Scout Lakus

It had been awhile since I had seen Broken Skull give anything even remotely similar to a speech. I definitely hadn't seen him use words to get someone to back down. It had taken me a few minutes to realize it, but I hadn't actually seen him do much of anything as a leader since I had shown up, besides leading the expedition to the fourth floor, and organizing the operation to use the dungeoneer fort against them.

It didn't seem like he had remembered me at all, but that wasn't something that bothered me. What bothered me more was the fact that there were only three of us going to do a full scouting mission which I assumed would take many more than just three skeletons. The amount of parchment we had was helpful, but being so shorthanded could prove detrimental, especially if we were caught.

It was for that reason that I split off from the others, so that if any one of us were found by the orcs, we wouldn't end up endangering the mission. Granted, I didn't particularly like that we had been sent on what could very well be known as a suicide run, but I could see the logic behind it. Without knowing what we might be facing off against in the future could result in many more casualties than if we took the time to fight against a less powerful foe. There was also the secondary benefit of being able to take control of a much better position in the dungeon.

It was because of all this, that despite being unhappy with the decision to scout the orc fortress, I wasn't against it. The others from my original group were all dead, but that just meant that in order for them to achieve any kind of victory, I had to stay alive as well.

When I reached the point where I could see the rough outlines of the fortress, I activated [Stealth] in the hopes that none of the orcs wandering in or around the area would prove to be very perceptive. Thankfully, the armor I had picked up from the dead dungeoneers came from a ranger, so the mixture of cloth and leather made it easier to move without making much noise. I didn't take the cloak though, as it was completely unnecessary, constantly flapping about whenever I moved too fast.

I could see orcs walking about in the darkness, savage weapons occasionally scraping against the ground, which was strangely enough, tougher and harder than the ground we had around the encampment.

It might be the amount of foot traffic around here.

I made sure to quickly get the information written down on the parchment, not sure what might and might not be useful for Broken Skull and Lilith to know.

Oh. They didn't actually specify completely about what I should be looking for. Should I just write down everything I find? I guess I can do that. I hope I have enough charcoal here to do so.

The fortress itself was located with its back against the wall of the cavern, with the ceiling far above it. This made our job easier since we wouldn't have to scout out an extra fourth side. To make things move a bit more quickly, I snuck towards the right side of the fortress to see if I could spot any weaknesses.

The place itself was a collection of crude but effective bits of stonework, metal, and wood. Where the materials had actually come from, I had no idea. I could see two towers with badly made crenellations ringing the area, while there was a slightly taller building in the inner part of the fortress, likely separated by an open air courtyard. The gate itself was made from a rotting wood that seemed to be falling apart on its own, located right in the center of the front facing wall. There were also three wide walkways wrapping around the towers themselves, with various spots along the walls for the orcs to shoot or throw things at us, the crenellations topped with sharp spikes. The use for those spikes was something that eluded me.

Maybe they thought it would look cool?

Regardless of what its function was, the wall itself didn't look like it could be easily scaled, although it could definitely be done. The craftsmanship seemed a bit shoddy to say the least, but effective enough that actually scaling the wall with or without ladders would result in heavy casualties.

It'd almost be easier to just... Wait, what if... Yeah, that might just work.

I began writing down a basic plan to organize a diversionary force to hold the attention of the orcs while another group climbed up the wall and attacked them from the inside, using the right side wall as the entry point. I also made sure to write down all my observations so far, so that I wouldn't forget anything. Sadly I wouldn't be able to get any closer, as there were torches set up around the perimeter of the walls, preventing me from doing anything specific without being noticed.

Unless... Is there a pattern? Let's see.

I went to work digging myself a shallow hole to bury myself in, so that I could observe the wall at length, without being discovered by any wandering orcs, or any particularly observant sentries, as I had noticed standing atop the towers. It took longer than I expected to create a burial pit for myself, the hard ground impeding my progress every step of the way. Luckily though, I wasn't discovered before I was safely submerged under the ground, both the parchment and charcoal stick tucked away inside my ribcage while my head poked just above the ground, enough for me to be able to watch the wall in peace.

It took hours, but finally, after waiting for so long, my efforts managed to discover nothing. I had wasted hours looking for a pattern that simply didn't exist. The sentries that were on duty at the time would randomly patrol back and forth, occasionally picking their noses, or yelling at each other. If I could have been, I would've been twitching in frustration because of their stupidity. Orcs would come and go randomly, and half of those got into fights with each other that were ignored by at least one or two different orcs, who would just keep staring out into the darkness.

In short, waiting for something to happen was maddening. Orcs had wandered around the outside for hours now, some of them coming dangerously close to discovering me. One of them had even decided to relieve himself only a few meters from where I was hidden.

Thank whatever deity made it so that I don't have to smell that. It's probably wretchedly awful.

I had to stay in that spot for another half an hour before I was finally able to dig myself out without being noticed. My observations altogether ended up describing little more than basic structural weaknesses, along with the fact that the orcs themselves were incredibly disorganized. I hadn't seen any leaders whatsoever, unless the bigger ones were to be counted, but even those were sometimes shouted or beaten down by their smaller counterparts. Regardless, their hierarchy was based on strength and skill, which didn't tell me much other than the fact that their command structure was all over the place. I figured their actual leaders would be within the main building situated at the back, but as for everything else, I was at a loss.

I thought the others might have had better luck, when I ended up finding some bones and scattered parchment around the front section of the fortress. It was the scout who had questioned Broken Skull. Whether it was a betrayal, or a death caused by one of the orcs, I had no idea. His gear had been completely stripped off his body except for the few scouting supplies.

Too bad. That makes my job that much more difficult. Let's hope I don't meet the same fate.

I picked up the parchment and found the charcoal stick snapped in two. His observations were pretty similar to mine, but I figured double checking wouldn't hurt anybody other than me, potentially. Since he'd been killed, some things that I'd already noted were missing from his own notes.

Taking his parchment, I moved to a less dangerous area where fewer orcs roamed. There, I began meticulously sketching out a map of the fortress itself, at least from what I'd been able to observe so far. While it wasn't going to be perfect, I thought it might at least be better than nothing. If nothing else, it honored the sacrifice made to get this information on parchment, and back to camp.

I hadn't actually know either of the two scouts very well, only occasionally seeing them in passing as I was in one of the separate scouting teams. Most of the others from my team had been completely wiped out except for me and one other, who was currently scouting the second floor. If the scouts were to be remade, the few survivors would be the ones to lead them, as Broken Skull didn't seem to have nearly as much time nowadays.

It took some time but eventually, I had completed the map, showing the basic weaknesses I'd discovered on the right side, with my own notes helping to solidify the knowledge I'd painstakingly put on parchment over the past few hours. Storing the materials within my ribcage once more, I looked around the area, making sure that there were absolutely no orcs that had potentially discovered my presence. From there, I slowly made my way back to the corpse of the fallen scout. Almost every scout had a small bag with them in case they needed to bring something back. In this case, I shoved most of his body inside, while carrying the rest of him by the spine. It wasn't very efficient, and it rattled a bit as I went, but I managed to make it safely away from the orc fortress by relying on the fact that the orcs themselves were just wandering around.

While there was no discernable pattern to the ones roaming the walls, the ones walking around outside were much easier to avoid, as they travelled in pairs of two at the most. Getting away from them wasn't as difficult as getting closer and closer to the fortress. I certainly wasn't going to check up on the third scout, as I felt I'd already done more than my fair share of work so far. I had earned a break from this, at least for now.