Your group gathers your gear and heads off towards the center of the blight, crossing the tea tree orchard. When you reach the outskirts you can see that the edge of a stone garden wall has been tumbled as if by some powerful blast, and several dead trees are blown over (all in one direction, they are laying on their sides) and mouldering into the blackened earth as well.
Finally, you reach the blight itself.
There is no vegetation at all here-- the earth is black and soft- moist, but not fertile. Stones and sharp rocks litter the area in places, and there are strange pools of a black tar-like oil and filth that have a foul smell to them. Occasionally, you pass by a jutting bone or skull.. and after a bit of investigation you determine that there are orc bones in the area.
In the distance you can see the edge of the ruins, on the horizon, still a few miles out.
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After much walking you come to a shallow basin where a rough path starts, that seems to lead to the ruins. The path is not very well defined, but it is obvious that a group has been using it to circle the ruins, and it heads back south towards the valley's edge.
Both Fargrim and Edwena suspect orcs... just from the look of the path.
Your group follows the path for a while when you see the "camp"--
Just outside the ruins- you find yourselves crouched, unseen, on a low hill overlooking what looks like a massive ditch. The remaining walls of the tower- which you can now see are blackened stone decorated with a gargoyle motif rise behind the ditch, and extend down into the ground. Crumbling wedge-works and archways and twisted metal from some kind of spidery-looking alien apparatus are piled into a nearby junk heap of some sort.
So the tower itself is almost completely destroyed-- lots of rubble. There is no visible entrance on the ground floor, but in the ditch, they seem to have dug their way down to a crude cave-like opening in the blackened earth.
Standing on either side of the cave opening is an orcish guard armed with a belly-bow. A third orc-- what looks like an orc anyhow, stands off to ne side-- his skin is tattooed with a myriad of spirals and interlocking designs, and his hair is dyed bright magenta. The freakish orc is off to one side.. talking to the archers.. but you are too far away to hear anything. He is armed with a greataxe.
From your hidden vantage point you can also see an ominous humanoid figure dressed in filthy purple robes directing an excavataion on the far side of the ditch. He seems to be commanding a group of shovelers.. more orcs, by the look of them. But these orcs are shirtless, clad in only rags, and even from a distance they look to have been horrifically injured. They move with a lurching stiffness that seems unnatural- Edwena thinks they may be zombies.
OOC: This is a large complicated group and setup-- so I'll break it down:
Standing inside the ditch, near the opening to the tower ruins:
2 orcish archers
1 orcish freak
Standing off to the edge- inside the ditch, working on digging it out:
4 zombie orcs, armed with shovels.
Standing just atop the ditch directing the shovelers with his back turned to you: the purple-robed figure.
There is a large ditch, about 20' deep at it's highest spot, but accessible through a shallow dirt ramp.
There is a large pile of junk and rubble nearby that could let you get closer.
There is a small section of rubble nearby which might allow a single character to hide behind or get closer.