Day 7

We arise from our slumber at the Prancing Pony and break our fast.

Naturally there are people down in the common room. We (or I at any rate) overhear something about the Lord of Anarchy (or Master of Chaos), called Chai Khan. But it's too early in the morning for me to know what any of it all means.

Murmurs of Theodor stockpiling mithril; and looking for raw steel.

Trax suggests trading info re Theodor's mithril with people in the Merchant's Guild; the barkeep tells us where to find the guild - off Coinage Way. (A brief detour shows us that the city's returning to normal and ye olde message post in the middle of the main square is message-free).

When we get to the Merchant's Guild, the building is glowing. The door is closed - we knock, no answer, so we walk in. Elves are writing at a reception desk; Genero Balful rhte elf tells us there's a big meeting, everyone we want to see/talk to will be there.

Sadly the surly little dwarf Trax has a fit over something, and shatters a crystal goblet. What was she thinking? It's not as though a dwarf is that welcome here anyway. So she's hustled out of the building, goes and has her own adventure - the ramifications of which become clear later.

We end up in the meeting - topics discussed include How orc battle affected business; the issue around the humans; caravan problem; mithril and steel shortage (at which point Boink greets Frash Maltor, president of Wal Weapons); exchange rate for kharash.

Bingle Boink boldly approaches Frash Moltar, tells Frash that we've found the missing caravan and gets 50 gold pieces (which he pockets for himself), and goes on to talk about providing a small amount of mithril in return for info. We're to go to Wal Weapon the next day to discuss this.

Next thing we know - we're off to find the chief orc chief (presumably not the Orc chief that Boink skewered the other day) and bring back his head to the emperor - and here's how we got this plum mission:

After she was ejected from the Merchant's Guild building, Trax makes her way to Theodor's, discovers Theodor's planning to ship mithril out this very day; goes to see Maltor, who is extremely excited at the thought of getting at Theodor - off they rush to the palace, have a meeting with the emperor, where Trax is given a mission to get the head of the chief orc chief. She is to leave by sundown.

So - after provisioning ourselves for the month, counting our copious amounts of cash (or mine at any rate), buying a bunch of clay for runes, getting our wagon ready and so forth - we head east. We head back to the cave of the balls of absolute evil - 15 of them - and are attacked by orcs (Flaming Brand logos on their shields) - a melee ensues - my bright plan of circling with the wagon and magic missiling the orcs takes a bit of time to execute. My horse takes off, and it's one heck of an effort to control the beasts and head them back to the fight. I don't blame them - they never asked to end up as an orcish meal (or whatever orcs do to horses). In any event, eventually I arrive back at the scene as the others fight hard on foot.

In the end, we prevail - scavenge a measly 41 coppers off the corpses - and head to the cavern with the globes and the altar of sacrifice.

After our much-deserved rest, we watch as orcs come out of the cavern. The last time we'd seen a secret entrance - now we head for it and make our way in. At the end of the corridor there's a secret door - we listen at the keyhole, hear naught - and when open the door we find a bunch of beds, desks, maps (of Imperial Ward for example), orcish writing (!) which contains messages from battle command about 'regrouping'.

The gorgeous cover on the bread does not, strangely, smell of Orc.

At the other door in the room, we hear the sound of women and children; Trax, peering through the door, sees some sort of barred chamber.

We then go to the other way, where we don't hear sound. That corridor leads to another closed door, behind which is the sound of Orcish voices.

Boink looks through the keyhole and...