Following Session #167, on 11/20.
Later that day, Jerker instructed Harsk, his old friend who worked as a guard on the homestead, “Alright Harsk, I wanted you here while I decide what to do with it.” Harsk grinned dumbly. “I know you can understand me, gnoll. I beat you more than fair and square, so by right your fate is in my hands. Should you make it easy on me, I promise you that you will see your people again.”
Jerker wondered about Azrak and his goblin tribe. Addressing the gnoll again, he demanded “Tell me where your tribe is, who you were with before you attacked us in the night. Should you tell me I’ll even grant you the favor of returning you there myself… However if you don’t work with me here, I can always bring you to a tribe of lowly goblins and their dwarf king to serve them, it’s a simple request if you think on it.”
The gnoll growled and snapped at Jerker, seemingly unable to understand his words. He lunged at the bars of the cage, his eyes wild and foaming at the mouth.
“Well ,if he doesn’t understand me, I probably will kill him,” said Jerker to Harsk. “The main reason I took him captive was because he shouted at us when he ambushed us sleeping.”
Still suffering from some unknown affliction, the gnoll’s response was incoherent and fragmented. His voice was a low growl, his words slurred and distorted. “Tribe… tribe… dead… all dead… eaten… by… shadows…” He clutched his head, his eyes darting around the room as if seeing something only he could see. “Shadows… everywhere… watching… waiting…” His voice trailed off into a whimper, his body shaking with fear.
Jerker’s initial aggressive disposition had changed to a quite disappointed one when it seemed the gnoll couldn’t understand him. The warrior had that disappointment dashed and his curiosity piqued when it stammered out its crazed broken ramblings in his own common tongue. What did it mean? he thought. Was his tribe of gnolls they had encountered in Tosasth a victim of undead perhaps? It matterd little at this point, the riches they had plundered from Tosasth were further from the Raiders grasp now, what with one insane gnoll and little else to go on.
“Tell me, are these shadows here with us right now? Actually… We will have time to talk of this on the road you mongrel!”
Jerker drew his special scroll, reading the magic words he was told to, summoning a set of manacles. He wrestled the arms of the gnoll through the bars and placed them upon him. “Harsk you’re coming with us. You’re going to watch my back during the journey to the lair of the Goblin King Azrak.”
Harsk’s eyes darted at random directions. Jerker calmed his worry by saying “And quiet yourself Harsk! Its better if few people know of our journey there…”