The following morning after, the party made themselves ready to head westward along the Gold Road. As part of this, they decided it would be a good idea to get hold of some mounts, as their newest companion to the party -- Kelrith Shalith -- already came well prepared with such atop an skeletal horse.
So together, they peruse the markets in The Crossroads for beasts to bring. There, Gan Jedi bought hold of a raptor; Turuk Thunderhoof acquired a kodo; and Zachariah Hallowhold together with Servius Felheart split the pay together on a second kodo that the two could ride.
By noon, the party was on the way, riding fast and hard across the open road under the beating sun. It took the most of the day at their steady pace to reach the watchpost they had heard of -- and when they got there, they struck a quick conversation with the guards at the gate, who told them to head on through to meet the watchpost commander. That commander was the ever so notorious Regthar Deathgate.
In Regthar's office, once he came to learn of what the party was out in the Barrens for and where they were headed, gears began to turn. As it was, he had plans laid to make a counter-attack on a centaur settlement, at the least to push back against them for their recent raids on Horde settlements around The Crossroads, though his hope was to push far enough that they could put an end to one of their key figures; Chief Kodobane.
The party agreed to help Regthar with his plan, and spent the night there at the watch post.
Then, the next day after, they set out all together to make way northward to where the centaurs had last been seen. Recently returning scouts had confirmed this was where Kodobane's group were currently keeping camp, and so the orcs reckoned time could already be racing against them. They made their way as fast as they could, though careful not to alert the centaurs of their presence.
It was all the way up on the slops of a hilly range that the party found the centaur camp -- close enough to their planned destination, the old oasis pool to the north-west, that the party could see it as well in the horizon. Gan Jedi, together with the orc scout Brugash, blazed the trail ahead to find a way that the party could perhaps find and sneak to Kodobane's whereabouts directly.
It was a close call, the two almost spotted by the centaurs, but they managed to find a precarious route some way up the hills and between the rocks; a natural path that led just a stone's throw away from what, just by the looks of things, had to have been the chief's tent in the camp. Back with the party and the orcs, they all together laid a plan; Regthar would lead his orcs directly ahead to cause a commotion, while the party would sneak up to take on Kodobane directly.
First they climbed the rocky path, slowly and steadily. Then, once they had found a way down to the tent itself, they cut their way in through the back and put themselves face to face with Kodobane himself. As battle ensued, they sounded off a horn that Regthar had granted to them, so that they could alert the orcs to attack.
The battle was swift, bloody, and ultimately won. What centaur were not slain were quickly sent routing.
And in the aftermath of it all, the orcs decided to claim the camp for their own overnight. Just as they set to work dismantling it, to take what they could of raw material and bring it back, they staged up a feast together with the party at the scene of the centaur slaughter.
The next morning after, as Regthar and the orcs continued their work on dismantling the camp, the party bid their farewell and set course toward the oasis.