The Wilderness

Round 1 Summary

With wide, wild eyes the gnolls descend on the party! A volley of arrows from Dieter and Stella whistles through the air, and the gnoll shaman takes the worst of it. It collapses backwards with arrows mundane and magical sticking from its chest.

With Dieter in the back using his bow, Runeson and Aiwe stand in front to accept the gnolls' charge. The two brutes go for Runeson, scoring several solid blows on the paladin (Runey takes 27 dmg), but he responds with a radiant hammer uppercut that shatters one brute's lower jaw. It cries out in pain, but from the murderous expression on its broken hyena face it won't be done with this fight until Runeson lies in a puddle of his own blood. And the paladin, though he stands tall, bears grievous wounds. Smelling his blood, the other berserker tries to bite out Runeson's throat to finish him off, but a quick step to the side and a bash with his shield keeps the large gnoll at bay (B2 misses with its bonus action Bite attack). Imoen's well-placed arrow slams home into that second gnoll, giving Runeson a moment to recover (B2 takes 19 dmg).

Meanwhile, Aiwe circles around slightly and begins her spell just as the other two gnolls reach her. The battle-seasoned bard turns aside a spear thrust with her drum-shield, but the second gnoll cleverly aims for a less-armored part of her leg. The blow connects (Aiwe takes 4 dmg), but it's not enough to keep her from completing her thunderous spell. A wave of booming energy rolls over her two opponents, flinging one of them through the air to land perilously close to the cliff edge (G1 takes 6 thunder dmg and is pushed 15 ft, just next to the cliff edge). It scrambles for a moment before finding safe footing. The other gnoll, as well as one of the nearby brutes, resist most of the spell, but are still rattled as its impact shakes their bones (G2 and B1 each take 3 thunder dmg).

In the aftermath of Aiwe's spell a whispering, guttural voice can just barely be heard as the fallen shaman casts a spell with its dying breath. A puddle of acrid green liquid seeps up from the ground under Stella and Dieter's feet, spitting drops of acid as bubbles burst within. Dieter manages to keep his footing on ground that is suddenly slick, but Stella (much like her father in the ignored parts of the heroic tales) slips in surprise and falls to her hands and knees in the puddle (Stella falls prone and takes 15 acid dmg). Then, just as quickly as it appeared, the acid is gone, its conjurer finally succumbed to its wounds (Bone Shaman is definitely dead).

Round 2 Player Phase!!

Sheemish follows aiwe’s cue and dives forward to slam his fists into the ground in front of him. A surge of energy emits from his gauntlets rippling outward, catching all who can escape its path.

A wave of power connects, powerfully knocking the limp form of a gnoll off the cliffs edge. The beserkers stand firm, but still grunt from the thunderous punch. Not finished, Sheemish holds up his left hand, his dragon mark throbbing as its power mixes with mechanisms of his gauntlet. A mass of rancid acid pitches from his mechanical palm and hits the second beserker square in the face.

Gnoll takes 11 danage and I assume is knocked off the cliff. Beserker 1 takes 6 damage and beserker 2 takes 16

Round 2 Summary

Dieter's arrival on the front lines bolsters the adventurers, and he, Runeson, and Aiwe present a unified front to their slavering opponents. The tide soon turns, however, when the two brutish berserker gnolls rally and respond with devastating swings of their greataxes, snapping with their jaws where they can.

The party's front line buckles as Dieter takes a pair of slashes that nearly cripple his armor (Dieter takes 26 dmg). At the same time, the other berserker slams the spiked head of its greataxe into Runeson's sternum, puncturing the armor and delivering a near-mortal wound to the paladin (Runeson takes 8 dmg), then rips the weapon free and around to cut deeply into Aiwe's side (Aiwe takes 25 dmg, Relentless Endurance leaves her at 1 hp).

Then all combatants are blinded as Stella's misfired spell rolls over the battleground in the form of thick fog. Visibility is almost entirely cut off. The sounds, however, seem to echo amplified within the magical barrier...

...heavy breathing... groans... snarls... boots and clawed feet... snuffling... the sound of a blade sinking into flesh, and the thud of a large body. The slowed snapping of jaws and frenzied death rattle reveal the deceased's identity... (Dieter kills B1)

...singing?

"The Tree grows high under icy sky..." Aiwe's voice, somehow still strong despite her grievous injury, seems to come from every direction. It's eerie, but comforting too.

Stella notes a hazy silhouette appear nearby, but before she can guess at its owner it leaps at her with a crazed, ravenous laugh. She manages to duck away and hears its spear strike the rocky ground. At the same time, a flash of divine light lights up the fog for just a moment, and somewhere a gnoll howls in pain (Runeson crits again!). The laughing near Stella stops, and the silhouette vanishes just as the young woman looses one of her starlit arrows.

"...come, come, to the Tree, to the warmth, to the breeze..." The voice sounds closer; Aiwe must be mere feet away!

...running feet and the twang of a bow, followed by a curse word too mature for Imoen's young voice...

Another yipping laugh sounds from right behind Stella, but then a heavy thunk sounds as Aiwe's club finds the gnoll's head, and the monster retreats deeper into the fog. "Aching heart and feeble knees, find rest in the leaves."

There she is! Stella can just about make out her friend's features when a hairy form slams into the bard and bites deeply into her shoulder, carrying her to the ground! (Aiwe takes 4 dmg and is bleeding out)

BOOM!!!

The ground shakes, the fog cloud suddenly rent asunder by a powerful thunderwave spell, and it's like the sudden ending of a surreal dream. The broken bodies of two gnolls tumble off the seaside cliff. Sheemish is kneeling on stone torn by his resonating gauntlets, light from the dipping sun burning away the vestiges of fog around him. He gets to his feet, then grimly extends a hand toward the last gnoll, one of the brutes, tearing at Aiwe's shoulder with its hyena-teeth. It looks up just in time to take a roiling mass of acid squarely in the face. It dies as the acid eats away its flesh, leaving a mottled canine skull for a head.

The battle is ended. Many of the party members are severely wounded, but still on their feet. But Aiwe, sprawled across the ground, isn't moving.

Recognizing the need to stop and recover strength, the party moves into the relative security of a nearby wood. They keep a sharp lookout while bandaging wounds and mending equipment. An hour later, with the help of healing both magical and mundane, the adventurers prove once again that they're a cut above the rest by continuing forward on their quest.This close to the gnolls' presumed lair (perhaps two or three miles from the run-down castle), there are many tracks obscuring those of Stella's Rashemi friend, and the encroaching fall of night doesn't make things any easier. If the group can't single out Minsc's trail, they may need to plan their own approach to the castle ruins.

With the sun fast disappearing beyond the sea's horizon, the party looks for a safe place to camp for the night. After a surprisingly short search, Stella finds a cave entrance hidden by undergrowth. It's quite expansive on the inside, and looks to be uninhabited by wildlife.

Someone had been there recently, however.

Dirty bandages spotted with blood lie on the cave floor. They look to be the same style as Minsc's bandages the party previously found. They seem to have been discarded fairly recently, perhaps within the last several hours. Perhaps the party's tattooed warrior friend is not so far away.

Following Minsc's tracks from that spot, the group discovers a passage from the main chamber that winds downward in a spiral. Soon they can hear the crash of waves echoing through the tunnel, and the smell of saltwater becomes much stronger. Indeed, they find that the tunnel empties out at the bottom of the cliffs, at just about the level of the water at high tide.

It's here that they find another sign of Minsc's passage: his pack, bedroll, and armor are neatly propped up against the cave wall, a dozen feet from where the water begins. Wherever he is, Minsc seems to have taken his weapons and most important items with him. And looking out the tunnel's exit, over the waves and through the darkness the party can see faint lights of the gnolls' castle.

It seems obvious that Minsc decided to brave the sea and swim out to the castle.

Within the safety of the cave, Stella is able to summon forth a winged familiar made of stardust. The owl (or other type of bird? takes to the night air, seeming no more than a twinkling of lights against the starlit sky.

The owl easily notes a pair of gnoll patrols out; they boldly carry torches, apparently preferring the flickering brightness to the concealing darkness. Even darkvision has its limits, after all, and these patrols seem to be moving in a search pattern.

The familiar continues over onto the peninsula, passing over three distinct checkpoints where gnoll sentries peer out into the night, guarding against any intruder who tries to come up that way. Each checkpoint has a bonfire ready to be lit, presumably to warn the other checkpoints and the castle of any trouble.

And then on to the castle itself, which truly has seen better days. There are plenty of gaping holes in the outer wall, and even the portcullis seems to have been ripped out of place. Whatever force laid siege to this place an age ago must have been mighty indeed.

In the castle's wide courtyard the familiar finds what must be the majority of the gnolls, all cavorting around a large bonfire. Some dance crookedly, some scream festively into the night, and others help themselves to the half-dozen barrels full of fish spread out among the scene. All told, there must be about twenty gnolls here. Counting the patrols and sentries spotted earlier, that makes somewhere between 30-40 hyena-people.

Many of the partying gnolls below swallow their fish whole. There seem to be some, however, that don't care for some parts of the meal. The leftover bits of fish get tossed into a deep pit that's been dug out near the bonfire, always with a yipping chuckle.

Suddenly one of the gnolls, this one a large female, lets out a blood-chilling shriek into the open night air, furry arms lifted high. This seems to get the attention of the other gnolls, who quiet from their festivities and look eagerly to the female.

She leaps atop a nearby crate and begins to speak in a loud, harsh voice. Stella doesn't understand the words, but the meaning isn't hard to guess, as the female seizes a spear from the closest observer and uses it to point down into the pit. All the gnolls laugh loudly at this, showing their teeth and slapping each other across the back in a congratulatory fashion.

Clearly, there's something, or someone, important down there.

The female snarls to get the attention back on her, then goes on to speak for a minute or so. That done, she jabs her spear up and to the east, where the sun will rise in the morning. She passes the spear slowly overhead, drawing an invisible line all the way to the west, where the sun recently disappeared. And then with another shriek she snaps the spear's shaft over her knee.

The crowd of watching gnolls cheer again at this, and this time the female doesn't quell them. She hops down from her makeshift podium and leans over the edge of the pit, then hurls the broken spear pieces down into it. Over the gnolls' frenzied cacophony, the owl familiar's keen ears can just pick out the surprised cry of a human woman.

The eastern sky begins to brighten to a dark blue, heralding the end of night. There is perhaps an hour until the sun rises. Reasonably well-rested, the party awakes and gathers up their gear, ready to act!