The Mythic World of Urd: Gnolls Behind the Knoll

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The following is from the Arcane Alienist's personal session notes, shared here from our private social media.  You can listen to the Alienist himself wax lyrical on the session right here on the Arcane Alienist Podcast!

The party emerges from the owlbear’s den to find their horses skittish and spooked. Fortunately this is warning enough that they are not surprised when two groups of gnolls sping up from hiding on either side of them and close to attack. To the south, four gnolls have a clear path to the party; to the north, four more gnolls are blocked by party’s gathered mounts.

The first group of gnolls closes in amid a volley of gunfire and sling stones. Doncha, Roderick, and Dolly advance and face them in melee combat, along with Hagle.

The second group of gnolls set upon the horses, who begin to panic. Three horses bolt. Jessup and Dominique are able to reach their mounts and move to round up the fleeing animals. Celestina moves to mount her horse, but a gnoll kills it. She backs up and finds Roderick’s warhorse instead. Hedemar and Volker also reach their horses.

Harland mounts his giant lizard and charges into the second gnolls amid the scattering horses. He blasts a trio of them with his blunderbuss while his lizard lashes out at the fourth one. The gnolls move to surround Harald, but Hedemar spurs his horse into them forcing them back a step and giving Harald time to reload and blast them again with his blunderbuss. 

Meanwhile, Volker circles around behind the first group of gnolls and charges in to aid Doncha, Dolly, and Roderick. One gnoll flees and the others soon fall. 

The second group of gnolls once again surround Harald. His lizard gives as good as it gets, but soon goes down with grievous wounds. The gnolls then fall on Harald. Hedemar kills one with a blow from his mace and Hagle is able to take another down with a stone from his sling. Celestina puts the remaining two to sleep with a spell and the others finish them off.

While administering their last bit of healing to Harald and his mount, the party hears the sounds of more gnolls barking, yipping, and snarling in the distance in nearly every direction. It appears that a large force is sweeping through the forest. The party makes for the dwarven sulfur mine, the closest place of possible refuge.

At the mine, they find Hagle’s tribe of kobolds camped out near the entrance. This is where they fled to when bugbears drove them out of the abandoned goblin caves. The dwarves have permitted them to set up camp but not to enter. When the party informed everyone of the approaching gnoll horde, the dwarves welcome them in and then begrudgingly let the kobolds enter as well as they seal up the entrance to wait things out.

The party is able to rest, tend wounds, and even replace lost armor and reopen ammunition. But the dwarves report from their spy holes that the gnolls appear to be moving southward - in the direction of the Trade Keep!