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View Full Version : Orc Encampment: Advice?



Weirdlet
2009-05-29, 05:09 PM
Hey, all. To those of you who've seen the thread titled "One-Shot Turned Campaign- Advice?", you know the basics already- I ran a one-shot with the theme 'barbarian princesses' that got turned into a campaign by popular demand, and as a new DM I'm prone to asking around for advice. So here's the rundown-

My miniature horde of barbarian princesses, out to prove to their Conan-esque father that they're worthy of the throne by surviving alone in the world and then conquering, have stumbled into the middle of a conflict between two orc tribes. In my world, orcs are tough, matriarchal, and for the most part just one more competing group of barbarians in a world full of them- one of the princesses is even a half-orc herself.

Now, the girls went in with intent to trade- they'd recently been grave-robbing, and apparently one of the ancient king's junior wives had been of orcish descent herself, and of high status, so they had some distinctive artifacts on hand. The scouts holding them off at the border sent for a higher-up, who questioned the girls most sharply on how they'd acquired their items, and on finding out they'd won them in battle, brought them to the chief who offered them a job.

It seemed that there were two rival tribes in the area- Snake, who they were trading with, had claim over some very nice and very sacred land; while Wolf had plentiful warriors and a desire for said land, regardless of who was there first. They'd apparently fought each other to a stand-still, and the chiefs had made an exchange of sons to seal the peace.

Briagh, chief of the Snakes, had but one son to give- and she is afraid that Magra, her rival chief, will not treat him well. But of course she cannot steal him back, because that would set the whole mess off again- so she offers instead monetary reward and (even more important to would-be conquerors looking to raise an army) alliance, to these outside, human warriors to bring back her son and to defeat and humiliate her rival.

What I need is any advice on how to make an appropriate and interesting challenge for 3rd-level characters (all the base classes but paladin and bard), an orcish encampment with chief's tent/harem for infiltrating, and perhaps what information they can wrangle out of Magra's son, who now belongs to Briagh. I've got the premise, it's the details that are escaping me right now.

shadzar
2009-05-29, 05:17 PM
Orc camp not scaled to encounters.....

2 cooks int he camp are always arguing about how to fix the food. One wants to cook it the other eat it raw, one wants spices the other plain, etc.

The patrol is sitting around covering his ears so not to hear the cooks argue and also won't here a party of adventurer's sneaking up.

Inside the lean-to huts (10) there are about 20 orcs doing various things orcishly.

The cooks are only slightly louder than the chieftan's tent that has a 3 orc band playing music as his harem dances around and feeding him in a hedonistic manner.

The chieftan's tent is guarded by two orcs that are trying to peak into the tent to catch a glimpse of the harem and listen better at the band over the cooks.

Well that was just a scenario that popper into mind, but you would have to tailor it to you party properly for any encounters in it.

I would suggest to allow encounter to spread out as people are met or found out and the last thing to disturb the cooks cause they are what would provide the party with sound cover to sneak in around the other tents to get to the chieftan and maybe back out....alive. :smalleek:

hewhosaysfish
2009-05-30, 05:36 AM
The cooks are only slightly louder than the chieftan's tent that has a 3 orc band playing music as his harem dances around and feeding him in a hedonistic manner.

The chieftan's tent is guarded by two orcs that are trying to peak into the tent to catch a glimpse of the harem and listen better at the band over the cooks.


Except these orcs are apparently matriarchal, so the archetypes would all have to be gender-flipped...
Is it wrong that I find the mental images so created to very, very funny?
You should definitely go with this.

Weirdlet
2009-05-31, 11:43 PM
I suppose it would make sense for them not to be *very* alert- after all, the Snakes are powerful mostly on their own turf (I'm borrowing a bit of this 'Earthblood' idea, where one can become attuned to specific areas of energy under the earth and be more powerful there).

A loose patrol, some guards more easily distracted by warrior-like feasting- depending on how lazy I think the players are getting, we'll see what advantages they find.