Participants: Kakkariel, Lauretta Brookwhisper, Naomi, Valek Stormblade
Locations: Watchers' Tribe Village, Dragon's Tail
Loose threads: unbalanced land?, Velstrac summoner(s)?
Short summary:
A wounded scout reported back to First Landing with news of a Horde offshoot capturing others. The party set off to rescue whoever they could, and fight the orcs if necessary...only later realizing that none of them knew Orcish.
Full report: Naomi
On the way, they were ambushed in the night by two Orcs, one knocked unconscious and the other cowed into surrender. Through broken Common they learned that the Orcs' leader had done something that required them to amass tons of fresh meat — bloody trails and thinned populations were about. Before learning more, the Orc was killed by magic flaring from a brand they had — fearing the same would happen to the other Orc, the group tied them up (poorly, as they escaped with their fallen friend in the night).
Later, the party detoured to the the Watchers' Tribe for information, solidifying Naomi's theory that a Unknown was responsible for the brands and meat directive. Following a trail to the Dragon's Tail, Kakkariel juggled to distract the guards, though Naomi's limp gave away their presence, forcing them into a nonlethal fight with the surprise appearance of an Augur. Entering with Valek Stormblade's Darkvision Elixir, they encountered signs of Fiendish presence and escaped an approaching patrol which was misled into heading outside.
Delving deeper, they found captives: a Satyr, Unknown scout, and Unknown mother&child, who guided the party to their jailer, a Velstrac-abiding butcher the party managed to bring down (only to find the rest of the Orcs' captives as mangled corpses). They guided the caged ones back to health and their homes, then returned to fight the apparent Fiendish leader Kakkariel had spotted, which callously killed the scared and rebellious Orcs it employed — Lauretta Brookwhisper proved instrumental in the victory.