(OOC: Yes, bugcakes are no bakes)
Your bug finding skills are excellent and you find many, including a large number of ants tasty grubs, and tasty beetles (You focus on bugcake ingredients). You mash up the ants into a nice paste and prepare the tasty beetles and tasty gubs as well, seering it over a nice, small fire that gives off minimal smoke (for now). It isn't as good as your old kitchen, but it does the trick. You wind up with 2 dozen bugcakes (24). Your bug finding and bug cooking skills have paid off already on the first day.
You can't help but miss your destroyed home a bit though, cave sweet cave.... It was nice, with a soft moss bed and everything. Better kitchen, etc. One day perhaps you'll have something like it again.
You eventually go inside the shelter Throlu has constructed and find it surprisingly roomy given the short amount of time used to construct it in the middle of basically nothing but forest. Cozy, but useful.
You ask him to describe the areas you might have to go through and the area in general. The Zuffen responds in detail:
"This is the Ogre Plovin's Land. A dreaded taskmaster of slaves. He rules the central part directly and has 4 ogre generals rule each cardinal direction for him.
The West, (we may pass through it) is ruled by Croshin - is heavily fortified, against the Shrocav Goblins to the west.
They mine Iron, copper, tin, and chop lumber, hunting huge wild game herds to eat.
Settlements are Croshin's Court, and Westdoor Gate with some other scatterings about, and I don't know how many watchtowers inside the wall.
He maybe has 4 to 5 thousand Orcs, Goblins, and Humans owned, and let's say 50 to 100 of his ogre tribe.
The North is ruled by Axenishin and fortified but forested and penetrable, because you can't really wall out the Eldoriva Elves up there
They get stone, wood and the most wild game to eat from there (the elves took care of the herds forever).
Settlements are Axenishin's Court, Northdoor Gate, Rockgrave and probably some others I don't know.
Axenshin has to have 10,000, including those horrible gnoll savagers against the elves there
The East is ruled by Droshin, and is fairly open farmlands, formerly for the humans....
They get vegetables, grain and foodstuffs from here (a lot of it for the slaves to eat one way or another
There are lots of old human settlements here, but the main ones are Droshin's Court, Eastdoor Gate, and a few others.
He's got about 10,000 too.
Then there's the South where we are ruled by Mershin, the fairly open woodlands we're in.
Lots of wood and wild herds to hunt for meat here....
She's got at least 6,000 around here, and the rest I told you before about the guard towers, Southdoor Gate (lumber camp) and Mershin's Court. I know of three watchtowers and her patrols are around as you found out....
I can tell you anything else you want to know that I can...?
My healing? We Zuffens are good at it as a people. Maybe that's part of why we have a bounty on us here. Plovin likes the idea of slaves who can heal him whenever, and hates us hiding, which we also do well, as you can see from what we're inside. I don't know how to teach you if you're not a Zuffen. That's kind of what we are, hidden, perceptive, and healing...? That's why they pay more for us tortured and broken than dead...."
What do you do?
Added Item: (24) bugcakes
Added Skill: (1) Club
Added Skill: (1) Bug Finding
Added Skill: (1) Bug Cooking
Added Skill: (1) Hide
Added Skill: (1) Handle Animal
Added Skill: (1) Ride