Gnolls
Chapter Three
Walking back through Inder, we begin to notice differences since we left. The
roads are muddier, and that's it. We get to Chargoth's and walk into his house. He is
sitting at the table with his head down.
"Where the hell have you fools been!" He yells without even lifting his head.
"Looking for gnolls, why" asks Bud.
"Did you blind morons happen to notice anything before you walked in?"
"You painted your house" guesses Glug.
I go over to a window and glance towards the aviary. Its empty. "What
happened" I ask.
Chargoth then related what has happened since we left, quite a bit has in fact,
and it all happened while we were wandering around the forest looking for water. The
morning after we left some gnomes from Vand came limping into town. They were from
Vand and had been traveling all night. The gnolls had attacked Vand in the middle of the
night, and quickly subdued any resistance. They rounded up all the surviving inhabitants,
into the center of town. The leaders then selected females for there pleasure, and took
them into The Copper Mine Tavern, which they had made into their headquarters. It was
at this point, that these gnomes had been able to escape. The Dwarven army of Inder then
prepares to march and reclaim Vand. Over two thirds of the army leaves the next
morning, numbering around eighty dwarves strong, and marches on Vand. Inder is put
under martial law while most of the army is away. People are told to stay in their homes,
and a militia is formed to help the remainder of the army guard the city from a possible
attack. Nothing happens that night, and it is assumed that the Dwarves are retaking Vand.
The next day a runner gets to town bearing news from the army. Vand is free, but the
gnolls had left before the dwarves arrived. A counterattack on Inder is now feared, as the
gnoll's whereabouts are not known. That night, Chargoth hears the hatchlings squawking,
he looks out the window, and sees a couple of creatures dragging the hatchlings out of the
aviary. He doesn't see anyone else, so he throws on his jacket, grabs his axe and heads
out the door. The next thing he remembers is being helped into his house by a guard of
the militia. He'd been knocked across the back of his head, and been out for several
minutes. All five hatchlings were gone, and nobody was willing to go after the culprits,
thought to be gnolls, until the rest of the army returned. The army returned the next day.
They never saw one gnoll. That was yesterday afternoon. Today, is the first day people
have been able to get back to conducting normal business.
After finishing his story, Chargoth wants to know just where we went looking for
gnolls, if we had headed for Criad on the day we left, we should have been in Vand the
very night the gnolls sacked it.
"Well, we kind of went down the road the other way, we went south instead" said
Bud, a little hesitantly.
"You went south? How did you expect to find gnolls south of here, they were
north!" Chargoth seemed quite irate.
Glug decided to pipe in with "We captured a goblin, he said the gnolls were going
to meet him at Otter Pond."
"So did you go to Otter Pond?" asked Chargoth.
"No, the goblin died and we couldn't find it." Bud answered, rather quietly with
his head turned away.
"Why didn't you just ask someone, just about everyone in Inder knows where
Otter Pond is." Chargoth wasn't sure whether to be stunned at our stupidity or mad as
hell for not being here when he needed us.
We really couldn't do anything except inspect the floor and look rather sheepish.
Needless to say the three of us felt like complete idiots. We decided to get as much
information about these gnolls as we could, so we tracked down the location of the
gnomes who had escaped from Vand. They were staying at The Queen's Inn.
We found them in the midst of packing for their return trip to Vand. They were an
elderly gnomish couple, he apparently was a pretty wealthy coppersmith, and had been
able to buy quite a bit of stuff in Inder on his good name. The two seemed a little shaky,
but they told us about the night. The leaders had taken one of their daughters, and they
hoped she was still alive. We questioned them about the leaders, they described three
gnolls, one with a large hammer, another with a glaive, and the third with a staff. They
thought there might have been a couple more officers, but they were not sure. They were
sure however, that the two gnolls with the hammer and the glaive took great pleasure in
hurting people. They tortured a gnome in front of everyone and just laughed at his cries
for mercy. They started to tear up when telling how the one with the hammer grabbed
their daughter and dragged her screaming and crying into the Inn. We decided to end our
interview at this point, and thanked them for the information. We swore that we would
avenge the dead and injured, and left them.
The next stop was the army barracks, after a little wait we were able to get an
audience with the commander. He was a strong and taciturn looking dwarf. It looked like
a smile had never cracked his face. Bud did all the talking, Glug and I just listened.
"Commander, we believe we know where the gnolls are, they are probably at Otter
Pond."
"Otter Pond? Have you seen them there?"
"No, we were told by a goblin, that he was to meet them there."
"Right, I'll be sure to go rushing off with the army and leave my town exposed on
the word of a goblin and your motley crew."
"You did it a couple of days ago, what's stopping you from doing it again?"
"Get out!" The commander stood and pointed at the door. The audience was
ended.
As we walked out through the door, I remembered another potential problem he
might be interested in knowing about. "There's a roc flying around these mountains, we
saw it a few days ago."
"Great, now get out."
Well we had gathered some information anyway. We went back to Chargoth's
place. He still seemed pretty depressed. The griffons represented a large fortune, and
now he had nothing. We assured him we would get them back Bud went out to get more
supplies for our second attempt at finding Otter Pond. Chargoth got us a map of the area,
including the location of Otter Pond. It was about a day and half southeast of here. The
goblin had taken us southwest for a day and a half. If the little bastard were still alive
I'd have killed him. We decided we would follow the Big Tharson Stream upriver.
Upstream was east here in Inder, but eventually it turned and went nearly due south. It
passed Boar Mountain to the east, and Otter Pond was just south of Boar Mountain, between
Boar to its north and Barren Mountain to the south. Lake Ona'wak filled the valley
between Boar and Barren, to Otter Pond's west.
We packed up and prepared for an early departure the next day. None of us had a
plan on how we would recapture the griffons, but we were sure as hell going to give it a
try. We were out on the trail early the next morning. We followed Big Tharson Stream
along its south bank. The river bed was about 50' wide, and the river was shallow enough
to wade across in many places, though the freezing temperatures made it pretty unlikely
that we would want to. The forest was pretty thick in spots, and we each led our mounts
on foot, myself with Screech, and Bud and Glug leading their warhorses.
A couple of hours out of Inder, and we reached a brook that came down from
Grindstone Pond. It fed into Big Tharson, and intercepted our intended route. We
checked our map, and it looked like it was shorter to head southeast along this brook,
then continue southeast after it ended at Grindstone Pond, and intercept the Big Tharson
further upstream. We were soon beyond Grindstone Pond and heading generally
southeast through the woods. Some frozen still remained from a few days ago, but other
than that it was cold and overcast.
About an hour from the pond we came across the unmistakable trail of a large
group of people. At last, signs of what was probably the gnolls, the trail was heading
due south, in the direction of Otter Pond. At this point the trail was several hours
south of the road to Inder. If the gnolls had covered their trail from the point where
they left the road, it appeared that they were not making any attempt to cover it here.
It was a couple days old, and we followed it south. We could see Boar Mountain looming
above the trees in the distance, standing directly in our path. By late afternoon we
reached the base of Boar Mountain, and began to skirt around its east side. Big Tharson
Stream was not far off to our left, and we could occasionally here it, as it went over
falls and rapids, in the distance. Night was about to fall, so we set a cold camp. Otter
Pond was on the other side of the mountain, we should be able to get there by tomorrow
afternoon. When I stood my watch, I was concerned that we might be a little too close the
gnolls. If they were actually at Otter Pond, then they were less than a half days journey
away. If they had scouts roaming about, they might come upon us.
My fears began to materialize into reality, at the end of my watch. I had
awakened Bud, and we were quietly talking when we both heard something moving in the woods.
We froze and listened, yes we definitely heard something moving toward us. I quietly
leaned over and shook Glug. Then I saw them, two large humanoids coming in our
direction. Gnolls are pretty large, standing seven feet tall, but these two were larger
than that, they were hill giants. I couldn't believe it two more hill giants we coming at
us. About fifty feet away, instead of charging with clubs raised, they slowed and offered
a greeting. We all looked quite surprised, totally expecting a full assault.
"Greetings, giants" Bud answered them.
The giants came closer, "Have you seen any gnolls" they asked.
"No but I think they are at Otter Pond, on the other side of this mountain." I
answered. I was hoping that the giants were hunting the gnolls. The giants had continued
to come closer, and I could see a look of relief on their faces at hearing my answer.
"Good, they have killed four hunters of our clan, we feared we might be their next
victims." Bud and I looked at each other, best keep our mouths shut about this. "We are
the last two hunters of our clan, and fear greatly that the gnolls are going to attack our
home."
Bud tried to assure them, "We are hunting the gnolls, and if we have our way, they
will not be around for much longer. Perhaps you wish to join us and avenge your
clansmen?"
"We cannot afford to leave our women and children without any men, we must
avoid conflict. I wish you well in your hunt. We must get food now." With that the two
giants turned and walked off.
Glug who had been awake for the entire intercourse, pulled the furs and blankets
back over himself muttering about the stupidity of giants. Bud and I discussed our good
fortune at passing the blame of the giants deaths onto the gnolls. Then I settled down
for my nights rest.
The next day we continued along the trail that had been left by the gnolls. We
were travelling along the side of the mountain. A few hours later, we were around it, on
Boar Mountains south side. We were descending down hill through the trees towards
Long Pond Stream from there it was only half a mile to Otter Pond. We found the stream,
it was about four feet across, an obstacle of unbelievable proportions for an aquaphobic
dwarf, but we managed to cross it, just as the band of gnolls had, their trail continued
southwest after the stream.
I am not sure how we missed it, maybe we had gotten used to following the gnolls
trail, but whatever the case, we walked right into an ambush, like a bunch of sheep with
our heads down. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement to my right, I turned in
time to see five gnolls, no more than forty feet away. Two were drawing back arrows,
and three others were rushing towards us with battle axes in their hands. Two of them
carried an axe in each hand and were throwing one as they closed. They all wore furs, the
three axemen were also wearing leather armor, like ourselves. Before we could get our
shields up, the axes and arrows arrived. Bud was able to dodge one of the axes, but not
an arrow, I narrowly escaped being struck by the other arrow, and Glug got hit with one
of the thrown axes.
We were able to draw our weapons just as the gnolls reached us. Bud and Glug
met the axemen with their own, Bud wielding his great axe, Glug with his battle axe and
shield. I directed Screech to attack the archers, then turned to help the others. Just
as I reached Glug, who was being attacked by two gnolls, I saw Screech spin and leap in
the opposite direction of the archers. Two more gnolls had come out of the bushes to our
rear, and Screech had turned to attack them. We fought the gnolls, each of us locked in
combat, I could see that the archers trying to pick a target, but were unable to get off a
clear shot. Screech had her talons full of one gnoll while the other was trying to free
his companion by leaping on her back and stabbing with two daggers. The tide began to
turn, as each of us outfought our opponents. Bud dropped the gnoll he was facing, and one
of the archers took off. I dropped my opponent as did Glug, and turned towards Screech.
One of the gnolls was dead, and the other, with blood streaming from many wounds, was
still clinging to Screech trying to avoid talons and beak. Bud hurled himself onto the
gnoll, dagger in hand, and brought him to the ground. The second archer let fly an arrow
and turned and ran as had the first, just seconds before. I screamed at Screech to get
the first archer, as I broke into a sprint to catch the second.
The archers were not running in the same direction, nor running that fast, but I
was the only one of the three of us that had a chance of catching him. Neither Bud nor
Glug are fleet of foot, they would have chased the gnolls all the way back to camp. As I
chased after one archer, I saw Screech fly past. Moments later and she was pouncing onto
the back of the first archer. It was over in seconds, that gnoll never even raised a hand
in defense. My foot race took a little longer. Just before I caught up to him, I drew my
dagger, then dove onto his back. We both went down in a rolling heap. It was a difficult
struggle, gnolls are strong and large, especially compared to an elf. Neither one of us
were able to score a fatal wound with our daggers. I thought we would be locked in
combat until we both fell over from exhaustion, but then Glug finally arrived. He drew
his dagger and leaped into the fray, driving his knee into my groin, and his dagger into
the gnolls side. The struggle was soon over, but unfortunately the pain in my groin was
not.
We dragged the corpse back to the trail, Screech had ripped off large portions of
the gnoll and was gulping them down. Bud was leaning against a tree, surrounded by
dead gnolls. Everyone of us was bleeding from many wounds, and we were all exhausted.
I called Screech back over, and could see that she had taken quite a few wounds, blood
stood out against her white feathers. We retreated back down the trail and across the
stream, before sitting down for a rest. Glug healed our wounds as best as he could, and
we all rested and ate our lunch.
"Some rangers you two are, we walked right into that" panted Glug.
Neither Bud nor I had the energy to respond. After finishing our meal, we decided
to continue up the trail in a more cautious manner. We got off the trail and went east
and hit a brook that appeared on our map to head right for Otter Pond. We crossed it and
followed it upstream. Occasionally crossing back to ensure that the gnoll's trail
continued in the same direction. We soon saw the pond up ahead. We slowed, and
cautiously approached the pond's edge. Trees surrounded the entire pond, and from its
edge, we didn't see any sign of gnolls. Obviously they weren't to far away, but where.
We walked around the pond to the south, and slowly made our way west. About a quarter of
a mile from the pond, we heard the sounds of shouts and combat. We stopped and listened
awhile, the sounds intermittently continued, we deducted that it must be the gnolls
practicing combat. They must have been here a few days, we wondered how long they
would be staying.
After a brief discussion, it was decided that I would scout ahead, and try and
reconnoiter the encampment. I was the only one of the three that could outrun the gnolls
if required, therefore, I would be going alone. I preferred to go alone when stealth was
required, though getting caught by yourself did have its disadvantages. Bud and Glug
took the steed s and retreated to the other side of the pond, to await my return.
Otter Pond was at the northern base of Barren Mountain, It went steeply uphill
from there. The gnoll camp had to be to the west along the base of the mountain, and
within a quarter mile from the sounds of it. I went up the ridge, hoping to circle around
to the south of the camp. Soon after leaving, I spotted tents between the trees, and a
few gnolls moving about. I kept a good distance and circled west along the southern ridge,
keeping the camp in view to my north. The camp was totally within the trees, and I could
not see the entire encampment at any one time. The tents were flanked on the western
side by a small hill. It would make an excellent vantage point to overlook the camp, of
course it would also make an excellent place to put a watch guard. Lake Ona'wak was
just west of this hill, and from where I was I could see it stretching off into the
distance.
I began to make my way extremely cautiously up the hill. I reached the top,
without seeing anyone, and hopefully without being seen. I could see most of the camp
from here, there were in excess of eight tents, each looked like they could hold four
gnolls. The estimate of forty was probably pretty close. After watching for a while I
was able to figure out that the leaders tent was one of the ones in the distance, that I
could barely make out between the trees, but more importantly, I saw all five griffons
tied to trees just down the hill from me on the western edge of the camp. Obviously I
just couldn't walk in there and take them. I'd seen enough, so I turned and headed back.
I started making my way down the hill when a gnoll burst from behind a tree and took off
running downhill towards the camp.
Damn! I didn't see him till then, I don't think he saw me till then either,
though. I took off at a sprint in the opposite direction. I decided to go back the
opposite way I had come. I ran north, hoping to hit Long Pond Stream, then follow it to
the brook that led to Otter Pond. From there I could meet up with the other two idiots.
I soon hit a swampy area, Lake Ona'wak was to my left, my feet were soaking wet, and I was
out of breath. I found Long Pond Stream, and to cover any trail I might leave, I walked
in the stream back to the brook up to Otter Pond. Eventually I found Bud and Glug, by
then my feet were frozen. I told them what happened, and we quickly left and headed east,
covering our tracks as we went. We intercepted Long Pond Stream again, crossed it and
made camp. My feet were so cold we had to make a fire, but we waited until dusk, and then
only let it burn for about half an hour. We had dinner and began to formulate a plan.
Glug suggested we sneak back to the hill I was on, sneak up on the guard and take
him out, then sneak down the hill and get the griffons, we'd be running by the time the
gnolls knew what hit them. No one else had a better plan, so we went with it. We waited
until past midnight, trying to get some rest in the mean time. Glug finished healing up
any remaining wounds after dinner, so we were all in pretty decent shape, despite having
been ambushed earlier that day.
When it was time, we tied up the horses, and hoped nothing happened to them
while we were gone, we left some damn nice magical armor in the camp also, hopefully it
wouldn't be found. Bug, Glug, myself, and Screech proceeded to circle the camp in a
similar fashion as I had done earlier in the day. A quick flight on Screech informed us
that no fires were lit at the gnoll camp, obviously they were aware of our presence. No
doubt they also had found their ambush team dead by this time.
We made it around to the small hill that I had been on when I got spotted. Glug
and I left Bud and Screech, and proceeded towards the hill. Glug's infravision came in
handy spotting two gnolls at the top of the hill. After a brief discussion in owl, we
decided that I would stay put, while Glug circled around and tried to take them out one
at a time. I was to watch, and if I saw them turn in Glug's direction, as if they heard
something, make a noise to distract their attention in my direction. I found a nice
evergreen to hide under, and watched the closer guard. My night vision allowed me to see
him pretty clearly, while he could not see me. Just as planned, Glug must have made a
noise, for the gnoll's head turned in Glug's direction, and he appeared to be listening
for something. I rattled a branch, and when his head whipped in my direction, I began
chattering like an angry squirrel. This must have worked, because the next time I saw
anything happen, was when Glug knocked out one of the gnolls with his sap. I never heard
a thing, but the other gnoll apparently saw something, for seconds later, he said
something in gnollish, then took off towards camp shouting at the top of his lungs.
Glug intercepted him, and I got their soon after. We finished him off, but we
could hear that the alarm had been raised in camp. So much for plan A. We went back up
the hill, finished off the unconscious gnoll, then ran down to Bud. Time for plan B. We
quickly decided that I would fly Screech over the camp and launch arrows at any available
target, while Bud and Glug would try getting to the griffons and freeing them.
I took to the air and was soon flying over the camp, I could see gnolls running
about, and quickly spotted the gnoll with the glaive standing and shouting commands.
Other gnolls were arranging war parties. Quite a few gnolls were in partial plate armor,
bad news for Bud and Glug. No one had seen me above them yet. I drew back my bow,
wheeled Screech directly for glaive-boy, and let fly with an arrow. It struck true, and
embedded itself deep in the gnolls chest. He went down in a heap, another gnoll was
quickly at his side. I loosed another arrow as I passed, but missed the downed gnoll, by
this time I had flown past them, and gnoll archers had spotted me, a few arrows flew in my
direction, but nothing hit me. It was a dark night, and the gnolls couldn't see very far,
their night vision not being that great, so I circled out of viewing distance. I saw the
group of gnolls in plate armor head into the trees up the hill in Bud and Glug's direction,
they wouldn't have much chance of freeing the griffons, if they had to get through those
guys first.
I circled at a distance and fired arrows at all available targets, mostly gnoll
archers. I took an arrow before I figured out just exactly how far the gnolls could see,
Screech had taken one as well. I continued to hit gnolls with arrows, as they fired
wildly in any direction. About halfway through my arrows, and I had injured quite a few
of them, they had all retreated to inside their tents, including the glaive wielding
gnoll, he must have been dragged in, for the wound I gave him must have been nearly fatal.
As I flew about shooting at any heads that peaked from tents, I spotted something leaning
against a tree. It was a gnoll, but he blended in with the tree, I'm not even sure how I
spotted him. He had probably been watching me for quite some time. He looked quite
surprised when my arrow took him in the chest. He went scrambling for the cover of a tent
like the rest, and I put another arrow in his ass, just as crawled into one.
I had the entire camp cowering in their tents, but was running low on arrows. No
sign of Bud or Glug at the griffons. Gonna have to do it myself, I fugured. One last
arrow at someone peaking out, then I told Screech that we were going after the griffons.
We swooped down, I jumped off Screech with my sword drawn, and went to cut them
free. As soon as the gnolls saw this, they jumped out of their tents and began lifting
their bows. I had just cut the third griffon free when the arrows fell. I leaped on
Screech and we took off. Screech yelled to the hatchlings "follow, food." Well actually
she said the griffon equivalent of "follow, horse meat", griffons' favorite delicacy. In
any case it worked, the three hatchlings followed. Another flight of arrows came at us,
I took another, nothing serious, as did Screech. We lifted off and away out of view of
the archers, home free, when a stray arrow took Screech through the shoulder. She had
trouble staying in the air, we flew a bit further, then she glided down for a landing.
I inspected her wounds, nothing fatal, but she wouldn't fly till healed. From
that point, we walked back to camp, with the three hatchlings in tow. I had to assure
them that we had the prized horseflesh, to ensure that they followed.
Back to Our Heroes