Orcs of the endless and unconquered Forest (IC)

[Re'ozul]

@ Kusque

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The camp (very much simplified). Bright ones are gnolls, the ones with the halos are orcs.

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One of the two orcs guarding the door, both hunters as is obvious by the way they hold themselves, fixates you with his eyes, then speaks.

"Bad timing on that I'm afraid. The Sector-leader is currently overseeing a meeting between Head Shaman Sorunnar and Hassnak of the Fallsaark Band, hence their presence." he waves a hand in an arc gesturing at the gnolls.
" They've been at it for hours now, it got quite loud. Only reason its quiet now is that the head shaman put up some noise cancelling field. Thats the reason we both have someone at the door, to check from time to time to see that they haven't killed each other yet. Considering the going so far, they'll probably take another break in about ten minutes or so. You can give your message then most likely."

@ rweird

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See: Several tomes speak of creating automatons and predirected spells that when inscribed in many-layered matrizes can seemingly adapt to circumstances. You find information on fey, born of magic and an empodiment of it and the natural world. Some scrolls speak spirits, beings not from this world but one adjacent, only able to cross over in specific circumstances.
In effect you mostly find magic in very complex and discreet forms usually inhabited by a will. Not at all like the metaphysical nature of what was described to you as the Grey.

Also:

The most direct form of magic taking on qualities of life that you find speaks of magic coalescing into strange amorph beings. These beings have no true form though the have matter as their containment. In theory they as well could grow by engulfing and breaking down other things and beings to add to their own mass. But unlike what you heard of the Grey, these are mindless and have no capacity other than animalistic instincts and their capabilities in magic tend to be limited to the one spell that created them.
In theory one could create one of these that could not only have access to the multitude of spells necessary to create the abilities of the Grey but also its described level of intelligence or capacity to analyse but to do so would be an undertaking far beyond what could be achieved even in a single lifetime and would not allow for the Grey's described tendency to simply appear as a change in environment.

[rweird]

Grazik - Shaman

"The grey is beyond anything seen before in this forest. Unless Sorunnar has another collection of books one these things, I don't think archives will yield us answers."

[Winds]

Gell shakes his head.

"Not a surprise."

[GnomeGninjas]

Mal is glad that he was right about the archives being a waste of time though he decides not to comment on his correctness. So, what next?

[Man on Fire]

"We should leave a note about sharing what books says "autoatons" with the elders, this sounds a lot like those metallic guys we meet at pinkskins camp." Rada says. " We should head to meet with Kusque, if there's no need to waste Sounnar' time, then we have to head to pinkskins and finally get down with the business."

[Sutremaine]

Kusque inclined his head. "Very well. May I wait in one of the huts?"

Inside his head he muttered something rude, but he didn't want to get too worked up yet. Ten minutes wasn't a long time, if indeed the hunter was right about the delay.

[Re'ozul]

@ Kusque

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It is another quarter hour before you notice people leaving the hut. The first is a Gnoll who marches straight over to the rest as they begin talking amongst themselves in whispers.
Sorunnar exits together with who you believe to be the sector-leader. As they exit, the guard you spoke to voices something to them and gestures to your position. The sector leader is already in the process of starting to walk towards you can see sudden recognition on Sorunnar's face as he subsequently stops the sector-leader and comes towards you himself.

"Greetings Kusque. Back so soon? You must tell me what you learned."

His speech is jovial, but you can easily hear a hint of weariness in it. He is subtly prodding you to move to one of the outer huts away from the Gnolls.

@ others

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You write down the information that you could find and that you considered useful.

OOC: Do you simply hand the information to the chief's attendant? Do you make multiple versions for the elders and yourselves?
Do you afterwards go to where Kusque is? If so that will take about an hour if you push yourselves a bit.

[GnomeGninjas]

Mal gives the information to Grazik because Grazik probably knows what to do with it since it was his idea.

[rweird]

Grazik makes three copies, one he keeps, one for the chief, one for the council.

[Man on Fire]

(dunno why I make my last post in green, probably busy day)

"Don't forget to mention the "automatons", old geezer." Rada reminds Grazik as he writes down the notes.

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I think that once we're done with this we should head to Kusque.

[Sutremaine]

"Less than we'd like, unfortunately," Kusque replied quietly as he walked to one of the outer huts, watching the gnolls huddle out of the corner of his eye. If they interfered with the negotiations... well, he'd be damned if he let them attack the pinkskins when the tribe was not permitting itself to. What a ridiculous situation.

He hated to disappoint Sorunnar when he looked so fed up, and now he was asking him to do more work. "But we can discuss that in more comfortable surroundings."

[Re'ozul]

@ Kusque

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Sorunnar leads you to the north eastern hut and sits down at a table.
Once you have sat down, rolls a small ball over to you and motions for you to grab it after which he initiates some sort of spell.
"There, I'm not sure how well those young raiders can hear, but for now they should only hear us talking about someone having made a mess of some spell development back in the camp and the cleanup being a bit of a problem.
Considering you are back without seeming completely frantic I assume your initial foray into the pinkskin's lines was at least moderately peaceful.
Our unwelcome guests over there were not so lucky. Apparently they found a group of workers with three armored beings that were guarding them and decided to try their mettle against them.
They say they managed to kill all of the guards and most of the workers before taking much of their provisions and retreating due to having lost 2 of their own. They say they came here because and I quote 'While they are weak these creatures numbers could prove an annoyance to both of our people'.
Considering the sorry excuse for raiders they brought here my guess is more that they most likely lost a good bit more of theirs or were potentially completely rebuffed and now want us to support their idiocy. As such I fear whatever it was that happened, their actions do not better our chances at resolving this problem in any peaceful manner.
But tell me about what you learned, you wouldn't have come back so soon if it was not important."

@ Everyone

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You arrive at the outer camp just as Kusque finishes retelling your encounter with the pinkskins to Sorunnar

[Re'ozul]

Just another post as the forum apparently didn't register the last one.

[GnomeGninjas]

Mal asks Kursque " What has happened? What does Sorunnar say?" Mal seems obliviuos to the fact that he is interupting there conversation.

[Man on Fire]

Rada is a bit thorn. On the one hand she would like to slap Mal for just butting in Kusque talk with one of the elders, on the other, she's interested in what they talked about herself. She decides to join the conversation in more natural way, giving full relation of their exploring at the library and how they have found some interesting things but...
"...rat's a*s about the Grey. So, any other good news we should know about?" She ask sarcastically after finishing.

[rweird]

Grazik - Shaman

"If you could produce the bond, and include Sorunnar and the rest of us, then we could 'speak' in private without the Gnolls knowing we are hiding something from them." he says quietly to Smith when they reach the edge of the camp before dismounting.

[Sutremaine]

Kusque glanced up at Mal's interruption, and said nothing as he returned his attention to Sorunnar. "...appeared to leave on good terms, although I doubt Anders will be pleased to see us again after the gnolls attacked."

As Rada explained their discoveries at the library he scrubbed his fingers through his hair, and finally snorted darkly at her ending question. "The gnolls have ****ed everything up. There's your good news." He leaned back on the chair and let out a deep breath before sitting up straight again and folding his fingers together. "They attacked the camp, killing some workers and their metal guards." If the gnolls can kill them then they are weak. His voice finally levelling off, he continued. "We said we spoke for the mother-forest, but the gnolls are a part of her too. I don't know what to say tonight."

[Winds]

Gell sighs to himself.

"All these things at the same time...the wrong time. It's going to be harder than before to talk to them..."

[Man on Fire]

""Well ^@#&!" Rada swears. "That's exactly what we @#$%ing needed! We worked so hard and then some dog-faced idiot with d@#k-like breath decides to @#$%ing run everything." Rada walks in circle for few moments, until her speech doesn't devolve into one big stream of swearing drunken lumberjack would be afraid to say.
"Okay, I'm fine." She says after calming down. "We will have to tell pinkskins we're not the only tribe in Mother Forest. And we'll probably have to talk the Gnolls out of continuig attacking futher. And get them to share what they learned. While pinkskins will keep cutting more threes." She's trying to talk calmly, but the futher she goes, the more she's grinning her teeth. "Sorunnar, how much chances you have to talk the Gnolls out of futher attacks? We'll better come clear the thing to the pinkskins, because I swear, if we stay here, I'm gonna test these new toys on those f@#$ing @#$holes."

[GnomeGninjas]

Mal is glad to hear the news, sure it might damage some diplomacy efforts some but who cares? We know that they can be killed by gnolls, they probably die real easy so if it turns out that we have to kill 'em off we probably won't have much trouble with it. He pauses a bit and then thinks up a brilliant plan, it even involves diplomacy so the others won't hate it that much. We should explain that we can't boss the gnolls around so if the gnolls want to attack some guys destroying there forest the tribe won't be able to stop them. Then we tell them that most of the forest wants to wipe them out, we are there only friends here and it would be best if they give there friends all the information about any giant grey nature destroying monsters that they say are making them destroy the forest.

[rweird]

Grazik - Shaman

"We need to explain that we aren't in control of the Gnolls, and soon, though we need to convince them to stop their attacks."

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OoC: You know that we're in the middle of a Gnoll camp while saying this, right? Chances are at least one of them understand's Orc.

[Sutremaine]

"It's true that we can't boss the gnolls around. But... we shouldn't tell the pinkskins that the whole forest but us is against them. They don't know if there's one more tribe within the trees or one hundred, and they could simply burn the mother-forest down and collect the wood later." As he finished that thought he regretted putting the idea into everyone else's head, but it couldn't be taken back now. He pressed on. "What we can do is to inform the gnolls that there is a threat greater than the pinkskins, and that they can either cooperate now or deal with that threat later. We should also send word to the goblins, and any others whose territory extends into the area the pinkskins are occupying."

OOC:

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We're in one of our own outer camps and in a building away from the gnolls. There was a spell on me and Sorunnar to disguise the conversation just in case, but I don't know if he extended it to the rest of you off-screen.

I can't remember what other races were in the forest. It might have been mentioned at some point, or I might be misremembering.

[Re'ozul]

Sorunnar chuckles at Rada's talk about the Archive before flinching at his outburst when told what the Gnolls did. Instantly he throws up a an area of silence around all of you before glaring at Rada.

"Of course you didn't find anything. Did you really think I would put the most damning and destructive Information in a place any of my apprentices could easily get to? No, there is more to the archive than you can find, hidden in the heavy magic that permeates the place. Only I can access it and from the looks of it I am getting old as it seems I forgot to put one of the darker books back after I consulted it. But I can already tell you that you won't find much for this particular problem. Most of what we inherited from the clan wars deals more with simple soul-catching and the creation of undead. None of the clans were insane enough to ever create something like you described. There may be some superficial similarities burrowed somewhere deep in the texts but if what you were told is true those would be akin to a blade of grass having some similarities to the main camp's central tree.
However, I think we were in luck to send you to the pink-skins when we did. If the gnolls are to be believed they sent their raiding party sometime in the early morning yesterday. Considering that you were not told of it at least tells us their message system is most likely not driven by magic. Still, your next encounter with them may fall under a more suspicious light if not be outright hostile."

Having finished, Sorunnar leans back and massages his temples for a moment eyeing one of the small flasks affixed to his sash, but seems to decide against using it as Rada asks his question.

"I doubt that we can get them to stop. While their leader has been spouting well planned truisms about 'saving the Forest' and 'we all are at risk' its easy to see they just want someone to fall back on when things go bad, so that they then can push all the responsibility on us. Before you came back I was somewhat willing to at least allow them a conference with the chief, but from what you told me any alliance with them would simply be hacking off the one foot we amanged to get into the door with the pink-skins.
That leaves us with what to do with our 'friends' over there. By now they have most likely dispatched messengers to other groups trying to amass a force to try and overwhelm the pinkskins. If they manage to do that things are just going to become harder for a peaceful solution, if we stop them they'll spin it so that we are in leage with the pinkskins.
Mother Forest, I hate these 'talks'"

@ Kusque

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So close to the edge of Mother Forest there are usually just you and the Gnolls. Giants sometimes stray here as well, but being nomadic wanderers they are often alone on their travels. The elves are somewhere much further towards the center. There are two goblin tribes realtively near (37 miles north and 47 miles east northeast). There may be some fey around but pinpointing where they life is an exercise in frustration.
Mother Forest is massive, easily 400 miles in diameter and while your people are the most prevalent in your part of the very edge, rarely has a group of explorers from the tribe ventured further than 100 miles in any direction from it.

@ Grazik

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Out of the corner of your eyes you notices one gnoll flinch at Rada's initial outburst. His eyes go wide and for a split second he adopts a deeply conflicted expression before he joins their conversation again which abruptly shifts from their already fractured sounding language into a convoluted mess of sounds and barks apparently adopting some kind of cypher. Anything further is cut off as Sorunnar throws up the sound negating barrier.

[Man on Fire]

"Our mistake was, that in all of this we forgot we aren't alone in Mother Forest. Maybe we should send messangers to Goblin and Elven tribes before Gnoll convince them to be their backers in this nonsense. Damn, those idiots think it's just another simple war or something. We need to tell those dog-faced morons about that other threat. Hell, if they want to fight so badly we may even offer them to join us against the Grey. We may even need to arrange the meeting between tribe elders to sort things out. Worst-case scenario, they just destroyed all we worked on and started a war with pinkskins." Rada starts thinking about possible options. She wants to ask Sorunnar if politics are always such pain in the butts, but refrains from doing so. She probably already annoyed him with her bahavior.

[rweird]

Grazik - Shaman

"You should watch your tongue more carefully Rada, one of the Gnolls noticed, that will be now help in the negotiations." Grazik comments after the sound barrier rises. "I didn't honestly suspect to find info about it save its existence if we new of it, though I didn't think we would have knowledge of it. I think that the best option we have is bring the other tribes to the table with us, that will show that we aren't the only ones and that we aren't responsible for the others, and that may give mother forest time, at least in the event of a fire, because they'd have allies. If one group decides to attacl the pinkskins, then they couldn't indiscriminately destroy the forest until they reach there enemies and kill them with loosing other allies."

[GnomeGninjas]

Mal finds that he agrees with what he believes Grazik means. Infact what he believes Grazik means is remarkably similar to what Mal said earlier.I agree with Grazik. Explain that we have no control over the rest of the forest wanting to kill all pinkskins, and that we personally will be there allies so they better listen to us because we're probably there only friends here.

[Man on Fire]

"Sorry, I lost control." Rada says. "Okay, first we need to go to the pinkskins and see how bad are things standing. Then we can deal with the rest. Sorunnar, I don't think we can help you much with the Gnolls, but once we're done, we'll need your advice." To think that not so long agoada would chckle at the idea of asking one of "old bastards" from the council for advice. But, as they ay, desperate times calls for desperate measures. And Rada was willing to get really desperate.

[GnomeGninjas]

Mal will ride to the pinkskin camp to do as Rada says. If most of the group doesn't follow him then he will turn back. As he approaches the camp he starts getting nervous, even though he has heard that the pinkskins are easy to kill he is still worried that they will attack him. He tries to tell himself that the pinkskins probably won't attack and if they do he can easily kill some of them but this doesn't help.

[Man on Fire]

"Kusque, can you catch up with Mal and tell him to get his butt back here? Tell him wandering alone will get him killed. Because either pinkskins will get him, or I'll beat him to death with a stick." Rada tells Kusque. She then turns back to Sorunnar. "Which reminds me - did the Gnolls were kind enough to brag about how they defeated pinkskins metal soldiers? I would rather avoid breaking historical blade on a guy too hard to cut."

[Re'ozul]

"I am unsure wether sending envoys to anone with the bare minimum information that we currently have would do anything else but incite them in senseless agression against the pinkskins.
Furthermore the act itself could prove more challenging than you think. We have already lost contact with the elves, the fey most likely already know and are simply waiting. The giants have no actual setttlements so we'd have to find each wanderer one at a time.
That leaves only gnolls and goblins as possible allies with tribe like structures in the immediate vicinity. I have been scrying on the situation between Lizardfolk and kobolds, but their pissing match about who is more deserving of the old ruins and the surrounding marches is only getting worse with more and more 'accidents' happening."

Looking at Rada he smiles

"Oh you have already helped me quite some. You have told me that the pink-skins disposition is not absolutely warlike, that they are not beast and are potentially simply desperate. Do not sell yourself short, you may not think this information is much, but in dealing with our 'friends' it is quite valuable.

Their leader claimed that the armored beings were hulking monsters of brute strenght but dumb and easily disabled. Only being able to land hits on his great warriors by chance they fought cowardly, using some form of magic. Keep in mind, this is already far less flowery than he put it. His story had so many inonsistencies that it is hard to filter out anything useful."