Join the Warband [Majority Vote]

Yessil looked at the women being taken behind Udgard. She felt her stomach turn around inside of her. She had seen what these women suffered through before, and now the only way to escape that fate was to join this crazy orc and do whatever she might be asked to.

“I will join you.” Yessil looked up at the orc leader with a daring glare. “But on the condition that you let these women go free.”

Udgard looked at her surprised. He tilted his head and grinned in an amused expression. “And what makes you think you’re in a position to negotiate?”

“Magic is not something you run into easily.” Yessil found herself straightening her back and speaking with more conviction than she actually had. “Especially for someone that comes from such a savage background. Either you accept this or you will lose a valuable addition to your warband.”

One of Udgard’s lackeys scuffed and cracked his knuckles. He stepped closer and reached a hand towards Yessil. The half-elf recoiled slightly, before noticing that the orc had stopped in the middle of the motion. Udgard held his bodyguard’s wrist tightly in place. The smaller orc pushed his subordinate back and turned to the girl once more.

“How much can you do?” The leader seemed to be examining her carefully.

“You’ve seen I have an affinity with fire, my illusions are powerful enough to fool your warriors and my traps can immobilize your orcs easily enough.” Despite having lost some of her confidence after the failed attack, Yessil’s words seemed to be truthful and confident.

“All that I have seen before.” Udgard rolled his eyes and scuffed. “We can all make fire with some rocks, bola’s can capture enemies easily enough and illusions won’t work twice against the same enemy.” He smiled at her and chuckled. “So far you are not really worth these many women Yessil.”

The elf thought for a moment as she tried to come up with something in the spot. “I can control plants to capture enemies from below…” She noticed Udgard losing interest once more and knew she didn’t have many options left. “And… And I had a few artifacts in my person that held great power. I do not know them by heart yet but, with a week of work, I should be able to master them and add their magic to my arsenal.”

“And what exactly do these ‘artifacts do’?” Udgard seemed interested enough to let her finish her idea but didn’t appear to be impressed.

“A pendant should allow me to have great power whenever we are close to water.” She had no idea what the dwarvish pendant could do, but she had to hope her bluff would hold for now. “And a scroll that… could take out a large group of enemies. Maybe even an entire enemy warband”

Udgard stopped and considered for a while. He stood up and paced around for a minute as his entourage looked in confusion. After a few minutes of careful consideration Udgard looked at Yessil with a cold stare.

“Congratulations girl. You have saved these women’s lives.” He turned around and screamed in the orcish tongue. A barrage of complaints roared around the cave as Udgard turned around to the half-elf. “But if you ever try to disobey an order we are going to come back and take them all. Are we clear?”

Yessil looked up and took a deep breath. “Yes… warchief.”

Udgard smiled and walked away as he began the arduous work of forcing his people to stop using the women. The orcs seemed to obey his orders, but fighting against their base instincts took more will power than most of them had. In the end a few of the orcs had to be knocked out so that the deal could be reached.

Yessil could do nothing but stare at the frightened women running away from the cave in nothing on their backs. Some of the survivors turned to her with a thankful look, while others seemed to be glaring daggers in her direction. The half-elf couldn’t help but agree with the latter group, she had done her best, but it had only caused all of them to suffer in the end.

Yessil looked around as the women emptied the cave and felt her heart drop to her stomach. All around her there were no other people than the brutish monsters that she had been tasked with taking care of. More orcs had gathered since her visit earlier in the morning and by now a dozen orcs gave her curious and angry looks. She could do nothing but avert her gaze and do her best to cover her body.

One of the orcs spoke to Udgard who answered with a commanding tone. The orcs groaned and moved around, giving Udgard space to come closer to the elven woman. He looked at her with a cold stare and spoke:

“Now, girlie. I have a proposition for you.” Udgard got closer and cupped her chin with his thumb and pointer finger. “Your heroics have ruined the night for us. We were supposed to enjoy the fruits of our successful raid and no one is too happy about that.” As he spoke Yessil’s eyes looked around at the hateful glares she was receiving from the other orcs. “This is not going to be an order but more of a proposition. You can spend the night with me and make up for it with that sweet body of yours. Or you can spend the night away from me and see how that goes for you.” Udgard let go of her chin and took a step back. “The choice is yours.”

Yessil felt sick to her stomach. It hadn’t even been a whole hour and the warchief was already abusing his position over her. She couldn’t believe how stupid she had been at placing herself at the mercy of such a disgusting being.

On the other hand, however, she looked around at the group of orcs around the cave. They all seemed quite frustrated after having been **** to stop their sexual acts for the night. She could see their lustful eyes run up her naked body and shivers were shot up her spine.

She continued to look around for a moment, almost completely certain that Udgard’s proposal would be the lesser of two evils, until her gaze fell upon a corner of the room. Sitting on the ground, with no one paying attention to it, she saw her backpack. She did her best to avert her gaze to not rise suspicion. If she managed to get her stuff maybe Lizette’s scroll could help her. She had said it was a mind-altering effect and maybe if she used it on Udgard she could take charge of the entire orc warband.

As she thought about it the decision became less obvious. She could save herself and deal only with Udgard, who seemed considerably smaller than the other orcs. Or she could try to risk it with the rest of the warband for a chance at finding a quick way out of this situation.

Will Yessil

Spend the night with Udgard? Please the warchief and maybe get in his good side.

Or

Spend the night with the warband? Risk her safety for her items.