It was now the afternoon of the 27th day of the 3rd month. Tienarth’s Raiders had destroyed three gnoll encampments. One of them Tienarth destroyed on his own with a wall of fire. They debated immediate action versus resting to regain strength and health. Aderian wondered if they might drive the undead towards the fourth known gnoll outpost, then took a swig of whiskey while the others continued their arguments.
Relying on the intelligence gathered by Ferris, they made a plan to circle around the north side of down, approaching the occupied manor on the northeast side. The first hid in a barn on a rise over the compound, which was an old manor surrounded by a wall built with a jump of scrap. A smaller building served as the lone gateway through the scrap wall.
They carefully crept towards the compound but were spotted, as evidenced by a zinging arrow let loose from atop the manor roof. Though half-covered while standing behind a chimney, the gnoll on the roof was peppered with arrows and tumbled off the steep roof to the ground.
Ghevont sprinted across the road to where they’d seen guards outside the walls. A voice from within made an offer: “bring us meat and we’ll leave!” Not satisfied negotiating through a door, Ghevont kicked it in to face a burly gnoll gripping a two-handed sword. The gnoll thrust at the cleric, and the sword clanged off his shield. Ghevont grabbed the sword from the gnoll, delivering a solid elbow to his chin as he did. Aderian and Jerker rushed into the building to deliver blows to gnoll, who now staggered. The gnoll captain turned to retreat and Ghevont conked him on the back of the head with the pommel of the greatsword.
An exasperated Tienarth berated Ghevont, “The way you guys deal with these situations…”
Ferris and Tienarth hurried forward to join in an argument about the acceleration to violence, and while they chattered, two gnoll warriors appeared at the door and hurled flaming oil. Jerker’s back errupted in flame. The young fighter dove to the floor, rolling around to put out the flames. Aderian took this moment to stab the gnoll captain as he lay unconscious. Soon more gnolls tried pushing into the room, beginning a long melee.
Meanwhile, another group of gnolls across the compound made themselves busy disassembling a section of wall, driven by the commands of a shaman. Ferris and Aderian peppered them with arrows, slowing progress somewhat. One of the gnolls in the melee managed to get through the building and out of the compound, eluding Jerker.
Tienarth had climbed over the wall and made his way towards the gnolls trying to break through the wall to escape. The rest of the fighting men and moved towards them as well. The shaman wisely cast a spell of silence on the elf mage after seeing the deadly magic missiles he’d launched. As the weight of battle slowed the movements of all, the gnolls broke free and sprinted away. Ferris and Aderian pursued, and the shaman ordered his followed to delay them in order to escape himself.
In the end, only the shaman and one gnoll warrior escaped the attack. One gnoll warrior left behind survived the violence and was kept for questioning. Inside the manor house, they found a small fortune of coins in sacks.
As the sun sank lower, Aderian and Jerker got to work repairing the breach in the wall. A barrel was rolled against the inside of the door Ghevont busted in, and the compound was relatively safe from wandering threats, at least those of low intelligence. They found easy access to the roof, which allowed for a good view of the surroundings in case a serious threat approached. They were not disturbed overnight, though they could still see the eerie green beams in the distance as well as figures moving in the streets of the city.
End Notes
- Treasure: 2,400cp, 1,700sp, 1,100ep, 1,000pp
- Kills: Gnolls 5,540 xp
- Characters
- Aderian (fighting) 1,230 xp
- Ferris 1,219 xp
- Ghevont (healing) 1,230 xp
- Jerker (fighting, in front) 1,241 xp
- Tienarth (haughty) 1,119 xp