Aarion Valor, an older man on a metal cane, recruited the party. Rachelle was given the offer of vengeance against the orcs. Vladimir was granted the promise of power and freedom. Freedom was immediately granted in a real sense - Aarion immediately unlocked the magic muting collar. He held up a large, triangular but smooth cornered stone with a hole in the middle. He bid Vladimir put his hand through it. Vladimir did, and from it his power increased.

Aarion explained that the orcs of Gazgren play out a sort of dress rehearsal for war. The various nations have orc tribes that they back - specifically providing weapons, teach magicks, and provide other resources. The orcs fight each other. From that, the nations get an idea of how a full scale war would play out, to some degree of accuracy they are happy with. This then informs diplomatic postures, research into magic, and how much to invest in various armaments. This has been going on for some time, and in high positions of government, the various nations (except Gazgren) attribute this half-proxy half-dress-rehearsal war to the last several hundred years of relative peace between the nations. There is also belief that if the orcs are too busy fighting themselves, they won't be busy fighting their neighbors.

There have been previously no-named orc tribes rising to prominence, and they are using weaponry never seen before: Firearms and mechanically assisted melee weapons. This seems to be a rapid advancement in the school of artifice. The only name they have to attribute to this is "Jerry the Joblin". This has been rather disruptive to the proxy wars. Jerry's affiliation and motives are not known. Aarion has been contracted by a loose coalition of nations (the specific nations were not disclosed) to ascertain affiliation and motive, and potentially be ready to stop Jerry.

Aarion suggested for their first mission that they attack a stronghold for the Tharkhun tribe. It was a middling tribe that perhaps represents the most pure form of Orc ideology - Might makes right. They were recently bested in combat by one of the firearm wielding war bands, and are just now starting to recover. Aarion thought it would be a good point of initial information, as well as a good way for the party to work together while the stakes could be kept relatively low. It was about half a day's travel from the Vellmarch Outpost they were at.

The party set out. The early summer weather made for an easy walk. The land around here is characterized by grasslands atop rolled hills, with patches of dense trees frequently sprouting up. The stronghold itself was a fort built of raw lumber and rope. On each corner, a look-out tower (though the front left one was destroyed). Only one of the towers seemed to be stationed. The party waited until night fall, and came in on the side furthest from the watch tower. They quickly discovered the orcs kept goblin slaves. A little too much noise was made - two orcs jumped over their stronghold wall to attack them on either side. The two orcs were quickly dispatched. They made their way around the fort, though not as stealthy as Rachelle needed her lantern to see in the dark. The orc shaman stood in the open inside the fort. Two other warrior orcs, more strongly built than the first two they dispatched, were at his side, kneeling in the direction of the fort opening.

The shaman stated to the party that he yielded to their superior strength. The party would have rights to claim spoils. He introduced himself as Grakgor Bloodfist - a keeper of the old ways.

The party used this as an opportunity to gather information. In addition, Rachelle wanted all of the slaves freed. The slaves were freed with the understanding that the shaman could keep his remaining warriors.

They learned that the fort had recently been attacked by orcs wielding Jerry's weapons. The weapons were very destructive, and the shaman's forces really didn't stand a chance. The shaman also gave them the location of the attackers. The attackers should still be roaming around, attacking other strongholds and riding off of their victory. Their current stronghold would be stationed with a skeleton crew. The party took the chance to examine some of the damage done to the fort. They found a wad of smashed metal - possibly lead. The party said they may return for more questions, to which Grakor was happy to accommodate.

The party quickly returned to Aarion and showed the metal to him. He paid them 50 gold for their trouble, and offered 75 for bringing back some weapons. The party set out again, this time on horseback using their newly acquired money.

Upon arrival, it was a somewhat similar scene - raw lumber and rope erected forts, and neighboring clearing so anyone approaching would do so in the open. Someone was stationed in one of the watch towers.

The party approached on the far side during daylight, and made it there without issue. They scaled the fort walls and found goblin slaves working a mill of some sort. There were many orcs there, as well as one watching the goblins. The orcs in the courtyard were doing target practice. The boom of their firearms was thunderous, and their aim terrible. The party managed to lure out the slave driver and kill him. Vladimir used his magic to lure the courtyard orcs out of the fortress. Rachelle freed one of the goblins, but the watch tower orc spotted them, and fired some explosive ballistic at them, killing one of the goblins. The fight began in full. The party was able to fend off the orc in the watch tower and the orcs coming back in from over the wall were taken down with the hold of the recently freed goblins.

In the exchange, Rachelle took a nasty blow from one of the mechanical melee weapons - a sort of axe with moving teeth where a blade would be. Vladimir studied what appeared to be a cannon of sorts below one of the watch towers.

The goblins were thankful, and fled into the wilderness.

The party brought back all of the weapons they found. They provided these to Aarion and Vladimir produced an illusion recreating the cannon. Aarion was both impressed with the party's work, their haul, and what he referred to as a rapid advancement in the artifice, even if it was a bit crude by his standards. He even mentioned something about how this was an early version of something, but didn't elaborate further.

Aarion paid them more than agreed - 100 gold each. He said he would need time to come up with a next move for them, and said they should meet again in a week's time.

Total, the party gained 1750 XP.

Aarion visited Vladimir and introduced Amaya Dungees to the party. Amaya's family is close to Aarion, and he called her in as a sort of repaid favor. She had recently completed her training in the priesthood for the Raven Queen. She would be providing support to the party.

Rachelle spotted orcs transporting slaves. They were being transported in broad daylight, and the town guards didn't seem perturbed by this. Amongst them was an elvish magic user (identified by his magic muting collar). Rachelle attempted to free the slaves by sneaking up and picking the lock, but was unsuccessful. Rachelle ordered oil of slipperiness, and gave her wand of pyrotechnics as collateral. It would take a day to brew. Later, at night, Rachelle snuck up and tried picking the lock again, this time breaking a pick off inside the lock. The next day, Rachelle picked up the oil and managed to throw it to the elf. The slave wagon departed some time later. A day later, the elf returned to express thanks.

He introduced himself as Vaelis Duskthorn. He specialized in moonstone research. He'd done some things to make himself a political problem, and was disappeared from elvish society via imprisonment and later sold into slavery to orcs. He told them that one of the long term projects with moonstone was to use it to prolong the elvish life - to achieve true agelessness. He didn't get into his specific area of research. Rachelle gave him 40 gold. Vaelis said he could stick around and be of help to them, especially with that kind of money. The party entertained the idea of introducing Vaelis to Aarion, but Amaya cautioned that it would put Aarion in the position of having to betray his employers, and while Aarion can be very generous, he also has a ruthlessness to him as well - so Aarion's stance of being able to help or turn Vaelis back in was not known.

Aarion returned somewhat early to Vladimir, and gave him a map to his next stone of power. He produced a map and warned him to be careful. The map placed this stone about 4 days travel into Gazgren.

The party noticed quickly a small dot flying overhead - seemingly stationary to them. If they listened carefully, they could hear a steady but faint buzzing. They also noticed another dot like it in the distance, moving perpendicular to their present course. The dot would cross their path in some hours. They noticed their own dot would lose them if they crossed into a forest, but would quickly find them again and resume following.

The party continued, and decided that maybe the other dot also had someone traveling under it. They stopped and hid when the other dot was getting close. In this location, they were before a break in the tree line. This clearing provided great visibility to another stronghold - this one seemingly made of scraps of metal. Under the other dot, crossing in front of them was a part of 10 or so orcs, brandishing weapons. The orcs were oblivious to the hidden party. They were on their way to the metal stronghold. A slit opened up on one of the stronghold's walls, and it boomed with a glittering smoke coming from it. There was immediately an explosion amongst the orcs. Several of them were gone. Some were dazed or confused. A few others charged. Another boom left about three orcs left, and they fled.

The party decided to give the stronghold a wide berth to continue their journey. After they broke one a later tree line, they found the sky was now filled with more of these dots - some stationary and some slowly moving.

They came across some area where an engagement happened near two small hills. They found a bloody scrap of clothing - someone had been killed here and their bodies removed. By the time the party had an idea of what was going on, the orcs sprung their trap. Seven orcs charged them, with one with a larger tubed weapon. The party fought hard, with Rachelle and Vladimir losing consciousness at some point (and sometimes more than once). Each member was brought near death. The orc in the back with the large gun lowly lobbed incredibly destructive shots at them. Though they managed to defeat all of them.

Afterwards the party went back into their knot of trees and hid and rested. Orcs passed by looking for them during the night, but the party wasn't discovered.

The party arrived at the location on the map. It was in a larger cluster of trees. As they explored deeper, the air became frigid. As they continued, it got colder. Ice formations were on the pine needles and bark. Later it turned to snow. They spotted the stone of power floating, but something passed in front of it - nobody was able to make out what it was in the distance, but something was there. They got closer and discovered it was a white owlbear, walking around the stone. The owlbear seemed to sense them even though they were well hidden. It approached them. Vladimir cast a spell that didn't really work on the owlbear.

From the owlbear came a stern female voice, saying this was Vladimir's challenge. They would engage in a non-lethal fight. If he passed, he could have the stone.

Vladimir consented, and they started their fight. Vladimir was able to hold back the owlbear with the clever use of magic. Rachelle tried to sneak around to get the stone, but the owlbear cautioned that he would fail the test if others intervened. The owlbear had superior might to him, but was only able to attack him once.

The owlbear was defeated, and collapsed into a druidic elven form. She healed Vladimir, and gave him the stone as promised. She said sometimes the best use of magic isn't from its raw power but its clever application, as was demonstrated here.