18 Disguised Rescue

So we set out again, this time to rescue the halflings.

The one thing I didn't expect to put my theatrical skills to use as was to disguise myself as an orc, but that's what I did, with Emma's gracious help, when we were outside the town. We then rode to the reservoir lake and found the camp of the orcs there. There were lots of them.. close to 50.. and several halfling captives. It seemed that the orcs had decided to have their own gladiator games, halfling versus halfling, with betting going on to general merriment. Most halflings were kept in a cage at the side of the camp with a cageful of turkey as an alarm system.

Fortunately for us, the orcs didn't seem to care much about security. Oddly little, in fact, considering they had just raided a village and were a few hours from a major town. Either they knew something we did not or.. just thought that people usually try to get away from orcs, rather than seek them out, especially when they are in great numbers. It seemed more likely they knew something, a reason why they would not be attacked.. which ties back to the weirdness at the palace. Even the prisoners' cage was without guards.

We made a quick plan. Drai wanted an Orcish word he could use to cause fights, a single word. Fortunately, Orcish has plenty of words like that, being a language fond of both descriptive violence and very short phrases, so I gave him one, then took Rivyre with me as 'captive' and rode into the camp. No one minded much.. which was odd, as even if my disguise would've been flawless, in a group of 50 it should've raised suspicion that no one knew who I was. But no one cared, so I tossed Rivyre to the halfling cage to free the captives.. being a trained monk, sticks set in fairly loose waterline sand were no problem to her. I then cut the turkey cage so the birds could escape into the forest, building an escape route for the halflings, and wandered back. Drai's tricks had caused a brutal fight to start between two orcs, and I added to the confusion by setting fire to their betting agency and the orc chief's tent before leaving the area with the halflings. It all worked far more smoothly than I had expected.

After that, we split into two groups.

Rivyre and I took the halflings quickly to their village and gathered the children from there, then evacuated to the walled town. As I had half-expected, the prince had not managed to send any guards to defend the halfling children.. how could he have, as he was unable to mount a rescue mission of guards to save his own fiancee? The children took turns riding Neigh and had a good time on the way to the safety of the walls, and as they needed a place to stay I took the halflings to the ailing stables where I had bought Neigh, leaving the horse there too to be cared for. The stable master promised to take care of temporary lodging issues, so that too worked without mishap.

Drai and Emma though didn't have it quite as easy. Drai fought with an orc with his crossbow, and mainly succeeded in taking two hits from javelins before using a fog spell to disengage so he could flee. Emma found her horse so evading the orcs was easier for her. In armor, Drai was slow and left a wide track which the orcs followed. Enraged at having lost their captives, their fun, and their leader's tent, they were out for blood in great numbers.

Drai fled to the only possible place where he could survive - the dragon's clearing and the magical stone tower in the middle of it. He hid the entrance, climbed all the way to the princess's room, and waited.