The Wilderness

You make your way to the Western Trading Company office, the largest building in Berda Trading Post. You walk past the two marines stationed at the entrance and they nod as you approach.

You ask around and find that the Sergeant at arms (Bella Fraught) is currently in her office. You know the way well, and take the stairs to the second floor and knock on her door.

She opens it with a slight look of surprise.
Hello gentlemen. Ladies. I thought you were going to solve my orc problem? Why haven't you left yet? They could attack any day now!

Certainly. What sort of information do you require?

The raiding party is an annual event. In the last days of autumn, before the snows close the pass to the north, the orc tribes send their young adults, usually under the supervision of a few more experienced raiders. There will be at least ten and possibly as many as twenty raiders. They will travel through the pass, raid the nearby farms and carry off whatever they can back through the pass. They try to time it so the pass will close behind them. That way, we can't chase them until the spring when they'll be long gone. It is late autumn now, so we expect their arrival any day now.

The problem is that there aren't any towns north of here, just a scattering of farmsteads, so it's a bit tricky to wall them off and even if they did, the orcs would just scale, dig under or destroy the wall as there wouldn't he enough people to decend it. The pass itself is quite narrow, so you should he able to find a suitable spot to eithet ambush the orcs or at least spot them coming. Then you can act however you see fit. Blocking off the pass would be incredibly difficult without serious time and effort and we just don't have the manpower. Maybe next year.

Melina the half-elf is really good. She's out trapping at the moment, so she might be a bit difficult to find. Nyx is also excellent. She's a tiefling and she can often be found at the lumber mill to the north up the river. Apparently she has a thing for Garrock! Also, I think Lena the innkeeper has a druid for a friend. I don't know where she lives though. I'm sure that you could ask her. I'm sure that she'd help you.

@Herod: You make your way north through the familiar path you took last night when leading the strangers to the cave where you found your item of power. However, instead of crossing the small bridge north of town, you instead follow the river as it snakes its way in a north eastish direction. You see logs floating intermittently down the river. After about an hour and a half you see a large log building built on top of the river. You see about twelve or so big humanoids working under the glaring eye of a gaint half orc. Sitting a small distance away sipping on something out of a glass you see a tiefling. This must be Nyx.

If by druid you mean ranger then you'd be correct. I consider myself to be a decent tracker but if I'm completely honest Melina is better than I am. What can I do for you?

I'm not going to lie. That sounds really fun and entertaining. Also, the dire wolf pelts themselves sell for a tidy sum. It's very tempting. But it also sounds crazy dangerous and may be quite time consuming. Dire Wolves are very dangerous and hunt large prey. To lure the dire wolves we'd have to hunt a large numbet of their prey, find the dire wolves, lure them to the area north of the farm steads, wait for the orcs to arrive, and then lure the wolves to the orcs.

Sound like fun to you?