I had, had some trouble sleeping over the last few days. The Orcs had been becoming bolder in their attacks and their demands. For whatever reason it seemed the bloodgod was angry, and this anger spilt over onto the Orcs. The Orcs had recently kidnapped Elenwe, a tamer, and they had also taken control of a female guard's spirit before leaving her in Deepwater the day before. It had taken me all night and most of the morning to get to sleep properly, and because of that I awoke too late to join the caravan. Upon awakening I headed for the Owl's Eye hoping to catch one of Fauna's fresh warm muffins out of the oven. Unfortunately it was not to be. I had not been there for a minute before I heard rumours that Orcs and vile dead ones had assaulted Videric's caravan. Hearing this I rushed towards the fighting school, where I knew there was a magic stone that would allow me to teleport myself to the Yew Cemetery which according to the rumours was the nearest spot to the attack.

The desperate moments of the caravan.

As I rushed past the crowd in the school, I was seen by Morwen who greeted me. I told her of what was transpiring and she of course asked to come along. As my sweaty hands tried to open the bags in the back room in order to find the right stone, I realised I had not eaten for some time. I tried to ignore my pangs of hunger and continued with the task at hand. I found the stone and wasted no time in calling forth a magic gate so that Morwen and I could venture forth. Nothing could have prepared me for the sight that next met my eyes. As the disorientation of gate travel left me, I could see that there were some twenty orcs and many undead. I could feel their cold touch, even before I set eyes upon them. One of the orcs was clawing at Morwen's hair, we briefly met eyes and I knew there was no time to talk. We both escaped as quickly as we could. Luckily the hoard of vile orcs was slow to respond. Only one of the more experienced orcs gave me chase. After running through the forest for a few minutes, I retraced my steps to where I had seen the vile creatures. The hoard had already gone, all that was left were the injured bodies of various members of what had been Videric's caravan. One of them beckoned me over, and strained to tell me that Videric had been kidnapped, and that he had to be rescued. Seeing that there was nothing more to be done, I returned to Deepwater. As I approached the tavern, I could see that Morwen had thankfully escaped. She was talking to a few survivors and gathering as much information as possible. If we were to rescue Videric we would need a large task force. I pointed out that we should organise our own guards first, and then contact the Militia, as well as Spiritwood and the Nomads to see if we could raise a small army to rescue Videric and crush the guards. Whilst this was organised I decided to go home, and collect my battle Halberd. When I returned, chaos was in command. The orcs had come to us! We were not prepared yet, and they were many! Luckily the orcs had not seen me returning, I sneaked behind them and as I moved around, I heard someone trying to gain my attention.

An Attack!.

I looked into the woods, and I saw a man who was chained to a tree. As I went closer, I saw it was Videric. Joyous as it was to see him alive, I knew I had to set him free before the orcs noticed. As I approached him, an orc saw me and started coming towards me. Using my Halberd and with careful aim, I smashed Videric's chains. Videric ran for his dear life, as did I. Two orcs were following us. I let Videric run ahead and stayed back a bit to engage the vile orcs. The first one came charging at me, snorting wildly. As he came at me, I spun my Halberd into him. Unfortunately it did nay wound him, but it stunned him long enough for me to grab my Harp and annoy a bear who was near the wretched creature. As the orc stumbled towards me, the bear swiped him from behind and slowed him down. I started running away from the creature. The second orc had ignored me and was after Videric, there was not a lot I could do about that, but I felt certain that Videric had enough of a head start to escape. I ran away from my would-be killer, but this orc was a strong fellow. He ran after me for a long time. The bear in turn was running after him, eventually the orc had to leave me in order to escape from the bear and deal with his injuries.

By now I had doubled back on myself and I was near my own house in Deepwater. I entered the hut and quickly grabbed some food. Whilst in the house I remembered that Burrator had left behind some war trophies from a recent encounter with some orcs. I took some of my clothes off, and using a bit of charcoal I blackened my armour to make it look filthy. Before leaving I grabbed an orc bone helm, a badly made wooden shield and a scimitar. Maybe those long nights spent reading about orcish grammar would be put too good use now. As I approached the centre of town, I could smell death and destruction. The orcs had been victorious in their assault. There were dead animals and injured citizens everywhere I looked. Approaching the tavern from the back, I practically ran into a young orc. Instinctively I yelled, "Ug!", at it, but obviously something in my accent was not quite right. The orc pulled out its Scimitar and started to attack me! I ran away from it. This young orc not being used to running around in heavy armour did not follow me too closely and eventually sat down from exhaustion. I approached it cautiously from another angle, and again repeated my greeting, "Ug!". I changed the inflexion somewhat and this seemed to do the trick. The orc nodded at me. I asked it ,"Wut ib huppuning?", and after getting no answer, I decided bribery was the way forward. Taking a jar of honey from my pack I put it on the ground in front of the orc. This immediately prompted a response of, "Drinkie", from the orc. Without further ado, it opened the jar and drank the entire contents. It looked a little startled by the strong flavour and then rubbed its belly appreciatively. Realising that this orc was not the brightest one, and that it would be of little use, I left it with a rather sticky grin on its face. I came round to the front of the tavern. As I came around I walked straight passed some undead knights sitting on their skeletal mounts. It seemed my disguise was working! But t'was not so. I had not taken five more steps when a particularly large ugly orc smelled me and with a war cry of WAAGH! came charging at me. This sight certainly made me jump, and I ran without stopping for a long time. Eventually the orcs left the town, and I went back down to the Tavern again to help with the wounded. Whilst there suddenly I saw an orc charging towards me, I raised my Halberd, but it screamed, "Stop! Its me!". As it took its helm off, I realised it was Videric! He had escaped! Thankfully even though that day we lost the battle, we won back our Caravan master, which was all we had really wanted.