Shortly after the adventurers settle down to rest, Sister Poppy, who volunteered to keep watch, notices an orc emerge from the ranch outhouse. She examines the situation and assesses her options, but determines she cannot effectively attack the orc and allows it to pass to the cellar.
As they wake up and regroup, Sister Poppy alerts the adventurers of the orc, and they decide to make their way to the storm cellar. They find the door unlocked and begin descending the steps. In the cellar, they find two orcs and an extremely angry “Big Al,” with his massive wrists tightly bound and a sack over his head. Ramarcus casts a sleep on the orc closest to Al; the orc’s legs become weak and it slumps to the ground. Al, also affected by the spell, stops cursing and kicking as he falls asleep. Hrothgar charges towards the other orc, hurling a javelin that finds its mark in the orc’s shoulder. The orc turns, bellowing, “What the -” as it realizes they’re being ambushed in the cellar. Ramarcus blasts the orc with a fire bolt, singing the orc’s hair as it lets out a roar of frustration. As Ramarcus hurls another fire bolt, the orc steps to the side and the spell fizzles out on the cobblestone floor.
The angered and injured orc steps towards Hrothgar, swinging its greataxe and landing a heavy strike on the dwarf. Sister Poppy slides down the cellar stairs, under Hrothgar and the orc’s legs, nimbly escaping a swing from the orc’s axe. She crosses the cellar and attempts to pry the sleeping orc’s axe from its hands, but finds the task far too difficult under the weight of the orc’s magical slumber; the monk reaches over and lifts the sack hood from Al’s head. Rissa and Rakhi charge into the cellar; the ranger mystically marks the injured orc as her prey, but it quickly succumbs to its wounds and falls to the stone floor. Inspired, she shifts her focus to the sleeping orc and fires an arrow from her longbow; in her haste, however, she neglected to aim properly and the arrow whizzes over Sister Poppy’s head, missing its target entirely and driving into a wooden shelf against the wall. Rakhi lunges across the cellar, targeting the sleeping orc’s leg, chomping a vicious bite into the orc’s ankle.
Qurion steps to the stairs and quickly assesses Hrothgar’s wounds. Leaning towards the dwarf’s ear, he whispers a word of healing. Hrothgar, regaining his strength, takes advantage of Rakhi gnawing the orc’s leg and rushes across the cellar, burying his axe deep in the orc’s chest and ending its life before it has a chance to comprehend what was happening.
The party examines Big Al’s condition, finding him badly beaten and bruised, a bit of dried blood on the edge of his mouth. Sister Poppy looks more closely and notices what appears to be an untreated stab wound in the man’s abdomen. Rissa touches the big man and a couple of the bruises on his face seem to fade slightly as he wakes. He looks around at the adventurers.
“What’s goin’ on here? Get me out of these ropes!” Al demands in a gruff voice, wobbling in his chair. Qurion uses calm emotions and Al relaxes a bit, realizing that the adventurers are not part of the orcish raiding party that has caused so much destruction at Butterskull Ranch. Ramarcus explains to Al that the party has come to help; they found a job posting in Phandalin urging them to provide whatever assistance they could to Al, and that they found several of Al’s horses and a cow named Petunia during their travel to the ranch. Al perks up at the mention of Petunia, and attempts to explain what happened at the ranch.
“Big Al” tells the adventurers that, while his understanding of orcish is very limited, he knew what the raiders were looking for and that he refused to oblige them. Hrothgar removes Al’s restraints, and he moves to a cabinet across the room. Digging around for a moment and reaching behind a false wall in the cabinet, Al produces a massive blue boar tusk, larger than any natural tusk.
“During my time as sheriff in Conyberry,” Al explains, handing the tusk to Ramarcus, “I encountered some sort of cult that sought to gain a foothold in the area. I thought I eliminated them and confiscated this tusk as a sort of ‘trophy’ because it seemed to be of value to the cultists. I’ve kept it here for several years, and when I realized that’s what these orcs were after, I stashed it away down here just before the raiders caught me.” Ramarcus examines the tusk, attempting to determine its magical properties; the tusk doesn’t hold any innate magical qualities, but Ramarcus can determine it is of some sort of ritual significance. The wizard can also discern that the tusk is extremely old, perhaps a century or more, and has several orcish runes carved into its surface.
Qurion looks over the runes and finds the names “Talos” and “Gorthok.” The cleric recalls the name of Talos, a god of storms, forest fires, earthquakes, natural disasters, and destruction. He recognizes the name Gorthok as one of Talos’ avatars, a manifestation that might appear in this realm as a massive boar in the midst of devastating storms with lightning crackling through its body and tusks. Talos would demand destructive sacrifices from his followers, and Gorthok was a representation of raw destructive power, capable of uprooting entire forests and leveling mountains and towns.
Ramarcus asks Al if the adventurers can keep the tusk. The retired sheriff thinks for a moment and agrees, deciding that the tusk has caused him more trouble than its probably worth to him. He invites the party upstairs to offer them a reward for their help. From his bedroom he retrieves a suit of mithral chain mail and 100 gold pieces. As Hrothgar strips out of his armor and begins to don the mithral suit, Ramarcus asks if Al has any books of arcane nature. Al digs around in his office area for a moment and hands Ramarcus a tattered, old-looking scroll of minor illusion.
The group ventures outside to reunite Al with his prized cow, Petunia. However, they quickly realize that the cow is gone. Al explains that if the adventurers neglected to hitch the cow, she may have wandered off; he offers them another 50 gold pieces for her return. Rissa investigates the area and notices five sets of footprints that appear to approach the ranch, then turn around and head back the direction they came, along with a set of hoofprints. Ramarcus takes a closer look at the prints, and determines that they belong to a half-elf, two humans, a dwarf, and a half-orc; another adventuring party, perhaps?
Setting off down the path towards Conyberry, the party follows the tracks from Butterskull Ranch. A couple hours into their travels, Rissa notices the tracks turn away from the main road up a smaller path, and sees smoke rising above the trees. The adventurers approach what appears to be a camp off the main road. Rissa attempts to stealthily approach from the east, while Sister Poppy sneaks around from the west. They discover a group around a fire: a half-elf, two humans, a dwarf, and a half-orc. The other group notices Rissa and Rakhi in the trees.
“Who’s out there? Show yourself!” the half-elf woman towards the front of the camp demands. Sister Poppy spots a cow hitched near the camp and recognizes it as Petunia. The party approaches the camp, as the other five figures step forward to greet them, vigilant. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“We are adventurers,” Ramarcus explains. “We noticed smoke through the trees and came to see what was happening.”
“Well, obviously, we’re camping,” the dwarf snorts in response. “You’ve come upon our camp, where we’re camping.”
The adventurers explain that they’ve been hired by “Big Al” to retrieve his cow. The rival party purports that the cow belongs to their acquaintance, a “Barbara Ann,” who has asked them to take the cow to market to sell it. The half-elf woman tells them that they can purchase the cow; if they aren’t interested, they have no business in the camp. Ramarcus asks the rival party to hand over the cow, but the half-elf woman refuses and tells him that he can pay the 60 gold pieces she says it’s worth. As Sister Poppy slips back towards Petunia and begins to untie her hitch, the rival party draws their weapons.
Rissa springs into action, stabbing at the half-elf woman with her dagger and striking. Rakhi lunges at the dwarf opponent, who steps aside as the wolf chomps the air. Qurion steps forward and shouts a word of radiance between the dwarf and human man; both men writhe slightly from the radiant power of the cleric’s word. Leaving Petunia free to wander, Sister Poppy rushes toward the half-elf woman and throws a punch, but misses.