Lukwind had the option of accompanying Gerald & Rohit on their scouting mission, but he declined because it seemed too dangerous. However, once he had helped to recruit a force of 250 mercenaries, he decided to disguise himself as an orc and infiltrate their main base himself. One bard, against an army. What could possibly go wrong?
His first problem was that Changelings don't have Darkvision, so he ran straight into an orc patrol without seeing them coming. He successfully bluffed them that he was a shaman from the Halfling Shredders tribe, then used diplomacy to make them friendly. However, at the same time the orcs used intimidation to make sure that he would do what they want. The orcs forced him to accompany them on their scouting mission, then took him home to their camp. When he woke up in the morning, he found that the orcs had stolen all of his equipment while he slept.
He crept outside for a look around, and found that the pirates of Knossos had come to pay the orcs a visit. Realizing that he really couldn't achieve anything, he used locate object to find all of his equipment, then "borrowed" a horse and rode back to meet up with the other players.
In the meantime, Rohit had discovered that the orcs intended to send a large tribute to a tribe called the Heart Splitters, to try to forge an alliance. They were having enough trouble dealing with two tribes, the Orc Scorchers and the Skull Chewers, without adding a third. When the diplomatic convoy left, Rohit & Garyn decided to follow it.
At dusk, the orc chieftain flew down on his black dragon and conferred with the leader of the convoy. He flew away again, but returned at dawn. Garyn & Rohit waited until the chieftain left and all the orcs were asleep, then Rohit crept inside their camp (hiding in plain sight) and began quietly coup de grace, one after another. Once most of the orcs were dead, he started on the ogres which accompanied them. However, the third ogre survived the coup de grace attempt and woke up all of the other occupants of the camp with his screams.
Garyn killed the shaman with a snowball storm while Rohit dealt with the ogres by tumbling from tent to tent and using his skirmish and sneak attack. Garyn killed the leader with a few arrows, then the remaining orc scorchers fled on their lizard mounts.
Garyn & Rohit released the slaves and kept the rest of the tribute for themselves. They used the draft animals as mounts for the slaves. Several tense hours followed, as they rode back towards Marchion, looking for somewhere to hide from the chieftain and his black dragon, who were sure to return at dusk.
They managed to meet back up with Martok, Elsa, Addric, Gerald & the mercenaries, who had been marching out to fight the orcs. Lukwind arrived at about the same time. When they returned to their army, they found that 100 cavalry had joined them. Liv Greataxe was at pains to point out the semantic distinction: the March weren't authorized to attack the orcs, they were just "patrolling" and happened to be heading in the same direction as Martok's army. However, if the orcs should happen to attack, then of course they would be forced to defend themselves vigorously.
Shortly after dusk, the lookouts spotted the black dragon heading in their direction. The archers opened fire, but were unable to damage the dragon or its rider. That is, except for Garyn. With his magical longbow, his arrows struck true and inflicted grievous wounds on the rider. It wasn't long before the dragon turned and flew away again.
Buoyed by their success against the diplomatic convoy, Garyn & Rohit were keen to try the same tactic on a grander scale. Therefore, the six adventurers left Addric in charge of the army and rode out towards the village of Auldhame. Arriving just before dawn, Rohit & Gerald snuck over the wall and crept towards the center of the village. When they got to the village square, they were surprised to find it empty: the three tents that had been occupied by the orc commanders were gone. In the meantime, Lukwind disguised Elsa & Martok as orcs and bluffed their way in via the front gate.
Garyn & Rohit spent an hour inflicting coups de gras on the sleeping orc warriors and using saps to knock the women and children unconscious. Elsa and Lukwind found some orcs who were awake, whom they interrogated to discover that the main army, numbering 1000 orcs, had been ferried across the river the previous night. Their aim was to outmaneuver the Marchion army by passing them on the opposite riverbank, then crossing back over to cut off their retreat. This was a cunning plan, except for one major flaw: it had left the village virtually defenseless. This was a flaw that Elsa was eager to exploit.
She explained to those who didn't already know the story of how she became the sole surviving member of House Mielet: last summer, when she returned home from the Bond College, she found that a band of orcs had laid siege to her family estate. She arrived just in time to see the last of the house guards fall in battle, and her mother and father slaughtered before her eyes. Elsa couldn't bring herself to mention the fate that befell her younger sisters. She herself was taken captive, but managed to kill one of the orcs and escape. She watched from hiding while her family possessions were loaded onto the back of a wagon, then the orcs set fire to the manor house. Thus, her dynasty was reduced to ashes.
Finally, this was her chance for revenge ...