Castle Rend Event:
Negotiating with Orcs
When the PCs meet with Bonebreaker Dorokor, she
announces: “I am Bonebreaker Dorokor, Bloodchief of
the White Tusk. I hold Wound. If you are servants of
the human Saxton, you will die quickly and painfully.”
Facing an orc with two humans hostage, the heroes
may just attack. Typical. But if they negotiate with
her, she agrees to parley. She demands that the PCs set
down their arms and join her at the table. She snarls
at Edmund and Pinna to not speak out of turn, and
the two meekly oblige. Edmund sits on Dorokor’s left,
Pinna sits on Edmund’s left, and Oregg Steeltwister sits
on Dorokor’s right.
As part of negotiations, Dorokor explains the situation:
• Lord Saxton kidnapped one of Dorokor’s own
and arranged a meeting. She was given a sum of
gold to kill the Baron of Bedegar and his family
so that Lord Saxton could become regent.
• She spared the life of Edmund Bedegar and
stole him away just in case Saxton stabbed her
in the back. (Spoiler: he did.)
• She wishes to return the boy to human lands
and reveal Saxton’s treachery so that he may
be deposed. However, she has terms she needs
met, and she no longer trusts the honor of “civilized folk.”
Dorokor is willing to return both Pinna and Edmund
and quit the field, leaving the castle with her tribe—
especially if she believes the PCs will use Edmund to
expose Saxton’s treachery (this is, after all, her entire
plan). But in order to maintain her control over the clan,
Dorokor must come out ahead in these negotiations,
and no amount of promises will do the trick. She needs
to show the orcs under her leadership that she is
stronger than these humans and that the humans know
it. Only an item of power will suffice.
The flip side of this is that the orcs don’t really know
what counts as “an item of power,” so they can be
fooled a little. But Bonebreaker Dorokor is harder to
fool. If the PCs are sufficiently persuasive, she’ll accept
a lesser item and play it up to her tribe as though it’s
a triumph.
Otherwise, she demands a powerful magic item—a
rare or rarer magic weapon (like the holy sword Grace
found in area C21) would do the trick. As a rule of thumb,
the PCs’ single most valuable possession is enough to
all-but-instantly secure a successful negotiation.
If this negotiation goes well, Dorokor snarls a wide
smile. “Take the boy. Take the girl. Take this stone
house too, if you wish. Walls are for keeping cattle
and pigs. We care not for such things—you can have it.
But kill Saxton. He is too treacherous to lead men, and
too weak to survive out here. If you agree to this, the
White Tusk clan will return to the hills in the north and
trouble you no more.”
If the negotiations go exceptionally well, Dorokor produces a hollowed ram’s horn from her belt and hands
it to the PCs. “I do not give Men gifts lightly. We have a
common enemy: Saxton and his vermin. If you blow
the horn, my clan will answer so long as we can hear it.”
If negotiations stall or turn sour, Dorokor puts her
hostage to work. She grabs Edmund by the neck and
levels Wound at his throat. “Meet my demands or your
true bloodchief dies. And the girl too. You must swear
it. Swear with something stronger than your worthless
honor.” It is clear from the look in her eyes and the edge
in her voice that Dorokor never makes empty threats.
If the PCs can’t agree on how to negotiate with Dorokor,
then it’s initiative. If they fail to beat her in the initiative
order, she executes Edmund. Or just slits his throat and
leaves him for dead, so a PC cleric can heal him later,
depending on what kind of GM you are. 😃
If they succeed in negotiating with her, she takes her
tribe and leaves in the night, without bothering with
sentimental goodbyes.