20140519

Storyline for Is the End Nigh?

Walking around town, we see someone wiping off graffiti from his shop's outer wall. It is made of 3 symbols: <1><Chaos-arrows><0>

This is a symbol associated with an apocalyptic cult based around the 100th millennium. There is a disgruntled crowd watching the shop-keeper cleaning his wall. The whole town feels on edge.

We suddenly notice a surprising amount of slogans and graffiti slapped on the walls around town. "The Shining Year," "Apocalypse Awaits," "Rejoice," "The End is Nigh," among others.

The 100th-millennialists are expecting the Empire's run of extraordinarily good fortune to end horribly. The Empire had collapsed 8 times over its history; the last time was the Great Desolation during the Nightmare Wars. The Veils and Gates have since prevented collapses. Some expect the 9th collapse to be epic, ultimate, and truly final.

Needless to say, this is a most unsettled time.

Edric speaks balm upon the distressed crowd, and convinces them to disperse without incident. The shop-keeper finishes cleaning up and goes on his way.

Next, we consider what to do with our day. Visit the Goblin Cave or the Orc-infested Swamps for bounty hunting? We settle for heading to the Swamps avoiding the Spiders' Glen. We also avoid the Goblin Cave (bugbear, you know), but as we skirt the area, we hear nearby sounds of combat.

Hydrazine says he hears orcs in the melee. We stop and look at the area where the skeleton ambush was before and see a roiling battle made up of 6 bugbears and 30 goblins versus about 10 orcs, an orc shaman, and a passel of 30 norkers! The norkers are degenerate orcs acting as shock troops, and are effectively wiping out the goblins. 2 bugbears face off against the orc shaman. The other bugbears are focusing on the regular orc warriors.

There are 2 types of norkers here -- skulks and warriors. Suddenly, the norker skulks peel off and advance a skirmish line against us!