The Quest of the Missing Quill

[Haahque]

Whole party
The party elects to stay their own course, while its not heading directly towards this other group, it does cause the groups to draw nearer at a fairly rapid rate. With a little urging from Gaheris, Benjamin reluctantly takes a closer look and identifies the approaching group more accurately. The other group is made up of male orcs, all five of them. Most of them armed in typical orc fashion, a large one-handed axe and a shield, one's carrying a bow, one has no apparent weapons, perhaps he's a civilian?

Usually a group like this on the boarder between the empire and the orcs means that they’re drunk and planning on stealing some cattle or picking a fight with the empire, but this group doesn’t appear drunk. The orcs also notice the party and changes direction to intercept them, then they do something rather surprising. They raise a flag of truce. The most surprising part of that is a group of orcs even HAS a flag of truce.

With the flag flying, the unarmed orc and the biggest of the orcs starts making their way towards the party, while the other three orcs hang back.

In these parts, the standard response to this is to send two people forward from each group to parley. Two is enough people that it's difficult to kill both people, and an important diplomat can have a bodyguard, however it is unusual for the flag of truce to be desecrated by violence in parleys.

(OoC: So if you do accept the parley honestly, this is where I encourage everyone to metagame. Excluding 4 people from the negotiations to follow sounds like a bad plan, so I strongly encourage everyone to be active in the OoC thread, giving tips/pointers to your negotiators. You can still post in character comments from a distance, but there's only so much that can happen as you stand around waiting for the talking people to talk.)

[Just_Ice]

Ben perks up just enough to point out the identity, sporting bags under his eyes still as he reads the situation, "Six count... nay, ahhh, five orcs up ahead. Waving a- no, it couldn't be..."

The bard nearly drops his lute. "Today will make for a good song, methinks."

[JadedDM]

"Well, we outnumber them by one, if it comes to that," Gaheris says. "But they seem to want to talk. Zurgo, you're with me. I might need you to translate and help me avoid any faux-passes. Everyone else, stay here. But be alert. If things go south, be ready to spring into action."

The rogue will then approach the parley group with Zurgo. "Hail and well met," he says to them in Common, expecting Zurgo to translate if necessary. He leaves his weapons sheathed and tries to make no movements that might be interpreted as hostile.

[Chris1234]

"Got your back", offers Hihim hopefully, and edges a little closer in case it kicks off.

[keymeister16]

Zurgo finally looks up, he was not expecting to see green skin around these parts, even less to see them holding a non-red flag.... 'they're looking for someone', was his guess.

wordlessly he approaches the parley, he had his assumptions, and Gaheris would ideally irritate them enough that they would cut to the point quickly.

[Haahque]

Whole party, specifically parley people
After a short conversation, it's decided that the best people to parley with the orcs are Zurgo and Gaheris.

As the parley parties draw closer the unarmed orc raises his voice in greeting. “Well met travellers. We’re on the trail of an orc that passed by here not more than two days ago. We believe that he might have been trying to….” The orc stops abruptly as he sizes up the parley party sent to meet him.

This orc does appear to be completely unarmed and he’s not wearing any armour, but if this is what an orc civilian looks like, then orcs are a fair bit scarier then you had expected. He’s well built, tall and muscled, but he doesn’t look excessively stupid or slow to compensate for it. He’s got some scarring, signifying a fair number of fights, however he looks no older than any of you. In his eyes there’s some flair of malice, even if it doesn’t show at all in his voice. Perhaps that’s just how he looks naturally.

With a final glance at the two sent to meet him, he adds, his voice short, “Our talk is done here. Good day.” And he turns to rejoin the other orcs, the large, heavily armoured orc in toe.

[keymeister16]

"you never where very good at hunting, Dubok," Zurgo stated plainly and with as much backhand he could muster without shouting.

"let me guess...you where on the trail of War Orc, correct?" Zurgo started listing off what he could remember from the maids description, his eyes locked with Dubok.

[Just_Ice]

Ben pulls downwards at his eyes a bit, realizing things are probably about to turn sour. Checking his lute and weapon, he mentions "I'm not sure if you gleaned any of that, but I think we ought reinforce our diplomatic party."

[Chris1234]

"Ok", says Hihim, and matches Ben pace for pace (until the dwarf's little legs don't keep up).

[Haahque]

Parley Party
Hearing Zurgo's voice stops the unarmed orc in his tracks.

"Better then you half-breed. I seem to remember you failed your hunting test in your coming of age trails." Anything that could possibly be associated with respect has drained from Dubok's voice, as he speaks it's slowly replaced with belittlement. "Tell me Zurgo, what do you know about this war orc? I'm sure you wouldn't have a clue where he is, but if you really rack your tiny brain you might have found out what he was planning on doing in the Empire."

(Of course all this speach is in orc-tounge, so only Zurgo can understand them perfectly in the party. Hihim and Ishan can also understand orc, but they're a little far away, so they would have to be listening pretty intently to hear what's going on.)

Benjamin and Hihim
The parley parties nearly meet each other before the orcs turn to walk away, Something Zurgo says stops the unarmed orc in his tracks and he seems rather angry about it. Given this, Benjamin and Hihim start moving closer so that they can reinforce the parley party should things turn sour. This, in response, or perhaps on their own volition, makes the group of orcs that was hanging back to reach towards their weapons, and take a few steps forwards.

[JadedDM]

Noticing the war orcs advancing a bit forward, Gaheris looks behind him and can see the drow and dwarf doing the same. He gestures for them to back away. It was clear Zurgo knew this orc, and they weren't exactly good friends, but it still seemed possible to keep things from going violent...assuming he could keep his own group in check, that is.

[Chris1234]

Hihim stops advancing, but continues listening just as intently as before.

[Just_Ice]

Benji also stops dead to size up the situation, trying to make out what weapons the orcs are carrying.

[HorizonsDream]

Jasmine shifts from foot to foot as she watches the exchange.

[keymeister16]

"yes. i failed," Zurgo admitted in rough, barely emotional Orcish. "at least i know my mistake, i do hope i could say the same for you," he didn't flinch at the oncoming soldiers, especially when he heard the footsteps of his own comrades closing in. plans in the empire.... Zurgo could already guess at what those plans where...did Dubok know about the quill then?

"he has plans in the empire? well he's clearly finished with them, because he isn't IN the empire anymore, i wonder....can you track him? or would you like to follow me again?" he grinned, fully expecting Dubok to lash out at this one.