Chapter 34: Chapter 34: Orcish Accommodations

As the orcs led Jace, Esther, and Snowy back up to the main trail and around the mountain to the west, Jace paid particular attention to the surroundings, treating this trek more like a property tour.  The path they now walked was wide and skirted the principal peak in which he assumed the mine was.  More prominent mountains rose in the west, and the sun peeked between them, providing the last minutes of daylight.

Few trees grew in the stony ground at this elevation, but just several dozen feet below, a lush collection of pines gave the mountain a dense green skirt.  Animals were scarce, but Jace bet the noisy orcs scared them away, and the trees were usually filled with life.  It was only a few minutes of travel before they rounded an outcropping and saw the entrance to the cave.

It didn’t look like any mine Jace had seen before and was far more elaborate than the other two caverns he had invaded.  He remembered this had been a gnome fortress at one time, and the industrious stoneworkers and seen fit to make the entry welcoming to visitors.  The few weeks of orc occupation hadn’t significantly affected the appearance yet.

The entrance looked like it belonged to a castle with a drawbridge flanked by massive stone pillars on either side.  Half a dozen burning braziers hung from chains to light the bridge, which was lowered for now.  It spanned a narrow waterway fed by a miniature waterfall cascading down 50 feet to the left of the entrance.  It then ran off to the north, likely spilling into a stream that eventually reached the main waterfall above Crestfall.  Steps of polished limestone led up from the bridge to the entrance, with guards stationed on either side.  High-relief sculptures of woodland creatures were carved into the stone around and above the arched entry, and two tall wooden doors stood open.

To the gnomes, this entrance must have felt intimidating in its scope and size, but to an orc or human, it felt appropriately scaled and welcoming.  The guards stiffened when they saw the approaching orcs.  They couldn’t figure out if they should relax when they saw the familiar archer and shaman or bar the entrance against Jace and his wicked halberd.  And they had no idea how to react to Snowy or Esther.  There were no wolves in these mountains, and while they expected a few human invaders from time to time, none of them looked like Esther.

“I have come to meet with your leader, Carrak-Deng,” Jace said, showing respect by staying on the far side of the bridge after the archer and shaman had already crossed.  “I have aided your orcs in capturing a human scout and wish to meet with your leader to discuss a possible alliance.”

The guards thought about what to do, but, per the module’s script, Carrak had been expecting them to arrive, and they didn’t have to wait long before an impressive orc stepped through the open doors.  Jace stood several feet below the entrance to the cavern, but even if he had climbed the steps before him, he would have to look up at this monster.  Even though he was a mage, having ability scores of 24 in Strength and Constitution had transformed Carrak into a massive creature.

“Where is Orgalph?” Carrak asked the two remaining orcs from the scouting party.

The archer orc fell to his knees before his master.  “The human killed him,” the orc reported.

“Which human?” the leader demanded.

“The woman in black.”

Carrak scoffed as he looked at Esther briefly and then kept searching for someone else.  “I see only a little girl.  Where is this female warrior that bested my lieutenant?”

“Hey,” Esther started, but Jace held her tight.

“Now’s not the time,” he whispered.  “You can kill him later.  Right now, we need to get in.”

“The woman is powerful,” the shaman agreed.  “She also killed our two fighters.”

“But you subdued her?” the doubt was evident in the leader’s voice.

“The stranger came,” the archer said, looking over his shoulder at Jace.  “He beat her.”

“Ahh, the stranger,” Carrak said this loudly, so his voice carried to Jace.  The mage had been ignoring this large orc on purpose.  He had initially assumed Jace had challenged Orgalph’s leadership and killed him.  But if he had defeated this mysterious woman who had killed three of his best orcs, that was equally impressive.  “You come to my kingdom seeking an alliance?”

“I see no kingdom,” Jace replied.  “I see an orc in a hole in a mountain.  I see potential, but no kingdom yet.”

The archer and shaman were smart enough to understand a conflict was brewing and wanted nothing to do with it.  They scampered around their leader and into the cavern behind him.  Carrak just laughed.  “Bold you are, standing out in the cold all by yourself.  I have a legion of orcs behind me and the power of a demon at my fingertips.”

“Orcs that couldn’t defeat a little girl,” Jace continued his taunts, receiving a sharp elbow from Esther, “and a demon trapped under a pile of rocks.  I come bearing true power.”  He had allowed Esther to pick the level 50 crystal from him earlier, and now she handed it back to him behind their backs.  This allowed Jace to pull it out in the open without going into his inventory.  He raised it high with his free left hand so it caught the last light of the setting sun.  It seemed to explode with energy, taking in the sunlight, reflecting it internally 50 times, and then bursting like a supernova.

Jace forced himself not to squint at the light, but the guards before him cowered in fear, and even Carrak winced at the display.  It didn’t last long as the sun finally disappeared over the jagged horizon, but it had done its job.

“Impressive,” Carrak finally responded when he had regained his composure.  “But if you have such power, why come with peace talks?  That is not the orc way.  Only the strong survive.”

“That short-sided attitude is why the humans and elves always win,” Jace replied.  “Surely, with your demonic Wisdom, you know that.  My forces to the northwest of here are strong and could easily defeat your pathetic band, but what would that gain me?  I would lose fighters and spread out my forces.  And if I ignore your growing enterprise,” Jace paused, hoping he wasn’t laying it on too thick, “we would eventually find ourselves fighting over the same territory.  At that time, we would be too powerful to yield to each other.  Now is the time for us to work out where we stand.”

Carrak was unprepared to deal with this encounter, and Gandhi had to work overtime to adjust to Jace’s improvisation.  The PC thought he saw the mage initiate magic, likely to dispel any disguise Jace might be using, but there wasn’t one.  He was an orc.  Instead, Carrak was forced to play along.  “Very well, I will hear what you have to say.  Is it true what my scout has said?  Did that woman kill my orcs?”

Jace nodded.  “She caught them by surprise, but I subdued her and took her weapons.  With her hands secured, she is no threat to you.  I didn’t kill her because it wasn’t my place.”

“No, and a good thing too.  It would have drawn too much attention, though I have difficulty believing she came from the village below.”

Jace could tell Gandhi was trying to poke any hole she could at Jace’s trickery, keeping the orc chief on edge.  But he wasn’t wrong either.  The people of Crestfall had ruddy complexions and brown or blonde hair.  With Ester’s black hair, pale skin, and exotic dress, she didn’t fit in.  Still, her unique appearance played well into the mysterious abilities that allowed her to kill Orgalph.  Jace said nothing and allowed that mystery to remain.

“Very well,” Carrak finally said.  “You may enter my realm.  Is your wolf tame?”

“She is,” Jace replied, walking forward over the bridge and up the steps.  “She will stay by my side and not cause you any problems.”

The chief nodded and signaled his two guards to take Esther from his honored guest.  The guards were at the same level and strength as the two fighters Esther had effortlessly killed, and she smiled at them as they drew near.  “Be good,” Jace whispered as he shoved her forward and into the custody of the orcs.  She snarled at them but didn’t attack and allowed herself to be led inside.  Carrak insisted Jace and Snowy go next, not about to put this newcomer at his back, and Jace accepted, following Esther inside.

The entry hall to the cavern was impressive.  It was an enormous domed room, obviously chiseled to perfection.  No natural phenomenon could have produced an area like this.  The floor was level, and the ceiling was a perfect half-sphere fifty feet high and twice that across.  The circular room had several tunnels leading out, with the largest exit in the back.  Jace watched the two orc guards lead Esther in that direction and hoped she would be okay.  After they left the main room, they must have descended a flight of stairs, for their bodies disappeared quickly.  That would be the way to the dungeon and the tunnels below.  If his plan didn’t work, he would have to run in that direction toward the gnomes.

For now, Jace tried keeping worst-case scenarios out of his head and focused on the main room.  It was mostly empty.  A few animal rugs stood before the passageways, likely leading to personal quarters.  But Jace focused on the pedestal toward the back of the room.  They entered the circular room at the six o’clock position, and the tunnel leading down was at ten.  At two o’clock stood a five-foot stone pillar two feet across.  Hovering several inches above the flat top rotated a red stone nine inches across that looked like molten lava.  It shone with a strange light and seemed in constant flux, though its perpetual movement made it hard to be sure.

Jace was drawn to it, and Carrak said nothing, allowing his visitor to appreciate the power he recently mocked.  Without thinking, Jace was suddenly six feet away and could almost reach out and grab it, but he hesitated.  “Is it trapped?” Jace asked quietly.

{No,} Gracie replied.  {Just locked.  Neither you nor Esther will be able to unlock it.}

“What about Topper?”

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{I doubt it,} she answered.  {Though, he’s never lived long enough for anyone to get a look at his character sheet.}

Carrak saw his guest mumbling under his breath and thought he must be chanting or praying.  “Marvelous, isn’t it?” the tall orc said, coming up behind Jace.  “And it doesn’t need the sun’s light to show forth its power.”

“I can hear the demon talking to me,” Jace lied, hoping his god would understand.  “He is intrigued by the power I carry.”  That much was probably true.  If this demon – Dresth’Nal, the other orc had called him – could get his hands on a level 50 item, the realms might come to an end, MIM or not.

Carrak could hear nothing, but he did not doubt the power of the one he served.  “Yes, perhaps there is wisdom in your offer.”  They both stared at the rotating stone for a few moments before the mage ended their hypnosis.  “But first, you must relax.  You have had a long journey, no doubt.  You can take a rest in Orgalph’s room.  He doesn’t need it anymore.  Trixna will help ease your mind and body.  Dinner will be ready in an hour.  I need time to prepare a spell for that strange woman, and then we can talk business.”

Jace pulled his eyes from the stone and nodded at the orc’s proposition, not really hearing what he said.  Carrak pointed to one of the tunnels leading away from the central room.  A bear skin sat on the stone before it.  He moved quickly away from the demon stone before it did whisper in his mind, and Snowy followed close on his heels. 

“Esther will be okay, right?” Jace asked quietly.  “They won’t . . . mistreat her?”

{Don’t worry about her,} Gracie assured him.  {She is far more skilled than they are.  You saw what she did to the guards back in Ironfel.  These orcs aren’t half that powerful.  They won’t be able to lay a hand on her.  Besides, orc males don’t really care for human women.  They see them as weak and fragile.  Other orcs treat someone who rapes a woman like we would treat a pedophile.}

“How do you get half-orcs then?”

{Human males, on the other hand,} Gracie continued, {will %$#@ anything with two legs. However, I’ve known a few who will make an exception for centaurs and, of course, mermaids.  Females have the bigger sex drive when it comes to orcs, and they will often seek out human males since male orcs die so frequently.  A human female would never be able to give birth to a half-orc anyway.  It would kill her.  Not that there are many births in the game.  Unless it is specifically part of a quest, most monsters and NPCs are spawned.}

Jace filed this information away, not knowing he would need it in a few minutes.  The tunnel to his quarters was short, only 20 feet or so, but it snaked back and forth at several right angles preventing anyone from seeing into the room.

There was no door, and Jace stood still in the entry to the large room, instantly sold on this cavern as his new home.  Two large windows were carved into the far wall with views to the west.  The sun was gone, but the orange sky over the snow-capped mountains was a view he knew he would never tire of.  Chests, stone benches, and an armor rack stood in one corner of the room, next to a large desk carved into the wall.  A huge wooden chair with furs draped over it sat before the desk with two lanterns hanging on either side.  A massive bed stood between the windows, and a couch sat beside it.  A wash basin stood outside a portioned-off room that was likely a bathing area.  Probably never used by Orgalph, but if the gnomes had been forced to make this, they wouldn’t know the washing habits of an orc.

Another smaller tunnel led away from the main room, and Jace wondered what might be down there, but he would have time to explore later.  Snowy saw a fireplace with warm embers and decided to flop down in front of it.  Jace chose to walk over to the chests and rummaged through the equipment, looking for anything useful.  Orgalph had a few gemstones and clothes but nothing too valuable.  Having something other than a kilt to wear when he was an orc would be useful, but hopefully, he would have the run of this whole complex soon, and he could have his pick of any of the orcs’ things.  Carrak probably had a better selection.

Jace saw a weapon rack against the wall and began to lean his halberd against it but changed his mind.  He still wasn’t completely used to the magical storage area he had built into his body and took a moment to put the halberd in his inventory.  That reminded him of something he had been meaning to ask Gracie.  “How do NPCs regard their inventories?  I mean, doesn’t that make it obvious to them that they are in a game?”

{Only if having storage like that isn’t natural?} she countered.  {From what I’ve gathered, they view it like we view our memories.  When you learn something new, you put it in your memory.  You don’t think about where you are putting it like you would if you were filing a physical piece of paper; you just store it without thinking.  Then later, you can take that information or memory back out and use it.  You always have some things ready, and others you must concentrate on to remember.  For NPCs in this game, they treat physical objects the same way, and that doesn’t seem odd to them because that is how it has always been.  Some learn feats that give them instant access to select things in their inventory, and others have to roll their eyes up like the rest of us.}

“Esther seems to be able to produce the level 50 crystal quickly.”  After storing the halberd, Jace had left his inventory and now held the crystal, slowly turning it over in his hands.  He walked over to his bed and sat down.

{When you take the Pick Pocket feat, you get a free gem bag,} Gracie explained.  {This allows you to store gems in a quick slot, sort of like your coin pouch that everyone has.  You don’t need to go into your inventory to access your coins.  She doesn’t need to go into hers to access gems.  The crystal is large, but it still qualifies.}

Jace had to work hard not to be hypnotized by the object in his hands as the fading light in the room bounced around inside it.  “What does this thing even do?  People are ready to kidnap and kill us for it, but I’ve had it with me the whole time and haven’t found a use for it.  Surely if it were so powerful, it could have gotten me out of a few jams by now.”

{You’ve already experimented with putting spells and mana in objects,} Gracie explained.  {The amount of mana an item can store is based on its level.  As you know, a level 10 item can hold 250 mana.  It is calculated by treating the object as a level ten character who has maxed out their Mana skill.  This means they have 20 Spirit, which gives them a +10 base, they have the standard +5 that everything gets to Mana, and then they have a +10, assuming they put a skill point there on every level.  That is a Mana skill of 25.  Multiply that by level 10, and you get 250.

{I imagine you can do the math for the level 50 crystal.  It would be 10 + 5 + 50, all multiplied by 50.  It comes to 3,250 Mana.  Do you have any idea what you could do with that?}

Jace had an idea but probably wasn’t creative enough.

{There are two ways of casting spells using items.  You can store the magic or mana in the object ahead of time.  This is what Esther does with her weapons and slashing protection ring.  You guys don’t have damage spells, but if you knew the fire spell, you could load fire mana into a weapon, and if it were a +3 weapon, it would do an additional +3 fire damage until the fire mana was used up.  If the item had the explosive trait, like the axe you sold, it could release that fire mana all at once.  Fighters like to do this because whomever they hit gets a chance to save against the magical damage.  If you put the spell into the item ahead of time, the weapon determines the spell’s difficulty.  For a level 10 item, the spell difficulty would be the same as a level 10 mage with 20 Intelligence who put 10 skill points in Spell Difficulty.  That would be 30.  This is probably lower than an actual level 10 mage would have since they would take feats to make that higher, but it is way higher than an average fighter.  Your spell difficulty is 5.

{The other way to combine magic with an item is to cast in the moment.  This is what you did with your healing spell and the halberd.  The spell gains the weapon’s properties, but the saving throw is based on the caster.  Also, you can do as much damage as you want and are only limited by the mana capacity of the item, not whether it is a +1 or +3 weapon.}

Jace nodded, understanding the strategic reasons for using both options.

{Now imagine a wand with your crystal built into it.  A high-level mage will probably have 500 to 700 mana, so they couldn’t fill the level 50 crystal in one go, but as long as they cast the same spell, multiple mages can cast into the same device, or you can take a day of casting and generating mana to fill the item.  If you used 250 mana to establish the range and spread, you could throw a fireball that could explode for 3000 mana, which is 600 damage.  But it gets worse.  The spell difficulty is 60.  You have a high magic defense at 35, but you can see that you wouldn’t be able to roll a 25 in defense.  And if you rolled a 15 or less, you would fail critically and take +50% damage, which would be 900.}

“And I take extra fire damage anyway, thanks to Snowy, so it would be 1200.”

{Yes, you would be dead many times over.  But this is a fireball.  If you spend 250 mana on its range and spread, you could throw it 100 feet and have it be 30 feet in radius.  You could kill dozens of creatures in one shot.

{But, that is being inefficient,} Gracie continued.  {Instead, let’s use only 2000 mana on the damage and the other 1000 mana to raise the spell’s difficulty by 200.  When the spell difficulty was 60, a few higher-level clerics or paladins could make the save and take half damage.  If they critically succeed, they take no damage.  But if you raise the difficulty to 260, forget about it.  Everyone is failing that throw by 20 criticals, meaning the damage will be multiplied by 10.  With 2000 mana, that would be 400 damage times 10.}

Jace whistled and held the crystal more tentatively in his hands.  “If you spent more on the radius of the fireball, you could detonate this in the middle of a town and kill everyone.”

{Exactly,} Gracie agreed.  {Drescher could give it to one of his minions, walk him into the middle of an enemy stronghold, and annihilate it.  But that is just a fire spell.  Fire won’t be useful if you fight a red dragon or someone with fire immunity.  We talked about the death spell, where you must pay 50 mana per level to kill someone.  A level 20 character like Carrak would take 1,000 mana, which no mage can access. Plus, you would want to add a range and pump up the difficulty since death save defenses are much higher than magic ones.  With this crystal, you could fashion it into a death wand, and with 2,000 mana, you could kill a level 40 dragon and still have 1,250 mana to pump up the difficulty.}

Jace was growing frightened and carefully put the crystal back into his inventory, understanding better how Drescher could never get his hands on this.  Trying to focus on his mission at hand, he got up from the bed, ready to explore his room.  He looked up and froze.  The small passageway he had seen earlier that led to another room deeper into the mountain was no longer empty.

Another orc stood in the doorway.

A female orc.

A female orc wearing nothing but a sheer chemise.

{That would be Trixna,} Gracie said.

Jace sighed.  This wasn’t part of the plan.

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