Conquering an Orc Infested Village

[howandwhy99]

The town of Hamfast in our game has been overridden by at least 100 orcs, possibly more. The situation came about as most of the County's army is far away at war. The remaining militia (read: farm boys) have done what they can trying to protect the County from surrounding monster lands. But the villiage of Hamfast was taken over by goblins without much notice to anyone. The goblins, for whatever reason, were forging weapons for the war in return for gold from the County. So initially the County leaders did not want upset an ally, any ally, during a time of weakness.

In the end however, the goblins were pushed out by a militia force of 100. Unfortunately, a large group of orcs also wanted the town and overpowered the militia. 12 soldiers were lost in the battle and the Lt. pulled back. Now Hamfast is held by what we believe is 100 orcs. (the actual number may be less). From reports by the Lt. these orcs used highly intelligent tactics and attacked via ambush, so no firm number of their forces could ever be determined.

What our party hopes to do: (11 of us with 4-5 hirlings averaging 2nd level) is to retake Hamfast and either capture, kill, or run off the orcs. There may be some reinforcements for us to petition for from the County, but probably not many.

The layout of the village is compact. There are perhaps 20 buildings in its center with outlying farmsteads a good distance away. What we learned during the goblins stay is that they were digging tunnels between these inner structures underground. Holes leading up into the houses entered in to freshly dug tunnels. We do not have a map for the tunnels, but we do for the town by a resident (a PC). Also, a recent slave escapee from the orcs informed us of their slaveholds in the caves below. The slaves as a group are mostly human, but include many types of creature as well as other orcs They are forced to dig tunnels all day long with only their hands. We are not sure if they are searching for something below the village or digging to another area.

The monster lands are nearby. A Giant's army was being gathered in a series of caves (B2 chaos caves) and we now believe some of those caves are held by the displaced goblin forces. We have a keep we can recon back to if trouble arises, but it is two days away. Only outpost towers are close to reach Hamfast or the Caves.

Any advice on conquering this village and removing the orcs would be greatly appreciated.



(For what it's worth, we use the OD&D system. Any non-rules related tactics are appreciated)

 

[howandwhy99]

Here are some ideas I had:

Working the goblins against them is one idea.

My PC could hypnotize the leader (but he doesn't know the orc tongue)

Some of our Wizards could charm one or two of the orcs for information. They could even use it to control the leader.

Our most powerful Wizard could phantasm the leader

We coud cover the holes in the ground with lids (from where?) and then smoke them to death / out.

Burn the village. But I'd rather not burn the town to the ground, if we can help it. This would be a last resort option. And only if we have a good strategy to complement it.

A trojan horse or two?? We need to see what kind of forces they have posted during daylight hours. We need to have our scouts do a recon near the village to learn their defenses.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

(For what it's worth, we use the OD&D system. Any non-rules related tactics area appreciated)

Well, it depends on what the orcs have invested in. If they're smart, they've gone with mutual funds, which are hard for players to destroy, but they also mean the orcs won't be getting rich and powerful any time soon. But given the generally low intelligence and wisdom of the orcs, they've probably gone with direct investment into a few hot stocks. That's got the potential for quick riches, as we saw in the late 1990s in the real world, but as we also saw, it's a fairly risky investment strategy.

Assuming the orcs went the latter route, I'd suggest the players take the corporate espionage route. The smart orcs (like half-orcs) will have to be dissuaded from diversifying, by any means necessary. Half-orc accountants will likely have hired some tough bodyguards as a result, and also will have SEC protection (Sorcerer's Exchange Commission) for the players to contend with.

Hope this helps.

 

[diaglo]

what happened in 1974?

who is charlie?

how did he defeat the much more mechanically powerful army of the imperialist French and Americans?

you don't have to dig to find things.

 

[jmucchiello]

[hijack]
I saw the title and thought your world had some kind of futures market for humanoids. And the party of auditors and tax collectors needed to deal with a village making money off of the woes of other villages being raided by orcs.
[/hijack]

Since going into the town is probably suicidal, you need to find a way to lure the orcs out of town in small enough groups that you can defeat them on your ground. No advice as to how since what might work depends on what you can use for a lure.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

"Haunt" the village and scare teh orcs away.

Parley with the orcs, and bribe/persuade them to go somewhere else -- perhaps a richer village!

Try hit & run raids, and encourage them to chase you into pre-planned ambushes.

 

[Turjan]

Also, a recent slave escapee from the orcs informed us of their slaveholds in the caves below. The slaves as a group are mostly human, but include many types of creature as well as other orcs. They are forced to dig tunnels all day long with only their hands.

We coud cover the holes in the ground with lids (from where?) and then smoke them to death / out.

These points don't go well with each other. And if you want to invest there, I wouldn't burn the village down, except you want to cash in on a waterproof insurance?

 

[Phaedrus]

Illusion magic for disguise to scout/infiltrate. Possibly even to bluff your way into a position of leadership... are there any spells available to do so?

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Well, it depends on what the orcs have invested in. If they're smart, they've gone with mutual funds, which are hard for players to destroy, but they also mean the orcs won't be getting rich and powerful any time soon. ...

This was exactly going to be my thought when I read the title.

 

[TheGM]

I had a group smaller than yours (6 PCs, 2-3rd level) run into this same problem with a stretch of woods next to a town.

They had their theif make just enough ruckus to call out a small band, then ambushed them. Taking a prisoner, they hauled behind away and questioned the prisoner to get the "lay of the land".

Then using the info from the prisoner, they got the farmers to hit from one side and then run, fighting just enough to draw the bulk of the Orcs away. They entered the woods from the other side, took out the skeleton crew, freed the prisoners, stole an arms cache to equip the prisoners, and ran again.

Then they came back with a whole bunch of angry slaves/prisoners that were armed.

The Orcs decided that some other woods were much more appealing, since these farmers knew how to resist.