Section 20 Diplomacy

Strong, tyrannical, and extremely brutal, ogres are simple and straightforward creatures in the eyes of the dwarves: they know what they want, and use their brute force to take what they want.

Originally, this nature would make them enemies of any race, but luckily the ogres still have a little bit of sanity. Although they are a bit slow in their minds, they will eventually choose to back down when they encounter stronger opponents.

From this point of view, it is very dangerous for a lone traveler or a weak team to encounter ogres, but if it is a whole team, it is simply an army, and it does not matter if it encounters ogres. It's as simple as that - as long as you can get the ogres to weigh before they do it, you can feel safe and bold in dealing with them. Of course, this does not apply if the ogre is actively attacking the ogre, or if the ogre has already accepted the enemy's employment beforehand.

It is generally believed that ogres came from a much further west. Their place of origin is in an icy mountain range far away from the lands of humans and dwarves. Of course, the details of these origins are of only interest to scholars, and the dwarves are usually concerned with objective facts: ogres occasionally appear in small groups in dwarven territory, in search of wealth and, most importantly, fresh meat. They don't stay in one place for long, because after these gluttonous creatures pass by, all kinds of wild beasts are usually hunted down. In this world, where there is no concept of "biological protection", this behavior is irrelevant, but the point is that the greedy nature of ogres always makes them look at the rich cities of the dwarves, consciously or unconsciously. Because of this, as long as the conditions are right, the dwarves always keep an eye on the ogre with a vigilant eye and make the necessary preparations.

Based on what is known about ogres, one can easily conclude that an army of ogres is capable of waging war anywhere with any enemy. But so far, there haven't been many direct conflicts between ogres and dwarves. For the most part, ogres appear on the battlefield as mercenaries - sometimes on the Greenskins, sometimes on the Dwarven side.

It must be said that once hired, these mercenaries are indeed worthy of their mercenary money. Once the ogres are in battle, they become terrifying enemies. Their savagery can make even the greenskinned orcs appear polite, and often even eat their defeated men on the spot. In the tense atmosphere of war, this behavior often causes enemies such as goblins to flee without a fight.

Ashrufaat had had an experience dealing with ogres once—the opposite of this one. On that occasion, he led an army of nezumi and was planning to take out an entire city of dwarves once and for all.

It was the Battle of Karak-Grom. In that chaotic war, a total of three families participated: the nezumi, the dwarves, and the greenskins. Later in the game, an ogre tribe also happened to arrive in Karak-Grom. In order to increase their combat power and gain an advantage, both the greenskins and the dwarves quickly sent people to contact and hire the ogres. Although the ogre's intelligence is not high, he also knows how to wait for the price to sell in this situation, which makes the employment agreement delayed.

It must be said that it is this vacillating policy that has helped these ogres. Because in this war, the dwarves and greenskins have no hope of victory at all, and even if these ogres join, it makes no difference. Ashrufat had no interest in ogres, and just told them to go farther away and get involved. After seeing the huge strength of the nezumi (in fact, after seeing the huge herd of war beasts, including the abyss abomination), these ogres immediately obediently agreed to get out, and before leaving, they also tricked the greenskin into the ambush circle of the nezumi.

That time, the advantage of Ashrufat was too great, so that he could confidently use the most unceremonious tone to make the ogre get out of the way. This time, things are different. His identity is no longer a nezumi lord, but a dwarven general. If you want to make good use of ogres, you have to do something......

Ashrufat pondered as he walked, completely unaware of the destination he had reached. It wasn't until the guards behind him reminded him that he realized that the ogre's camp was ahead.

The ogre's camp was set up in a clearing by a stream, and some wood was simply chopped out and crudely tied into a wooden wall. With the level of craftsmanship of the ogre, this kind of wall can only be made. The wall was full of holes, and some holes were big enough for two people to walk into them side by side.

In front of the camp gate, there was a large fire that had been extinguished, on which some bones had been piled up. Ashruphat thought it was a bison or a wild boar. Judging by the placement of the bones, he thought the boar had been eaten by an ogre - and hadn't eaten it yet, as some of the large bones had been bitten from the last of the bones.

"Master, look at that mark on the wooden wall. ”

On the wooden wall is painted a rough and striking mark, which is supposed to be the totem of this tribe. This was the second time Ashrufat had seen the mark, and the first time he saw it was outside the city of Karak-Grom. In other words, it wasn't a strange tribe he encountered, it was a group of old acquaintances outside Karak-Grom.

"Strange...... What is this tribe for...... Didn't go back?" asked Ashrufat, confused in his mind. It makes sense that a squad of ogres will indeed wander around, looking for an opportunity to make money or eat a big meal. But a horde of ogres won't be that simple.

In the history of the dwarves, there have indeed been instances of entire tribes appearing on the frontier. But these ogres also knew that if they continued to go deeper, they would have to take the dwarves' employment or have to deal with the dwarves. So if there is no opportunity to hire, they will turn around and embark on the road back, back and forth. Eat all the way and back all the way.

Karak-Grom is indeed the border of the Dwarven realm, and it doesn't matter if an ogre tribe appears. But this strange tribe did not return the same way after that, but went all the way into the dwarven realm, and even detoured to the peninsula region.

"Don't you think it's strange, master?" said Carrie in her mind. "If you are strong enough to not be afraid of dwarves, it doesn't look like it. There were only about 1,000 of them. ”

If you flip through the records, you can see that although the scale of the ogre tribe is usually not too large, the tribe of thousands of centaurs can only be regarded as a small tribe. Even the big tribes know how to turn around on the border of the dwarves, and they don't dare to provoke a war with the dwarven army, where did this small tribe come from so much confidence?

As he surveyed the fire, the arrival of the small group had alerted the ogre. Ashrufat saw five or six ogres rush out, all with sticks in their hands—the most common weapon of ogres. They looked around vigilantly, but when they realized that there were only three dwarves, the ogre's attitude relaxed.

Although the ogres are not intelligent (this is unanimously recognized), they also understand that these dwarves who come to the door must be messengers, and if they are messengers, there must be good things.

After a short time, Ashruphat walked into the camp and met the leader of the ogre tribe - or as it is more formally, the tyrant. In fact, ogres are very similar to Greenskins in this respect, and just by looking at their size, you can tell who is the leader of the road - the tyrants are the most powerful and robust of this group that prides itself on being strong.

When he entered, the tyrant was preparing to eat dinner. On the campfire in front of him, half a huge hilly bison was hanging there, roasted until medium-rare. And the remaining half (or specifically, the small half) is in the hands of the tyrant.

The ogres all have a good appetite for delicious food, and they are not taboo to cook raw and cooked. It's all too common to hunt a bison and eat half of it roasted and eat the other half raw. Moreover, even if it is half baked, it is because of the presence of a master slaughterer.

Not far from the tyrant was a fatter and more round figure than the average ogre. That's a master butcher, a sorcerer and prophet among ogres. He was busy packing up the second cow, skinning it and preparing it for a ceremonial feast. In particular, any civilized race that sees the appearance of a master butcher will lose all interest in this feast. Because these master slaughterers have poor personal hygiene, and their bodies are covered with dried blood and internal organs. They carry a lot of meat hooks, meat cleavers, and slicing knives, all of which are rusty, filthy, and smelly, and are not mere ornaments, but tools that are actually put into use.

The feast that can be rectified with these tools is only unaffected by the ogre.

Ashrufat came to the tyrant. If he were normal, he would be almost half the height of a tyrant, but now, he is just over the tyrant's knees.

The tyrant stopped tearing at the raw leg and turned his head to look.

"I'm here to hire you. Ashrufat said in ogre language.

"Why should I accept the hire?" the tyrant spoke more politely - as long as the ogre didn't pick up his stick and smash it at the first time, then he was more polite. It is clear that this ogre tribe has a lot of experience dealing with foreign races. Even an ogre with a low IQ will turn into a good negotiator after accumulating enough experience.

"Because it's ...... This is your chance to feast. This was Carrie's negotiation line for him, but when he said it, Ashrufat felt that it would be difficult for the ogres to be impressed by such conditions.

"Rest assured, master, ogres only think about themselves, they want nothing more than what is best for them. In her mind, Carrie said. "As long as you show that you are strong enough, they will be obedient, otherwise, they will try to get more out of you. There are many books that record ......"

Carrie's voice stopped suddenly, and Ashrufat couldn't help but ask, "What is recorded?"

“...... Submitting or killing the tyrant may be the best way to show your strength. Carrie said. "It's dangerous, though. Although you have more strength than a creature of the same size, you can't match the strength of an ogre. If you get an all-out blow from an ogre head-on, your life is in danger. ”

Of course, no one else knew about this discussion in the mind of Ashrufat, even a tyrant. In the eyes of others, this is just a silent confrontation with each other's momentum.

The tyrant reverted to his previous action of tearing and eating beef. "We're eating big right now. ”