Guy de Varan’s Story of Orc Raids

As told to the Heroes of Cleenseau, in Cleenseau, December 4th, 1719

This past summer, in July and August, there were some rumors of orc raiders coming out of the foothills to the west and raiding along Bandit’s Way, but this is the type of thing that happens now and then and usually the Duke of Maseau, or the Army of the West in Sembara will raise a expeditionary force and go hunt them down before it becomes a real problem. Guy has no idea why this didn’t happen, but by early September, the rumors stopped and things seemed to have quieted down. So Guy didn’t think much of it.

By late October, however, there were some worried rumors spreading around Evis that something was whisking whole caravans off the road. A few caravan guards Guy knew who usually went up and down the road never came back to Evis from Cleenseau, and one caravan expected to be heading southbound to Maseau never arrived from Cleenseau. At this point, the winter rains were close to coming, and traffic on the road was pretty light, but Guy was talking into joining one of the last caravans – a small two-wagon affair carrying mostly unworked iron from farther south, and somewhat doubling as a newsgathering expedition to see what might have happened to the missing folks. The Marcher Lord of Evis, Peyre Vayler, provided some additional guards and the caravan went out well armed.

Five days up the road (about half the distance to Cleenseau) they were set upon by a well-organized warband of about 30 orcs, led by a huge ogre wielding a great-ax. The warband was disorganized and terrifying, and Guy doesn’t have clear memories of the combat. But he recalls seeing two orcs slaughtering each other, as well as seeing the ogre feasting on the thigh of one of the guards. Despite the chaos, there seemed to be some order as about two-thirds of the humans were killed and the rest tied to the wagons and made to stumble along behind them.

Guy, along with four others, made it as prisoners to the orc camp. Three of the captives were killed for sport along the way. The camp was laid out with a large crude wooden hut in the center, and then ten small, squalid human camps, and then two opposing orc factions, on either side. Life at camp was very rough, and Guy speaks of it hesitantly. The humans were clearly there primarily to tend to several large herds of livestock, horses, and some small millet plantations. The orcs were constantly patrolling and the six human camps were not allowed to talk to each other.

Guy’s group of eight was responsible for keeping a forge going, where some orcs would forge weapons, and for weeding and harvesting two large millet fields. The orcs would ride amongst the humans cackling and whipping anyone who slacked off. But the real motivation was avoiding being eaten. Anyone suspected of trouble, or slacking off in their work would be tied to four poles near the ogre’s hut, and then any orc who was favored or performed well on a raid was allowed to take some bites of flesh, until after several days, the human finally died. Guy shudders and can barely talk of this. Guy mostly refuses to talk more about the horrors of the camp, at least at first. He moves on, jumping rapidly ahead to the march to war.

By late November, the ogre had recruited about 60 orcs to his camp, and was talking of outright war against Cleenseau. Three weeks ago, regular patrols started riding out from the camp, returning after several days. About a week ago Guy recalls great excitement in the camp and the weakest two humans in each camp were given sharpened sticks and told to fight each other, with a claim that whoever won would be let free. Guy doesn’t really know what happened, but he heard screaming and sobbing and could see, vaguely, orcs tossing around severed limbs and chewing on them. He grows silent at this, clearly suffering at some memory, and moves on.

The next morning the orcs dismantled their camp and started marching north. They marched for six days before creating a large encampment about twenty miles from Cleenseau. During the march the orcs were less rigorous about keeping the humans separate, and desperate to warn someone, several of the human groups hatched a plan to try to escape. The orc watches were never very well disciplined, and so the plan was basically: one large group would cause a commotion, sacrificing themselves to distract the guards and let eight other humans scatter into the night. Guy and one woman managed to escape, although a lone orc saw them and almost killed them. The woman died of her wounds.

Guy fears that in a few days, or a week at most, the orcs will march on the town. And he dreads what will happen to the humans then. He doesn’t think the ogre will have much use for them after a successful raid on Cleenseau, and is not sure how the orcs will raid the town with a large group of humans at their rear. So he fears the humans are to be a pre-battle feast.