beginning.

   	I spent the day, guarded by Vasquez, warding the forward runestick in
the manner I described in my last entry.  Merlaine, Bob and Brianna were
sent on ahead to see if they could scout out the orcs camp proper, while
Shali guarded our main camp and tended the horses and dogs.
	The warding went well, and I now feel a bit more secure that we shall not
have orcs popping up in our camp at untimely times.  The forward scouting
team did not find the orc's encampment, but we know we are close, because
they found a guard post.  About 3 miles away from our runestick, there is a
small platform about thirty feet up in a tree.  This platform is disguised
by branches and leaves, and is always inhabited by an orc with a longbow.
The three scouters stayed a while and watched the watcher.  They noted
things such as times of changing of the guards, pass phrases that were
used, and Merlaine made sure to get a good look at the face of at least one
of the guarding orcs.  Then, their walking unseen spells soon to be up,
they came back to the runestick, waited a brief time for me to finish my
warding, and then we all went back to the main camp.
	Then we waited for a time, eating dinner and exchanging news and ideas.
After that, Merlaine drew out her crystal orbs and used them to scry out
the orc she had studied.  By our reckoning, he should be off guard duty and
well back in the main camp.  And so he was, and as Merlaine described to us
what she saw, our hearts began to fall.  There were a lot of them.  They
were well versed in the military arts, their encampment heavily fortified.
Their camp was a series of rude tents, but these tents were set behind a
formidable barrier of sharpened logs roped together, like giant jacks.
These provide excellent cover for archers, of which Merlaine saw many,
while making advancement on foot over them impossible.  In front of these
giant razor-jacks, they had dug a deep trench.  At the bottom of this
trench were all manner of sharp sticks and old weapons stuck in the earth.
The orcs used this trench as their latrine.  There were also walls made of
logs, fully fifteen feet high and sharpened at the tops, and guards could
be seen patrolling these walls, which connected with the line of giant
razor-jacks.  The only way in or out of this place was a drawbridge they
had built over the moat/latrine.  This bridge was solidly built and
reinforced, and seemed to be lowered only to admit an arrival, or allow the
exit of someone from the camp.  At all other times it seemed to be raised.
The road leading up to this bridge had many sharpened stick set into it at
an angle; this prevented any cavalry charge of the bridge, but allowed
people on foot to pass through if they took care.
	The camp is backed by a granite cliff, which appears to unclimbable by any
but a mountain ranger, or a thief.  Set into this cliff there is a stout
door, which the orc commanders enter at will, but the other orcs must knock
at and wait for an answer.  There appear to be several commanding orcs.
The commanders wear chain mail, while all the other orcs seem to be clad in
leather armour.
	 And as to the orcs themselves, there were fully 60 to 90 of the
creatures.  They were all males in fighting trim, well armed and well
disciplined.  This was no village, but a well ordered war camp.
	When Merlaine finished her observations and descriptions of this camp, we
were all very thoughtful, our minds heavy with thoughts of the task before
us and how we would accomplish it.

	Day the next:  During my watch I was ruminating on how we might defeat
these orcs, or at least get them to leave their encampment.  Eventually we
are sure they will leave to go on another slaving raid... but when shall
that be?  And will they leave a guarding force?  It seems likely that they
would, as they are seemingly well accustomed to matters of a military
nature.
	Perhaps it was the cold blackness of the night, but one night past the new
moon, that brought the thought upon me..I do not know, nor do I hope I ever
know the depths from which this plan was pulled.  But a plan it was, foul,
vile and unstomachable, but a plan.  Even though I do not know if I could
do it, I resolved to set it before the party in the morning, unless someone
had a better plan.
	In the morning I laid out the plan I had conceived.  It was thus.. I could
carve a runestick which would summon a Totem spirit my Masters at Collage
had called "the dread priest," tho its real name is Argotac.  This spirit
is a master of all things foul and corrupt, it knows the ways of the
assassin and slaver, its very glance causes fear and it has been known to
hurl dooms and other such curses.  Then, at night we could, by some method,
place a runewall stick next to the door in the cliff, and two at the gate.
When I cast the spell upon them, the orcs would be unable to get out of
their encampment, unless they have some way to knock down runewalls, which
I doubt.  Then, I could summon Argotac, and implore him to curse one of the
orcs with a cure most horrible and deadly...that of the pneumonic plague,
or black death.  It would take the orcs several days to die, but die they
would, to a beast.  I know this because once, as we dealt the death blow to
a mage of the black arts, he leveled such a curse at us.  One of our party
became a carrier of the pneumonic plague, and it was nearly the death of
the whole party.  Every time the healer would heal a sick member, she would
get the sickness, and then give it to others, whom she would then have to
heal again.  Even though the carrier, who was Bob, took great pains to
travel a distance away from us, and not share our fire, or conversation, or
anything.  Still we caught the contagion.  We barely survived our trek out
of those woods, but survive we did.
	The orcs however, would have nowhere to go to.  This plan did not sit well
with any party member, most especially when I told them the price that
Argotac was said to demand for a day of service, a bit of the mage's
spirit.  We talked much of this plan, and karma.  We came to the conclusion
that if we had no other choice, we would do it, but as a last resort only.
The ruined villages we have encountered, and the knowledge that left
unchecked, these orcs will pillage and destroy hundreds, if not thousands
of innocent lives, surely this will balance in our favor against such a
horrible working when we at last stand before our respective Gods in the
Halls of the dead.

	Shali then came up with an idea.  She recalled from her days in Kathor
some of the things that greater summoners were supposed to be able to do,
and that we had, in effect, a greater summoner with us.  She did not
propose to summon a demon, far too risky that, but she did remember that
summoners could summon heros on occasion.  To know the mechanics of the
ritual however, she would have to take possession of the ruby that Bob
wore, and that gave him the Alchemy skill.  Bob agreed, which caused us all
much relief.
	Then we talked much of which hero we should summon.  Many names were
bandied about..King Arthur, Sir Gawain, Conan, Fafhird and the Gray Mouser,
a being called The Tick.  All were studied and dismissed.  We finally
settled on one of the greatest heros of old, known to use from ancient
scrolls, a princess named Xena.
	Shali took possession of the ruby, and her eyes went wide as the soul
within merged with her own.  Within a minute she had made her selection,
she could now draw upon the knowledge of the Ritual of Summoning Heros that
the soul in the stone possessed.  Alas, such is the might of this ritual
that it can only be performed twice a year, when the veil between the
worlds is the thinnest, Samhain and Beltain.  It looks as if we will have
several months to wait before Xena, warrior princess rides with our party.

	All this discussion took much time, and it was afternoon before we set
about our business.  One group of us, the same group as last time, would go
make observations of the orc's encampment.  Myself, Vedrosh and Vasquez
would scout the area, looking for anything that might be of use in a
plan..natural terrain that was to our advantage, sources of water, etc.
Along the way, we were to look for any other orc observation posts, stashes
of supplies or such that they might have in the area.  Brianna had cast her
Witchsight spell on those of us who needed it just before the sun rose, and
such is her skill with that spell that it lasts for the better part of a
day, so even unseen beings would not be hidden from our eyes.

	The first surprise came when we discovered the tracks of a large tiger,
less than five hours old.  Now, tigers are not native to this area, they
are much more southern.  Cougar, wildcat, even the occasional leopard down
from the mountains, but never tiger.  Whats more, it appeared from these
tracks that this tiger was making bounding leaps of as much as five hundred
yards in a single leap!  Needless to say, we followed the tracks, and they
led to a most unusual sight.  After several hours of travel, we came upon a
place where the tracks just ended.  After some searching, we discerned a
man, sleeping high up in a tree.  This man had slung a hammock, hiding it
with branches and vines, then wrapped his cloak, which was a mottled
grey-green about himself.  We were lucky to spot him so well hidden was he.
This man appeared to be asleep and not to have noticed us.  After much
quiet discussion, we decided to go back and alert the rest of the party, as
we were less than a mile from our forward runestick.
	When we got back, the party observing the orcs had already returned to
camp, so we told all what we found.  A decision was made to try to talk to
this man, but in safety.  I cast forth a rune of Visitation, and sent the
resulting image to the spot where we had seen the sleeping man.  He was
gone.  All trace of the individual, tracks, hammock, everything had been
erased.  I searched for tracks for a while, but found none.  For a while we
wracked our brains as to what this may mean.  Shali thinks the signs point
to a shape changer, a were-tiger.  I tend to agree, but a were-tiger that
can leap five hundred yards?
	As usual, we decided we needed more information.  Brianna would wait until
nightfall, then read the stars.  Merlaine would use her crystal orbs again,
and I would cast some runes of Sight, which may give us a hazy glimpse into
the future.  Shali decided to send her crow Mischief out scouting.
	Well, Mischief returned with a grand tale ( at least it sounded like a
grand tale, much cawing and flapping of wings and posturing ) of having
discovered a great treasure, and fought many battles against fearsome odds
to win a prize, there were many two-leggs there, as well as people of the
air.   From his tale, we deduced that he had found the orcs trash heap and
had to fight off a bunch of other crows to pick at some scraps.
	I completed my casting as Brianna began hers, and what luck!  After going
into the trance and staring at the runes, I saw a hazy image of the orc
observation post, the orc was in it, and below it stood our fellow from the
tree, waving a scroll tube and saying something which I could not make out.
There the vision ended.
	I told what I had seen, and that the farthest I could see beyond the veil
of time was seven hours.  We made so great a haste that Brianna's ritual
was interrupted.  Bri cast her witchsight upon us, and between Bob and
Merlaine we were covered with walking unseen spells as well.  We
distributed the silver weapons amongst those who had none.  Vedrosh has no
distance weapon of silver, so I loaned him the silvered hand-axes I
acquired in Nvym-Dar.  Then we all ported to the forward runestick, and
from there made haste to the orcs observation post.  When we arrived, all
was quiet, and so we settled in to wait, to see what, if anything might
transpire, for it had taken a bit of time to get ready and get here, so our
man could already have come and gone.
	But such was not the case.  We had been waiting for several hours,
hunkered down in the bushes, watching the orc watch the woods, when Vedrosh
was suddenly hit in the back by three darts.  Those of us who noticed
looked around for the assailant, but could see nothing, which surprised us
as we still had our witchsight spells on.  Vedrosh looked around, and
figuring that the jig was up, and since he could see no other opponent,
lofted his javelin at the orc in the observation post.  It was a solid hit,
but only served to alarm the orc, who immediately sent out a loud cry,
which was answered from the enclave.  We knew then, that whatever was going
to happen here, had better happen fast before scores of armed and angry
orcs descended upon us.  Vedrosh then started yelling that the darts he'd
been struck with were poisoned.
	Vasquez fired her bow at something, which none of us could see.  Several
seconds later, Brianna fired in the same direction, which was away from the
orc and towards a nearby stream.  Since I could see no opponent, I fired my
bow at the yelling orc.  The shot went home and stunned him so that he fell
out of the tree, silent for the moment.  Just then, a huge white tiger,
which had gigantic black bat wings sprouting from its back erupted from the
shadows near a boulder in the stream and took off into the darkness in the
direction of the orc stronghold.
	All of us who had bows fired at it, being sure to use our "trueshaft
specials" which were tipped with silver.  The tiger had some sort of shadow
spell on it that made it near impossible to see in the darkness, Witchsight
or no, and all but Brianna missed it.  Brianna's shot however, was a good
one and stunned the creature so that it fell to the earth with mighty
impact.  Then those of us who had a line of sight on the creature continued
to fire upon it, and Merlaine, not having any distance weapon of silver,
drew her scimitar and charged the creature.  Those of the party that did
not have a line of fire on the creature, fired upon the orc, who had
recovered himself and was standing with his back to the tree, defending and
waiting to be able to see an opponent; he was quickly filled with arrows
from Vasquez and Bob, and silenced forever.
	The tiger creature, was not so easy prey however.  Just as Merlaine
reached it, it recovered itself and sprang into the air again, putting
distance between it and us at a frightening rate.  Again, we all fired upon
it,  and we all missed.  Then Vedrosh ran forward and hurled one of my axes
at the departing creature, which was just within his range.  The shot was a
superb one, and we all watched the axe spin through the air, and strike the
flying tiger on the foreleg, severing its huge paw from that limb.  The
tiger swerved, rolled, and dove forcefully into the boulder ridden stream
with a loud splash.
Sensing that the end was near, we all drew melee weapons of silver and
surged forward, for in the distance we could hear the orcs gathering
themselves to advance.
	During the time it took us to advance, the tiger shifted, its shape
flowing like liquid into the form of a man.  That man began at once to bind
his severed wrist, which was spouting blood at a dangerous rate.
	Bob was the first of us to reach the man.  Bob had lowered his silver
tipped spear for a charge when the man cried out, " Don't kill me, please,
I know the password that will keep the orcs from killing you all."  This
stopped Bob, who, in his usual business like fashion said " Tell it to us,
now."  Then this man told us, for by now we had all reached his landing
place, that it was a phrase actually, and would take some time, more time
than we had, to learn.  We gauged this to be the truth, for we could hear
the orcs coming through the woods even now.  So, we hurriedly gathered our
arrows and covered our tracks.  Bob slashed the body of the slain orc so
that it looked like it had been mauled by some wild creature, rather than
filled with arrows.  Then Merlaine cast walking unseen upon the man, so
that the orcs would not spy him, and we led him away from that place.
	As we walked, he talked.  He told us that he was from Kathor, a member of
the Kathoran Imperial Special Forces, reconnaissance division.  His
assignment had been to disguise himself as a Northerner, and live in a town
that they detailed to him.  He was to gather any and all information
concerning that towns defenses, wealth, and military importance to the
Ishtarian forces.  Then, on the night of the new moon in the month of Juno,
he was to come to this place, and say the pass phrase to the orcs he would
meet and give to them his information.  He would then receive his payment
in gems.
	This man was obviously very skilled.  For when we reached a relatively
safe spot, he bound his wound, so we could all see he was a healer, tho not
of the rank of our Merlaine, he was good enough to bind and field dress a
severed and bleeding limb.  Merlaine meanwhile, tended to Vedrosh, who had
ceased suffering from the venom on the darts, but was in a fair amount of
pain.  We came to realize also, that this were-tiger was a consummate spy,
for he already knew all of our names, what Collages we were associated
with, and the direction, if not the exact location of our main camp, and
that our forward runestick was trapped.  And, with my knowledge of the
great disdain with which the Kathorians hold the rest of the world, he was
a good courtier, he knew when to be polite to people who held his life in
their hands, and he knew just when to talk, and how much to say.  Shali
picked up on this as well, for halfway through our conversations with this
man, whose name turned out to be Silas, Shali pointedly said to him " don't
be so fucking nice, it's a lot easier if we dislike you."
	And so it was that a deal was struck; he would tell us all he knew, and we
would let him live.  Shali, who is from Kathor originally, and knows
something of the traditions of the weres that rule the place, made him
swear by the honor of his clan that he would not break the bargain we set.
He swore by this that he would not.  Whereupon he produced a scroll tube,
and he very carefully opened it, explaining that it was trapped.
	What the tube contained was a map of a village called Twin Oaks, whose
main source of income was raising and training horses for Ishtarian light
cavalry forces.  The map was very detailed, with precise direction on how
to find Twin Oaks.  The map also noted how many warriors defended the town,
what their routines were, drills and practices.  He had noted times when
they were all gathered in one place, morning worship and the like.  Also
noted were the distances and strength of forces that might come to the
town's aid.  The nearest was a small outpost of Ishtarian Knights seven
days ride away.  There was also noted the location, and probable wealth of
the town's tax collection box.  More ominously, he had noted the exact
number of men, women and children in the village..along with their ages,
and weather or not they were married.  It looked much like a shepherds
tally sheet, only with humans.  Under the place he had marked as the
church, he had made the notation ( Priest is powerful, assassinate).
	Then Silas told us that the pass phrase he was supposed to give the orcs
was " I bring seeds for the garden of Urudlen."  We questioned him at
length as to who his superiors were, who was supposed to pay him, how much
he was to be paid, how many times he had done this and how many other spies
of his kind were there living in Northern towns.   He did not know much,
but he told us what he knew.  Then, true to our word, we let him go.
	He asked us, as a favor, to let him keep his Wings of Darkness spell, for
with his severed wrist, he could no longer cast that, or any of his spells,
and his trek out of the wilderness and back home to Kathor was sure to be a
long and dangerous one.  We agreed to let him keep his spell, for it would
wear off in several hours anyway.  But at the speed he could travel, those
hours would mean he could put a hundred miles or more between him and the
orcs he had betrayed.  Because of this gesture, before he flew off, he told
us that he had only revealed part of the pass phrase to us.   Once the
phrase " I bring seeds for the garden of Urdulen." were spoken, the Orc was
to answer, "What grows in this garden?"   The correct answer to that was "
The flowers of despair."
	We thanked him for his honesty, and we all felt much better about our
decision to let him live, even tho he was a were.   Shali also asked him to
tell the clan of Bloodmoon, which are wolves, that the member of theirs
named Hetamil, who had escaped from Kathor with Shali, had died of the
wasting sickness in the Northern City of Nvym-Dar.  Hetamil's clan needed
to know this so that it could hold a proper keening ceremony, and also so
that they would know that no blood-price was to be exacted for her death.
Hetamil was a good friend to Shali, and not a bad sort at all for a were.
This Silas said he would do.  Then, as they sky was lightening in the east,
we watched him loft into the air and wing south.  Then we went back to
camp.
	Once we set down to think on it, it seems a beautifully dire cooperation.
A merchant house who deals in slaves, and an enemy who wants certain towns
taken out.  So Kathor determines which towns are the best targets, and
Dolgenen sends in its people to destroy the town, and gets to keep all that
it finds, and sell the inhabitants as well.  Perhaps it is Kathor that is
Dolgenens main customer, who knows.  This is of course, all speculation, we
need solid proof that Dolgenen is behind these orcs and their raids.
	With the new information given to us by Silas, a plan now becomes obvious,
and it was Brianna who first voiced it, being a subtle sort used to the
dealings of merchants and other underhanded types.   Weather or not we can
convince Shali of the validity of this plan or no remains to be seen, for
it is her life that will be most im periled by it.  But that is for another
day.  Now we rest, and then we talk and plan.

	                                       By my hand, this 26th day of Juno
                                        The Year of Our Lady 540.


						                                               Drashak Khea Milari