Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [112]
“We saw them.”
“Who’s in the tower?”
“Us.”
“Who told you to take the tower?”
“Chief Grumbach.” Fletch informed us that Grumbach was the leader of the Blood Fist tribe and that he was an ogre who had decided to take up farming.
Cuthalion proceeded, “How long ago did you take the tower?”
“This morning. He told us take tower. Don’t want to raise alarm on way to Skullbash.”
“Where is Skullbash?”
“Over mountains.” Fletch confirmed that this is where he had heard the Skullbash tribe lived, up in a series of rugged mountains that most traders avoided because stone giants lived there.
“Why would humans tell Skullbash you were coming?” Cuthalion continued.
“Humans no like us.”
“Is Chief Grumbach in the tower?” The orc shook his head “no.” “Where is Chief Grumbach?”
“Me tell, you no kill?” We agreed. “Orders were take forts, meet chief in Barrenstone.”
“What about Black Tower?” Cuthalion inquired about the other outpost.
“Other group there.”
We discussed amongst ourselves the political repercussions of the situation and decided that if at all possible it would be best for humans to stay out of this orcish war.
Cuthalion once again spoke to the entangled orcs, “Send this message to Chief Grumbach—tell him to find a way not to involve humans in this conflict. If you do, we will kill both tribes. Get your people out of both towers. One of you go ... the rest stay.” David released the entanglement and six orcs stayed, sitting and glaring at us, while the one we had been speaking with went to the tower.
Eight orcs came out of the tower and seven started to the east. The leader returned. “Ok, we go tell Grumbach,” he said, “Meet other orcs and tell message.”
Cuthalion smiled, “Tell Grumbach you made a wise choice.” The orc nodded and headed off with his comrades.
We ventured into the now empty tower to find several piles of bodies. It appeared as if some orc bodies had undergone ritual cremation while 12 humans lay about haphazardly. One ballista was in pieces, the other loaded and pointed at the gate while its operator lay among the dead. The smell of burning orc profaned the air, reminding us of the battle that took place only a few hours before. The gate was broken, but the tower was intact.
Cuthalion closed the remaining working gate as we entered and headed for the top of the tower; Fletch accompanied him. David and I looked for the message box the magistrate had told me about. We found it on the second floor and the key I had been given fit perfectly. The box opened and inside were three tubes: one labeled “Gateway,” one labeled “Black Tower,” and one that was unlabeled. Next to the tubes there were paper and ink for writing messages.
I immediately sent a warning off through the Black Tower tube. “About 40 orcs are headed your way. We’ve sent seven to tell them to turn back.”
I slide the message down the tube and a whooshing sound carried it away. I then composed a message to Gateway, “Orcs took Blaze Arrow, 12 dead. Orcs after Skullbash group in the mountains near Barrenstone. We told them to leave humans alone. So far they have complied.” As I dropped this message in the tube it made a sputtering sound like it had gotten stuck.
I looked at David. We decided to send a “test” message to the Black Tower tube asking them to confirm receipt. About three minutes later a note arrived back saying the message was received. I replied that the tube to Gateway seemed not to be working and asked them to forward my message and ask the magistrate to reply directly to me.
While we were waiting for a response, David began examining the machine. He discovered that the label for Gateway was loose. “Perhaps it has been switched,” he suggested.
We decided to try a test message through the third unmarked tube.
Almost immediately we received a letter back, “Message received. What status?”
I repeated the story once again and told them the tube had been mislabeled. The operator on the other end replied that they had been attempting to connect the tubes to Barrenstone but so far had been unsuccessful.