Giorno laughs; a sound that reminds you for some reason of a great bullfrog croaking away in a swamp somewhere. "Much further east than that; but you're right more or less."

When no violence manifests - neither from your guns, nor Briant on his horse, nor the ogres with their great clubs, an level and peaceful accord settles over the gathering; and the ogres (especially the subordinate two) are happy to divulge their story to you and Bella - with Giorno generously looping Briant in with his apparently polylingual mastery.

Tilea is a popular destination for ogres looking for distant mercenary work, and Giorno's gang did just that for several years after working their way through the Border Princes and looking for somewhere "a little more civilized, innit". And after kicking about in Luccini swatting Sartosan pirates, they drifted north to Verezzo to seek new fortunes. But they arrived too late to take place in the war against Pavona (just as well, since that was an embarrassment for Verezzo!), and after a number of smaller contracts sorting out property disputes for senators, they were sponsored by the Green faction as a Verezzan contribution to the effort against the orcs up north - a token offer from the southern Republic for the Principality of Miragliano guarding the mountain pass. This must have been around the time of your incarceration, considering their knowledge of your adventures; and ever since they had worn their sponsor's colors and worked with the Miragleanan cordon to keep the greenskins contained. Their particular duty involved roaming into the mountains and busting up pockets of greenskins hiding in abandoned mountain towns; a situation that would be a costly ambush for human soldiers but, for the mountain-savvy and arrow-resistant ogres, was steady and rewarding work.

But the greenskin infestation in the mountains comes in ebbs and flows; and during their mountain operations a few months ago, they found their way back to the Tilean border blocked by too great numbers of opposition, and were forced to retreat to the Bretonnian side.

"Lord Donallo and his knights were serving at the cordon at the time, 'an he seemed trustworthy enough. Carcassonne is the place one goes in Bretonnia for mercenary work. But two weeks on the job on this side of the mountains and he choofed off, and never bloody paid us. And when we knocked on the castle door, they shot at us. Tiny took an arrow in the head, he did."

The medium sized ogres nods, in placid agreement. You can see the broken shaft of an arrow, now that you're looking for it, poking from a tuft of hair on his scalp. How deep it goes is unclear; but he seems to be used to it.

"And we've been camped out here ever since, eating his sheep until he settles accounts. I used to like sheep, too; but it's hard to go back to raw and bloody meat when you've lived in Tilea for years."

Lord Donallo seems to be neglecting his promises both to his peasants and his mercenaries, and this has brought them into conflict. Briant looks to be worried - he seems to know the name of this Lord, and is less than pleased to accept charges of his failures; but you detect a relief that this interaction with the ogres at least didn't come to violence.

Bella whispers to you. "I thought they didn't accept mercenaries at all, north of the mountains - all knights and peasants, and no one who doesn't belong to a parcel of land somewhere. It seems hardly fair to accept their work without paying them... But they're ogres..." The tone of her voice betrays a lack of commitment to the sentiment that their ogrishness should override the integrity men owe each other in contracts. "This... Donallo has a great deal to answer for. What do you think?"