"First, they are a race used to hardship. They live in the places we would not care to visit. This means a nick here or a cut there, a lost finger or two, means little to them. With such injuries, a man or dwarf might well think it better to run away, heal his wounds, and come back to fight later -- for an orc, such thoughts only go through his mind if he's been struck with a blow that really hurts. A broken nose or foot, or a wound to the sensitive parts of the neck and upper back -- these will make an orc stop and think.

"Also, they are used to running away. Fight them in the open field, or in the sunlight, and they have a sense that this is not where they belong. There's a little technique the Stone Brothers use, in any fight in any sort of light...typically, there are all sorts of bits of shiny metal around -- your shield, your armor, your helmet, your axe -- so there are lots of dim glitters and reflections. If, right when you're going to strike, you can manage to aim some glint at the orc's eyes, they'll flinch, just a bit. It's not enough to really distract them, but when you get a blow in right at that little quailing, it'll do far more damage than if they steel themselves for it.

"Also, they are a short-lived, fast-breeding race. An orc who can't father children is worthless in his society. Striking at their eyes is no good -- they worship a half-blind god, after all -- but threaten to unman an orc, and he'll practically cut off his own leg rather than let your blade get near there. Heh.

"Perhaps most important, many orcs are slaughtered because they underestimate the dwarves they face -- but the reverse is also true. Orcs are a plague, but among them are powerful wizards, and fierce barbarians, and crafty assassins. Where a human or dwarf community has artists and entertainers and craftsmen, orc society is almost exclusively centered on warmaking, and every talent is used toward that end. The chaos of a battlefield in disarray is an orc's true home, and he is more comfortable there than any other place. If one were to impose order on the battlefield, the orc would be out of place, but that is not always possible.

"It is pride and laziness that have led us to this peril -- starting with Kray's overconfidence and Little John's poor discipline, and most recently with Drusilla's inability to control how much she drinks. In between, we've had arguments for no reason but arrogance, and fought battles poorly that should have gone well, because we assumed we faced `just a hobgoblin,' for instance. I worry that if we do not accept the humility we have so painfully earned, our quest will go awry ere we see Taur'egk's stronghold."

[Ya like the little back-foreshadowing? :) ]

"Excellent! You've got quite a clever mind in that head of yours. But here's a bit of advice, not as a teacher of wildcraft, but just an observer of...well, I would call it `dwarfness', but you probably call it `human nature'. In my experience, the cleverest people run the risk of being too clever -- their intelligence can lead them faster than their wisdom, if you see what I'm saying. I know several very smart dwarves who come up with ideas about what they can do, and act on them without considering what they should do, if you see what I mean. You didn't mean any of the dwarves I have in mind in Argunn Lode -- thanks mostly to Kinvol's careful politicking. I'm not the most popular dwarf there, as you may have picked up on, and I doubt the dwarves I'm thinking of would have taken a liking to anyone else in our party either -- well, maybe Alonzo.

"Anyway, back to business. While I suspect that the gods do not particularly favor the orcs, there isn't much we could do with that information anyway. On the other hand, it is assuredly true that the more civilized races have better things to do than clean out the darkest shadows and the most miserable caves of every last orc. I would take issue with the notion that the dwarves are not mighty enough to destroy the orcs, but in any case we do not try to. If they're not bothering us, we will brew beer and sculpt statues and raise families, until they start to bother us again.

"Your third point is well taken, but is an unfortunate effect of our natures, more than that of the orcs. So let us dispense with your first and third points as valid but not in my field. The second and fourth points are closely linked: we do not hunt down the orcs in every thorny fen and slimy cave, partly because those areas are so uninhabitable and undesirable, and that is exactly where orcs thrive and fester.

"And your fifth point, ties in with these two as well -- orcs beget orcs at such speed that even if you overlooked only a score of orcs in some swamp warren, the next season there would be two score, and next year a cave complex would be crawling with them, with a few warrens spreading further afield. I have seen some human towns, and there are humans in Argunn Lode, and I think I can say that you don't have children at anywhere near the rate orcs do. From what I have seen, it seems that orcs always have a litter, rather than a single child -- surely some of those die in infancy, but four or five grow to adulthood. That's just speculation -- maybe they have young so quickly that it only seems like they were all born at once. We should ask Grell -- if he grew up among them, he would know.

"So, we beat them back to a few crevices and holes, and there they swiftly repopulate, and come to attack us again. What does this tell us about their strengths and weaknesses?"