Gurgun gets back on his feet and takes up the chase trying to slow the fleeing gnoll down with a sling stone.

Move 40', attack:
12:41, Today: Gurgun Nightwhisper rolled 7 using 1d4+3. Damage.
12:41, Today: Gurgun Nightwhisper rolled 19 using 1d20+7. Sling attack

The gnoll ran, fast as he could. He had to warn the rest of the pack... Then something hard smacked into the back of his head and all turned black.

In the distance, the gnoll dropped suddenly to the ground as the sling-stone knocked him on the head. [Gurgun: successful strike! Gnoll Ranger knocked out.]

All round, the gnolls were rolling on the ground, bleeding and whimpering in pain or simply out cold. Two would die very shortly without healing. Only the shaman was already dead.

PL:
[Private to DM BadCatMan: Gurgun rushes on until he reaches the fallen gnoll. Quickly he kneels down and breaks the monsters neck (coup de grace him) before searching the corpse for objects of interest. He keeps an eye and ear out for the rest of the pack.]

PL
[Private to Gurgun Nightwhisper: Crack! The gnoll was quite definitely dead now.

Gurgun heard nothing beyond normal night sounds. [Listen 13]

Gurgun finds:
2x well-made gnollish short-swords
1x well-made composite longbow
2x folded nets
1x well-made chain shirt
1x quiver with 17 arrows
2x potions
]

Gurgun gathers the items and heads back to the camp.

He will not alert the rest of the pack. He was very well equipped, we should try and rest a little and then try and reach the woods as quickly as possible.

The monk displays the weapons and armor, and then adresses the priestess: Can you tell me what these are? he holds up two small vials.

Allessandra examines the vials carefully for any markings.

"In the morning, after prayers, I will be able to tell you more about these, its quite dark and I think some are in need of healing."

Allessandra triages her teammates.

OOC:  Strength rating for this?  If it's +3, I'd like to claim it.  :p

"I took one blow, from a ghost-weapon of some kind...  it's not too bad, I should be okay with a couple of night's sleep, but if you could help speed that process up a little, I would appreciate that," Iodaem spoke quietly to Allesandra, and sheathed his blade.

Jorn bows his thanks for the healing.

Jorn nodded, "I agree.  We need to get some cover before we run into any more of these things."

The remaining gnolls expired with a sigh and a rattle without any attention, good or bad, from the adventurers.

They yielded a surprising haul of loot. Slove and Authiel noted a suspiciously high quantity of elven-style gear. Perhaps these gnolls had looted an elven ruin or treasure trove. Or worse...

Gnoll Warriors:
* 3x battleaxes, gnoll-make, little more than a hunk of sharp metal on a stick
* 3x shortbows, fairly basic
* 3x heavy steel shields, gnoll-make, a sheet of metal with a leather strap to hold
* 3x leather armour, made by gnolls and smells like it
* 1x empty potion bottle

Gnoll Shaman:
* 1x mw flail, gnoll-make but properly done, with lots of wicked sharp barbs
* 1x full plate, human-designed but adjusted to fit a gnoll
* 1x heavy steel shield, basic human design
* 1x fine green cloak with stitched leaf pattern, elven design
* 1x scroll, 2 spells written on it in Elven
* 1x scroll, 1 spell written in Gnoll
* 1x potion

Gnoll Ranger:
* 3x nets
* 2x mw short swords, good quality elven-make with wide leaf-shaped blades
* 1x mw composite longbow (+3 Str), very good elven design
* 20 arrows
* 1x mw chain shirt, elven design
* 1x potion

From the pack:
* 297.12 gp
* 1 pearl, 100 gp, conveniently... :)


That's everything, including what Gurgun already found.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:50, Wed 07 May 2008.

Saddened by the sight of the elvish gear, Authiel nevertheless agreed that finding some cover from any further attacks was the best idea to begin with for now.  She helped to pack things away for later perusal, wanting to hurry along and find a more defensible position.

Allessandra draws a slim wand and examines Gurgun, seemingly the worst off of the party. She begins to pass the wand over him, repeatedly activating it.


22:10, Today: Allessandra rolled 14 using 3d8+3 with rolls of 5,3,3.
22:11, Today: Allessandra rolled 7 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 6. CLW Wand.


She repeats this methodical process with Iodaem


22:12, Today: Allessandra rolled 2 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 1. CLW for Slove.
22:12, Today: Allessandra rolled 8 using 1d8+1 with rolls of 7. CLW for Slove.
(sorry, filled in wrong name should be iodaem)


Next, she kneels next to Authiel, and quietly invokes the same minor spell four times in quick succession. The healing words coming out in a soothing sing song manner.


Cure Minor Wounds x 4 = 4HP. (3 spontaneous conversions).


She pauses to rest, sitting at the base of a nearby tree, the exertion of harnessing all that magic has her slightly winded. She touches her wounds with the wand and breathes a sigh of relief.


22:22, Today: Allessandra rolled 14 using 2d8+2 with rolls of 7,5. CLW for self.


She takes a moments to collect her thoughts and ground herself after the attack.

OOC: hope everyone's HP counts were accurate, if I missed anything, let Allessandra know.

edit: corrected language
This message was last edited by the player at 05:25, Wed 07 May 2008.

Gurgun's terrible head wound closes and only a faint outline of the cuts and bruises remain.
I thank you. He bows towards Allessandra
He suddenly feels very tired, his body aching from the blows he received and from the exhertion of combat. He kneels down beside the fallen shaman, examining the corpse for any marks or religious symbols.
Looking around the site of the battle he continues;
This pack must camp not far from here. When we reach the woods we should inform the masters what we have seen. Gurgun thinks the gnolls have taken the elven things from the forest. This is a strong pack and they could cause more trouble, unless this was their only shaman. he points at the corpse.
The demon worshippers are hateful and vicious, Gurgun vows to fight them. Some gnolls are not like that, Gurgun has fought together with a noble gnoll, he rejected the demon and went his own way. An outcast, like me.
Following the others lead he mounts his horse and is ready to move on.

10:24, Today: Gurgun Nightwhisper rolled 15 using 1d20+4. Know: religion.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Wed 07 May 2008.

After being healed, Iodaem whispered his thanks softly, before walking over to the fallen gnoll ranger, picking up the longbow it carried.  Pulling on the string, he realized that it was a perfect fit, and that he'd be able to inflict decent damage with it.  "Anyone else want this?  It's of composite make, and you need to be fairly strong to pull it right," he spoke, and shrugged.

Gurgun must have taken a bad knock to the head, for he had saddled up ready to ride, and it was still the middle of the night.

[Private to Gurgun Nightwhisper: Did you want anything from the Knowledge check? I think you know all that you would get anyway.]

Having taken a moment to re-center herself, Allessandra packs up her belongings onto her mount, nuzzles her sweetly for a moment and is thankful her horse didn't bolt during the fight, or worse.

She looks at the dead gnolls around the campsite, grits her teeth, and walks over to one of them. She pulls the human style heavy shield off the shaman for her own use, planting it edge first into the ground for a moment while she takes the empty potion bottle from the corpse. She picks up the shortbow and weakly pulls at the string, and then puts it down. She feels rather clumsy with it. From the Gnoll Ranger, she takes the three nets, to add to her own on her mount. She also collects the scrolls from the Shaman "I will be able to determine what these do after morning prayers."

She collects all the Elven gear, the short swords, the cloak and the chain shirt, "I think we should return these items to the Elves of the forest, they can possibly identify their former owners and perform last rites for their fallen." She looks at Authiel and fingers the cloak "Do you think it would be inappropriate if I wore this for the time being? I have no cloak and its much colder than I had anticipated..."

"What do we know about Gnolls? This is the first time I've ever seen one."

Allessandra examines the Shaman corpse as well, looking for what dark deity it formerly worshiped.

OOC: I assume the scrolls are divine and not arcane...


07:45, Today: Allessandra rolled 16 using 1d20+7. k religion on shaman.

Gnolls are gnolls: vicious hyena-men who live in packs and savagely hunt humanoids for slavery or food Most worship Yeenoghu, a demon-god of bloodshed and slaughter. Many ghouls also worshipped him. There wasn't a lot more that needed to be said.


OOC: The scrolls are divine. The languages might be a problem, but you can get someone else to translate (Jorn, Comprehend Languages, hint, hint).

Just an interjection from on-high: the gnolls were a random encounter, and you shouldn't be seeing any again. So don't worry about them much. This adventure has gone off on a bit of a tangent.

Slove wait.  Unlike the rest of the group he come out of the fight with no wound.  In truth the elf was for once feeling very happy about himself.  Each gnoll had a very good number of his arrows in them.  One or two die at his hands.

At the word of bow he came over to Iodaem.
"May I see the bow.  It is my gods favour weapons so feel I have some understanding of them."
He hands Iodaem his own bow as if say he not going run off with it.

Slove pulls the bow back and tests it.  It clear he has strength for such a weapon.  He then closes his eyes and repeats some words and studies the bow.  Slove looks at own bow and new one trying to work out which is best.  His own was plain bow made by elf.  It magic later laid on by human magic user.  The new one look like had deeper elven history.  Even if was not better then his the elf mind shouted it should be in hands of elf not human.

He turns to Lodaem.
"Keep mine.  It a good one.  Made by elven hands and enchanted by human hands.  This." He runs his figures down it. "Belongs in hands of elf.  I will keep it until we meet the guardians.  They will judge if I am worthy to keep it or need to hand it back."
Iodaem get feeling that if Slove does hand it back he still going to keep sloves bow anyway.

Slove goes over to the rest of the items.  He turns to Allessandra.
"Few would have such respect of my kins items."
He smiles at her.  Then takes the cloak and put it around her.  Farcening it.
He smiles again at her.
"You have been given this cloak as reward for helping return items that belong to elves of this land.  It is now on my head not yours that you own this item.  I also name you elf friend by cleric of Solonor Thelandira."

Slove then turns and walks away.  Not giving her any chance to say anything to him.  He stand guard while the others go over the rest of items.

OOC: Iodaem you now have a +1 composite longbow  Might (+2).  I going to take risk and see if the other better and if the guardians will allow slove to keep it.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:40, Wed 07 May 2008.

Iodaem didn't reply, he only shrugged, and took the enhanced bow from Slove.  Drawing on it's string, he could feel that it wasn't exactly as powerfully built as the other, but if it was truly magical - well, that would make up for that, he assumed, and nodded.  "If I have this, I likely won't need my old crossbow anymore - anyone want it?"'

OOC:  It's a normal, non-masterwork, light crossbow, along with 20 bolts.  If nobody wants it, I'll just throw it in a ditch or something.  :p

OOC: Oh, that's right.  We were in camp and on watch when the attack came.  Mea culpa.

Jorn glanced over Authiel's shoulder as she was looking at the scrolls.  Seeing that she looked puzzled at the language, he rummaged around in his pouch for a moment and offered her a potion bottle. "If you're not having any more luck reading that than I am, I can offer you this to help with the language, or if you're in no hurry, I can prepare a minor spell of my own in the morning, and I'll be glad to help you read them."

Allessandra perks up at the mention of the crossbow being available. "I think I could handle that weapon, at least get a shot off the next time we get attacked..." She hefts the weapon and studies it.

The late night attack and desperate battle had woken everyone up, and getting back to sleep so early in the morning was now difficult. Still, they rolled away the bodies until the smell was downwind, and settled in to rest for what remained of the night. Those who took watch stayed much more alert and awake.

Thankfully, there were no more attacks, the weather was calm and the night peaceful. The sun rose when morning, weak and grey, but the day promised to be fine one.

Edge Of The Yuirwood
Aglarond
17 Marpenoth 1375

With a fresh sleep and mind, the adventurers prepared and prayed their spells, and carefully studied the loot from the gnolls. They had enough magic and knowledge between them to learn quite a lot. Jorn cast a spell that allowed Allessandra to read the Gnollish tongue, and she translated one scroll, while the elves helped translate the others.

Updated Loot!
* Fine green cloak with stitched leaf pattern, elven design: faint abjuration. Estimate: cloak of resistance +1
* Divine Scroll: Shield Of Faith, dedicated to Yeenoghu
* Divine Scroll: Cure Light Wounds, x2 (there's two CLW spells on the scroll), dedicated to Solonor Thelandira
* Potion: Cat's Grace
* Potion: Bull's Strength

The bow was disappointingly not magical. [Sorry!]

Once again, the presence of the elven gear bothered the elves of the party. Two elven spells, an elven chain shirt, an enchanted elven cloak, two elf-design swords and a magnificent elven bow - such was the standard equipment of an elven ranger or scout. And it was all too new for loot from mere grave-robbery. They would have to tell the local Master of the Yuirwood when they found him, or he found them.

Readied and prepared, the adventurers set off towards the Yuirwood that brooded darkly on the horizon like a sleeping green giant.

***

It wasn't long before they reached the forest's edge, after maybe an hour's travel. Trees had appeared scattered around the land, growing ever more densely. Their branches crowded over head, blotting out the sky and leaving them following a sun-dappled forest trail.

They traveled for several minutes more, yet the expected Master of the Yuirwood did not show. They even called out, in Elven and Common, and announced their position and intent, yet the Master did not show. The adventurers grew tense, uncomfortably recalling the claimed dangers of wandering these woods without permission or guidance.

Barely an hour passed before they found out why.

A figure lay on the road ahead, still and inert.

They approached closely, carefully, lest it be a trap. But it was nothing, just an elven man lying dead on the road. The body had been stripped off everything of value, leaving just his plain clothes and boots, some emptied pouches and a few worthless trinkets.

The conclusions were obvious: this poor elf had been the owner of the equipment taken from the gnolls. And so this green-cloaked ranger had been a Master Of The Yuirwood patrolling this section of the forest.

But strangest of all, he'd died two days before or more, yet no sign of rot had set in, bar the beetles and worms that had set to work devouring him slowly underneath. And there were no marks of axe or blade, fang or claw, so the gnolls clearly had not slain him.

It was with some dread that the adventurers pondered just what had killed him, and realised that no Master would be greeting them now.

This elf died of no apparant cause, maybe a disease or curse took his life?
14:35, Today: Gurgun Nightwhisper rolled 26 using 1d20+6. heal check to id cause of death

We should bury him and head on.

"Poison?" Iodaem suggested quietly, not going too close to the dead elf.  "Does any of you have a shovel?  If we are to give this man a grave, I'd rather not have to dig with my hands..." he spoke after a little bit, and shrugged.  He'd seen too much death in his short life to be visibly shaken by what they were now seeing, but he was quite a bit worried about what had done this. . .  if it was poison, it had been an inhaled or ingested one, he had to assume, and surely a ranger would know not to eat something poisonous?

Gurgun examined the corpse with a chirurgeon's expert eye. There were of course no obvious injuries, but also no bite marks as from a snake or spider, nor bruising from internal injuries. No skin discolouration, rashes or other symptoms appeared that might indicate poison or disease, just a plain dead grey pallor. Nor was the elf emaciated as if he'd starved.

It was the lack of rot and decay that gave it away. None of the little germs and bugs that normal live inside the body had set to work devouring the dead flesh. Because everyone one of them was dead too.

Necromancy, Jorn explained. A spell of black magic had drained every drop of life from this poor elf.