Talk to me about Orcs

[Buttercup]

My players have agreed to clean out the elite orcs who are based somewhere in the mountains, and are pillaging and destroying just for the sake of doing damage. They have had several encounters with these orcs, who appear to travel in cells consisting of a mid level leader with cleric, fighter or barbarian levels, and 6-12 orcs who are 1st or 2nd level warriors with a fondness for crossbows and axes.

The orcs are not where they are supposed to be. Normally they stay north of the Ice Mountains. The party is high in the mountains, it's winter, the weather has been terrible, and every one of them has come within a hair's breadth of death at the hands of these orcs, who have been harrying them through the mountains for a month now.

For our next session, I need some orc encampments. I've got a few caves from map-of-the-week, but I'm having trouble setting them up. These are temporary encampments rather than permanent fortifications, and there are quite a few of them scattered about. How many exactly, I'm not sure.

Another piece of info--there is a massive invasion about to break against a famous border fortress which is the only thing stopping thousands of orcs and their evil elf masters from engulfing the lands from which the PCs came. When they left, they knew that the invasion had been forseen by a diviner. Now the orcs who are harrassing them at present might be connected to the invading orc tribes or might not. They might be deserters looking for a new home, or they might just be engaged in random destruction for its own sake.

And finally, these orcs worship an evil god that the PCs have managed to piss off by killing a high priest. They have been finding clay disks on the bodies of all the orcs they have killed so far, and they know the disks are the symbol of this god.

So, my questions are these: What will be found in these orc encampments? What tactics do you think they would use? Why are they there in the first place? Do you have any ideas about who the BBEG might be, and how I can bring him to life? Are these orcs related to the ones invading back east?

Thanks in advance for all the cool ideas I know everyone will have.

 

[med stud]

-Why are they there in the first place?
A simple solution why the orcs are there is that the orcs have had an increase in population and the resources of the orc lands are not sufficient to feed them all. This combined with the orcs habit of killing each other (magnified by the increasing density of orcs) will bring the elf masters to let loose the orcs on the humans instead.
Another solution is that the orcs have had a civil war between two large tribes and the loser's tribe is driven off. The only way to go is into human lands.
A third solution is that the elf masters have planned an invasion for some time and now is the time.

-What tactics do you think they would use?
This depends on the orcs' outlook. The standard CE MM orc doesnt strike me as a very organized creature, but your orcs looks more advanced. In that case their tactics is based around their resources. To successfully launch an offensive into human territory the orcs will have to take the fortress you are talking about. If the orcs' attack is planned they probably will bring siege equipment to make that possible. If it isnt planned there is a risk that they will have great problems taking the fortress. An alternative way of taking the fortress would be by treason, either by charm/domination of someone inside the fortress or (this might be cool for an adventure) that the fortress have some undercover cultists of the evil god the orcs are worshipping.
Another approach to the fortress problem could be a siege; if the orcs are outnumbering the neighbours to the fortress they can fend off any attempts to lift the siege. This does require food for the orcs, though; if they cant get food from the surrounding lands or if they cant poison/destroy the food stores in the fortress a siege can be very problematic.
The third tactic is a variation of the "only out to destroy"- thing; the orcs' masters send in an army that goes past the fortress into enemy lands hoping for nothing but the destruction of as much human things as possible. This will doom the army if the humans are close to the strength of the orcs but it might be worth it, especially if the reason for the attack is overpopulation in the orcs' lands.

-Do you have any ideas about who the BBEG might be, and how I can bring him to life?
Since the PCs have pissed of the god of the orcs the BBEG might be a high priest or avatar or something like that to that god. A way to bring him to life would be to have him/her as the leader of the orc army; compare this to the Witchking of LoTR. This way rumors of his/her sorcery and strategic genius will reach the PCs and even though they dont face him/her directly they will get to know him/her by his/her exploits on the battle field. He/she can also give hints of the PCs fate by "subtle" acts such as slaying their friends or by painting the names of the PCs on the walls of razed villages using the locals' blood or summoning fiend assassins that sends their greetings from the BBEG (or anything else in a James Bond fashion). The effect can be magnified using some funky template (unless they are commonplace in your campaign); "the orcs are lead by Gorm the Fiend who was created a century ago by the <censored act involving a balor and a human woman> and now he has finally grown to full power after consuming the flesh of a hundred elves". The creation of this particular half fiend would be engineered by the priests of the evil god but their creation has since outgrown their powers.

---

That's my contribution. I hope it can be of some help

PS: I have a counter question: If a verb is after a plural, should the verb have a "s"- ending? For example, is "the orcs looks" correct? (Im trying to get a grip on basic English grammar ^^)

 

[Buttercup]

-Why are they there in the first place?
PS: I have a counter question: If a verb is after a plural, should the verb have a "s"- ending? For example, is "the orcs looks" correct? (Im trying to get a grip on basic English grammar ^^)

Thanks for your ideas, med stud. To answer your question above, it would be: I look
you look
he,she it looks
we look
you look
they look

So 'the orcs look' is the correct form. Does it make sense? No. But that's how English is.

 

[Aeolius]

My players have agreed to clean out the elite orcs who are based somewhere... north of the Ice Mountains. The party is high in the mountains, it's winter, the weather has been terrible... these orcs worship an evil god...Do you have any ideas about who the BBEG might be...

Perhaps the evil god is Cryonax; (though I'm not sure if he's been updated for 3e from the 1e FF) or Kostchtchie.

As for the BBEG, how about a half-troll orc, using an ice troll, or an orc mage, using the ogre mage for reference.

 

[adwyn]

As an aside I just finished running a similar Orc invasion, and one idea that I stole worked very well - the orc shamans made magic items from the skulls of defeated humans that conveyed to the wearer the skills and feats of whomever the skull had belonged to. Thus ordinary orc warriors were repeatedly made into elite scouts with a suprising mastery of the horses they had captured. This threw the party more than any other aspect of the seven or eight game sessions.

 

[Rel]

I don't usually pimp my story hour in quite this way, but the main plot arc for my the first part of my campaign was centered on an Orc invasion of some barbarian lands and it has a few striking similarities to some of the ideas you propose, Buttercup. Namely that some (not all as in your case) of the Orcs the party killed were wearing symbols that represented an aspect of a god (Bane who I lifted from Faerun) who was supposed to be dead. If you care to read about it, feel free to follow the link in my sig (it takes you to my current SH thread and from there you can navigate back to the early days).

I'll give you a thumbnail sketch of the highlights so you don't have to read the whole thing if you lack the time or inclination:

For the BBEG in my Orc invasion, I used a Banelar (from Monsters of Faerun) and they are very nasty customers and their CR is WAY out of whack. He and his army beseiged a hill fort that the barbarians had put together with the help of some of their more civilized neighbors who knew more about defensive works than the barbarians did. It happened in the winter time, a time in which the humans were not used to waging war. The Orcs had a supernatural resistance to the cold (they hailed from a place called The City of Endless Summer) and were not bothered by it. The humans had problems because the Orcs managed to burn many of their winter stores as they pillaged the land outside the city. The Orcs by contrast had no problems because they ate the bodies of the humans they killed. For these reasons, this became known as The Winter War.

The Banelar bad guy had a Decanter of Endless Water and he used it to make an ice castle as his "forward base of operations" for assaulting the hill fort. The party got to storm the place and it was a very cool (pardon the pun) session. Ultimately the army was beaten back, largely thanks to the party defeating the Banelar thus removing the general. But the fallout became the driving force behind my entire campaign.

The attack on the barbarian lands has robbed them of many of their men and made their lands, full of natural resources, a target for jealous neighbors. The symbols to Bane eventually made their way back to civilized lands and sparked the interest of the temple of St. Cuthbert who sent out a couple of zealous Church Inquisitors to "look into the matter". Despite ostensibly being on the same team, the party nearly came to blows with them. Ultimately the symbols have led to prophecies that Bane is going to return and get revenge upon the world for persecuting his worshipers and killing him in the first place.

The party has sought out the City of Endless Summer and discovered that the Banelar have been breeding and preaching to this particular band of Orcs, turning them into efficient soldiers who know how to follow orders and maintain unit cohesion (they're now Lawful Evil). They've also taught the smarter ones magic, supplying the Orc Horde with a good supply of Adepts, Clerics and Wizards.

The part also encountered another group of Orcs who were visited by "The Shining Lady" (probably a Celestial of some sort) who encouraged them to rise up against their oppressors (the Banelar) who were only using them to their own nefarious ends. This band has become Lawful Neutral and seek to break the hold of the Banelar over their people. They've become some of the party's better allies.

Hopefully you can fish a good idea or two out of that mess.

 

[Nail]

Re: Random Orc groups

Two possibilities spring to mind:

• Orcs are the vanguard of the larger invading force, or
• Orcs are "settlers" from a larger orc population.

If the former, raiding parties, whose intent is simply destruction and mayhem, is an excellent tactic. Used often in real world warfare, actually. It's called "cutting supply lines". Remember, a nation's ability to carry on a war is as much about the "home front" as it is about the actual battles in the field of conflict.

So, have the orcs with portable items that would help them for this mission. I'm thinking Poison and Disease would be the best. This unknown god could even have one or both of these terrors as a domain; God of Black Humors, God of Loathsome Rotting, God of the Dark Death.....

The orcs would also have as many ways as possible to cause fire: alchemical, magical, mundane, etc. Fire is an excellent tool against crops right before harvest.

********
If, OTOH, the orcs were not part of some larger plan....they were there "just because they needed space"....then they would have tools for settlement, like farming implements, or herds of sheep or cattle, or tools for hunting, fishing, and curing meats and hides. What sort of settlers are these orcs?

Also: don't forget the women and children. They would be there if these were settlers/refugees/etc. Their presence would tell the PCs a great deal about the orc's motives.

A cool idea: If these are settlers/refugees, they might be carrying a holy artifact of some kind. Perhaps they are looking for the holy land?

Would that not be cool? Orc pilgrims!!!

 

[d4]

in my last D&D campaign, i ran a fairly significant story arc concerning orcs in a mountain pass, similar to what you're doing.

it turned out the orcs were based out of a red dragon's lair, and had struck up an alliance with it. they watched over its hoard while it was away and also in some ways worshipped it as an avatar of their evil god of fire.

in this world, orcs and ogres were related species, so there were also quite a few ogres in the tribe. the leader of the tribe was a half-dragon ogre fighter, the daughter of the red dragon and the former ogre chieftain's sister. her main lieutenants were an orc barbarian and an orc cleric of the fire god.

the tribe had a lot of little outposts throughout the mountain pass to stop any travelers from being able to make it through. the PCs ended up having to take out several of these before the caravan they were guarding was able to make it to the other side of the mountains.

the tribe had quite a few rangers in it, and they had used their animal handling skills to train a number of falcons. they used these falcons as a messenger system between the outposts and the main lair. in one particularly memorable assault when the PCs attacked one of the outposts, one orc ranger managed to limp over to the falcon cage before dying and released a dozen or so falcons into the sky. the PC sorcerer managed to bring down about half of them with magic missiles before they flew out of range, but the others made it back to the main lair, alerting the orcs there that something was amiss...

i played these orcs as being much more intelligent and much less chaotic than the default MM orc, but it made for quite an adventure; one of the PCs' favorites from that whole campaign.

 

[Nail]

....i played these orcs as being much more intelligent and much less chaotic than the default MM orc.....

This is not a criticism, but: Why must these two things (Chaotic & Intelligent) be mutually exclusive? They don't need to be. They often shouldn't be.

 

[d4]

This is not a criticism, but: Why must these two things (Chaotic & Intelligent) be mutually exclusive? They don't need to be. They often shouldn't be.

oh i agree. i was merely stating that the average MM orc has, what?, an 8 Int and is CE, whereas these orcs didn't have an Int penalty and were more NE / LE. i wasn't implying that there was a correlation between their higher intelligence and their shift away from Chaotic, merely that both trends were found together in this particular tribe.