Eventually, after walking for what seemed like forever but was probably only ten minutes but was magnified by my shirt cutting into my armpits, we walked into a group of huts kind of smacked around in different places in a clearing with stumps all around, inside the small village and around it. Seems they don’t have any stump removal services here, could be a market to break into, if a lame one.

We - or, he, since I wasn’t really walking - made his way to the biggest hut in the center of the village, which I assumed was the chieftain’s, and I assumed correctly because as soon as we entered I heard an old, gruff voice asking,

“Who enters the domain of the clan chieftain?” I barely heard the voice, but it was there.

“Unwog.”

“Enter.” Unwog stepped forward and the interior of the “hut” changed to a bigger area. One that didn’t seem like it could fit in this still-large-hut at all. In the center was a few Orc males, sitting in kind of a circle, talking, as well as the chieftain. The chieftain was adorned with some bones in his beard as “beard jewelry” as well as black hair that was braided, falling down the sides of his face and all around his head save his face. Definitely a unique look for an Orc, that’s for sure. I half expected him to pull a doobie out and start smoking the reefer. He was wearing a thin crown made of various yellowed bones as well, and the rest of him was just garbed in furs. It mildly reminded me of a Native American with his hair and stuff like that almost, but he was wearing some really heavy looking furs, probably bear furs mixed with heavy leather trappings on the inside.

“If we cleared the mines, we could begin making weapons for ourselves again instead of buying them from the Humans!”

“You know as well as I do that we have almost no warriors to speak of, and the ones we do have are lazy, insignificant gits who just drink all day and don’t do anything. Peacetime has made them lax.” We reached the circle as the last word was spouted from that other orc. All of the orcs had the same crowns on their heads, but thinner, if that was possible. One Orc had fiery red and orange hair, one had black, one had brown, and all had the same underbite with varying tusk sizes. The chieftain had extremely large tusks though, I was pretty sure it was a sign of an elder Orc, but he still looked pretty young, for an Orc, I supposed.

Unwog dropped me in the center of the three Orcs. “That’s very rude, Unwog.” I stepped out of the circle of Orcs, facing the chieftain. I bowed very stiffly and just said, “Hello. My name is Setari. Unwog kidnapped me and now I have no idea where I am or where to go. I am looking for my Archaeology trainer, Antivitz.” The Orc chieftain eyes lit up at the mention of Antivitz.

“I know Antivitz. He’s in the hut next door having a drink. Go see him.”

“Thank you.” And I made to walk away, when Unwog yelled,

“No! You do not get to leave before being punished for your crimes!” I stopped and turned back around. “He was desecrating an Orcish burial site!” As he said this to the chieftain he pointed at me. “He was taking valuable relics and those belong with the clan!” the chieftain sighed.

“Unwog… we’ve already had this discussion. There is nothing left there. There cannot be anything left there. The Great War destroyed everything there, there is nothing left. I’ve told you this a thousand times. Gor’s great fangs, I’m pretty sure your wife has told you a thousand times.” I thought about the few pieces of armor in my bag I found there that were of Epic and Rare rarity but didn’t say anything.

“By the gods Anwar, I know there has to be something there! There has to be!”

I took some initiative and walked over to the chief and whispered in his ear, “I’m going to take him with me and Antivitz and attempt to teach him Archaeology. He’s not a Player but he should be able to learn a profession, right?” The chieftain nodded and I walked away and gestured for Unwog to follow me.

“I am not following a Dwarf anywhere-”

“You will follow me if you ever want to find any goddamned relics in those godforsaken bone wastes!” I said, sternly, and walked out of the area and out of the building. “Meet me in the hut next door.” I walked through the illusory wall and out of the hut, and went into the hut next door.

As the interior of the building came into view I saw it was the same as the chieftain’s hut. The interior was “empty” and very tiny, so I walked forward into the hut more and walked through another illusory wall into a large tavern-like area, hearing a ‘wheeee’ as I walked in. I saw Antivitz spinning around on a large stool at the bar, comically oversized for anything other than an Orc. He was the source of the ‘wheeee’ noise. I stormed up to him.

“Antivitz!” His stool spun to a stop, and he turned to face me.

“Oh, oi, it’s, uh,” he paused, apparently trying to think of my name. “The Naz’cat-” knowing that mentioning my race would probably draw some attention, I cut him off.

“Setari, it’s Setari!”

“Ye, ye, Setari! How ya doin’ lad?!” he slapped me on the back.

“Aren’t you wondering why in the hell I’m freaking here?” I asked him. “I got kidnapped by an Orc and brought to the chieftain! He literally carried me here by the back of my shirt! I thought I was going to die!”

“You’re here ain’tcha lad? Plus you would have come back if they chopped you into bits and ate you in a stew anyway! You’re a Player!”

“Dying. Hurts.” I said, emphasis on the two words and glaring at him.

“Indeed it does, lad.” He had the barkeep pour me a mug of ale, set a silver on the counter, and patted a stool to his right, next to him. I sighed and sat on the stool and took a sip of ale. It was warm and was pretty bad. I set it to the side and proceeded to take out the pieces of armor I found while on the dig with Antivitz.

[Legguards of Gor’geron’s Wrath]

Artifact

+100 STR

+50 CON

+ 10 AGI

Class Restriction: Orc

Set Bonus: Hidden until equipped by required race

[Chestpiece of Gor’geron’s Wrath]

Artifact

+150 STR

+50 CON

+10 AGI

Class Restriction: Orc

Set Bonus: Hidden until equipped by required race

[Chalice of Ingenuity]

Artifact

+50 INT

+30 CON

I decided to equip the chalice on myself, it was a trinket, and more mana never hurt anyone. It appeared on me as a small chalice attached to the top of my pants. I assumed it’d move to my belt when I got one. I put the other pieces back into my bag.

However, previously when I found these artifacts of Gor’s, Vitz said they were extremely good finds as almost nobody had found Gor’s armor before, except for himself. He sold Gor’s boots in his shop, waiting for someone to come in and buy them, but he got precious little business as-is, and not too many Orcs had enough money to buy his finds in general, and the ones that did thought his wares were fake, for some reason. Or so he told me previously.

“So, Vitz,” I began, “is there an Orc here who has asked you about your artifacts before, or asked you to purchase artifacts from him?” Antivitz sighed.

“Yes. I was hoping he wouldn’t have noticed you when you came back and I would get back before you, but that wasn’t the case. You did mention you were already now acquainted with Anwar, the shamanic chieftain of the tribe here, and Unwog brought you to him, right? I tend to be in the area of the village a lot so I know where most of the Orcs live that live near the edge of the wastes.” He took a deep swig of his beer. “Unwog is obsessed with artifacts from the war for some reason, probably thinks his ancestors fought in the war or he’s linked to Gor or something. All he has is absolute junk in his house.”

“Well, uh,” I paused, thinking about how to phrase this to him, “I may or may not have insinuated that you might be willing to take him with us to the chieftain.”

“Ye...ye what?” That seemed to sober him up real quick.

“Well I figured you could use some muscle on your digs or something. At any rate you know he really wants to learn Archeology and he could probably be a worthwhile investment. Why did you bring me along?” I took a swig of crappy ale out of nervousness. I was pretty sure it was a nervous tic since I’d done it all my life. Same thing with those people who mess with their T-shirts while speaking, etc.

“Ye may be right, lad.” Suddenly the door opened and a hulking figure stood in the doorway. “Speak of the demons a’ Hel, here he is.” Unwog walked up to the bar and sat on a stool and asked the barkeep for a beer. He produced a silver from somewhere on him and set it on the bar and took a swig of beer.

“‘Sup, Unwog?” I asked him, carefully. I looked at Antivitz and he swiftly moved his eyes to the side, meaning to say “skedaddle outta here, ye git”, so I moved away from where I was sitting, taking my warm ale, and went and sat at an empty table. I could barely make out what Antivitz was saying to Unwog but it looked promising. Finally after a few minutes, Antivitz waved me over with a ‘tsst’ and a wave of the hand, and Unwog had the biggest smile on his face as I walked over and hopped up on a stool again.

“Well? What’s the verdict?” I asked.

“Antivitz is going to train me in Archaeology! I’m so excited!” He almost looked like he wanted to scoop up Antivitz in a bear hug but Antivitz’s glare kept him away.

“Alright, great. Can we get back to training please because this has taken up way too much of my time for my tastes,” I said. I mumbled under my breath, “Frieakin’ NPCs just doing nothing all the time…”

“What was that, lad?” Antivitz gave me a questioning look.

“Oh, I was just saying how I can’t wait to get back out there.”

“That’s what I thought. Let’s go.” Antivitz put his ale down and got off his stool while Unwog chugged his quickly. We all left the tavern and went back to the digsite.