Menace in the Zarek Valley - Hunger Games

The adventurers carried on towards the next village: Travensburg. At this session, we started with only 3 players, with 1 additional to arrive later in. As such, I allowed for the characters present to take a shortcut through the forests, while the "idle" characters drove the carts the long way around.
Of course, the forests are not without danger. The adventurers encountered a large brown bear.

But then, why do you have a druid in the party, if not for these exact situations? Ireth made friends with the bear, who happily nozzled her and left the party be on their way.

Shortly after, the adventurers arrived at Travensburg. The people there were in a sorry state, having faced food shortages due to a a bad harvest and a rough winter (hence the title of the session). Lord Mayor Alexis Traven at first dismissed the claims of attackers and requests of help, but then agreed to send reinforcements in exchange for help. They were supposed to receive a shipment of grains from Basilea, but it never arrived. Moreover, two militiamen sent to intercept it did not return.

The adventurers agreed, and off they were. They had little to travel, and soon found the carts at the side of the road, along with the corpses of the soldiers. They had been waylaid by orcs! The party made short work of the monsters and the human spellcaster aiding them.[1]

Having recovered the shipment, the adventurers decided to get to the bottom of the issue. They managed to track the monsters to a nearby cave. Tari's player showed up just at this moment, helping her teammates defeat the two orcs guarding the entrance.

The party entered what looked like an old, abandoned dwarven keep, freshly stocked with weapons and mining equipment. Most of the tunnels were sealed by debris, but one led to a functional elevator. Good thing you also have a dwarf in the party to recognize this machinery, right?

The ranger heard movement down below, and tried to trick the orcs into coming up one by one. Of course, it's hard for a female elf to impersonate a male orc voice. A barely successful skillcheck had two orcs come up, to be slaughtered by the awaiting adventurers.

They then had to leave someone up to maneuver the mechanism. Tari, Ireth and Groin descended unto the lower level.

They killed more orcs, as well as another human spellcaster. The price to pay was steep: Groin died.[2]

[1] Never once thinking that such an association might be unnatural or unusual.

[2] We had plenty of IRL distractions towards the end of the session, but that's no excuse to leave a party member bleed out!