Deer in the Headlights

My local gaming group has been trundling along in the same 3.5+ campaign for about three years now. Yes, I have been playing the same character for three, real-time years, which is a whole new experience for me.

Our DM, one of my wife's high school friends, has been working on the setting for years. It's basically 14th century Europe, but with fantasy races, and a pantheon of deities. It's all very intricate and detailed, and he has obviously put a lot of effort into it. Including the story.

Here's the thing; he has a lot of RP-heavy encounters, political intrigue, dealing with the machinations of the gods, and the like. I made a half-orc barbarian. You can probably imagine how that has worked out for me. I have actually had to re-think my character's concept to make him fit in such a world a few times. As he stands now, Ahnuld, the half-orc from Germany, is also an unofficial priest of Templarus, God of War (a few levels in Favored Soul), and was looking towards being a great leader and general in the war that is currently sweeping the continent (a few levels in Fighter as well).

But then the Goddess of Dark Secrets manipulated us into some situations, and promptly made us choose to either forget who we were, or have the world forget who we were. The rest of the party chose to have the world forget us (I did not agree, but was outvoted). So, now my character's dreams of military conquest and glory seemed dashed, since no one knows him from the proverbial Adam. I have expressed my displeasure with the actions of this goddess, whom I have taken to calling the "Whore of the Heavens" and plan to subtly defile every shrine of hers I find.

Anyways, we are on our way to a hole that was ripped in the fabric of realities by mages doing dumb things, in order to enter Perdition for some kind of "god-killing" weapon. That sounds promising, but the best part is that, in order to get there, we have to travel through Germany. Where there are lots of orcs. Orcs who, if unified under a strong leader, could turn the tide of the war, and save most of Northern Europe from the plague-ridden, demon-spawning armies of the Plague Lords that are about to cross the Alps.

Well, the other night we entered Germany, and quickly ran across a skirmish between some humans and some orcs, with a couple of flying demons poised to attack. I didn't even think twice, and immediately engaged the humans. Well, we made short work of the humans (though my non-orc party members captured one for questioning), and I greeted the orcs as brothers.

And then the headlights came on.

For the last three years Ahnuld has been a background character. His only real contributions have been in combat, and a few small RP-encounters here and there. And now he was thrust into the forefront. And I froze. I managed to stumble through some basic RP, without getting too much into character. Fortunately, I got us set up to talk to the local chieftain, and that will happen in two weeks.

So, my plan is to figure out what Ahnuld would and should say/do to convince the orcs that it would behoove them to band together, and stand united against the oncoming war. That will be interesting. And completely out of my element as a roll-player.

Wish me luck!