Having exited the monastery, we split up briefly so that Susannah could gather whatever was left in her hideout and the Hutchinsons could gather their possessions. The Archduke escorted the druid, while Flint and myself escorted the villagers.
"Does she have a bathroom?"- Archduke Neo, trying to secure a discrete means of sneaking about the druidic hideout
"You can't quietly Detect Magic!"- Deus ex Machina (DM) on Neo's attempts at discrete item retrieval
We assembled a basic cart with what tools we could find and were southward bound, not knowing if we would ever return to Grymnon.
***
After a couple of days on the trail, Hugin (the Archduke's pet raven) spotted gnoll encampments. We tried to steer clear of them as we were transporting innocents and the last possessions of Grymnon, some of which rightly belong to the Church of Moradin. We succeded in this for two days, but in the end met with a contingent from a human-gnoll settlement (the contingent was all-gnoll).
Deschant, a large gnoll (probably of a more barbarous sort, given his obvious temper), led the contingent and questioned our intents. After a short explanation on our part, including our desire for no violence, Deschant challenged Flint to a duel. Flabbergasted, Flint accepted Deschant's challenge, though without naming his own conditions for it.
The duel began with Flint and Deschant in the middle and the two parties on opposite sides of the informal arena. Suspecting that the battle would not go well for Flint, I enlisted Brik to help me convey our desire for a non-lethal end to the other gnolls.
What happened next was a tragedy of errors: while I was gaining ground with the other gnolls, Flint yielded before Deschant. Unfortunately for Flint, Deschant's monicker is the Eye-Eater and he now wished to dine on Flint's. Initially, Flint and the rest of heroes sought a less incapacitating compromise, resulting in further fury from Deschant. The Archduke then cast a spell that caused Flint to vanish and all the Nine Hells broke loose.
"Does he take credit?"- Archduke Neo, trying to barter with Deschant for Flint's eyes
Where the rest of the heroes faced the gnoll chief, Brik and I faced two gnolls each. The four of them ambushed Brik, severely wounding him (but not fatally, as I hastily entreated the Essence to protect us). We were on the defensive and my main concern was ensuring that Brik could get out, as I was the one who had made the mistake of going over to this group and therefore was responsible for his well-being.
"Mmm, I can't just have him disembowel me"- Hunolt on engaging the gnoll chief
Eventually, Brik fell to their blows, wounded but not dead. The four fell upon me, one with a great blow that knocked me over; in the corner of my eye, I could see that chief was down and that the others were coming to our rescue.
From what I am told, Flint summoned a heavenly canine that felled the wounded chief in one forceful bite. I also heard that the Archduke had just been on the verge of killing the chief, though the circumstances didn't permit him to do so.
The Essence awoke me seconds after I was down in the dirt. As standing up only to be cut down by gnolls seemed...inadvisable, I bid my time and let them run over me as they charged the rest of the group. Once we were in the clear, I crawled over to Brik and fed him one of the curative potions he had on him.
We lay there, witnessing Xath, Hunolt, the Archduke, Patience, and Flint bore down on the four dog-men. In the end, the last one alive yielded. While Hunolt accepted his yield, the Archduke tore into him with a dreadful spell; the dog-man remained alive, but unconscious.
We got our bearings, tied up the surviving gnoll, and searched the bodies of the others for useable equipment and buried them.
***
I know not what ails the Archduke or of his past, but surely there are wounds there that still bear influence.
***
NPCs introduced:
Deschant the Eye-Eater - gnoll contingent chief [dead]
[group] - gnoll warriors led by Deschant [three dead, one captive]
No comments:
Post a Comment