Wormtaint

Posted on February 13, 2025 in Steel-Realms

Wormtaint is a vital piece of supplemental information for the Orrish of Helca. The blood worm pits of the Orrish are typically next to the shrine room/cavern of the Unholy Trio within the common Basic Orrish Cave Settlement.

The shrine’s black aura is the catalyst of the foul mystic transformations. The shamans use defiled waters and all the foulness they can scrape up (literally) to create a paste that leaves a permanent residue (often seen on the hands of trap masters and priests) most commonly referred to as Wormtaint.

A Wormtaint Warren is commonly made in a deep and covered warren within the settlement. There are fumes that stay down in the deep pit, safe for those workers that have the taint to breathe, but even the Orrish will writhe in agony as the fumes scar the lungs and cause respiratory bleeding.

This empowers various living creatures to give birth to horrid off-spawn and transforms equipment and when ingested creates a rapturous resolve in the ingester if they are Orrish, Wormtaint is not for the common Orrish. Its effects are concentrated in the hands of the elite – shamans, priests, trap masters, darklings, and champions. The permanent residue upon the hands of a Orrish priest of the Church of Darkness allows them to handle and work with many items and materials of foulness that normally would kill those in such close proximity to the raw work.

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Blood Vurms of Gorvyrm

Posted on February 12, 2025 in Steel-Realms

The Blood Vurms were originally created by Gorvyrm, Master of the Blood Vurms. Some of their stock was once stolen from the The Fields of Blood by the Orrish to create their Bloodworms pits.

Basic Orrish Cave Settlement

Posted on February 12, 2025 in Steel-Realms

Almost every settlement of the Orrish of Helca started off as a Basic Orrish Cave Settlement. These are one of the many Cave Complexes of the Dark Lands and are a big part of the Geological Features of the Dark Lands. These are set up by the Orrish Fighting Forces once they have a foothold.

It is a twisted set of paths that is designed for Ork sized travelers – and a bit wider. Even if it is solely for goblins and the smaller Orrish, it will have a reception/meeting area sized for larger Orrish and smaller warrens further in.

Common Features: In it, they set traps, plant cave mana and other fungi, a shrine to the unholy trio, an armory with geoxyles (subterranean tree – grows in the darklight of the shrine), a Bloodworm pit, a refuse pit (usually with Rock Worm off-spawn) and several other “rooms”. This is preparation for bringing in forces to start raiding in the area. An Orrish Trap Master and several logistics oriented (usually Goblins) squads work the area – usually with a complement of female and young workers.

Orrish Settlement – Chipping Room

Stones, flint, obsidian, etc. is worked in these places with a settlement to fashion Orrishish Weaponry of the Steel Realms. Hanging here you will also find sinew and skins used to cover and bind pieces together. In the Dark Lands, most are made from off-spawn and goblins. A raider base will use the body parts of captives – humans, elves, etc.

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Orrish Fighting Forces & Tactics

Posted on February 12, 2025 in Steel-Realms

Orrish Fighting Forces and Tactics are generally pretty common. What they might not have in power, they make up for in numbers and cleverness. The Orrish of Helca are not typical of the other Orrish of the iVerse. They come in several varieties of off or mixed ancestry. Most dwell in the Dark Lands. The fighting forces all use the common Orrish Weaponry of the Steel Realms and follow the provisions for Orrish Breach Points.

Orrish Tactics

Uncommon Knowledge check >
Those with Lore: Orrish + Lore: Military knowledge will be familiar with their typical tactics. Tactics generally assume the typically crude and small armaments; Where possible, they will use Wormblatt.

Tactical communication: Standard Orrish units just shout and scream orders, where any organization exists. For the elite units and the Orrish priests of the Unholy Trio, many Orrish are multilingual, speaking both Orrisha and Nurthish. Nurthish allows them to communicate within their own ranks and their allies in a language not commonly understood or taught outside The Dark Lands and Nurth communities in the Underlands.

Honorable Combat: They generally dont believe in it. Single combat is conducted with every advantage possible, but only among the larger, more dominant Orrish. This is typically done for dominance. They will use the concepts of “honor” but lie or exploit any deception they can – Orrish dont consider other humanoids equals. The sole exception to this is darklings, who feel so superior in their ego as to abide by it many times, believing they will triumph anyways (and leading to their deaths).

Morale/Surrender: Goblins will never surrender in the lands of light – there is no quarter given with the Bounty on the Orrish in place. Additionally, the penalty for failure is death by sacrifice – which can earn favor for friends and relations if done willingly. If they are organized, raiding bands have a base Morale of 13 and will always have a rally spot for Morale failure; Failure indicates retreat to attack again, not surrender.

Orrish Bases of Operations

Basic Orrish Cave Settlement; Those which are important and marked for violent and frequent raiding local areas will have a Wormtaint Warren.

Entrance

Trap #1
What seems to be a solid stone for support is a pressure plate that cracks a container of concentrated troglodyte stench
Trap #2
Buried in the soil is a pressure latch that springs a solid wire that opens a basket above the corridor and drops a poisonous giant centipede on top of the victim.

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Where Spiders of Go-Zen are present, you will find Nurth Spider Riders.

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Dark-Spawn Loot/Goods: The selling of Orrish made goods/loot outside the Dark Lands has serious issues, and often the best value is 10% of normal.