"I suppose she's told you about the Orc-ruled Badlands to the north?" Merrick asked, chuckling slightly as Ariadne shook her head. "Let me guess, you were waiting for the right moment? Well, the bad news is the Orc warlord who rules there, Blacktooth, is said to be the nastiest Orc seen in generations. There are rumours of resistance fighters but...good luck tracking any of them down."<br/><br/>"If that's the bad news, I dread to think what you consider worse," Ariadne said.<br/><br/>"Well, as always I get idiots who travel north on some great hunt and are never seen again," Merrick replied. "Recently ten men decided to go to the Troll Hills to try and gain themselves the head of Troll Alpha to boast over. Only one managed to flee south, he was frightened half to death and he refused to say anything other than one word: Dragonstorm."<br/><br/>"N...no..." Ariadne said, trembling. "That's...Merrick, worse doesn't even begin to explain what that is if the man is telling the truth."