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B. quickly makes some orc heads roll. L. has some difficulty so M. lends a hand. J lands a badly placed sleep spell that fortunately M + L resist, but the orcs do not. B continues cleaving the orcs up quite convincingly but unknown to our party a group of at least 5 orcs with a shaman and a chief are approaching. From behind an unknown beneficiary however lends a hand and lands some well-placed arrows into the shaman. With him dead the orcs scatter. At their leisure the corpses get looted and M gives J agro for casting offensive spells at himself and L while in mid combat.
The unknown beneficiary turns out to be a ½-human, ½-elven ranger that has been following and tracking the orcs for weeks! Thanodel is made to feel welcome by the "misfits" and is thoroughly probed for further information on issues ranging from how far Wendar is to how many orcs there are and where they are based. Torn by greed and fear the party decide to head towards the safety of Wendar. It could never be that simple though! On the way there, a fresh orc trail is too good to ignore. Especially for the hot blooded amongst them. Before long and with the tracking skills of Thanodel (T) a cave is found, most probably the lair of the despicable orcs! Planning and scheming is a waist of time for some and B is heading down the back entrance followed by everyone. Everyone apart from M, who invisible starts stalking down the main entrance.
The cave turns out to be indeed the lair of the despicable orcs. B. looses it (again). Orc heads are rolling, so the invisible M, decides a subtle approach and heads towards a curtain. He is stopped in his tracks by a truly gigantic orc Chief. B. engages in blinded combat with the orc Chief. M then reappears on the ceiling of the cave, shrieking, with G’s present in hand! The orc chief is soon tied up. The way M likes it. This is too good for B to resist and soon the orc Chief is soon on the floor too. With the puny orcs out of the way the slaves are freed, and the place looted!
The party sets off towards Wendar once more. M excited by the cool artefacts hangs back from the party to try to identify them. Low on money and spell components and far to impatient to wait till they reach Wendar he attempts to do so via his versatile, Chaotic Dweomer. This has proven lifesaving once too often. A spell goes drastically wrong and there is soon a deafening thunderclap and a lightning bolt of gigantic proportions hurls towards the grumpy Wizard. M, everything non-magical on him, his familiar and even the horse he is on are instantly reduced to ashes!
Fortunately it is not a complete waist. J makes sure of that. All his magical items are deftly taken off him. After hastily doing away with the charred remains, the party heads off once more!
Again mainly thanks to T’s tracking skills a shadowy figure is found to be rudely spying on the Misfits! He is swiftly apprehended (while B does some weird balancing act on his horse!) and is also probed for information. This person’s intellect is far too low, however, and thanks to J’s mysterious ability to understand this foreigner (speculated from Ethniga) it is soon deduced he wanted the Misfits to follow him. Where? To some place where his 40 friends can beat them up! Unlikely. J. quickly disposes of this encumbrance too and he is left in some bushes.
These encounters have made the party much more suspicious and everyone is convinced they are being followed, watch, chased, controlled, etc. T finds some horse tracks heading towards Wendar well ahead of the party, so temporarily the party sticks with the original plan: GET TO WENDAR. Preferably alive!