USH'S LORD OF THE RINGS GAME PART 4- The Hunt in the Hills

Yeah I thought we'd done that already!

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Then you take some times (covering miles and therefore gaining a bit more xp) searching through the areas where the Dunlendings have been travelling. And so it is, once late afternoon, that you find a part of the hills that have various caves and crannies around... and enough evidence of movement that you don't need a Ranger to spot it all.

Alright, so lets try to actually see some orcs, and then we can take off.

Yeah, we don't actually need to stay and fight, as far as I know.

Can we tell numbers at all, based on our findings?

That would need a ranger...

So what's the search plan?

Into the caves, I suppose! We should go during the day so that we have an escape option.

Orcs don't explode in daylight- they just don't like it. They'd chase fleeing people.

Maybe we can just pick off a guard or something, without actually going all the way into the caves and getting trapped?
We might not even need to get a whole orc, just some solid evidence of their existence. We just need the King to realize that the Orcs are coming through the Downs.

What would you count as evidence?

Well, someone had beter do something, else I shall have events overtake you!

An Orc would probably count! Or pieces of one. A head, some armor, battle plans?

We should scout out the area around the cave for sentries.

Well, an Orc would definitely count indeed!

By 'around' do you mean staying outside?

Yes, for now. Talin doesn't want to dive into the cave alone.

Yes.
I think we should try to find a sentry and lay a quick trap, and then bugger out before the rest of the orcs find out.

Then you are not going to find anyone until nightfall.

Lacharon could scout to find out the numbers. (now that he has caught up with the rest of the party, panting a little)

At night or inside the cave?

I think it would be good to know how many Orcs there may be in total, I suppose in the cavesystem. I mean that would be valuable additional information over just evidence of Orcs, right?

Indeed! It just has that added sense of exciting danger.

I think we just need to decide whether we're going into the cave or waiting for the Orcs to come out at night. The cave might be bad news because they'll ALL be in there and we don't know our way around the caves. But at the same time, they could discover us first if they're scouting out around their caves at night.

We should just head into the caves, says Anglomir.

Talin has summed up the issue perfectly.

(Annoying as it may be to you, as we classically think of Orcs as stupid, they are actually rather good at wilderness work; they have their Ranger equivalents).

With two votes for caves, I am putting that into action sooin unless I hear otherwise!