The sniffing orc jerks his head toward the stone and begins to fan the others wider into the heather. Their bundle lies open at the ring, Shire bread, cloth, and other spoil flashing pale in the dusk.
Boffo stays pressed to the cold rock, every breath held thin as the raiders search within a few strides of him. The wind carries their rough voices across the moor.
The Orc Scout
There. Something moved. Cut around the stones.
One orc breaks toward the slope, another crouches by the bundle, and the third glances south, toward the dark line of the Shire bounds. The road to Greenfields lies beyond them, open if they get past this hill.
Boffo Hardbottle
Three of them. Close enough to hear, close enough to strike.
A pebble shifts under Boffo’s boot at the stone’s base. The nearest orc whips around, and the search turns into a hunt.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the orc hunt
“He tosses a pebble to make a small noise and mislead them, then runs in the opposite direction.”
SUCCESS (Superb Stealth, rolled +1)
Boffo flicks a pebble from the stone base into the heather downslope. It clicks twice, small and plain, then vanishes into the dark.
The Orc Scout
There, below! Split and take him!
The nearest orc lunges away from the ring, half turning from the open bundle, while the others follow the wrong sound toward the slope.
Boffo slips out from the stones and runs the other way, low through the heather, with the wind and dusk swallowing his shape.
For a few breathless strides, the raiders chase their false trail across the moor.
Then Boffo is already beyond the ring, the stones behind him and the orcs bunched off to the side, their search broken.
Quest Complete
Escape the orc hunt