The Orc Hunting Lodge

The home of all of Ponterford's orcs — a thatched single-storey hall built into the steep, cliff-edge north end of town (the worst, cheapest plot, on a sharp diagonal hill). Inside: a kitchen with ovens and running water (well beyond the "sticks and stones" stereotype), a storage room holding ogre-sized spell scrolls on high shelves (war-trophies — the orcs apparently slew a spellcasting ogre, perhaps one of Laewendas's giant "generals" terrorising a place ~25 miles off), and makeshift bunks. By orc custom any friend of an orc is welcomed in freely — "our food is your food, our beds are your beds, our swords are your swords" — and the freed orc Algrimmar now lodges here. It doubles as the town's monster-hunting quest hub.

The orcs explain their history to half-orc Magra: dehumanised and bred as slave labour by the ancient human empire (orcs being valued for their strength), they fight to ensure it never happens again; each carries one long unique name (no surnames — Magra has "Greysong" only because she is half-orc).

The orcs (Session 37)

• Bor-Grogus — the door guard; shirtless, Greek-statue build, bearded axe. Lets the party in on Magra's account ("a friend of an orc"). His easiest job in the world: no one has ever tried to break in.
• Varg Ralagrak Gro-Algrag — the lodge's elder: an ancient, fire-scarred veteran who remembers the realm before Laewendas (and may have fought in that war, on either side). The quest-giver: he will only charge the party to slay the Beast of the Woods once they say (and mean) "I wish to slay the Beast of the Woods." Has a flat damage-reduction feature (a hammer-strike from Magra does 11; he takes only 3).
• The medicine woman — a young (~20s), unscarred orc healer in chainmail with porcupine-quill hairpins and war paint; tends a traveller dying of the Beast's poison and needs its venom sac to cure her. Quietly gathers fool's-gold leaf (a deadly look-alike poison) and lies — badly — about why (Thalia sees through her).

Session 37 (debut)

• The party visits to check on Algrimmar, who agrees to help dig the fence holes for the frog-folk job.
• They take on the Beast of the Woods hunt from the senior orc — learning, via Silithane's Detect Thoughts on the dying victim, that it is a 10–12-ft, four-tendrilled, dirt-cloud-ambushing poison monster.
• The orcs mourn Magra's parents' elf/orc marriage and recount orc slave-history; the ogre-trophy scrolls hint these orcs are far tougher than they look.

Session 38

• The session opens here at 9 AM as the party finishes prepping for the Guardian of the Woods hunt; Silithane casts Lesser Restoration on the medicine woman's dying patient (lifting the poisoned condition but not the flesh-rotting venom).
• Varg (dual axes, blind frenzy) and Algrimmar (shortbow, hangs back) march out with the war-band; the hunt is for the venom sac that can cure the patient.

Session 39

• The cure is brewed here. The medicine woman — named at last as Rhia Gagra — reverse-engineers the harvested wyrm venom into antidote (1 vial → 4 doses, only with Lash's help), curing her dying patient, Warmaiden Yngraf and Silithane. She'd sooner risk it solo than ask the town herbalist and shame herself among the orcs.
• An afternoon of welcome. The honor-bound orcs take no reward for the Guardian's death; the party celebrates (eating, arm-wrestling, cards) and short-rests here before the midnight church meeting. Varg dumps the dryad's trophy-parts in the storage room and shoulder-checks the display-guard Bor-Grogus on the way in.