MarkOliva

10/06/2013

1552

With the 125th Map of the Week we take a look at the orc camps in Auðarhome that are thetemporary homes of the orcs that are magically enslaved to serve Baron Lugoš. This map is representative of the camps made by Ásgrímur's tribe of 2,000 Stonefist orcs. The tribe is nomadic. Its duties are to keep the area within 50 miles/80 km of Mineville free of other orcs and to keep itself fit and fed. The latter is the main reason why the orcs regularly break camp and move on. Game, wild berries and the like are relatively abundant in the Midworld Mountains, but the supply of berries dwindles quickly and game flees when 2,000 orcs search for food in an area. The key figures among the Stonefist orcs are Ásgrímur, the commander, a 48-year-old male warrior, and his sorcerer, Bergi, a 44-year-old male. Another figure, perhaps more important than Ásgrímur or Bergi, is the powerful 54-year-old human male black necromancer Kvido, who serves Baron Lugoš but lives with the orc tribe in the command tent, together with Ásgrímur, Bergi and Ásgrímur's mistress, the 44-year-old female orc scout, Brynja. Ásgrímur and his tribe are not native to the Midworld Mountains. Lugoš bought the tribe from a vampire wizard who had magically captured and dominated Ásgrímur and his tribe's other leaders in the Foggy Mountains above the North Kingdom. Ásgrímur's tribal predecessors had been bound to an Æsir draug of the Darkness before and during the Great Wars, but that draug was destroyed, freeing the tribe, which fled into the mountains. For a few centuries, the tribe remained free in the mountains, until the draug's warriors captured Ásgrímur, Bergi and the other leaders and subjugated them with magic. Lugoš not only bought the tribe from the draug, but he also sent Kvido to the North Kingdom to be trained by the vampire spellcasters there in the use of domination magic. Luboš then was sent to the tribe, not only to keep it in bondage but also to provide magical aid. Kvido takes no joy in this task, but he entered knowingly into his working agreement with the baron. Kvido agreed to spend 10 years with the tribe, keeping it in rein. In return, the baron is paying Kvido very handsomely for his work. The game master should know that Luboš has no intention of cheating Kvido; he respects the black necromancer and also would fear Kvido's power were he to become an opponent. Luboš is paying a vampire black necromancer in the North Kingdom to train a successor for Kvido when his 10 years of service are up. Luboš has outfitted the Stonefist tribe with quality armor and weapons of Slovanian manufacture. Hostile orc tribes that the Stonefist encounter usually have considerable disadvantages and fall easily to defeat. Most are ancestors of orcs once bound to the Darkness that were freed when their masters were destroyed. The current generations are free but impoverished descendants that roam the mountains seeking food. At times some dare to raid human settlements below the mountains, but they seldom survive one or two such raids. Luboš has ordered Ásgrímur to destroy those orcs he encounters, taking no prisoners. In recent times, Ásgrímur has run into occasional small bands of orcs that offer unusually good military and magical challenges in battle. These are exploratory parties of orcs and draugs bound to the dark draug Duke þráinn in the Dreadlands far to the north. Ásgrímur's tribe of some 2,000 orcs includes 1,400 male and female warriors, fighters and scouts and 600 male and female orc juveniles and children. Those who are old enough are training to become warriors, fighters and scouts. They live in encampments that always are similar in the one shown on the map. We offer a night view, because that is the time when the camp is most active. Orcs do not like daylight and they shun the sun. The map is 1,000 by 750 scale feet/300 x 225 scale meters in size. One should look closely to note the many tents scattered throughout the encampment. On the perimeter of the camp are six wooden watchtowers that can easily be assembled and dsiassembled. The large command tent is in the center. Bonfires burn throughout the camp.
 
You can get this map in two versions:

1. The Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 version in FMP format, fully editable (23 MB) from the Jörðgarð website.

2. As a JPG flat map of 1360 Pixels x 1020 Pixels (655 KB) with the hyperlink below.

Both versions are released for personal and commercial use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a, which you can read on the Jörðgarð website at:

www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/joerdhgardh.htm

Next Week: The Village of South Junction

Mark Oliva
Webmaster, the Vintyri Project (TM)
www.vintyri.org
info@vintyri.org
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