Part 1: The Road to Hommlet

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Oct 6, 2020 4:23 pm
Angel brings his blade down and finishes the sleeping gnoll whose eyes flinches a bit as it gives a few final bloody gurgles and lays still.

Meanwhile, the final gnoll alive looks around frantically, seeing it hemmed in on all sides by its attackers, it's two dead companions laying about the grass... It momentarily considers surrendering to its attackers but the thought passes just as quickly. These nakeds will descended upon them while they were eating a kill through no instigation of their part. These nakeds have already butchered two of his favorite hunting packmates. They'll never let him surrender and live.
His first impulse is to stab out at the female who he suspects just struck him with her hammer, but something tells him there's a more dangerous one among the attackers. The one who put him asleep. Most likely the pointy-eared one who stood frozen for most of this fight and still hasn't drawn a weapon, yet lives. Gnoll #3 suddenly drives forward with his Spear at Jonas.

In his daze he misses by a long margin and staggers a bit.

Rolls

Gnoll #3 Attack, Gnoll Spear Damage - (1d20, 1d6+1)

1d20 : (7) = 7

1d6+1 : (3) + 1 = 4

Oct 6, 2020 4:33 pm
OOC:
Silly rule, a hammer will kill you faster than a knife, but anyway Alice gets a +1 to damage for strength so Gnoll 3 should have 2 on him
Sister Alice presses the attack and lashes out at the gnoll in an attempt to finish it off.
Last edited October 6, 2020 4:34 pm

Rolls

Attack gnoll 3 - (1d20+1)

(6) + 1 = 7

Damage gnoll 3 - (1d6+1)

(5) + 1 = 6

Oct 6, 2020 4:49 pm
dominion451 says:
OOC:
Silly rule, a hammer will kill you faster than a knife, but anyway Alice gets a +1 to damage for strength so Gnoll 3 should have 2 on him
OOC:
Oh dang, good catch!
As Alice winds up her next swing she notices the gnoll seems to be staggering and moving erratically, it's eyes losing and regaining focus. It suddenly gives a off-kilter lurch and the arc of Alice's hammer descends on nothing. But before anyone else can get a lick in on the gnoll, it abruptly stands straight as a board, extends its arm in an unnatural fencing posture, and crashes flat on it's back. It twitches a few moments as it's arm slowly relaxes and settles to the ground before it dies, most likely from a severe but delayed brain injury.
OOC:
Success! You have won your first encounter in this adventure, but at a high cost! The dwarf among you is unconscious and on death's door. The thief of the party is on all fours bleeding out all but the last of his life. One of the elves among you seems to be not quite up to the task to which he hired his services.

WHAT!... do you do?
Oct 6, 2020 5:43 pm
Selvam moves to try to aid the thief of the party from bleeding out. He is no cleric or such, but does what he can.
Oct 6, 2020 5:53 pm
Coulson lies bravely, dying, on the floor.
Oct 6, 2020 6:24 pm
Sister Alice tends to Coulson's wounds as best she can by ripping strips of fabric from her cloak and then attempts to assist Selvam in checking on Angel.

We need to get to the town as fast as we can, these men need more assistance than we can render on the road. Load the dwarf on the cart and let us make all haste!

Alice checks the gnolls for anything of value as the purchase of treatment would surely cost more than the previously out of work adventures could pay.
Oct 6, 2020 6:27 pm
Alice doesn't find anything of value on their person. They seem to have some rather primitive spears, a nicked and rusty dagger, and wear some smelly leather rags. However as she's assisting Coulson with his injuries, she notices something odd about his two stab wounds. There's an unnatural amount of dirt and soil embedded deep into the gnarly-looking punctures. Not that anyone should expect a gnolls spearpoint to be keen and sterile by any means, but the dwarf's wounds have a large about of soil and detritus deeply implanted in them.

As she assists Selvam with Angel she finds the same thing. The wound in his abdomen seems to have a lot of dirt embedded into it, as if the gnolls weapons were used as garden trowels or something. Looking at the spear on the ground near the dead gnoll she sees an accumulation of grit and hardened dirt caking the spear tip, slowly getting softer again as it absorbs the thief's blood, and driven up the tip of the spear and stopping at the shaft, Alice's eyes fall on what seems to be a bloodied slip of paper.

Rolls

Secret Roll

Oct 6, 2020 6:41 pm
Alice examines the slip of paper before using water from her waterskin to wash out the wounds of both injured parties.
Oct 6, 2020 7:28 pm
https://macphailwoods.org/wp-content/gallery/white-birch/white-birch-bark.jpg

As Alice takes the parchment from the end of the spear, she notices on closer inspection that it's not paper after all, but the paper-like bark from a white birch tree.
Oct 6, 2020 7:44 pm
Sister Alice helps to lift and carry the dwarf over to the wagon and does what she can to get everyone ready to depart.
Oct 6, 2020 8:20 pm
As Angel sits on the wagon leaning against the side and leaving the greatest amount of space for the dwarf to rest comfortably he thinks about what he had seen and heard then begins to mumble. Only Coulson and Sister Alice are close enough to hear and Coulson seems to be not hearing a thing at the moment.

Aldrusian sent a note to dominion451
Oct 6, 2020 8:48 pm
Selvam says as he aids and gets all in wagon, These are strange Gnolls. The filth on the weapons is just not normal.
Oct 6, 2020 11:03 pm
There was birch bark with the detritus, maybe their stash is burried under one of the nearby trees...

Sister Alice looks for a birch tree nearby...
Oct 6, 2020 11:56 pm
Selvam thinks somewhat out loud, That would explain the filth on the weapons. Must be of something more valuable.
Oct 7, 2020 2:36 am
Sister Alice looks over at the copse of trees where Angel hid at the start of the encounter... They are in fact, birch.
Oct 7, 2020 4:53 am
What could three gnolls have worth hiding?

Alice turns to Selvam,

With your keen eyes will you help me search the birch trees as quickly as we can?

Sister Alice quickly moves between the trees on her side of the river, looking for any sign of turned up earth near their bases.
Oct 7, 2020 5:17 am
Selvam begins search the ground for disturbance. Lets us find out.
Oct 7, 2020 8:29 pm
OOC:
@GeneCortess and dominion451: There's about 4 main clusters of trees, in which all of their canopies overlap above and all of their trunks are within close proximity with one another near the ground, and each cluster is surrounded and interspersed by bushes and low-light dependent ground foliage below. Each cluster, labeled 1-4, covers an area of about 600-650 square feet. It would take probably about 30 minutes to do a thorough search of one cluster.
https://i.imgur.com/0Hpybkz.png
If you would like to spend 30 minutes inspecting a cluster, please tell me which cluster you're searching.

Rolls

Secret Roll

Oct 7, 2020 8:38 pm
Selvam goes for 3. He thinks it would be easier to describe for a spot since it has a bolder next to it.
Oct 7, 2020 9:07 pm
Selvam spends a good thirty minutes looking carefully amongst the vegetation and stones for any sign of the gnolls' presence but turns up nothing of interest.
OOC:
Did Alice want to examine a cluster of trees?
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