Session 22: Gnolls Attack, Part 2

 The fight to save Zelcor’s Ferry from a horde of rampaging gnolls continues.

This is from Kay's notes from our January 24, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to Jojo for the screen shot.

Continued from: Gnolls Attack!

Date: May 16, 3517

After our first response to the gnolls' attack, we became the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

EVERYBODY missed. The GNOLLS missed, the GUARDS missed, WE missed, the LOCAL RESIDENTS missed.

It was embarrassing. And when we did hit, it was the least we could do, I mean really, THE LEAST we could do. The majority of gnolls were armed with short swords, except for one with a spear.

It started out well enough, Elron hit a gnoll with an arrow for a respectable amount of damage.  One of the guards hit a gnoll. On the north side of the gate, Captain Skorma Brillstaff hit a gnoll for major damage. Another guard hit his gnoll opponent for a goodly amount of damage, then missed and fumbled his weapon. That’s when things went south.

Sinis, inside the inn, looked out of one window, opened the front door, and shouted, “There’s an enemy behind you,” then went back inside and closed the door. No one appeared to have noticed in the din of combat.

Big Morgan with his war hammer missed the gnoll facing him. Rasmus Pye cast Arcane Burst at one of the engaged gnolls and missed. Parahelia cast Spiritual Hammer aiming at the back of the gnoll facing Big Morgan and missed. That gnoll then hit Big Morgan and left him close to death.

Then EVERYBODY missed their targets, except for one gnoll who stabbed Odo with a spear for a pitiful amount of damage, and one gnoll attacking a guard in front of him… and then missed.

Meanwhile, Blaze, who had cast levitate earlier to see if she could see how many gnolls were still on the other side of the town’s defensive wall, asked Beneddar to use his mage hand to pull her over to the main gate’s tower so she could look over it and set things on fire over there. She took a look around on top and yelled down that there was a gnoll at the kitchen door to the inn. The warning may have been lost in the din. She continued checking over the rest of the town, down to the ferry, in case this was a diversion and they would send a main force by boat; she didn’t see any.

Artie, on the other hand, did hit a gnoll with an arrow and killed it. Breena did not. Ulman Dark moved toward the fighting, cast Necrotic Burst, and missed. Luckily, no friendly fire incident – this time.

Odo was also doing better than average; his great axe hit one of the two gnolls he was facing for respectable damage and then cut the other one down, killing him. Lark, standing next to him, was being snarky to Odo, saying, “My grandmother can do better than that, and she’s been dead for three years.”

Meanwhile, in the inn, the gnoll at the door stepped in. Gumbel said, “Crap! They’re coming into the kitchen.” He grabbed a meat cleaver from the back counter and ran up to the gnoll, but was unable to hurt it as it blocked his blows. Amelia threw a kitchen knife at the gnoll and missed. Isabel pulled a stiletto out of her clothing, threw, and missed. EVERYBODY missed.

Outside, on the other hand, Lark moved to intercept the gnoll leader, who was coming down from the wall, and hit him for a respectable amount of damage. The leader jumped down from the wall, sent his companion toward the front gate, then tried to bite Lark, who riposted and killed him.

Elron aimed an arrow at a wounded gnoll and killed it. This seemed to turn things around.

The Guard Captain hit one gnoll for moderate damage; one of his men attacked a gnoll but missed, but another hit the same gnoll twice for damage both times; the last guard missed.

Big Morgen, close to death, disengaged and moved back into the blacksmith shop where his wife, Deslena, started patching him up.

Rasmus Pye, still moving toward the melee, finally hit a gnoll with Arcane Blast for moderate damage.

Sinis attacked the gnoll in the inn with witch bolt, the amount of damage made its hair stand on end. Like I said, the LEAST amount of damage.

Parahelia cast guiding bolt on one gnoll followed by a Spiritual Hammer hit, finally killing it.

Another gnoll targeted Parahelia in return and missed.  A third gnoll missed the Captain and one gnoll hit Odo doing more moderate damage. The gnoll in front of Elron swung and missed.  

Inside the inn, the gnoll bit Gumbel, inflicting moderate damage.

Outside the inn, Beneddar attacked a gnoll by casting Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, which had the weird effect of causing the gnoll to fall to the ground laughing helplessly. Unfortunately, it was disturbing because gnoll laughter sounds like a hyena. Disappointingly, there does not appear to be any actual physical damage with the spell.

Artie moved, shot, missed, as did Breena.

Blaze ended her levitate spell which allowed her to float slowly to the ground inside the gate. She saw one of the gnolls heading for the gate and decided to station herself there to defend it; she cast lightning lure and hit one uninjured gnoll standing next to a guard, causing minor to moderate damage, finally hurting one of them.

Ulman Dark attacked a gnoll facing Odo with Necrotic Burst for moderate damage. Odo killed one of the two gnolls facing him. Lark moved to the gnoll facing Parahelia and killed it from behind.

Inside the bar, Gumbel disengaged and hid behind a table, nursing his wound. Amelia hid behind the bar, and Isabel threw a mug at the gnoll which bounced off with almost no damage.

Elron ignored the laughing gnoll in front of him, moved over to a gnoll facing a guard. The gnoll turned toward Elron knocking his sword aside with his shield.

Capt. Brillstaff swung his sword twice, killing the gnoll facing him. Two of the guards went over to the laughing gnoll, both hit it, causing moderate damage and the gnoll continued laughing, apparently thinking it was funny. Of the three guards still facing three gnolls south of the gate, one guard hit for minor damage, the other two missed.

Rasmus moved next to Beneddar and missed the laughing gnoll with his Arcane burst. Inside the inn, Sinis finally ramped up his lightning for serious damage. 

Parahelia used her longsword on the laughing gnoll causing moderate damage. He stopped laughing, finally realizing how much danger he was in.

One of the gnolls disengaged and ran for the front gate, getting there. Beneddar killed it before it could raise the bar. A gnoll hit Elron with its short sword for minor damage. The other gnolls missed. Inside the inn, the gnoll attacked Sinis but his blur spell prevented it from landing a blow.  
Artie finally hit a gnoll, nearly killing it.

Blaze cast lightning lure on the unwounded gnoll which hit, but didn’t really wound it.  Breena shot twice and missed again. Odo turned and charged the gnoll that Blaze hit, using his tusks as weapons; he missed but hit with his axe for moderate damage.

In the inn, Amelia threw a pot of hot coffee on the gnoll for minimal damage while Gumbel and Isabel were both still hiding under the tables.

Lark moved towards the front gate. Elron killed the gnoll in front of him and then moved to the next gnoll.

One guard stepped behind a gnoll and killed it. Another guard killed the gnoll in front of him.

In the inn, Sinis continued the lightning attack on the gnoll for more damage as it swung at him.

Blaze ran toward the inn and Breena went to the inn’s back door. Amelia threw a plate at the gnoll but missed.

 Lark climbed a ladder it to the top of the guard tower and looked over the wall. To his relief, no gnolls were outside the gate. Elron yelled to anyone in earshot, “Don’t kill him, we need someone to question.” Apparently, it was lost in the din of battle.

The guards stopped Elron from looting the bodies, saying, “We’ll take care of that.”

Rasmus entered the inn as Sinis killed the last gnoll.

Blaze healed Sinis and Gumbel to full health in the inn, then went outside and offered healing to any of the guards and Big Morgan; all agreed and were healed. Blaze, now down by 8 healing kits, asked to buy more kits and Rasmus gave her one 10-pack for free.

Odo transformed back into human shape. He had some severe injuries as a wereboar, but was uninjured when he switched back to human. His clothes were another matter, being mostly rags at this point.

We offered to pay for the resurrection of the three dead guards, but at 3,000 gp, we could not afford it. Odo arranged to supply the necromancer with the necessary items to resurrect the three dead guards. Odo, as mayor, claimed the gnolls’ stuff for the town. Our payment for our defense of the town is 30 days of free room and board at his inn; we accepted gratefully and immediately used it.

The battle’s cleanup continued until after dark.

We got a free dinner from Odo. Elron insisted on going back to the castle tonight to check on it. Most of us needed a long rest before another possible fight.

Lark went outside the gates before dark, and saw the gnolls’ trail coming from the west; they didn’t try to hide their tracks; we can follow them back to their base. Lark went up one of the towers, helping out the guards with lookout duty.

8 PM
Elron left for the castle alone, stealthy as a ranger can be.

10:00 PM
When Elron arrived at Castle Calaelen, Talila was on guard. “Who goes there?” she said.

So much for Elron’s stealthing. Elron identified himself and she opened up the gate. He told her about the attack of the gnolls and told her to double the guard and be careful. Elron then headed back to Zelcor’s Ferry, arriving around midnight.

Elron suggested to the Captain to put the gnolls’ heads on spikes in front of the gate. The rest of us weren’t agreeing with that, nor was the Captain. He said they would be taken next to the cemetery and the bodies piled up and burned.

Everybody had a long rest at the inn.

May 17, 3517 
Morning
The necromancer worked through the night to resurrect the three dead guards. The two who fell from the tower with arrows came back fine, but Ammons, the one accidently hit by Blaze’s chaos bolt dissolved into a putrescent ooze; the chaos energy probably interfered with the magic. Beneddar and Blaze went to the Captain to apologize for killing one of the guards, explaining she was aiming at a gnoll and the targeting went wrong. The Captain and Odo were very understanding about the fog of war. Blaze offered to do something for his family; the captain said we’re good here and he appreciated her condolences.

Lark went over to Odo to talk with him about the gnolls they killed together; Lark insulted Odo’s fighting. Odo laughed and slapped Lark’s back with a blow worthy of a dwarf.

So the final total was 21 gnolls and one dead guard, after the other two were resurrected.

Continued in Session 23: Stirges!