The mayoral carriage halts in the muddy square, and Will Whitfoot steps down with grave, tight-lipped purpose. Sawyer Krump stands by the fence line, still puffing from the alarm, while villagers gather in anxious knots behind shuttered doors.
Will Whitfoot
Boffo Hardbottle, tell me plain. Why do orcs cross the Bounds for Greenfields, and what are they hunting here?
Sawyer Krump
They came straight for the lane, sir. Not the stores, not the alehouse. They wanted the way open, as if they expected something beyond it.
Will’s gaze turns to the broken fence, the dead raiders, and the trampled mud where the line broke. He notices the churned path leading toward the stream and the village road beyond it.
Will Whitfoot
Something was guiding them, or else they were after a place, not a plunder. Boffo, what did you see in their track, their raiding, their haste?
The question hangs over the square like mist. The orcs did not wander here by chance, and whatever drove them kept them fixed on Greenfields until the line was breached.
✓ Quest Accepted
Explain why the orcs targeted Greenfields
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify what the orcs were hunting in Greenfields
“"I don't know what they were driving at, but they were very determined. More to this than a few hungry orcs looking for easy prey, I think. I ran into a wounded drover and sent her back to Greenfields, but haven't seen her since. And also, there was a Big Fellow on Nob Hill who seemed to be tracking them. Either one of them might be able to tell us more."”
SUCCESS (Good Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Boffo Hardbottle
I cannot tell you their whole purpose, sir, but they were no blind hungry rabble. They pressed hard for Greenfields, not the stores. I found a wounded drover, and I sent her back here. There was also a Big Fellow at Nob Hill, tracking the same orcs. Either one might know more.
Will Whitfoot listens without blinking, then glances from Boffo to the broken fence, taking in the arrow still quivering in the post. Sawyer Krump’s posture eases a little, as if the words give shape to the alarm he has been carrying.
Will Whitfoot
A drover, and a stranger on Nob Hill. So this was not random mischief. It has the shape of a hunt.
Sawyer Krump
They kept to the lane, sir, and worried at the fence as if they meant to reach something past it. Not once did they turn for the alehouse or the stores.
The mayor’s eyes narrow at that. He studies the churned mud, then the line toward the village road, and finally the dark mouth of the mathom house beyond the lane.
Will Whitfoot
Then we begin with the drover, and we seek this tall stranger at Nob Hill. Boffo Hardbottle, you have given Greenfields a direction, and that matters.
“Boffo takes the orc arrow from the post and examines it.”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled -1)
Boffo Hardbottle reaches up, grips the quivering shaft, and draws the arrow free of the post. The wood comes loose with a soft creak, and the fletching is dark with mud from the moor.
Boffo Hardbottle
The head is broad, rough-worked, and meant for war.
He turns it in his hand. The iron point is nicked, the shaft is not Shire make, and a strip of greenish binding near the nock matches the crude gear the raiders carried.
Will Whitfoot
An orc arrow, then. And a raiding shaft, not a hunter's bolt.
Will’s gaze follows the arrow from Boffo’s fingers to the broken fence, then lifts toward the village road as if measuring where the enemy meant to go.
Sawyer Krump
They did not come for the stores, sir. They kept pressing that way, toward the mathom house.
The mayor’s jaw tightens. The arrow in Boffo’s hand, the torn fence, and the line of mud all seem to point the same way now.
Quest Complete
Identify what the orcs were hunting in Greenfields
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Good→Great
+ New Item Acquired
orc arrow