The Sign of the Orc (Level 9 novellae)

This makes them less bulky and more agile than pure-bred orcs, but still taller and stronger than most humans. Half-orcs have pale green skin, jutting jaws, prominent teeth and coarse body-hair. Tolkien, as the result of crossbreeding Dunlendings with Isengard Orcs. There was also another type called Goblin-men which were also said to be The book includes background information, illustrations, and game rules for these races.

The Orcs and Goblins represent a generic Dark Ages warband army with little internal cohesion and discipline, and relying on the ferocious charge and individual fighting skills rather than organized generalship. Gorbad Ironclaw Gorbad Ironclaw, atop his vicious boar Gnarla, was the mightiest Warlord that ever lived in the warhammer fantasy universe. It was introduced in until Castle is the first Lego Castle theme, and, like Space, is still very popular. Often known by fans as "Original Castle", the knights featured unique movable visor pieces, with eye slits, and a crest that runs backwards from the frontward-facing part of the visor along the helmet.

These knights also wore a coat of arms either a tunic or breastplate over their body. It was not again until when knights came with movable visors and armor breastplates, as the knights between The Mage Knight Logo. Mage Knight is a miniatures wargame using collectible figures, created by WizKids, Inc, and is the earliest example of what is now known as a Collectible Miniatures Game. The game was designed by founder Jordan Weisman along with Kevin Barrett.

The game is the first to use WizKids' Clix system, combining roleplaying and wargaming elements with aspects of collectible card games. WizKids announced in October that Mage Knight was being relaunched with a board game, card game, and role-playing game. Resurrection, which utilizes its SwitchClix bases to be compatible with both Mage Knight 2. The release date was Fall [3] Design Unlike many other miniatures war-games, Mage Knight eliminates the need for reference to rule books and tables by integrating a dial into each figure that contains its current combat statistics - mov Warcraft alternatively known as Warcraft: The Beginning [4] is a American-Chinese action fantasy film directed by Duncan Jones and written by Charles Leavitt and Jones, based on the video game series of the same name.

The film portrays the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs and takes place in a variety of locations established in the video game series. The Sands of Time as the highest-grossing video game a The Orc King is a fantasy novel by American writer R. Salvatore, the first book in the Transitions series. Plot summary The story begins a century after the events of The Two Swords. Drizzt defeats a group of bandits calling themselves Casin Cu Calas, a group that wears black and travels through the Orcish Kingdom of Many-Arrows and slays Orcs in their sleep.

He is angered when one of them mentions Bruenor Battlehammer's past weakness by allying with the Orcs.

The sixth heir to the throne of Kingdom of Many-Arrows, Obould the Sixth, is visiting the house of a "beautiful" Orcish maiden who is set to marry an elf from the Glimmerwood formerly Moonwood. The book then returns to the "past" where Drizzt, with his traveling companion Innovindil, are returning from the journey to the grave of Ellifan. They were subsequently imprisoned until May 6, , when Berry escaped with her six-year-old daughter and contacted the police. On May 8, , Castro was charged with four counts of kidnapping and three counts of rape.

He was sentenced to life plus 1, years in prison without the possibility of parole. Bahgtru Bahgtru is the orc deity of Strength and Combat. The son of Gruumsh and Luthic, Bahgtru has been described as a huge orc with bulging muscles and dirty tan skin. His eyes are dull green, and his glistening white tusks protrude from either side of his mouth. Bahgtru has also been described as "awesomely stupid. Bahgtru was first detailed in Roger E. The Commodore 64 This is a list of game titles released for the Commodore 64 personal computer system, sorted alphabetically.

Licence to Kill 10 Knockout! Boot Camp One Year After The Battle of Midway The Day After Heroes of the Lance Advanced Baske The game introduced innovations in mission design and gameplay elements, which were adopted by other RTS developers. Blizzard's main emphases in these games were on skillful management of relatively small forces and on development of characterization and storyline within and between games played in the same universe.

Sales were fairly high, reviewers were mostly impressed, and the game won three awards and was a finalist for three others. The sequel, Warcraft II: The series debuted on Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. She goes on missions with Trinket, Sir Garrett, and Clod. Together they go on quests, solve mysteries, and learn valuable lessons. Characters Main Princess Nella voiced by Akira Golz is an fun loving princess who goes in the way of a knight in order to protect her kingdom. Nella is a fearless, confident, and a sweet girl.

Her exploration of various hobbies and other interests are the basis of several episodes. Originally Nella was a normal Princess who dreamed of being a knight and received her magical necklace that allows her to transform into a Princess Knig Armies of Warhammer are components of the table-top games Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40, The armies have been defined into a separate "army list," and they are described in more detail in the Warhammer Army Book or Warhammer 40, Codex.

Players of either game, or their spin-offs, have a wide variety of army choices and each army can be customised to suit a particular playing style. All games are produced by Games Workshop. The following list of text-based games is not to be considered an authoritative, comprehensive listing of all such games; rather, it is intended to represent a wide range of game styles and genres presented using the text mode display and their evolution across a long period.

On mainframe computers Years listed are those in which early mainframe games and others are believed to have originally appeared. Often these games were continually modified and played as a succession of versions for years after their initial posting. For purposes of this list, minicomputers are considered mainframes, in contrast to microcomputers, which are not.

One of "many games" in library of programs. Tolkien's fictional Middle-earth, much of the history of the three ages of his legendarium are concerned with wars and the battles and armies of those wars. Armies of Middle-earth, hierarchy and organization The charts below show the general hierarchical[1] terms used by Tolkien to describe military formations and organization, and how these relate to specific or estimated strengths in battles throughout the history of Middle-earth.

These terms, with host indicating military forces larger than an army and the others indicating forces smaller than an army, are used with a remarkable general consistency over the time of Tolkien's writings from —, as well as an in-universe consistency over the three ages of Middle-earth.

There are certainly times when some of these words: Bibliography Early work Otakorp: In the fictional Warhammer Fantasy setting by Games Workshop, there are a number of different races and nations. The most important of these feature are individual armies in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle table top game. Realms of Men All of the featured human nations are based in the Old World. Kingdom of Bretonnia Bretonnia is based on real-world medieval France; its name is clearly derived from the French province of Britanny and it draws heavily from Arthurian legends which are associated with Medieval Brittany; for instance with The Lady and The Green Knight who both have parallels in Arthurian lore.

Though originally received by the Warhammer community as too idealistic for the Warhammer atmosphere, further source books have revealed the underlying arrogance of Bretonnian knights and their casually cruel treatment of their lowborn citizens. Bretonnia was founded when the Knight Lord Giles drove the hordes of Orcs and Chaos out of Bretonnia in the name of the Lady, the goddess in whom the Bretonnians The fantasy setting of the Warcraft series includes many fictional races and factions. Most of the primary protagonists of the series belong to either the Horde or the Alliance.

However, there are a variety of neutral races and factions, who are either friendly or hostile to both the Horde and the Alliance. In World of Warcraft, all player characters belong to either the Horde or the Alliance, with a character's faction decided by its race. One exception is the pandaren, who can choose to become members of either faction.

By the time of World of Warcraft, the Alliance and the Horde are not engaged in all out war any longer. However, they are still hostile towards each other and skirmishes between the two sides occasionally erupt. A hobgoblin is a spirit of the hearth, typically appearing in folklore, which was once considered helpful but since the spread of Christianity has often been considered wicked.

The earliest instance of the word can be traced to about , although it was likely in use for some time prior to that. As either the War Mage or Sorceress in the campaign mode, the player must attempt to defend one or more Rifts Up To 3 from an onslaught of orc armies that emerge from one or more doors in a given level. The orc armies arrive in waves, between which the player is given time to recover and place additional traps; except for Nightmare difficulty, roughly every three waves includes a longer respite that lets the player determine when to release the next wave The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public,[1] but can now be voted on by anyone online.

As of , the ceremony was in its 34th year. It is the second-oldest video game award ceremony after the Arcade Awards. The awards were initially focused on computer games, but were later extended to include console games as well, owing to the success of video game consoles such as the Sega Master System and the Sega Mega Drive in the United Kingdom. The ceremony is not related to the prize given away to successful contestants on GamesMaster, a British television show. As of , it is the biggest video game award show in terms of the number of votes cast; over nine million votes were cast for the ceremony.

Award Winner[3][4] Nominees Best Arc Gnome Ranger is a text adventure game by Level 9 released in She has been teleported from her village by a faulty scroll, and must find her way back.. Gameplay The game is a standard text adventure with limited graphics on some platforms. It comes with a short novella by Peter McBride "The Gnettlefield Journal" explaining Ingrid's predicament and setting the background to the story.

The player must explore the settings while collecting useful items and interacting with various non-player characters to solve puzzles and problems. The game takes place in three areas, each characterized by the non-player characters Ingrid will meet. The first contains characters of an animal nature, the second of Reign of Chaos is a high fantasy real-time strategy video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment released in July It is the second sequel to Warcraft: An expansion pack, The Frozen Throne, was released in July In the game, players collect resources, train individual units and heroes and build bases in order to achieve various goals in single-player mode or to defeat the enemy player.

Four playable factions can be chosen from: Humans and Orcs, both of which appeared in the previous games, and two new factions, the Night Elves and the Undead. Warcraft III's single-player campaign is laid out similarly to that of StarCraft and is being told through the races in a progressive manner. Players can play matches against the computer or against others using local area networking or Blizzard's Battle. Beyond the Dark Portal was released in , Blizzard orig Humanoids are any creature shaped generally like a human two arms, two legs, one head, or a humanlike torso, arms, and head , of Small or Medium size.

Most humanoids can speak, and usually have well-developed societies. Humanoids are similar in form to monstrous humanoids and giants, but are treated as a different type of creature. Additionally, many Fey and Outsiders share the humanoid form. Prior to 3rd edition, humanoid referred exclusively to orcs, goblinoids and similar creatures, while more advanced creatures such as Elves and Dwarves were referred to as demihumans, and humans were outside both categories.

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Aasimar The Aasimar are creatures that are descended from celestials. The city lies on the western edge of Mordor. The Transitions Series is a series of fantasy novels by R. Salvatore, the famous science fiction and fantasy author, consisting of three novels: It continues the tale of the famous renegade drow dark elf Drizzt Do'Urden and his friends.

This series is a follow-up to The Hunter's Blades Trilogy. I don't do it for fun Now, if it was humans out there, it would be a different thing altogether. The dragon guffawed with laughter, enveloping the dwarf with plumes of smoke. Brandon flew across the room and came to rest in the ornamental armour and jewelled weapons of war section. He had decided, some long time before, that if he couldn't steal the treasure, he might at least catalogue it.

He got some sense of ownership that way. I fancy a game. Brandon lifted a diamond-studded mace off his chest and struggled upright. The solid gold weapon swung heavily in his hand. One of these days, he thought, I'll have a go at that grinning smoke-box. He shrugged and put the mace neatly back in its place. What good would it do? If I got a lucky blow in, I might bruise its shin before it fried - and ate - poor little old me.

He went to get the dominoes. The set was suffering from these games. Whenever the dragon was stumped, it would pick out the pearl inlays to change the value of his dominoes. All the sixes and fives had turned into fours, and the threes had been split between ones and twos. Meanwhile, seven leagues away, Barney Wallop was resting on his scythe in the field behind the Orc's Head Tavern. He mopped the sweat off his brow and frowned at the acre of close cropped grass. There was a rash of molehills across the centre, and he had seen far too many daisies, dandelions and nettles as he had worked his way across.

It was going to take years to turn it back into the smooth green sward that his father had tended so lovingly in the days before the orcs had devastated the countryside around the mountain. Still, he thought as he tied his red-spotted hanky around his red-spotted neck, it was only the third cut of the spring, and there was quite a while yet before the season started.

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He might have a decent surface by then, with a bit of luck. He picked up the gleaming, razor-sharp scythe and made to put it over his left shoulder, then thought better of it and transferred it to the other side. He'd already sliced off his right ear by mistake. He didn't want to lose the left one as well. Time for a pint of good ale, and get ready for the lunchtime rush. If the weather held, he'd have a go at those weeds in the afternoon. He walked carefully around the edge of the field and went into the Tavern. They'll be right hungry too. They did forget to take the lunch, what the missis had made for them.

Their well-buffed sides gleamed and twinkled in a beam of sunlight. And so they should! Young Jack had been polishing them daily for seventy years - with a cloth for the first fifty, and then, when cloth was scarce, with his beard. It gave them a lovely, satiny sheen. Barney drew himself a foaming pint and drank slowly, to check its quality, as he always did, then drew another, as he always did, and drank that too, just in case.

Wallop, "though I do like to make sure that my customers get the best. The lunchtime rush, Old Norman and Gaffer Smithies, arrived shortly afterwards. Over their pints, they discussed the important things in life; how the grass was getting on in the field, and what Barney should do about moles and daisies; whether or not the dragon would be visiting the village again, now that the Saturday afternoon tournaments were starting up again.

There had been a bit of trouble at the last tournament, thirty years ago. The dragon had gone off in a huff, and they had to eat half-raw beef. Barney was quite hopeful that they would be able to get the Wednesday evening bowls sessions going again. They had brought in a nice bit of trade, before the troubles. Them lodgers of mine have gone over that way this morning. If they doesn't come back, then we'll know the orcs are there. What they doing there?

In fact, if it comes to that, what do they be doing here at all? Barney's lodgers had caused quite a stir since their arrival a few days before. Apart from the fact that they came from the Mendips - which being over twenty leagues away made them foreigners - no-one knew anything much about them. They seemed to spend a good deal of time thinking - an unusual pastime in that part of the world, and had been asking a lot of questions about the mountain - though saying little in return.

It was breakfast time in the Orc's Head Tower. In fact, it was after breakfast time, and still no food on the table. Grok, Brainz, Oleari, Fatty, and the rest of Grok's band sat around the guard-room table looking mean and hungry. Only Flies was chewing. True to his name, he was catching flies and eating them. Brainz, go and find out what's happening in the kitchen.

For the last few weeks, ever since that time Grok had found Oink at the bottom of the kitchen stairs, there had been some funny goings-on in the mountain. Several of the orcs had disappeared from their posts and turned up later in other parts of the mountain, claiming not to know how they got there.

Grok suspected secret boozing. Others had been found lying around with splitting headaches, claiming to have been sneaked up on and clubbed. Grok still suspected secret boozing, but he was going to make sure that they didn't have any excuses. Hence the Helmet Rule. Come on, you lazy pack of cellar rats, let's find him. The orcs scrambled up, grabbed their helmets and ran out into the passage, shouting "Oink! Meanwhile, three levels down and a lot deeper into the mountain, Brandon the dwarf had had a spot of luck. A long time before, he had discovered a battered old wooden case in a dusty corner.

It was locked, there was no key, so he had ignored it. He knew full well that if there was anything of value inside, the dragon would have smashed it open already. On this particular day, Brandon had been sorting through the clothes heap. It wasn't a very pleasant job, for these clothes were the dragon's equivalent of empty bags and boxes - they were what the food had been wrapped in.

But Brandon needed more space to display the collection of jewelled thrones and other furniture, so it had to be done. As he was sorting, he felt something heavy in a pocket, and found a key. And the key reminded him of the old wooden case, and as he would rather do anything else but sort, he thought he would give it a try.

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The key fitted and turned, and the lid opened to reveal a Complete Adventurer's Kit. Compass, measuring tape, paper, pens and ink for making maps; stethoscope for listening at doors; small drill for making spy holes; soft chalk for marking your trail and a hold-all bag - the sort that you could put all kinds of things in and never fill.

Brandon's heart started to race. His brain began to whirr. Here was the answer to his prayers! What are you doing skulking over there! Brandon fluttered like a moth round a burning torch. He knew he could hide no secrets from the light of that stare. He struggled to resist, but felt his defences crumbling, then suddenly - salvation! The dragon shut off its truth glare with a rapid blink, snapped its head round and pricked up its ears.

Brandon let out a long sigh of relief and sank to the ground. He had been sitting there, saying "Phew, that was close! He jumped up and ran to get the Adventurer's Kit. His cunning dwarvish brain was working properly now. He thrust the compass and marker chalk in his pockets, grabbed the hold-all bag and dumped the rest of the Kit into it, then scampered round the lair throwing in all the choicest pieces - including the entire Individual Gems and Small Objects d'Art collection - then, when the weight of the bag was as much as he could bear, he headed off out of the chamber in the opposite direction to the dragon.

He paused briefly to take off his boots and tie them round his neck, then ran off silently in stockinged feet. He travelled fast, but carefully; checking the compass constantly to keep his direction in the twisting tunnels; marking every awkward junction with his chalk in case he had to back track; listening avidly for the sound of orc's or dragon's feet; and sniffing the air as he ran. It was a shame that he could only smell his boots, as otherwise he might have had some warning about the adventurer.

As it was, Brandon ran straight into him as he came round a sharpish bend in a passage. He bounced off him and the weight of his hold-all bag tipped him over. Brandon picked himself up, and was delighted to see it was a man - and a pleasant-looking young fellow - that he had crashed into, not an orc, or worse, the dragon! He reached out a hand in greeting, and started to say a cheery "Hello", but the adventurer gestured briefly and spoke a single word of command before Brandon could finish.

There was a flash, and Brandon was enveloped in smoke. As the smoke cleared, he found himself in total blackness. The Great Oink Hunt started as a shambles and deteriorated rapidly. No-one believed Brainz' claim that all the food had disappeared, so they all headed for the kitchen to check.

There wasn't really room in there for sixteen of them, and when Fatty discovered a small, green furry loaf there definitely wasn't room for them to fight about it. That didn't stop them from trying. Fatty had scarcely finished saying "Look what I've got", before he hadn't got it any more.

Skraggit grabbed it and shouted "It's mine! But by then it wasn't. Fatty swung his club at Spindleshanks, who was then holding the loaf, but he hit Oleari, who had got in the way. Oleari pulled back his arm to smash Fatty, and poked Grindleguts in the eye, so Grindleguts joined in that fight. Meanwhile, another battle was raging on the floor, where Spindleshanks had dropped the loaf after Skraggit had stamped on his foot.

In the end, Grok caught the loaf as it was flung into the air and stuffed it into his mouth before anyone could reach him. With the loaf gone, the fight dwindled to a halt, with a few last blows being flung to settle scores. So let's get busy. With only sixteen orcs in his command he didn't want to see the numbers reduced any further, but Oink was being a nuisance, getting himself robbed and lost and all. He only just got it out in time. The orcs followed Grok down the stairs and out into the passages below. From there, they fanned out in sixteen different ways, and set the ancient stone walls ringing to the cries of "Oink".

Grok had tramped around half the morning, shouting himself hoarse, when he had an inspiration. Where 'imself used to live in days gone by.

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The Dark Lord had never been one to miss out on life's little luxuries, and Grok decided that a visit to his cellars ought to be worth the effort. Any food that had been left should be well rotted by now, and 'is fancy wines ought to have gone at least a bit vinegary. The more he thought about it, the better he liked the idea. Grok turned for the Tower and hurried off. The Tower had changed since Grok's last visit. Then it had been clean and warm and dry - on account of 'is Eternal Fire that blazed away all the time.

It was much nicer now, cold and damp and thick with spider webs and rat droppings. Grok made a note to send Oink here - once they'd found him - to get some more rats for pie-making. Grok smashed the lock on the cellar door with his club, then dropped the club to get a good two-handed grip on the heavy door. He heaved it open slowly, then growled with pleasure. What a sight met his eyes, and what a stench assaulted his nostrils! Big hams and joints of venison shimmered blue-green in the torchlight; fermenting cakes fizzed and popped soggily; mice scampered in and out of huge round cheeses; and in the middle of the floor stood three wooden casks, their lids rising and falling gently as bubbles of gas escaped.

The orc went straight to the nearest cask, took off his helmet and filled it with dark, sour wine. He had been hit on the head with his own club and - him not wearing his helmet and all - been knocked out. The roving adventurer who had just bopped him, examined the cellar carefully, making a note of anything that might prove useful, then strode off with Grok's club tucked into his belt. There were other adventurers at large in the mountain that day, as Fatty, Oleari, Spindleshanks, Skraggit, Fenay and Samantha his father had a wicked sense of humour and couldn't stand orckids discovered to their cost.

One by one, their searches came to sudden, violent ends. Elsewhere, Brainz and Grindleguts had got their own kind of trouble. They had met up on the second level below the guard-room, and decided to join forces. They had both noticed that the tunnels were no longer ringing with cries of "Oink! In fact, apart from another voice somewhere on the next level down, they couldn't hear anybody else at all. Brainz hadn't said anything about it to anybody else, but he had had rather a nasty experience only a couple of days previously. He'd been walking along, minding his own business. Well, more or less.

Actually, he'd just been into Grok's room and picked his pockets while he was asleep. Anyway, so there he was, wandering down an empty passage, sorting through the booty that he was carrying in his helmet when, suddenly, this human appeared from nowhere and - bonk! He hadn't said anything, partly because no orc ever likes to admit to being beaten, but mainly because Grok would ask why he wasn't wearing his helmet. Grindleguts had also had a similar experience, which he hadn't said anything about either, on account of the fact that he was raiding the kitchen at the time.

So when Brainz suggested that they joined forces, he was very happy to agree. They decided to go in search of the orc they could hear down below, but to keep on shouting for Oink in case they met Grok. They didn't meet Grok. They met the dragon. It was lying in wait inside one of the great halls that were carved out of the lower levels of the mountain.

As they entered, it pounced with a cry of "Roast Pork and Crackling! It lay on top for a moment, chuckling greedily, until it realized that its prey didn't quite smell right. It eased itself upright, with a claw clamped heavily over each of them, and examined its catch. It walked off, over Brainz, and continued its hunt outside. Brainz and Grindleguts had just about managed to stagger upright when the dragon came back. It picked one up in each claw and sat back on its haunches. Where are those pigs? The dragon stopped shaking him as it couldn't tell if he was lying with his head wobbling so much.

Didn't you hear them going Oink? Orcs don't go 'Oink', they go 'Kill! Well perhaps I'll see if you taste like one. The dragons great flared nostrils twitched as they filled with the smell of the orc, and it decided against eating him. But it was still determined to get to the bottom of this pig business. The orcs listened carefully. Something else had got to their fellow orc first. Shortly afterwards there was the noise of a scuffle, then a triumphant "An-Ha! Grindleguts and Brainz waited until it was quiet, then crept cautiously out to see what had happened.

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They found Flies slumped in a doorway, his helmet rolling slowly around beside him. Brandon stood in total darkness and tried to work out what had happened. Had that adventure-magician made him blind? Cast him into some limbo at the edge of the Afterlife? Or was there some less drastic explanation?

Perhaps he was in a bag. The dwarf waved his arms about. No, he wasn't in a bag, and now that the smoke was clearing from his nose, he noticed a foul, but comfortingly familiar, smell about the place. He was still in the mountain. It positively reeked of mould, damp, dirt and orcs - mouldy, damp, dirty orcs. And his acute hearing told him that he wasn't alone. A talking pig with a funny name!

You are a nice little pig, aren't you? Not a nasty big boar? So any more stupid remarks from you, and I shan't just get fed up - I shall get fed! Know what I mean? Brandon knew exactly what he meant and edged away from the voice. After that, neither of them spoke for some time, Brandon wondering what to do, and Oink not much caring. The orc had had more than his fair share of trouble with adventurers in the recent past - this was not his first experience of being teleported, and he had lost count of the number of times he had been bashed over the head.

So he had decided to stay where he was for the time being. It was nice and dark and damp and quiet and that there were no adventurers around, and that was enough for him. Teleporting they calls it; flaming nuisance I calls it! Brandon could hear the orc's angry silence, and waited for him to simmer down before speaking again. Oink, Sir, but do you think we should try to find a way out of here?

So that was the end of that conversation. After a while, Brandon decided that he was going to get out - with or without the orc's help. He started to fumble his way round the pitch black room. It was not particularly big, but it did have a lot of arches and alcoves, and the floor was not very even. After a while, Oink, who could see quite well in the dark, got tired of watching the dwarf stumbling and bumbling around.

It was difficult to sulk. That's what you want isn't it? It's in front of you and left a bit. The hole was at the top of a smooth, round shaft. It dropped more or less straight down for twenty or thirty feet, then angled off first right, then left, then right again, bouncing Brandon around so he finished up head downwards, before settling into a steady helter-skelter spiral - the sort where you can really build up speed.

And Brandon built up speed. He must have been travelling at over forty leagues an hour when he reached the bottom of the spiral. There the shaft straightened out, and flattened out, and Brandon lost speed steadily - if painfully - as he bumped along the uneven bottom, before flying out into open space and falling heavily face-downwards onto a mound of gold coins. I thought I'd lost you! I was getting quite worried about you! The dwarf rolled over slowly and looked around. How was it, he wondered, that when you want to get to a dragon's treasure chamber, it is impossible to find, but that when you want to avoid it, it is impossible to miss.

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And Brandon did want to avoid it. He had not forgotten that he had stolen a sizeable chunk of the treasure, and that the dragon was liable to get into the most dreadful rages if it misplaced so much as a single coin. He studied the dragon warily, trying to work out what line he should take. Should he confess all and thrown himself at the dragon's mercy? No, the dragon didn't have any for him to throw himself at. Should he deny everything, or try and blame the theft on an adventurer? Perhaps, but lies would only work as long as the dragon didn't give him The Eye.

It seemed to be in a very good mood - that was often a bad sign - but it was picking its teeth with a pearl-handled dagger, so it must have eaten recently - that was a good sign. It was just those stupid, noisy orcs! Tasty young fellow too. One of those - what do you call 'em - adventurers. Do you know," it added confidentially, leaning over towards Brandon, "the naughty man had been trying to steal some of my treasure.

He had this whole bagful. Gosh, anyone who tried to steal that really deserved what he got! Grok struggled to sit upright. That wine was strong. He'd only had one swig and it had blown the top of his head off! It was almost as if someone had clubbed him. The orc staggered to his feet, contemplated having a drop more to drink - the hair of the warg that bit him, he thought, might dull the throbbing in his head - but decided against it. For one thing, he couldn't find his helmet to drink out of it had dropped into the wine barrel, and by the time he had woken up, it had entirely dissolved.

He looked for his club, but he couldn't find that either, so he took a big, blue-green leg of venison off a hook. It would do as a club if he ran into trouble, and he could eat it if he didn't. He headed off back up the stairs and out into the main tunnel complex, to see how the Oink Hunt was getting on. He didn't get very far. In the great ante-chamber by the back door to the Dark Tower, he met an adventurer.

Grok recognised the club tucked into the man's belt, and realised what had happened in the cellar. He decided to take his revenge on the adventurer. Knight Orc was one of the first games to give a voice to a villain. The player assumes the role of an orc named Grindleguts, abandoned by his buddies after a night of hard drinking. Even the most Vulcan of geekdom can relate to what a miserable experience drunken abandonment can be. The orcs, caught in an inebriated stupor by a pack of foppish human knights, arrange for a "Contest of Champions" to take place in the morning.

Which is all well and good, as they have no plans on sticking around for it. The orcs tie Grindleguts completely passed out and in no position to argue to a horse and give him a lance. The knights, bound by their code of honor, can do nothing but watch as the roving evil horde skulks off into the darkness. Much like the Baltimore Colts leaving for Indianapolis, really. The orcs then destroy the bridge and make good on their escape. It may possibly be the finest piece of authorized fiction ever to accompany a game. Spawning this story is copy-protection's finest moment.

It's very clever and funny and somehow manages to convey warmth and stunning brutality all within paragraphs of one another. The graphics were designed without real regard for how they would be displayed upon the screen, as an outside artist conceived them for digitization. Consequently, ugly "pillars" fill in the space to the left and right of the art. The process had questionable results on the PC -- it seems that the paintings were originally a type of fresco. Regardless, they do not look particularly pretty. While the PC version did not allow manipulation of the image size, much more text is present than on the default settings for the Magnetic Scrolls games.

Knight Orc 's parser is excellent -- objects can be located using a FIND command -- regardless of whether or not you have seen them this does not work for special items you will learn about, and the command will not do any problem solving for you. It will understand virtually anything you throw at it, or give you helpful reasons why it doesn't. Unlike some later Level 9 games, Knight Orc does understand the word "at. You're an orc trapped in human country.