FR: Silver Marches, Orcus, & Orc Invasion

[yennico]

Perhaps one of the BBEG is an orcish cleric of Ilneval (Domain planning for planning a war).

The normal alignment of orcs is CE so some could be worshippers of a demon which grants them demonic powers (fiendish or half-fiend template.)

 

[smootrk]

Well, see above, but you're both right. I should check it out. Any chance that whole Lolth's silence business is resolved yet? A spoiler on the cause would be welcome.

Minor Spoiler:
Lolth is still silent, although the evil Drow of the book speculated lightly that she may be excercising her will through the Orcs. Might just have been pure speculation on their part, but I thought why would he (Salvatore) write that if it was'nt some piece of a larger puzzle.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Minor Spoiler:
Lolth is still silent, although the evil Drow of the book speculated lightly that she may be excercising her will through the Orcs. Might just have been pure speculation on their part, but I thought why would he (Salvatore) write that if it was'nt some piece of a larger puzzle.

Perhaps for the same reason some of those drow think that Drizzt is a choosen of Loth and there to create chaos? Bad writing?

 

[Lazybones]

Make the big bad orc chieftain commanding the raiding tribes a lich priest of Orcus, who disguises its true nature using illusion magic. All that the rank-and-file orcs know is that the prisoners taken in the raids disappear into a great big hole in the ground, and never come back up again...

The lich is in the process of "converting" the former shamans of the tribes (which might be able to penetrate its disguise) into undead, and maybe culling off the elite of the prisoners to serve as undead minions as well. The culmination of the plan is an goal to sacrifice ten thousand living persons to Orcus in a huge ritual deep underground, in order to fuel Orcus's ascension to godhood.

Of course, I'd have the players find out about this gradually, so that they are getting into the higher teens level-wise before they actually penetrate the lich lord's stronghold (maybe just a few days before the ritual is to be completed).

 

[JackGiantkiller]

Also, keep in mind that Orcus doesn't actually *like* undead. He just has power over them. So you don't have to use huge amounts of undead if you don't want to.

But, for a major villain to use lots of orcs and some undead as his forces is sort of classic...(LoTR).

I'd leave the orc chief an orc chief.

Leave the giants ruled by giants.

Have the alliance between them manipulated by priests of Orcus who are their advisors.

Or have them both ruled from above by the aforementioned lich...who is actually being directed by his demonic 'familiar', a servant of Orcus.

 

[Nightfall]

*cheers* you so made my day Felon.

One idea to use Orcus is by using good ole Blackdire's last creation, Lygashak

Follow this link: http://www.enworld.org/article.php?a=110

I certainly think it's possible to alter/retailor Lygashak's history to be more of the North but otherwise, he could also have a powerful Orc Death Knight Champion.

Another possibility, look at Tome of Horror 1. Two of Orcus' Leutienents are named/statted. One of those could very easily be leading them either for Orcus OR for his own personal gain.

Just a few ideas.

(And yes Orcus is a lot closer to Godhood than Demogorgon.)

 

[Felon]

*cheers* you so made my day Felon.

Heh. I was wondering when we'd hear from you.

I'm trying to benefit from the knowledge of folks who know FR better than myself. Based on previous stories, is there any indicator of how well a plan like this would fit into Orcus's modus operandi? How actively would gods like Grumsh intervene in a ploy like this?

 

[Voadam]

Work in a pie somewhere, either Orcus tempted them with pie or the good guys have pie and the whole thing is a reverse orc and pie.

Actually, come to think of it, an epic orc and pie might be called Orcus and Pie.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Based on the novels, I think Grumish would take a pretty direct interest in it as most of those who thought they were better than the old orcs wound up getting chopped into a fine mist, even when they

Spoiler

betrayed the orc lord and sought to kill him when his newfound intelligence and cunning were beyond a normal orcs.

 

[iwatt]

I'm currently running a SM campaign featuring the orc horde as well. Some things to remember:

- Quantity has a quality all of it's own. Give the horde ridiculously high numbers: 20 - 30 times the size of the whole silver marches armies combined. Add in tribes of giants, trolls, bugbears, goblins. Throw in a couple of white dragons. Now you have a horde.

- Use FR specific stuff:

1) Orogs: are basiccally LE military orcish leaders. Think Hobgoblins on steroids. They've become the warrior elite of Obould's army, giving him a core "legion" of disciplined fighters, besides the power of his shock troopers.

2) Fiendish Orcs: Forgot there name, but they were bred in Ascalhorn (Hellgate Keep) and they're orcs, so they multiply at outstanding rates.

3) Fey'ri: The levish half fiends are roaming free, and probably wouldn't be adverse to an orc horde helping them cleanse the land....

4) Duergar: They want Mithril Hall back.

5) Drow: They want Mithril Hall Gone!!


IMC, i have had the PCs run into all these groups in some way or another. basically, everybody is being manipulated by an ancient Lich descendant of the Netherese, who is searching for the last Nether Scrolls. The BBEG wants chaos unleashed in the SM so that he can do his "Dastardly Plan" without the pesky interference of the leaders of the SMs.

Anyhow, my campign is based more on the Uthgardt Tribes: I'm going for a "Barbarians save Civilization" theme this time.

Hope this helped.

NOTE: Orc heroes Rock!! A Barbarian/Ranger Orc Scout can get a move of 60' and very high hide bonuses. Now that is a good skirmisher. Orog cleric/fighters are also good. Eyes of Gruumsh have a lot of flavor. And I can't stress this enough: as an orc Horde leader, always hire Kobold sorcerors to cover your back....