Rath turned his attention to Inas and his prisoner. He wanted to hear about the ogre who led this band.

Folke didn't know Rath's background from before the island, but he did know orcish and the tenor of his companion's challenge.  The skald began chanting harshly in the background an orcish war song, pounding the butt of his spear on the ground in rhythm, intending to lend support and credence to his friend and supposed commander of this rabble.  Hopefully the fools would fall for it, because Inas was right.  It would smell horribly.

When the group gathered around the snitch Folke joined them, interested to hear what exactly they had run across.


OOC:

Use bardic ability to influence listeners.  Will use orcish war song to support Rath's claim that he is their leader.  Who knew speaking orcish would have a purpose?  :)

Saliq watched all this carry on in fascination unwilling to interrupt the marvelous display of theatrics taking place. Rath seemed to have business in hand, why spoil his fun with unwonted magic?

Inas gets the "squealer orc" to the parties' camp -- the point furthest from the entangled army.  "Alrighty, then -- spill it.  Or I'll plant you back in the brush, right in front of your big club-happy friend."

The little orc looks wide eyed,

"Big bad, bone-breaker, come here. Mean, angry, lost big war, take it out on us, we just nice forest orcs, live off land, peace like, they mean, want to raise army, want to kill good humans....ok....set me free now?".

Marissa nears the edge of the entangled area, bares her teeth and offers a one-fingered salute to the big fella with the club.

Without taking his eyes of the squealer orc, Rath asked Inas: "Peaceful forest orc? You ever hear of such a thing, Eoinsson?" It sounded like a ridiculous lie.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:42, Tue 17 Apr 2018.

The little orc gives Rath a funny look when he takes, but looks back to Inas, "Free now, yes? Told truth, deals deal.  Kill the rest, they always mean to me.  Set free and never see me again, truth again".

The large humanoid offers Marissa a few rude and suggestive motions of his own, as if to say what she has in store once he's free of these darn weeds!!

"We may have to kill at least some of them, to bring the others in line," Folke remarked to their war-leader, Rath.  "The one snarling at Marissa does not seem like he will bend to your will, for example."

Inas says in elvish: "Kill the big one."

To his captive, he says (in common): "You may have told us no lies, but you haven't told us all of the truth.  When did this ogre arrive?  Was he alone?  You outnumber him; why abandon you 'peaceful ways?'"

Inas' does not hide his sarcasm when referring to the goblin's peacefulness.

In reply to Inas Eoinsson (msg # 35):

The orc looks around as if desperate to run away,

"Only ten of us living peaceful like, most of them dead now, Ogre come with many soldiers, you see now, we tried to, get along, one wrong word and they kill us."

He appears increasingly jumpy, even for a squeeky orc.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:49, Fri 20 Apr 2018.

Rath nodded to Folke. It was likely that some would need to die. He put a gauntleted hand on the little orc's shoulder, less than gently. "The ogre. Does he fly? Turn invisible?" His voice was rough and demanding. "Easy question. Yes or no?"

The orc looks wide eyed at Rath, nods, "and worse, much worse.."

Inas closes his eyes a moment, and sways a bit where he stands.  After a second or two his eyes open and he briskly states and demands of the goblin: "Something big's coming, from the sky.  What is it?"

The orc throws itself on the ground, "death, its death".

Rath looked up.

A few seconds later a black figure swoops overhead, sending the entangled humanoids into a frenzy, clawing and screaming as they try to flee.   Everyone gets a good look at the creature for just a second as it races past.  A totally black two headed dragon or wyvern is your best guess, not huge but at least 20 feet long. It quickly vanishes into the night sky.

Outwardly, Rath smirked. It was bluster, of course. It wouldn't do to let the rabble see their general unnerved. "It's only got two heads, orc. Nothing to be afraid of." Rath reached down to pull the little orc to its feet, then carried and shoved it back into Inas' tangle of writhing vegetation.

"The ogre was your leader," he snarled at the orc. "And you betrayed him. Serve me better, or you'll get worse."

Rath waved to his companions, to gather out of earshot. "Okay," he said quietly. "Now what?"

Inas seems to be concentrating on something far away.

"Lemme check," he mutters in a whisper.

"That was interesting," Marissa said. "Illusion, or was that real?"

She looks to Master Saliq as she asks the latter. "One can never be certain around you mystical folk."

Inas opens his eyes. "Not real -- and I doubt the ogre is responsible."

He turns back to the "cooperative" goblin.  "OK -- who else is with the ogre?

The orcs frowns, "Not real?  Ogre only, bad ogre, uses big magiks, can create fire, lightning, fly, very powerful".

Something the goblin says resonates in Inas's mind.  He arches an eyebrow.  "We gottta act, now, before he can prepare.  He's 300 yards or so that way." Inas gestures toward the camp discovered by the owl.  "It's not your standard ogre.  It is, as the goblin says, a spell-castin' ogre -- very smart, and very powerful.  At least, as compared to most ogres."

Folke sighed in relief despite the seriousnessof the situation.  He'd never heard of any such creature as the one that had just flown overhead, and surely something of that fantastic nature would have been recorded somewhere before.  To hear it was an illusion eased his mind, despite the fact they'd be heading into the teeth of whatever this spell-casting ogre could generate.

"Saliq, do you know any spells that protect against your style of magic?  So we wouldn't be fooled by more of the ogre's illusions?"