Aporeu chronicles Issue 67: Got wood III: taking back the camp

Stories from the adventurers

This week

These adventurers keep talking about going to a wood camp, but they never arrive.

Got wood III: taking back the camp by

I started this, so i'll finish this. My name is Rhodax Vurdek, and I joined this mission to ensure that the Laddigan brothers got their logger’s camp back. You see, a few weeks prior, I went out to investigate a problem at the camp. There, we discovered that a group of followers from Moccus purposefully placed a dark totem there to attract monsters as vengeance for the fact that Laddigan’s hunters killed the chieftain's daughter. So, me, Ranra, Effie, Alyr, Mengü and later Teafy went out to set things right with the Moccus clan. Sadly, we lost Teafy to the caves in the Alboro Glade on our way there. When we arrived at the camp, we saw 3 young half-orcs that promptly scurried away at our arrival. Some of us used some magic to ensure that they didn’t run away (I’m deeply sorry for that), and properly introduced ourselves. They told us that the only way to appease to the Moccus clan was to complete a trial they called “The trial of Moccus”. Very well, i thought. If this is the way to bring peace, so be it. We went to the clan to talk to see if it was possible to make peace. Their chieftain, Al-Ruun, wasn’t so thrilled by this plan at first, but the village elder Sek-Liew managed to convince him to make us do the trials. And so it began. On our way to the start, a lot of the clan members were excited. I supposed we were about to put on a show (and trust me, we did). We had to take of our armour and all weapons, to ensure that only our physical prowess was tested.
And then, it began. First, we were led to 3 different paths. The objective was simple: complete 1 of them to continue. One of them was filed with magical darkness, so that was not gonna be the one for me. The second one was filled with spinning blades, rings of fire and a spike pit. I’m not a man of acrobatics, so that wasn’t going to work either. The last one was a big patch of wilderness, filled with animal noises. Wrestling animals it was then. Alyr and Ranra went in front of me with this path, and Effie and Mengü went through the one with spinning blades. Alyr managed to tame the first challenge (a rabid and sick dog) on the wilderness part before me. To each their own I suppose, but it worked. Ranra went after her, and then it was my turn. I knew sneaking past wasn’t an option (try sneaking as a 7ft tall dragonborn), so I decided to intimidate my way through this first challenge. This worked, and I got to see Alyr beat an Ankheg in mere seconds. Effie and Mengü managed their paths, although both had problems with the rings of fire.
Then, it was time for challenge 2. Behind the paths, there were 3 doors. 2 of them would give us a safe passage, the other would lead to harm. We were allowed to ask 1 question whilst pointing at a door. If we were pointing at a save door, they would answer truthfully, and if we were pointing at the door that leads to harm, they would lie. We decided to ask a question we already knew the answer of, and yet again, we prevailed
And then, it was time to fight a god. To compensate for the battle to come, they gave us our equipment back. There it came, a 20ft high boar, lightning crackling around it, ground shaking at its mere presence. I thought that I could make it rot away with one touch and be done with it. I heavily underestimated the god’s power, and it got me down in just one hit, almost killing me. Luckily, Alyr saved me with a vision of a dog wanting to drag along a stick that's way to big for him. I still owe her something for that. And finally, Mengü finished it of with one of the best one-two punches I’ve seen in my life. And that was it. Now that the 5 of us are honorary members of the tribe, we can discuss the terms in the near future.

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Got wood III: taking back the camp by Effie

The first time I was sent to the Altigin Loggers Camp, we were to deliver some goods, because the camp’s surroundings were so dangerous that the previous group of people sent there never arrived. I wouldn’t know, we never even got there. We got distracted halfway by some lady ghost who Custous just couldn’t let go and then we had to hurry back to the city because Jade and Ulfgar got some kind of aging curse on them.
Then, a bit later, some idiot killed a half orc lady as part of a hunting accident or some shit. That didn’t sit too well with the half orcs, so there we were. Off to the camp for a third time. I met with a very strong and dreamy Big Black Dragonborn named Rhodax. If I weren’t a professional, I wouldn’t have been able to contain myself and might just’ve jumped those muscular haunches of his. These training sessions with Phann really have opened my eyes, you wouldn’t believe. Oh and Alyr, Ranra and Mengü also came along.
We went to meet with Teafy, a fellow half-elf lady, but she was a ranger and knows stuff about tracking things and hunting beasts. She took us back to Alboro Glade, where Custous had led us into the Death Cave underneath the waterfalls. Teafy, not an ugly wyrm herself, and I stripped naked - Rhodax was totally looking by the way - and dove into the water. After that, we sat around a fire and shared some stories. Mengü is all about justice, or was it vengeance? Anyway, she’s all nice and all, but when it comes to eyes for eyes, she makes no jokes. Then we went to bed, and whaddayaknow, of course another ghost had appeared in the middle of the night. Teafy had gone into the cave and wasn’t there the next morning, apparently calling out to this elven dude she had told us about that she had done a little ‘undergrowth ranging’ with. Ranra told us she had turned into her spider form, I think she called it a steeder or some mumbo, and had gone into the cave to follow her but that she had come back after walking into magical darkness. Also, this Ranra lady, what the actual fuck is up with her dreams?
Next day, we arrived at the camp. It looked pretty deserted, plants reclaiming the place already and there were signs of big ass bugs burrowing underground here. The Son of Mighty Serpents (Rhodax) tells us about a totem that they found here. It apparently attracts those bug things, and the half orcs nearby use it. While he was in the middle of his story, his sharp eyes spotted our enemy, 3 half orcs trying to sneak off. Mengü, Rhodax and myself all hurl our magics towards them, stunning one, compelling the other to a duel and charming the third. The last orc obviously couldn’t resist my looks or the swaying of my hips as I moved towards him, and he forgot all that he had been doing before that moment. He started sharing his stories with me as I gazed into his eyes, but the brutish first half-orc slapped his friend right across the face, trying to snap him out of it. It didn’t work, obviously. The angry half-orc only agreed to talk to us if we would drop all our spells. So I slapped the sweety that I charmed across the face as well. Somehow, in the face of these big brutes, little Alyr managed to reveal why we had come to the camp, and that we wanted to talk to their leader to negotiate a truce.

The half-orcs took us to their village, where the chieftain and the elder were waiting for us. We tried talking to them, but the orc chieftain, Al-Ruun, only wanted to talk if we managed to complete his so called “Trial of Moccus”. As our mission was to secure a truce, or peace, whatever, with these greenskins, we agreed and were led to a cave in the forest. They wanted my spear and other weapons, but I hid my dagger just in case. Alyr then asked if she could drink her potion before the trial, and the half-orcs agreed. What once had been a skinny - I mean, that girl needs to get some meat on her bones for real - young elven lady, now exploded like popcorn, muscles bulging everywhere.
Inside the cave was an arena of sorts, with half-orcs pouring in above us, trying to get a nice view of the trial. The arena had 3 paths. The upper path was overgrown with greenery and animal sounds came from that side. In the middle, I could see spinning blades, rings of fire and some sort of a rope dangling from the roof. The lower path was just very, very dark. I got to go first and, obviously, I chose the middle path. Coming to the blades, I skilfully planted my dagger in the mechanism and one of the rings stopped whirling, making my dodging of the other ring a bit easier. To no surprise of my own, I passed the first test. To my left I could see little Alyr stepping forward first onto the upper path, but the height and the bushes meant I couldn’t follow her progress. Next was a small tunnel of fire. Fire is my element so I wasn’t too scared of this obstacle. I may have been a little cocky though. I tried to jump through and make the flames look bigger on the outside while dimming them on the inside. At first it seemed to work fantastically, the crowd was roaring to the burst of fire and my jump off was decent enough. However, as I focussed on the flames, I pulled my leg in a little too late and my foot got caught on the edge of the tunnel, causing me to fall flat on my face, before tumbling out of the tunnel. Next was a deep pit with crude spikes at the bottom and a rope hanging over it. I pulled a patch from my new robe, which transformed into a 10-foot pole, and I used it to launch myself towards the rope, grabbing it easily. Feeling the momentum of my swing, I let go, soared through the air, before lowering my speed with an easy-enough backflip and a perfectly stuck landing. Just for show, I spread out my arms and fire shot out from them, exciting the half-orc crowd even more.
Above me, I could hear something burst from the ground and a yelp from Alyr, but a flash of light and some hard hitting punching sounds later seemed to silence whatever it had been. Looking behind me, I saw Mengü had also chosen the middle path and she had approached the pit. She jumped off, and for one moment I thought she wasn’t going to make it, but she stretched her arms out and barely managed to grab a hold of the rope, before swinging towards me and jumping off as well.
Next, we entered a room that had 3 big doors. The chieftain, with his booming voice, told us that one door would lead to harm and the other two would lead to safety. We could point to one door and ask a question. If the door we pointed towards was one that led to safety, the chieftain would answer with the truth, and the answer would be a lie if we pointed towards the wrong door. The thinkers of the group started about what types of questions we had to ask and eventually they came to the conclusion that we had to ask a question we already knew the answer to, and this seemed to work out as we walked through it and we were all fine.
Through the door is another small room, with iron bars on the other side. Our weapons and other belongings had been put in this room for us to collect and another half-orc told us we were about to fight their God. Did we pick the wrong door then after all? Rhodax, our heroic Drakeman said something about their God being a massive boar. Before I could really think about how massive, we were led through the gate.
As we walked into the arena, the half-orcs roared loudly to cheer us on, or in anticipation of the “watch heroes get slaughtered” pastime. Either way, as I familiarized myself with the layout of the arena, the gate on the other end opened up. And there it was, an absolute unit of a boar, thick and grizzled fur, lightning bolts crackling from its eyes and along its flanks. A truly magnificent sight to behold. Alyr, still buff from the potion she drank earlier, opened up with some magical lights, but the beast shrugged them off. Then it was my turn to light the fucker up, and I shoot a massive burst of fire at it, burning the beast badly. Mengü followed up with a hurled spear, which bored into its flesh, but the hide was too thick to do major damage.
Then, the dashing form of Rhodax charged in, like a true hero, and he hit the boar, causing flesh and fur to sizzle and sear off it. The boar tried to pierce Rhodax with its tusks, but his scales were too strong. Alyr tried some more light, but this time, a beam of pale moonlight opened up on the boar, hurting it more and more. Then the boar swung its head once more and this time, a tusk managed to penetrate Rhodax’ hide and lightning crackled across his body. It reared up and tried to trample Rhodax, who fought bravely but ultimately buckled under the pressure. The dragonborn fell to the ground and stopped moving and the boar shifted its focus. Ranra turned into a Rothé and charged in at full speed, horns forward, giving the God some of its own medicine. Mengü, she must’ve been really angry, lit up her spike gauntlets and ran straight at the boar. Her fist landed and then crashed through its skull, its neck and even a bit of its spine. Lightning coursed over its body and then fizzled, as the boar slumped over and collapsed.
Half-orcs rushed in to carry their dead - are they ever truly dead though? - God away from the scene and we were hailed and lauded by the crowd. The half-orcs were impressed with our achievements and we shared a feast with them. I even learned the basics of their tribal dance called the “grot”. I’m definitely gonna go back to learn how to do the grot and maybe train and spar with these half-orcs, who are really nice when you get to know them after you go through their life or death trial. So nice, in fact, that the chieftain gave us an opening towards peace talks.
After our party with the half-orcs, we went back to Arnheim, stopping by Alboro Glade on the way back, but Teafy was nowhere to be found. Her stuff was all gone, so we just assumed she must’ve found this elven dude she wanted to bang so badly and they went on their merry way. Speaking off (half-)elves we bang, I was looking forward to another training session with Phann, as spending a couple of days hanging around an actual dragon really gets the fires going. It would be nice if the peace talks are successful, and we can party some more with the half-orcs, but I guess we can only wait and see for now.

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On the next issue:

Dirty Work for Jarvarax