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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 8868561" data-attributes="member: 29398">The options are either killing them or turning them to peaceful ends.  The latter is extremely unlikely. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />There really isn't anywhere to drive them away to - if they stop raiding the village the PCs left from it'll be because they found somewhere else to raid instead, which while great for the one village ain't so great for the next. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The villagers also made it crystal clear to the PCs that if their sortie failed, they feared that any retaliation would come down hard on the village - maybe even to the point of wiping them out.  The PCs are operating under this assumption; the reality is there's far fewer Orcs up there than the villagers think there are, and even a halfway-successful attempt will knock their numbers back to the point where - unless the boss (a Frost Giant) herself comes out - the villagers are probably safe for now.That said, if the PCs cause enough trouble that the Giant herself gets hacked off and responds in force, that'll be a different story. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  But that would take some doing - she's pretty complacent these days.Where it sits right now is a) the PCs have already knocked off about 1/3 of the Orcs (though they don't realize this, they're not sure if they've even made a dent in the Orc numbers) and b) the PCs are slowly coming to realize there's more to this complex/adventure than they might have been expecting. (one of the PCs downed a potion of gaseous form and went exploring, finding lots of rooms and hallways and some unexpected non-Orc monsters further in)The relationship is that the boss is bigger and meaner than they are, and also (in their eyes) bigger and meaner than the PCs; never mind all the boss' not-quite-as-big friends and allies who are still also bigger and meaner than the Orcs.  The Orcs don't know it (and neither do the PCs, as yet) but their main reason for being there is to be the expendable and easily replaceable "crumple zone" in case of any serious resistance by the locals.</blockquote>

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