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Manred whispers to one of the group, outside of earshot of the prisoner, "It's too bloody out there, it'll be obvious there was a fight. If we take the orc with us, they might assume that he got in a scruff with these orcs and escaped. We can milk him for more information or get rid of him once we're gone."

Then he drops into the pit and tries to arrange the dead orcs like they were in a fight, and takes any valuables they have.

Travix likes the idea.

He addresses the frightened orc.

"Lets go then! Down in the tunnel we found a door that leads out into the woods. We can escape through there and you can be on your way. Come along, then!"

The corpses are arranged to resemble a fight. Searching their bodies, the elf finds a total of 10 silver pieces, 2 daggers, a small copper ring (too small to fit on the elf's fingers), and an acorn.

The orc seems suspicious of the group's generosity as he nods cautiously but he moves and follows your instructions. Once down in the tunnel, he begins walking back in the direction your group first came.

Travix keeps up the questioning along the orcs death march as they walk back through the dark tunnel. He stays behind the orc, leading him by holding onto his bound hands.

"This must be a large operation if your meat is known far and wide. How many of you sausage makers are working in here?"

Dunno. Always some on patrol to keep the woods clear around here. Madame pulled in different tribes.

As the orc reaches the fork in the tunnel he halts. You can let me go now. You and the Madame'll never see me again. He waits to hear your response.

Graela follows along, watching the orc and the hallways with caution. She's ready to put him down should he try to bolt. She glances at Manred and then at the orc, then back at Manred with a raised eyebrow.
"We're not really letting this pig go, are we?" she whispers to her elven companion.

Travix

"Before we free you, tell us where you will go. Oh, and, how about your name? I don't think I ever bothered to asked."

Manred the Short shrugs. "I would just as soon see him dead, but the group seems divided about it. As long as he doesn't cause any more trouble I don't care what happens to him. It seems like Travix is doing pretty well buttering him up, though."

Manred scouts ahead to make sure the way back through the passage is clear.

Hopefully Hennoth and the dogs are still back in the small cabin at the other end of the tunnel.

Manred is not keen on showing mercy to an orc but shrugs it off as he scouts ahead in the tunnel. How far do you go and which branch do you take: toward the forest exit or toward the cabin exit where you first entered the tunnel?

I am Borxx. He thumps his chest when saying this and then the orc points toward the forest exit branch. I have to go this way. Can't come up in the village. I'm running east. South too dangerous with humans and goblins and worse. Mountains too dangerous. He pauses a moment and then an evil grin slowly spreads across his face. You going back there? He jerks his head in the direction of the cave. The orc kneels and calls for illumination as he begins scrawling in a patch of dirt. It looks like a crude drawing of a portion of the cave complex you all have just left. The north door off the large chamber has a hallway drawn on the other side. He makes a mark on one side of this hallway a bit north of the door you did not pass through and points at it. Secret door here when you go back. They'll be watching the tunnel after all this. Looking back up at you, kill them all. He explains a simple landmark in the form of a distinctive tree to look for to help find this entrance from the forest around the cave complex.

coil23 wrote:Manred is not keen on showing mercy to an orc but shrugs it off as he scouts ahead in the tunnel. How far do you go and which branch do you take: toward the forest exit or toward the cabin exit where you first entered the tunnel?

Cabin exit. He'll do the usual thing of waiting by the ladder and listening for noise, then peaking out and reporting back.

Listening to the room above once he gets to the tunnel terminus, he hears Hennoth's low voice talking soothingly to the dogs. Hennoth sees the elf as soon as he begins to emerge as the boy had been facing the trapdoor alertly. Is everyone ok? The dogs jump up and sniff the elf excitedly.

Travix nods arrogantly as the orc points out a new way into the complex, glad that the group didn't simply knife the monster. He cuts his binds and says his peace as he leaves.

"Thank you, Borxx! That will surely help us out later. Now remember, you didn't see us, you don't know us, and you have no idea what we are up to, right? If we do find out that you screwed us, I will do everything in my power to make sure that you die with no honor and in extreme agony. But, if what you tell us is true, that you have no desire to return to this place, maybe we will see each other again out there in the wild sometime."

He does the chest thumping thing as well, trying not to look like an idiot.

"Farewell, Broxx!"

After following the others back to the shack, he is glad to still see Hennoth there where he was keeping guard.

"Young Hennoth! Good to see you still whole my friend! What has happened here while we were away?"

The orc nods vigorously at the instructions, obviously no stranger to being threatened. I don't know nobody! Then he is off down the side tunnel toward the forest trapdoor exit.

Hennoth looks relieved at the group's return. Glad everyone is safe. Another one of the men came in here trough the door. He points at a still and bloody mauled body that looks to have been rolled against the wall once killed, judging by the bloody smears on the floor. The boy looks a little worse than wear though the dogs seem fine and quite pleased you are back. If it hadn't been for the dogs, I don't know that I could have taken him. I healed the dogs. Luckily no one saw him come in here 'cause when someone came to ask about the noise I said a squirrel got in and the dogs were raising hell and they believed me. So what happened to you?

Manred dusts off the dirt collected from the tunnel and says, "We were solicited some sausages but I don't think any of us were hungry."

He quickly moves outside and scans the forest, climbing up onto the building's roof if he can, to see if he can spy where the orc came out of the side passage.

Travix looks at the body drearily.

"Well done, lad. I'm sure that wasn't an easy battle."

"We found the sausage madams hide out and killed a few orcs. We even found a secret door that we are going to try later. Right now we need to find an out of the way place to rest. And in the meantime, we could try to gather some more information as to where this map fragment is, and how we are going to get our hands on it. Anyone have any ideas?"

The elf climbs to the roof of the small shack and peers over the pallisade northwest into the woods. From here there is no way to spot a hidden trapdoor on the ground. From the sun's position, you expect an hour or so of daylight left.

I could go ask Seegar if there is someplace we could sleep, Hennoth offers.

Travix nods.

"Well, we cant stay in here, that is certain. Does anyone else have a better idea? We need to keep any knowledge of us being here under wraps even more now that we have shown our hand a little. We need to find that parchment fragment as well."

Salt Peter: "If'n Hennoth trusts this See-Gahr, then I reckon tha's as safe er option as we got. Can't trust much in this town, an' ther woods hain't no good."

Manred says, "Sounds good to me. Anywhere is better than here, as long as it doesn't smell of sausages."