Durgaz's Stuff he knows
***EYES ONLY*** This is a specialized "lorebook" of all things that would be immediately available (without skill checks) for the character. Things will be posted as they come up or are asked about. Players other than this character SHOULD NOT read this information.
Players can and SHOULD add to this page the things they KNOW from the stories and events they've been in. Please break it down into the sections noted below - Feel free to add sections as you like.
You may also ask for any information, and based on situation or skill checks that info will/or will not be placed on this page.
Contents
PEOPLE
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PLACES
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THINGS
A Soldier's Knowledge
Logistics / Supplies
Shadow Camps
- One orc needs about 1/2 pound (1 trail ration) of food per day, just like all other medium-sized creatures.
- Oruks and worgs will require four times that (worgs will not have time or security to hunt)
- Goblins and such less,
- so on average a camp might need a 1/2 pound per head per day. Assuming a campaign of 1 arc, that's going to be 15 pounds per head. All this will have to be taken with the expedition. Resupply through an unsecured forest is not a good option. Add to this spare weapons, armor parts, and all other stuff necessary to keep a soldier up and about, and let's call it 25 pounds.
- Add to the orc his own equipment of vardatch, javelins, armor, shield, and he can still easily lug all that himself. So far, no need for a supply train.
Numbers
Shadow Camp troop counts
- According to some, the necessary ratio to effectively combat irregular forces with conventional troops is 20 to one.
- According to Midnight canon, 100 orcs die per elf. This of course, counts in friendly casualties, accidents, diseases, infighting and what not that occurs in the larger battle grounds like the Burning Line.
- Still, assuming a 20 to one ratio, and assuming some 200 elves are available to oppose a camp's troops, that would demand 4,000 troops to effectively take and hold a new campaign city. It's the holding part that's tricky, especially in a cut-off a location which the locals have intimate knowledge of.
Orc Encampments
Shadow Camps Structures
- Traditiaonally Shadow camps are fairly chaotic unless you're talking about orc legions where the discipline and training are far better. Chaotic does not mean stupid. You can't be stupid and survive in Erethor and even orcs new to Erethor have been told and respect the dangers of the wood.
- Camps may sprawl out, but there will be pickets, possible traps emplaced, and the leaders will have the best position/most defensible spot in the camp.
The Advance
Shadow Camp Advancement Example
- Getting to a ruined city such as Althorin will probably demand no more than the 700 or so troops you have allocated to your advance, especially since the elves are incapable of facing the orcs in head-on engagements. They would instead harry from the flanks as they always do, identifying and taking out hot targets like scouts, woodland-capable cavalry (wolves) and legates with snipers or magic. For the average grunt, the advance should seem easy. Any specialized shock troops like a fiendish troll probably won't see any use, and won't even be targeted as it is far too tough to take down.
Holding the Prize
Shadow Camp holding campaign Example
- This is where things get tough. The elves know Althorin and the area around it, and can be supplied both from the Gamaril delta and the Pirate Princes. Those same seaward raiders are probably part of the reason there is a land-line to River's Fangs in the first place (the other part being the Shadow's lack of seaborne resources in the first place). The orcs will soon find themselves cut off, without an enemy, and stumbling through the forest trying to secure the road. In Althorin, they will be raided and sabotaged by elves moving through the ruins. Any seaside activity will be hampered by the Norfalls.
Tactics and Stretegies
If I Was the Elf, following the above Example
Elves don't do straight fighting. Like any good outnumbered people being invaded, they are sneaky.
- Temporarily evacuate Althorin. Get as many supplies out as possible, scattering them throughout the forest. Booby trap the ruins thoroughly with both mundane and magical surprises. Make certain that contact is maintained with the Pirate Princes through other landing spots.
- Immediately initiate skirmishing with the orcs. Using a mixture of unexperienced troops and true veterans, attempt to lure out the expedition's mobile and intelligence-gathering forces. Allow the expedition to advance blindly, but also with a false sense of purpose and victory.
- Surround Althorin. Use about half the elven force to cause the orcs to feel “boxed in”. The other half should be kept in reserve or spent sustaining efforts against the road. Use snipers and kill-teams to take down any leading or special figures, and keep attempting to lure them out with fake raids.
- Slowly withdraw from Althorin. As long as they attempt to hold the ruins, the ors are on the defensive. While the orcs keep staying paranoid, sallying now and then, keep moving forces back to harassing the road, occasionally rotating troops back to Althorin so there is always change there, and the shadow forces don't pick up a pattern. Keep harassing them until they give up, or just hold them there indefinitely.
If I Was the Orc, following the above Example
As long as the orcs are advancing, their doing their job. When they stop and hunker down, they lose.
- Acquire secondary objectives. Orcs are best when they are assaulting something, or simply doing something. Anything is better than sitting still, even if doing so means less casualties. Therefore, establish projects such as carving a road to the ruins, making checkpoints and so forth.
- Force the elves to spread out. With their significant numerical advantage, and the availability of reserves, the orcs can divide into several forces, stage probing attacks and feints, and generally force the elves to keep moving in multiple directions. Casualty rates are not that important.
- Assault enemy strongpoints. Attempting skirmish warfare with untrained troops against elves is futile. Instead, strong points found during previous probes should be pursued. Keep orc presence in Althorin at an absolute minimum. The town can always be retaken, and supplies are available from River's Fangs and Fallport anyway.
- Keep requesting more troops. Fighting a guerrilla force means constantly pushing them, despite the casualties suffered, something Grial Fey-Killer is proving on the Burning Line. As long as the road stays open, don't try to limit casualties. The elves will be drained faster than the orcs. Keep the enemy divided and moving.
HISTORY
Elves
The elves are more like the elder fey than any of the other fey races of Eredane, both physically and culturally. They are a slight race, lithe, quick, and agile. They are all children of nature, and even with their ancient culture and powerful magic, they still live close to the wilds as part of the Great Forest. They are a unified people, allied not only to tribes or family groups but instead to a single royal line that rules over all of Erethor. The racial devotion to their High Queen Aradil is akin to worship, and though there is a large and powerful Council of the Throne, it seldom opposes Aradil’s will. Despite this greater shared history and culture, there remain various subraces of elvenkind, each with its own unique physical traits and ways of life.
Caransil (Wood Elves)
The elves of central Erethor, the Caransil or wood elves, are the most widespread and familiar of the woodland fey. They range from the southern Highhorns, eastward to the Plains of Eris Aman and the Westlands, and south to the Aruun Jungle. Their skin is the beautiful brown of ino tree wood, and their hair tends to be long, shiny, and black. Their eyes are large and dark, and they are the tallest of the elves. They wear a variety of clothes, from the dark and mottled camouflage leathers of a scout’s kit to the sunset brilliance of a courtier’s elaborate silks. These elves live in enormous maudrial, or homewood, trees that have been coaxed to grow in elegant but useful domestic shapes by age-old spells. The Caransil eat mostly fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. They supplement their diets with rabbits and grouse raised in family hutches and with river fish from the Gamaril and Felthera. The wood elves are traditionally the artists, philosophers, and craftsmen of Erethor. They are also the lineage from which have come the greatest sorcerers and battle mages of recent times. Their warriors carry longbows and longswords.
Danisil (Jungle Elves)
These elves of the southern reaches of Erethor, where temperate forest gives way to tropical jungle, are small, slight, and ebony skinned. Historians speculate that they may be the elven line from which the halflings were born. The uninitiated consider the Danisil “feral elves,” but their culture is as sophisticated as that of their cousins. Many of Erethor’s most powerful druids are of the Danisil lineage. Their hair is dark and coarse and typically worn in short dreadlocks. Their eyes are black and so narrow that the whites barely show. They dress in loose shorts and brightly painted vests, but when hunting, they wear only layers of river mud to hide them from both sight and scent. Adults typically adorn their faces and arms with strangely beautiful patterns of ritualistic scarring. The scars are said to frighten away evil spirits. The Danisil live in boa-bil groves along the many small rivers of the Aruun Jungle. Their druids enchant vines to form large slings that suspend their tiny huts high in the jungle canopy. They live off the fruits of the forest but are also cunning hunters. They are good fishermen and use fleets of delicate canoes to fish and hunt along their rivers. The jungle elves have mastered the use of poison arrows and have developed several toxic elixirs uniquely effective against orcs. They also carry wide curved fighting knives called sepi. Izrador’s invaders learned long ago to fear these ugly little blades, but have little need to venture into the dark Aruun; the fell demons of that place fight on Izrador’s behalf without the dark god having to expend a single soldier.
QUOTES, MYTHS, LEGENDS, STORIES, AND BELIEFS
The destiny of the world is Shadow. — Anonymous note penned in the margin of the Academy’s Commentaries
The Hero
All my life, I’ve looked up to Eanos, our village smith. Eanos towers over every other man in the village. In a show of strength, on midsummer's eve, he lifts the round stones in the village square over his head and heaves them a full three lengths of his body. The other men can’t even lift one, let alone throw it.
Eanos is always the first man up when there’s work to be done and there is nothing he can’t fix with the strength of his body and the tools he’s been allowed to keep. The orcs constantly bait him, ready to test their strength against his, but he never rises to their taunts. It’s clear that the local legate despises him, but Eanos has never given him cause to vent his wrath until now.
Four days ago, a traveling tinker came to town bearing news and small items for barter. He had healing salves for burns and red rash that we desperately needed. He offered to give us the salves if Eanos would repair a small chopping axe and a handful of metal tools. Eanos knew the laws forbade use of the forge without permission, but he saw no harm in repairing simple tools. The tinker was a spy, sent to lure Eanos into violating the law. The legate and the tinker, with almost a dozen fully armed orcs, came for Eanos just after dawn. The penalty for his crimes was 30 lashes. Eanos, who could easily snap the legate's neck, walked meekly to the wooden post hammered into the center of the village green. He gripped it while the orcs leaned into each lash. Eanos screamed but never let go of the post. When it was over, we washed his wounds as best we could and carried him to his bed. It’s been three days and he still hasn't regained the strength in his left arm and some doubt that he ever will.
The Covenant
The wars with Izrador spawned many great heroes from all the races. The memory of these champions helps to keep the faith among human insurgents and inspire fey defenders who still battle the Shadow today, and some say the strength they gave in the fight against Izrador persists in the weapons they used.
Legend says Elenial, an elven girl whose family was killed in the orc raid on Althorin, killed 27 raiders with a single arrow. Sneaking through the burning remains of the town with only one arrow left in her quiver, she would shoot an unsuspecting warrior, watch him die, and then sneak to the corpse and recover her shaft undamaged. She did this time and again, until the entire orc host huddled together in fear and set to hunting her. It is said she killed their leader with her final shot, just before they cut her down. Still today, elven archers running low on arrows recite her name as they loose their flights, asking her boon in guiding their aim. The quiver of Elenial, should one be able to find it, is rumored to never run out of arrows.
Puldur was a great dwarven weaponsmith and a stalwart warrior to whom countless fantastic exploits have been attributed. One of his best known feats is the Long Duel of Hanigor Pass. The last survivor of Hanigor’s defensive unit, Puldur held it alone for three days and three nights against an orc raiding party numering in the hundredst. The songsmiths say that in days past, when the orcs still had some semblance of pride and honor, they could be goaded and challenged to single combat; this is what Puldur did, they say, a hundred times and more without rest, holding that cold, lonely ground. Individually, the orcs were no match for Puldur’s stamina or the mithral axe he wielded, and he took them one after another. By the dawn of the second day, the bodies were piled so high they blocked the pass, and the remaining orc fighters skulked away under the cover of darkness. Bards claim it is because of this battle that every mithral axe forged in the dwarven lands is still engraved with Puldur’s clan mark, and it is said that he who wields Puldur’s axe itself can never be defeated in single combat and knows not the meaning of fatigue or despair.
Born and Bred
Couthlin wrinkled his nose at the rank smell. The odors of sweat, blood, and less polite bodily fluids wafted up to him as he strolled on the elevated walkway. The commoners milled about below in their usual mindless herd.
“Civilized!”
The large canine creature preceding him stopped and looked up at him, cocking his head in confusion. The legate frowned and kept walking, yanking on the chain attached to its collar.
“Stupid beast. No, they are not civilized. I was exclaiming in disbelief. Being facetious. Go back to your sniffing.” The astirax-possessed hound obligingly returned to scenting the air.
The legate frowned. It was pathetic that he had to rely on one-way communication with a magic-hunting beast. His skills at dialogue and manipulation would be all but blunted by the time he returned to Theros Obsidia. Asnort from the astirax snapped Couthlin from his thoughts. The canine form was watching a passing figure below, quite intently. Couthlin’s dark eyes.followed as well, noticing a suspicious narrow shape jutting out from beneath the figure’s cloak. Roughly hilt-shaped. “A weapon...magical?” he asked in a hushed tone. The astirax growled in assent.
“Then follow,” Couthlin said eagerly, releasing the chain. “Return to me at the temple when you’ve tracked the criminal to his lair.”
The beast slunk into the shadows and trotted after the offending figure...towards its demise, Couthlin hoped. The mage-hunting beast had been witness to too many of Couthlin’s intrigues and coups. The mercenary it now trailed had agreed quickly to his terms: kill the astirax in exchange for the sword the legate had given him.
Meanwhile, below, the astirax salivated in anticipation. The scent of magic was heavy in the air...not just from the sword, but from at least a few enchanted crossbow bolts. All of them aimed at the walkway above, where his master walked.
Rather, his former master
The Other Lands of Aryth
The peoples of Eredane know little of the lands that lie beyond our seas. Some say the elves of the First Age traveled to all the corners of the world, but even if such legends are true, this lore was almost certainly lost in ages past and was never shared with the wise of other nations. What little we know comes from the records of Dornish and Sarcosan settlers who traveled to Eredane from the eastern continent known as Pelluria in ancient days. Sadly, these records are often little more than folktales and must be held suspect in the light of reason.
From fragments of the Histories of the Old Empire, we gather that Pelluria is a land of greater aspect and extension than Eredane, as
“a youth shall gray and come to infirmity before crossing the breadth of the Kalif’s dominion.”
Even allowing for the excesses of a culture known for its vanity and embellishment, this suggests a vast continent unconstrained by the great oceans that embrace our land on three sides. Nor is there reason to believe that the “Kalif’s dominion” ever covered all the realms of Pelluria. It is known that the Sarcosan Empire conquered the Dornland river valley in the north. It is believed, however, that the fall of the Old Empire in the Third Age had as much to do with a war against a rival power in the east as with internal decay and the loss of its overseas colonies in the west.
The Dorns describe their ancestral home as a land of cold, rugged hills, glacial valleys, and deep, snow-laden forests. In the Sarcosan records, we learn of vast grasslands, endless deserts, and great cities of stone built in the oldest days by the first men of Aryth. The elder races of the fey are unknown in these lands, but the stories speak of stranger peoples that share no blood with the elder fey, of fearsome races that hate all others and feed on the flesh of men. Tales of serpent people and beastmen must be considered little more than fables told for the benefit of wayward children.
— Ilsrid of Highwall, The Lands of Aryth
LANGUAGE
This section has been moved to its own page: Midnight RPG - Orcish Written Language.
PORTAL | THE SOUTHIES | DURGAZ | ERANON | ZAL'KAZZIR | KYUAD / Bill
