You look to Greusim.


"Sorry chief," you say, "Rolomag is right.  We need to work with the orcs, besides, the Imperials encroached on our lands."


You draw your sword.


"And there must be consequences."


You tell Dekard to get the rest of the orcs, in the meantime you wait.


"Nolazir," Greusim says, "I'm disappointed in you.  We're in no position, and we will never be in a position to fight the Empire."


"It's for the good of Orcin," you say, "we'll teach them a lesson."


The rest of the orcs arrive, and you look out towards them.


"Please chief," you say, "help us defend our home."


He looks at the ground for a moment, but returns to answer you.


"If you all think it is best, I will help you."


Making sure to stay in cover, you wonder what the best course of action would be.

You wipe out the Archers

Scanning the area, you decide it would be best to take out the archers first.  Your plan is to split the groups into two, each taking out a column of archers, and then catching the knights in a pincer attack. 


You and the chief lead one group to the closest archers, and Dekard and another orc lead the others.  They take their group a longer way as their targets are further away.  Although you figure your distraction will let them take the other column even easier. 


You slowly pass through the trees, the sounds of fighting slowly dying down until you creep up behind the archers.  The orcs prepare their weapons, waiting for the signal.


As you are about to charge, an Imperial archer steps out from behind a tree, adjusting his belt and sighing contentedly.  Although his hood is up and his mask is pulled up over most of his face, you see the surprise in his eyes when he sees you all.


"Attack!" he cries, and at this point you all gallop forward.


The archers scramble to get ready, and Greusim make a passing swing for the Imperial.  He ducks under, and in the same movement grabs onto Greusim and his horse, pulling himself onto it. 


As you ride forward, and Greusim tries to throw the archer off, the Imperial draws a small dagger.  The chief cries out in agony as the Imperial buries the blade into his back.  The chief falls, taking the Imperial with him.


The other orcs are coming up on the archer column, several having been killed by arrows.  Greusim groans and the archer attempts to stab him, but he catches his wrist, and the push and struggle.  Normally Greusim could easily overpower him, but getting thrown off the horse must have done a number on him.

You continue the Charge

Greusim seems to be doing well enough, so you decide to charge forward.  The orcs have broken through the middle of the column, leaving crushed and mangled corpses strewn about.  You break into the utter chaos, cleaving half of an Imperial's face off.


To the left a group of archers tries to form, and you attempt to go straight through them!


You duck low onto your horse, and as you approach them, you feel a stinging in your side.  You ignore it as your horse slams into some archers, screaming sounding out.  You lop another's arm off as you ride by, circling around and preparing to finish the group off. 


One of the archers, helping a wounded friend, drops him and notches an arrow.  As you ride forward he lets it loose, and you grunt as the arrow buries itself into your thigh.  In anger you don't even bother using your axe, you just trample him and his friend with the horse. 


Looking out, you see that the orcs have decimated most of the archers.  The other column seems to be in chaos.


Out towards the clearing, you see the lawless orcs have charged the Imperial knights, overwhelming them with sheer numbers.  They hack and beat the knights to pieces.


A hot pain shoots up through your body, and looking down, you realize you have an arrow buried into your side.  Groaning, you steer the horse over to the other orcs as they finish off the archers. 


From out of the trees, Greusim stumbles out, panting and covered in wounds.  He has multiple gash marks and three arrows dug into his back, side, and hip.  Looking behind him, you see multiple archers laying broken and bloody on the ground.


The chief hefts his club over his shoulder.


"It'll take some more than some tender-bellies to take me down," he says.


The chief grunts as he pulls himself onto his horse.  As you ride to meet with the rest of the orcs, you break most of the shafts from the arrows on your body.  You leave a portion in so as not to make the injuries worse, and so that you can get them out later. 


Your comrades seem to have wiped out the other column, and the lawless orcs you helped start to walk towards you.


Before you can do anything else, a cry rises up from the forest behind you.