The Gnoll Hills
Dramatis Personae:
KlikKlick BoomBoom, the
TickTick, KlikKlik's Giant Bat animal companion
Taryn Al'Maera, the Drow Assassin and future Ralliakkan
Niss'RizDax Kenarn, the Drow Sword Dancer Priestess of Eilistraee, "the Moonlit Dancer"
Thea, Dax's red Faerie Dragon familiar
Xara, the Dorc Circus Eldritch Knight
Comrades we have lost:
Sonitri, the Samsaran Arcane Prodigy Sorcerer- went home
Nyneve, the Water Genasi Druid of the Fountain- eaten by zombies
NOTE: Things will be mostly from Dax's perspective, anything in italics is from a third party view, since the priestess can't be everywhere at once.
***** Thrimidge 1, 480, Crossroads
During my prayers in the dead of night, Eilistraee granted me the power to summon a fey spirit in the form of a red Faerie Dragon. I named her Thea, which means gift of the moon goddess, and she is very sweet. I think she'll be helpful in my attempts to keep people alive.
We decided over breakfast- Xara was still asleep- that we would head to another inn in town to find out if there were any rumors that we could attempt to deal with. The inn keeper told us that people who enter the Fairie Forest never return; the gnolls in the hills are getting restless; there's been some disappearances in Riverside; there's some odd ruins in the Demonsclaw Mountains- we could probably get more info from Silverton about those ruins. We decided that we would head to the Gnoll Hills in the morning.
***** Thrimidge 2, Lakeview
We went to Lakeview first since it's near the Gnoll Hills, hoping to get a little more info on the gnolls before going in. We learned from an inn there that gnolls had stolen their grain all winter, killing their livestock, and their people. That was enough to prove to Klik that the gnolls were evil.
We decided to fly about 500 or so feet above the hills while we looked for the gnolls, to keep us out of the range of most spells the gnolls might be able to throw our way. Eventually we spotted a group of four gnolls riding giant hyenas; they vanished into a gorge, and we assumed they had seen us and were going to ambush us. As we reached the gorge we saw the hyenas, but no sign of the gnolls, so Klik flew down to try to talk to them, while we set ourselves up in range to assist as needed.
KlikKlik started calling out to the gnolls, who popped out and started shooting at her. She told them to lay down their arms and take us to their war chief so we could speak to him- they responded by shooting at her more. At that, Taryn shot the gnoll who seemed to be in charge, and blew his head off- she really loves that gun. Xara lit up the bushes the gnolls were partially concealed in with faerie fire, outlining two of the gnolls. I shot at them with bolts of force energy.
The gnolls shot at Klik again, and she yelled at them that if they didn't stop shooting and surrender, she'd kill them all. They ignored her. We killed the remaining three with ease. Klik decided that we should take the hyenas with us, so she dominated them- but it only worked on three of them, the third started to run away, so Taryn killed it. Klik convinced me to heal the hyenas to get rid of their fleas and ticks, I totally bonded with one of them as a result.
To keep the hyenas with us, Xara and I each rode one, while Klik and Taryn flew above us. After about an hour we saw smoke up ahead- it seemed we were getting close to the gnolls camp. The gnolls noticed Xara and I right away, we weren't skilled at sneaking around on hyenas. Our stubborn kobold told them to take us to their leader so we could speak to them; the gnoll told her the leader would speak to her corpse. We killed them quickly enough, but then Xara decided to attack one of the hyenas- even though Klik said not to- and they swarmed her. I had to heal her so she could get out of that mess.
KlikKlik could see more gnolls coming, with demons in their midst- she said there were about things with them. Great. This was going to be fan-fucking-tastic. Taryn was trying to get a gauge on how many there were, but it allowed their archers to see her, and she got pin cushioned by them- stubborn bitch refused to let me heal her, again. Klik opened fire on the gnolls, and their archers turned their bows at her, though they seemed to do more damage to themselves than to her. Xara flew down to go for the hyenas again, and I killed a gnoll with my moonbeam, then summoned my spiritual longsword to go for them.
We began exchanging blows with the gnolls and the manes that were with them, slinging spells and bullets, with Xara hacking at the manes as they swarmed her. Things seemed to be going well, until the manes began summoning something. Great. Just what we need, more demons. We kept laying into our enemies, until the gnoll they'd used as a sacrifice began to glow, and the ground beneath him began to cave in. The fight continued on, until a figure emerged from the ground, wreathed in flames; a fucking balor. Great.
We exchanged blows with the balor, while still fighting his minions, and took heavy damage. It was all I could do to keep Xara alive as she got in the demon's face and taunted it, keeping the balor busy so Taryn could shoot it. I had Thea perched on Xara's shoulder so I could send healing magic through her, and having her dump potions down Xara's throat. We managed to kill the balor fairly quickly, even though Taryn and I both went down once in the process, and Xara almost went down. Taryn got the killing blow on the balor, by shooting it in the face and dropping a bomb on it- a bomb she said was "magically enhanced with magics." The balor exploded in a spray of ichor, and the concussive force almost killed Xara.
Once we finished off the balor, we mopped up the rest of the lesser demons and the gnolls. It wasn't too difficult, though Taryn did go down two more times in the process. We decided to camp here to rest before going through everything, that had been an exhausting fight.
***** Thrimidge 3, Gnoll Hills
We found another group of four gnolls this morning, and took care of them quickly.
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