Having spent several days recovering from the dungeon fight Raven feels the need to get out and explore he has noticed his own regeneration has started to heal the scars he has from the Fire Drakes breath weapon but it is slow, at this rate he will be back to normal in maybe a month. Getting dressed with some of the common clothing he found before and Stepping from his tunnel to the outside once again he finds the weather has turned for the worse snow has started to fall and the air is bitter cold which hurts on his scars, but pushing through the pain he goes for a walk to the lake to see how the water is handling the cold. As he walks he finds he can see much better now that all the tall grass is being pushed down by the snow, for now only a few inches of snow but with the way its falling it wont take long for it to build up keeping a mental map of the mountain to try and keep some what of a mental path to his tunnel just in case he continues on. Getting to the lake edge he finds that the water has not froze yet but the shore is looking a little crunchy this morning casting out his line using a frog as bait he sits down to relax for a bit of early morning fishing. A few hours go by and he finally catches his first fish a decent fish that appears to be something like a salmon, skinning it making a fire and cooking it he decides to eat it right away as hunger starts to set in. After his meal he decides to pack up and head back to his tunnel as he gets close Kemo stops him, jumping up and down and squawking at him Raven asks “what's wrong bud did Timmy fall down the well?” Kemo Chuffs at Raven then jumps a few more times then dashes off up a rough rocky trail up the mountain Raven decides its probably best to follow and does so. After an hour of rough trail and some rock climbing they get to a rock face over looking the valley in which Raven has called home, with a smile he looks over at Kemo “yeah bud this is a nice view thanks I needed this.” Kemo chuffs again jumps onto Ravens leg and pushes off almost knocking him over, then Kemo seems to glare out towards the rocky hills Raven has yet to explore. Raven turns and looks towards where Kemo is staring snow still falling hazing the sight but in the distance Raven can see what appears to be bonfires, hundreds of them. “Oh… that's what you wanted to show me, sorry bud. What's going on there I wonder.” Kemo hisses the direction of the fires puffing its self up to look bigger and looking to Raven. “You think there's danger there huh, your probably right, that many bonfires could mean a lot of people, lets hope its not the human camp expanding our way.”

  Deciding he should check it out while he can activating stealth and headed off the direction of the fires he tells Kemo to “stay buddy not this time its dangerous.” Kemo pouts but it returns to the tunnels, Raven makes good time sliding down the trail and headed towards the fires, sticking to the mountain side as much as possible he gets closer to the visitors. Once he is within a few hundred feet of he fires he can hear talking laughing and some fighting, once he finally gets a visual of one of the people at the camp he's speechless, the man far in front of him wears leather armor has a large axe strapped to his back and his skin is a light green, his hear in braids and from his mouth tusks protrude on either side. “Is that a freaking orc? Wonder if they are good guys or bad guys here” Raven thinks to himself. Before he even has a chance to make himself known he feels a dagger press up on his neck and a woman's voice from behind him says “and what do you think your doing hiding like some kind of sneak thief.” Raven sighs raising his hands “I mean no harm I simply seen the fires from the mountain so I came to investigate I had hoped you were not the humans but judging by the knife to my throat its no different?” the Orc woman behind Raven pulls him to his feet with a laugh “that's a good one scaly, us Orcs as bad as humans, that's funny.” Raven shrugs “well I was always told I was funny, why stop now right?” The Orc pushes him forward “ok funny man lets go see the chieftain I have orders to kill humans on sight but he hasn’t said anything about lizards… yet…” Ravens shoulders slump and he begins walking looking at his surroundings he notices there are half a dozen Orcs in his intimidate area all looking at him, he never stood a chance.

  The Orcish woman guides Raven by the arm to a large tent made of leathers sown together inside a fire roars in a fire pit in the middle as a rather large male Orc argues with a smaller female Orc wearing a feathery head dress. “Chieftain Zutar I found this lizard sneaking around our camp what would you like to do with him?” says the Orc woman guiding Raven by the arm. The Chieftain looks over to the pair, looks Raven up and down and chuckles “now the Kobolds are coming out of the wood works too? What brings you here little dragon kin, this war is not for you and yours.” Raven raises a questioning eye brow “war? What what?” all three Orcs slowly turn their heads and look at Raven like he just said the dumbest thing possible. “The war with the humans, they have landed in the south in force and are pushing into our lands killing everything they find like a plague on these lands. We have already lost two villages to them and dozens of warriors, it must be answered in blood!” Shouts the Chieftain. Raven responds quickly with “I was at the settlement in the south, or at least just outside it, I saw a large ship off loading people seemed like thousands of people I was hunted by a few of them but I managed to kill them and get away.” The Orcs seem to smile at that, the Chieftain nods “ good, good any human you managed to kill is one less we have to, this war will not end till all humans die. Do you have a force to muster perhaps a dragon you can call on for aid?” Raven shakes his head “sadly no, I’m new to the area and only just started setting up a camp, I only have a few under my command and they are not fighters, and if I’m being honest I’m not a fighter either, most of my fights I almost die or have to use tricks to win.” The Chieftain smiles “play to your strengths we Orcs prefer direct combat but no sense throwing your life away uselessly if its not what your best at, anything to win the battle.” The Orc woman with the head dress looks at Raven questioningly “your Mana seems different, out of place, what are you?” Ravens surprise shows on his face “nail on the head huh, yeah she does that… don’t worry, she's quirky but harmless, well not harmless she's terrifying in combat but you know what I mean.” Raven slowly nods his head “ I’m not from this place, I was summoned here by a god to be his chosen, Rolland summoned me and I’ve only been here for a short time.” The woman with the head dress laughs “wonderful you must be powerful then to have Rolland as your god, you should join our fight!” Raven shakes his head “I wish I was powerful but no all I got from Rolland was a swift boot in the ass really, he hasn’t shown me anything and only granted me one weak spell and a storage spell. Like I said I’m not really a fighter, I’m… a survivalist maybe?”

  The Orcs ask a few questions about Rolland which Raven is unable to answer ask about his journey from the south to the middle of the island which he fills them in on even mentioning the Death god. The woman with the feather hat speaks up at the mention of the death god “he is a god not to be trifled with having destroyed one of his seals he might give you favor but now you protect another one as part of your settlement he wont like that. He might send monsters and his chosen eventually to attack you depending on if he can destroy more seals or not, my guess is if he can get even more more seal its likely he will come after yours.” Raven nods “yeah he already tried once but I managed to defend my home it was close though.” The Woman raises an eyebrow “ and you say your not a fighter, you fought off the humans a giant spider, dire wolves, and the death god. I think you under estimate yourself” Raven shakes his head no strongly “no just lucky, I used a slime to beat the dino he was using.” They all chuckle and at once reply with “a slime?” Raven blushes slightly “yeah… it was trying to eat me so a threw a slime into its mouth, the slime dissolved it then tried to kill me so I killed it.” The Chieftain strokes his chin “interesting use of a monster to kill a monster. That's not a bad idea actually, shame slimes are rare they tend to end up falling into small crevices and disappearing forever in the depths of the earth. But enough about that, we have a war to plan for, Feel free to talk with my men but if you are not here to help with the fight please stay out of the way. I trust you are not a spy and as such wont just kill you.” Raven nods “ thanks I appreciate the not killing me, that's how I like myself… not dead…” he replies nervously before he can make a bigger fool of himself the first female Orc yanks his arm and pulls him from the tent once outside she gives him a nod and walks off back to her work.

  Raven looks around the camp and finds it has well over two hundred Orc warriors all in armor and weapons ready for war, even spotting the odd what he thinks are casters far out numbered by the warriors. Walking up to an Orc that is sitting alone at a bonfire cooking a deer on a spit he looks over at Raven nods and waves to a stool by him. Raven thanks him and sits down on the stool “Hi there I’m Raven, I just arrived at this camp and was allowed to visit by your chieftain.” The orc simply nods as he cooks his food. Raven coughs and says “ don’t suppose you could tell me something about your people, anything really I’ve never met an Orc before.” The Orc sighs loudly “Look I just want to eat my meal, if you want some ill share otherwise please leave me alone, I don’t want a buddy I simply want to get this fight done so I can go back home.” Raven replies with “oh right I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude.” Standing up to leave the Orc stops Raven. “Sorry I’m being rude sit, sit, share my meal and ask your questions, ill try to answer the best I can, my mind is just on the coming fight maybe a light conversation can take my mind off it.”

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  Raven sits back down and begins “ where are you guys from? I have not seen Orcs before.” The Orc nods “we live in the swamp lands north of the mountains, we were sent south by our leaders to deal with the problem south before the humans get out of hand while they fight humans in the north. It has not been going well, the humans have sent far more people than we expected to the south and their settlement is already protected by a fairly large wooden wall and its expanding every day, our scouts even have been having troubles getting eyes on these days with so many humans wandering around.” Raven sighs “yeah I’ve had a few run ins with them, ran into a hunting party that wanted to rob me, and ever since they have been hunting me. Managed to kill a few humans but they are never worth anything I don’t get EXP just PK points which I have no idea what those are…” the Orc chuckles “ah yes the points for killing sentient beings anything that follows the gods really are PK points you can spend those at an alter of your god in exchange you can get deity points items spells or boons, or at the assassin guild for much the same but monster races rarely have them since we can use the alters and we don’t have much use for bounty contracts, if some one gets bad enough to need a bounty we just kill them.” Raven shrugs “that doesn’t really make sense though does it? Why get PK points instead of EXP?” The orc pokes the deer cooking with a stick and turns it responding to Raven he says “I think it has to do with the gods taking over your essence I think they get it so in exchange they give people PK points in return. Helps promote conflict a little while giving the gods some power and spending little to reward some one.” Raven shakes his head “yeah that doesn’t make sense to me but I guess the gods work in mysterious ways…”

  The Orc finishes cooking the deer taking it off the spit and carving chunks off handing Raven a leg and taking another leg himself he starts to eat, Having started his meal Raven decides to wait on any more questions for now. While they eat a few shouts in the distance can be heard, slowly the noise gets louder and more and more shouts add to the sounds the Orcs start running around grabbing weapons and gear and heading towards the sound, The Orc eating with Raven jumps up “time for battle little brother lets go!” with a shout the Orc storms off into the night turning and looking the direction the Orc ran off to a heavy snow storm can be seen coming in and night has fallen upon the lands. Raven gets up and starts moving the direction of the commotion in no real hurry, watching as the Orcs run around when a light flashes from the direction of the sounds and combat can be heard. A shout sounds out from the fighting front “Push them back! Don’t you dare dying your tribe needs you!” Getting to the battle Raven can see roughly two hundred Orcs fighting roughly the same amount of humans, however the humans are on Dire Wolves and seem to be better armed. Raven does notice however that they have no ranged units and no casters where as the Orcs have many ranged units and a few casters. Drawing his bow and loading a fire arrow Raven finds a rider in the back and fires, striking the man in the thigh the arrow explodes in a ball of fire engulfing the rider and wolf the human in full plate screams in agony as the wolf bucks him off to the ground running off while on fire, Another arrow from an Orc strikes the man in the neck and he goes limp dropping dead.

  A flash of fire explodes in the middle of a few of the human riders fire spreading across the battle field their wolves seemingly afraid of the fire panic a few running off with their riders still on them and a few bucking their riders off as the riders fall the warrior Orcs charge up and end them with a strike from their war Axes and war hammers. A horn sounds from the back of the humans line and the humans begin their retreat. The Orcs shout in victory celebrating as the humans flee, a few arrows and spells chase after the fleeing humans but only finding one human and killing them. As the humans disappear from site a red glow appears from their direction, shortly after the red glows fly into the air and start getting bigger and bigger with a howl of wind the glowing orbs impact the ground around the Orcs an explosion of fire sends several Orcs flying through the air killing many instantly and wounding dozens. The panic in the Orcs number is evident as they start collecting their wounded and retreating, Another red glow growing in the distance quickly flying through the air it slams into the ground near Raven exploding and bathing him in fire the impact throwing him several feet, Raven rolls to his side coughing holding his side as pain shoots up and down his body, looking down he finds a branch sticking out of his lower left side, Raven stands coughing some more looking around, finding the Orc he shared a meal with beside him burned badly and very dead, Raven draws his sword and uses its ability on the fallen Orc unsure if it will work as he is not a follower of his. The Orcs body shakes violently for a moment then begins to stand, with a raspy groan the Orc stands picking up his axe once more the Orc looks at Raven for a second then charges towards where the red glows have been coming from.

  Raven retreats with the other Orcs falling back to the camp to regroup and treat their wounds, looking around the Orcs seem to have lost roughly fifty warriors but Raven is unsure how many humans have died in the fight. As the Orcs regroup the howl of the wolves can be heard coming closer the Orcs reform their line and prepare for battle once again, Raven joining the line as he is fairly sure trying to run at this point would be death. The humans come charging through the smoke of the last battle in full charge towards the Orcs once more, as they come into sight the few spell casters the Orcs have blast the human line with spells, a few fire balls fly through the air slamming into the charging humans killing a couple, a black mist spreads in front of the charging humans, as they enter the mist the wolves start frothing from the mouth a few of them dropping dead instantly, as the wolves fall dropping their riders into the mist a couple of the fallen humans drop to their knees holding their throats as they slowly die. The remaining humans clash into the front line of the Orcs, blood from both sides flies through the air, as screams of pain explode through the night, A shout from from the Orc camp echoes throughout the night almost rupturing Ravens ears at the sudden loud noise and a feeling of dread washes over the battlefield, a moment later some of the fallen humans and Orcs bodies start to shake then begin standing. The humans who were previously winning the fight are instantly on the back foot as the dead charge the human line from behind, a second horn sounds and the humans push through the line of dead and begin their retreat, as they begin the retreat a red glow slams into the ground between the dead and the humans bathing them both in fire, Screams of pain sound out from the battle field as the humans try to run many humans knocked off their mounts from the blast the Orcs pushed forward massacring what few humans are left. An explosion sounds through the night from where the red glows have been coming from, one explosion leads to another and another then a large mushroom cloud of smoke and fire erupts from the blasts a shock wave from the blast battering into Raven. Rocks and burning debris begin raining from the sky the pained moans of the fallen humans can be heard scattered about as the undead stumble around ending the wounded.

  As the smoke clears the Orcs regroup roughly seventy Orcs in total lay dead or stand as undead, along with the the humans Raven counts fifty undead humans and around one hundred dead laying on the ground. With a shout from the Orc with the feathered hat the undead charge the direction of the fleeing humans, the rest of the Orcs begin collecting the dead that remain and begin burying them. The Chieftain walks up to Raven “you did well little one, you helped us fight off the human scourge when you didn’t have to we appreciate the help. I seen you raise a undead warrior like our shaman here, haven’t seen to many with that ability.” Raven shakes his head “I don’t have the spell its an ability on my gear is all, I didn’t even give him an order he went off on his own, I’m guessing hes the one who blew up their siege equipment, doubt he survived that blast though. He was a good man shared a meal with me just before the fight and even answered some of my questions.” The chieftain nods his head “I’m sure he knew what was needed of him and decided to get it done while he had the chance. Our undead will chase what is left of the humans down and kill them then march on the human settlement, they wont achieve much verses the settlement but it might keep them back for a while, they will lose their life either way shortly so may as well do some good while they can. Maybe they will catch a few of the bastards flat footed and get a few kills.” Raven frowns “I’m not a fan of the idea of sending mindless undead to fight unknown humans in the distance, what if they come upon a child or an innocent, they will still kill them right?” The Chieftain nods “yes any human they will kill, a child Is just a human not mature enough to fight us yet, killing them early prevents them from killing us later. I know it sounds rough and uncaring but we have been at war with them for hundreds of years it wont end till one of our races is ended for good.” Raven Sighs “I do get it but I can’t be a part of senseless massacre, I will protect me and mine but I won’t go out of my way looking for a fight.” The Chief chuckles “I get it, I do. Thank you for the help” The chief goes back to looking after his men.