Gnoll Events (season 2: 7-11)
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Session 7: Blood Magic Separates the Pack (Progonust 11 to Progonust 12 787)
After a month scouting the edge of the forest between the area controlled by Scalehome and the area controlled by Balinhost, the pack is awoken by a noise and the disappearance of half of the brothers. They are gone with everything each was wearing while on watch or asleep, but everything else is missing. The remaining brothers begin to search. They find little to direct them to the missing brothers, but are shortly after harassed by a brownie. They chase it up a tree, with Tarkin climbing and then sending his snake after it. The snake bites it and it falls from the tree. After it hits the ground, Ozzle's pet Cackle ragdolls the dead creature.
Minutes later, a screech alerts them to another creature nearby. Drax is blinded and stunned and the others search for whatever it is. When Drax recovers, he reveals the winged sprite with his spell and the brothers try to capture or kill it. They are able to subdue it and then tie it to the dead brownie, which they think is its mate. When it recovers enough to talk, it is sent into hysterics about being tied to the scattered body of its mate. They question it and discover that the two had just been playing tricks on the pack when on of them magically disappeared with some of the others. They kill the sprite.
Shortly after beginning the search for the rest of the pack, the four are set upon by a tarnished golden troll. It begins to tear away at the brothers, knocking out Ozzle and Drax and they stab and cast spells at it. Scartch darkened the area and slows it down, but cannot do much to hurt it. The fight is going poorly and the brothers resort to one of their few fey killing arrows, The second shot does the trick and the troll hardens into wood.
Session 8: Running into a Defector (Progonust 12 to Progonust 17 787)
Elsewhere, the other brothers realize that Tox is unconscious and must have been scared into using his blood magic to teleport them away. Razk, Grozik, and Khraz pick him up and begin to search for the others. Two days later, while traveling south, both groups here a hunter's call to animals. They both head towards the noise. The brothers with Tox are nearly run over moments later by a horde of animals which both groups realize is being herded.
With the battle on the edge, Scratch finally finds the hunt leader and draws him into his darkened area. The hunt leader escapes Scratch's grasp but does not remain nearby to continue the battle. He calls off the remaining fey and they all flee. The group gathers together, healing those that are hurt and interrogating the creature that they call an ENF, elf, nipit fey. Along with his half-fey Kobald friend Sylus, this nipit named Saladien (and his many animal friends) have fled Scalehome. Because of the information they have, they were hunted. The gnolls head south immediately, hoping to get the defector and his information back to Balinhost.
Session 9: To Rescue a Mentor (Baston Sun 12 787 to Coustus 11 788)
The brothers were planning, practicing, and scouting around their Ballinhost camp for about a month and a half when approached by Jakzak; an escaped prisoner of the Halflings from Fort Grey Lichen. He asked that we rescue Runty Brother's trainer; Kaklan the diseased, and the other 12 Gnolls who are imprisoned there. We all agreed and set out on our quest through the forest to the edge of the Boiled Forest where Fort Grey Lichen is.
While traveling, Foost teleports in with Saladien and asks that he join us. we agree and continue uninterrupted through the forest. After a week and a half or so, we notice a storm roll in and unnatural lightning strikes about 3 miles off. Saladien sends his hawk and other woodland creatures out to scout. The hawk screeches back in fear and Tarkin rushes in the direction of the lightning. After a few moments, we all spot a flying giant with a glowing weapon descending upon us from the sky. It demands our surrender and threatens us if we don't agree to its demands. Clearly the giant hasn't had much dealings with Gnolls as his threats only lead to multiple castings of Hunter's Mercy and various other battle ready spells.
Without warning, a huge Griffon swoops down and pounces on Ozzle. It attacks viciously, grapples him, then ascends to the air with Ozzle in its talons. The brothers react quickly and assault the beast with arrow, magic, and harpoon. Ozzle is attacked again and dropped to his inevitable death. Ozzle's puma like reflexes allow him to grab onto the Griffon's talon, and with a gasp of desperate energy, Ozzle unleashes a fiery blast that scorches the beast and ignites the sky with flame. The beast drops Ozzle and flees, barely alive. Hates Fey Brother musters his blood magic to cast Feather Fall on Ozzle and he lands safely, albeit drained of his ability scores and HP.
Sadly, Ozzle's fireworks display attracted the attention of the giant and dozens of Fey surrounding the area. The giant lands and attacks all the remaining brothers on the ground. The brothers fight ferociously, but the Fey blind most of them and the giant fights his way through our ranks.
In a mighty display of battle prowess, the giant cuts his way through Almost as Big Brother and Always Angry Brother. Both fall to their deaths. The remaining brothers and Saladien continue their assault forcing the giant to flee. The Fey all withdraw when their leader flees and they begin to use healing wands on him as he makes his way to the air. Before fleeing though, he swoops up Biggest Brother, takes him 200 feet in the air, then drops him to his apparent death. Biggest Brother falls while flipping off the giant and swinging helplessly in the air. Blind Brother uses his blood magic to grant Biggest Brother immunity to falling damage and he lands safely on the ground.
The remaining party members and the animal companions gather up the dead, the injured, and the blind and begin to regroup.
Session 10: Vengeance Again a Giant (Coustus 11 to Coustus 25 788)
We built a mighty funeral pyre for our fallen brothers after taking a fang from each of them in their honor. We howled and barked for hours as the embers rose to the sky. We noticed faintly colored light emerge from the flame as they burned, Orange and Green. As far as we know or felt, nothing happened to any of us after their bodies finished burning. Not sure where the essence of their blood magic traveled to.
Saladien received a letter overnight. Turns out it was from the giant stating that he'd give us 7 days to mourn the dead then we could either surrender or be killed. We all vowed to avenge our brother's deaths, so we marched on. Tarkin and Ozzle helped cover our tracks as we slipped deeper into the forest. We managed to travel for about 11 or 12 days until Saladien received a sending from camp saying that we were going to be joined on our travels by a mighty stalker of the dead named Mortimor. He reached us eventually and let us know that the giant is on Dedestroyt's naughty list for being brought back from the dead. We planned an ambush and continued to travel.
Eventually, we saw some clouds roll in and, sure enough, guess who paid us a visit? This time the brothers were ready. We strategically hid around the edge of a clearing in the forest while Tox baited him into close combat. Mortimor hid in a crevasse while camouflaged by leaves and twigs. Once the giant and his griffon appeared, it was on.
Fey were sneaking up on us while we were waiting for the giant to descend, but Scratch would have none of it. His spidey senses took over and the poor bastard who got to us first ended up grappled and beaten into a coma. He had just enough air left in his lungs to alert the other fey in the area before the darkness took him.
All of us were glitter dusted, but most of us managed not to be blinded. Saladien and Drax fired back with burning embers of revealing to root out a good number of fey. Cyrus, who was sneaking around, managed to catch a fey sniper in a tree and pummel it with a swarm of bats, effectively taking it out of the fight.
Once the fey were routed, Saladien cast a major image of an amorous griffon flying down to put the moves on the giant's griffon companion. The distraction worked and the griffon stopped in mid-air to await the phantom griffon. The giant, initially unaware of the distraction, swept in and hit Tox squarely in the chest with the magic mace, but not before Ozzle unleashed a hunter's mercy infused arrow into his heart. Tox took the blow like a champ with his new armor and fought back. The giant then called to his companion to snap him out of his daze, but he had been severely wounded by the arrow.
After a brief melee exchange with Tox and some magic assaults by the spellcasters, Mortimor sprung from his trap and assaulted the giant. At this point, the giant was reeling from combat. Tarkin hits him with another hunter's mercy infused arrow, more magic hits, then Mortimor announces he must deliver the finishing blow in order to send Dedestroyt his prize. Tox flies into a fury, but manages not to deliver the killing blow and instead beats him with his fists. Mortimor brings the mighty sword down and nearly decapitates the giant to finish him forever.
Shortly after the final blow, a lightning blast struck the corpse and knocked the brothers back. Mortimor laughs as he realizes it was Stronmus' attempt to bring him back from the dead, only to fail miserably due to the power of the stalker.
We bury the giant's items so we can't be tracked or scryed and take his potions. We then decide to head to the compound to complete our original mission.
We all get to the compound and stake out the area with animals and magic. We decide the best approach to execute our rescue is to have Mortimor go in and announce he's there to collect the souls of those who should be dead. While he's distracting the soldiers and scouts, Saladien and Cyruss will blink in invisibly and try to pinpoint our p.o.w.'s. The brothers find a nice underground entrance they can sneak into and await the signal that the coast is clear to attempt to enter. That's where we left off. .
Session 11: Death of an Angel (Coustus 25 to Coustus 27 788)
The brothers
let Mortimer and Saladien go into the fort for some recon. The appearance of a Stalker of the Dead unnerves many of the occupants. The brothers wait for a sending from Mortimer to tell them where Kaklan is being held. Mortimer tells them that their target is being held in a pit and not in the fort proper. The brothers discuss/argue about the best way to go about the rescue. Scratch says use the caves. Some say to go through the front gate. Others want to climb the wall. They finally realize Scratch is probably
the wisest among them and decide to go under the wall.They have Saladiens animals find a way into the cave system and Scratch uses his blood magic to make the opening large enough to crawl through. Once in the caves, they send Jazkak to scout around. After a few hours they make it to a cave that has magically reinforced pillars and what look to be well openings. Not knowing how to proceed, the brothers go back and get Razk, who had stayed back with Tox at the camp, and have him use his blood magic to locate their target.
In the meantime Mortimer sends them again and the brothers ask where their target is in relation to the well that they found. Mortimer responds with directions and the brothers hatch another plan that involves summoning a few creatures. They get back to the cave with the pillars and well openings. Syrus summons a small earth elemental to quickly find the pit. Once the elemental returns, Syrus summons a creature that can melt stone and the creature melts a tunnel to the pit where Kaklin is being held. Kaklin waits for the smoldering rock to cool a bit before making his escape. As he is making his way down the tight shaft, the brothers see a glowing halfling shape at the top of the hole they made. Hates-Fey-Brother uses blood magic to make Kaklin small and Kaklin quickly falls out of the shaft and into the cavern where the brothers are. Scratch uses his blood magic to all but close the tunnel to the pit and the brothers and Kaklin begin to move to the exit.
As they are leaving the cave, they see a tiny, firefly sized thing that emits a multitude of golden light emerge from the shrunken tunnel opening. The thing grows and takes the glowing form of a Deva. Kaklin says it is the cultist cleric's ally. Saladien throws up some magic fog and the party continues to flee. Saladien does that a few times, then the Deva appears in front of them in a tight tunnel area. The Deva gives them an ultimatum, surrender or die. That goes over as any of the other ultimatums the brothers have received has. From what Scratch can tell, the Deva attacked and the brothers fought back with spear and spell. The brothers got some surprising hits on the Diva and Scratch grappled it. After about a minute, the Deva, having been stabbed, entangled, magic missiled, and insulted, summons its remaining strength and breaks out of Scratch's grapple. It gets rewarded by some more stabs from the brothers. Sensing weakness, Scratch, a devout worshiper of Dedestroyt, uses the power granted him by his deity, and uses a death touch on the Deva. Dedestroyt smiled that day as the soul of the Deva was sent his way.
The brothers grab trophies from the dead Deva and head to the exit of the caves. Saladien had made his way ahead of them, and found after Syrus is captured that the way out if guarded. There is a battalion of halflings waiting for them at the exit. They look for another way out but don't find one. After first refusing, the brothers reluctantly decide to surrender to Mortimer, who is still unknown to be there ally by the halflings. The brothers emerge from the caves and are relieved of their weapons and taken into custody. They are put into the normal cells in the fort and the halflings proceed to cast every spell they can think of to keep them in there.
