Raid the caravan

“We are going to raid the caravan that comes through here” you say to blondy who gives you a look telling you she already knew what you wanted to do. “The additional resources we can acquire will be helpful eventually if not immediately”

“But isn’t robbing people wrong?” asks the voice of innocence in the form of Karla who was back to looking like she was reconsidering the whole thing.

“Yeah, raidin’ an’ robbin’ people’s wrong from some points ‘o view but in ours it’s alright cause we need that stuff more than they do, understand?” blondy again helping you out of a situation, though you are surprised to find her so eager to help you.

“I guess . . . so long as we don’t have to kill any innocent people” Karla hadn’t regained her previous determination yet.

“Might also ‘elp to mention that these guys we’re ‘bout to rob dabble in **** tradin’ so they’re bad guys if you think ‘bout it” and you thought Karla was going to be your most useful servant, it seems that this blonde is much more subservient, or maybe she is just doing what is necessary to complete the quest and that is it but you hope you can retain her services for longer if at all possible.

“Gather up a good twenty outcasts from the area surrounding the road and meet me at the hills just before the cross roads” you say to the girls “I will organise some of these new weapons and troops for a later task” with that you walk back into the former woodsmen camp and begin seeing to the distribution of axes. Once you had given all the woodcutting tools to the outcasts in the area, you had them cut clubs from the trees so that you could arm the rest of your outcasts. The whole process ended up taking you several hours and the sun had completely disappeared from the sky by the time you had reached the place the girls were to meet you at with your troops.

You didn’t have to wait long as they arrived only a few minutes after you did and leading your small raiding party.

“Sorry we’re late, ran into a bit ‘o trouble here and there with some of the militia tryin’ to stop us” blondy looked unfazed by that turn of events but Karla looked a bit less happy than she already was

“Keep in mind karla, that was the same militia that was hunting my brethren for sport” your words hit home and Karla returned to her bubbly self

“You’re right! I forgot! So this caravan is also helping those guys huh? Then I think we should confiscate everything they have so that those villagers can’t use it on those poor outcasts!” Wow, what a change in opinion, I will never figure this girl out you think to yourself as you turn back to the mass of wagons, campfires, pack animals and people that were camped below you. They looked only sparsely guarded but you notice that the guards include guardsmen with their chainmail, spears and kite shields. There was one detail that jumped out at you though, a cage sat in the middle of the camp and many of the caravan hands were jeering at it and throwing food scraps.

“At a guess, I would assume the occupant of that cage to be a worthy objective, wouldn’t you agree?” you spoke aloud to no one in particular but it was blondy who answered.

“I ‘reckon it to be an elf, no way men’d be that fussed ‘bout anyone else they’d captured . . . also ‘reckon it to be a nice distraction from the attack we’re ‘bout to do” a good idea you think before signalling for your outcasts to move into a position where no guards can see them but they would have a short run before they can get in there.

“I want you to be in the middle of the camp, Karla will stay with me to act as support for me and my honour guard” the two girls nod their understanding as you prepare for your attack and wait for blondy to get into the camp. She obviously knew what she was doing because she only needed to speak a few words to a guard for them to let her in and soon she was in the middle of the camp, lute out and playing for the men’s entertainment.

You watch for a bit and listen to the sounds of blondy’s lute before you turn to your outcast brethren and signal for them to attack and you burst from your spots to take the guards by surprise. You quickly descend upon one of the guards yourself and hit him with your axe, knocking him back several steps and before he could react, you hit him again. He is on his knees two hits later and you finish him off with a decapitation and turn to see how your Orcs are doing. Your honour guard is clearing out the caravan hands who grabbed some weapons and are fighting back but your regular outcasts are getting decimated by the remaining guards so that is where you head next.

Roaring, you activate your rage ability and smack the guard closest to you in the back twice before he even knew you were there, killing him quickly. You flit onto the next guard and bring him down with a critical hit to the head. The third guardsmen you attack manages to get his shield up in time to block your shot and you take a spear to the chest taking you down to 190 HP but you don’t let that slow you down as you strike at the guard again and again and again. Finally after a few more strikes, the shield gives way and you rip half of it from the guard’s arm and hit him in the chest a few times to finish him off causing a ding to sound out of nowhere. another level up, I shall have to see my new stats in a minute when this caravan is completely mine you think to yourself as you take another look around. What’s left of your outcasts mopped up the remaining guards with the help of your honour guard who managed to deal with the caravan hands quite easily.

You regroup with your two heroes out front of the cage in the middle of the camp while your Orcs loot the wagons for weapons and armour though there appears to be scarce amounts of either. Inside the cage is indeed an elf, a woman of indeterminate age sits cross legged in the middle of the cage looking at you with no facial expression at all, any emotions she is feeling is hidden behind her sharply angular features. She wears a green cloth tunic with carved wooden shoulder guards and leather trousers with carved wooden thigh guards. Her face is framed by her luscious raven hair that falls below her shoulders and hangs loosely around her chest, even messed as it is, her hair still manages to look regal and elegant.

“This’d be the elf then, I reckon this’d be ‘ers then” said blondy while indicating to a cloth bundle with a bow and two curved swords sticking out of. “Wha’sha name lassie?” blondy walked forward to the cage and knelt beside it as she slotted a key into a lock set into one of the bars.

“I am Eleanor, to whom do I owe my rescue?” Eleanor’s voice came out clear and musical felt like her voice was cream, smooth and pleasing to taste, not that you even know what cream is.

“I’m Lauran an’ this is my friend Karla an’ tha Orc over there happens to be running a conquest on the village over there so we’re ‘ere to raid an’ pillage a bit before we finally get to it” Lauran, so THAAAAAT is her name . . . I should have just asked her rather than designating her ‘angry woman’ or ‘blondy’ you think to yourself as Lauran helps Eleanor out of the cage and to her feet.

“An interesting quest, I would think human heroes would be more for helping that village since it is the start point for your vanguard class after all” you listen in carefully to Eleanor as she says this since these heroes have so far been your best source of information.

“Ain’t it . . . nobody plays vanguard these days an’ I for one am interested to see how this goes, somthin new for a change since the last new thing happened two years ago when the Nymphs came out” You are starting to lose track of the conversation as you have no idea what a nymph is or what vanguards are.

“I agree, I was getting most dissatisfied with the current state of affairs, would you mind horribly if I were to join you?” now you know where this conversation is going and it is going to places you want it to go, more heroes means much better chances and a hero who can actually fight? You are very much enjoying yourself now.

“That’d be great, need a party member that’s capable of some actual fightin’” and you agree

“Splendid, another hero to help this conquest” you say as you grin at the two girls in front of you “Oh and thank you Karla, yet again you manage to compensate my lack of armour and keep my fighting. Karla grins and bobs her head in appreciation while the two other girls stare at you shocked as if you had just done something neither of them had ever seen before.

“It would seem this is no ordinary NPC . . . I wonder what else you know Orc” Eleanor spoke as she examined you in closer detail.

“Come ta think of it, this Orc ‘as been levelin’ up as we go along by usual means . . . the means that are ‘sposed ta be reserved for ‘eroes” Lauran was also examining you in closer detail and now you were confused again, damn these girls and dancing between topics that you can’t understand

“Is this not normal? Or perhaps you have never bothered to actually have a conversation with a creature you have arbitrarily dubbed ‘Monster’ would not any other talk as I do? You can’t tell me that can you?” the other girls look at each other and down at their feet, clearly you hit home and neither of them actually HAVE had a conversation with a monster before.

“Now I am more than curious to see what happens in this foray . . .” Eleanor is the first of the two to regain composure as she looks back up at you “And I shall be observing proper etiquette with you from now on, tis only the polite thing to do with one who may yet be intellectually equal” you blink off the insult that the elf had just given you by suggestion she was undecided if you had intelligence or not.

“Umm, I’m confused, aren’t they supposed to talk? I thought this game was supposed to be realistic?” asked Karla as she looked between the elf and Lauran.

“Never mind the game my dear, never mind the game . . . just enjoy things as they happen, I’m sure it will be interesting” Eleanor spoke first and quietened Karla down enough.

“We shall make camp here and properly sift through the loot to determine what is good and what isn’t, you are free to tend to whatever you wish but I would require your presence at noon tomorrow, I also have no qualms about you staying here and helping us sort out this loot, I’m sure there will be items only heroes find use for and there is plenty of food and drink to be had as it seems, so what will it be?” you put the question to the three girls and wait for their response.