Gnolls Galore!

As I spin and swing my great sword just over the helm of my good friend Ulfgar I feel the blade dig slice through the tundra gnoll's thick shaggy hide and slice sinew and muscle... Ulfgar hacks out the knees and ends the beast with an upper cut swing that opens him from cock to chest bone... I look to my side and see Big Red finishing off the last two gnolls on him and the two halflings tag teaming the gnoll packmaster with Reed's fists and Hallorin's spells... As the packmaster falls I look back over the hill top to see if the fight drew any attention from our Target below.... Luckily the yips, snarls, roars, and general commotion from the Adept's ruined camp coupled with our distance from it kept our battle with the scouting party from alerting the greater horde... We go back to observing the scene... It felt good to get back into combat and feel the bloodrush and adrenaline of battle after a month or so of soft city life... The big half orc paladin reminisces on what brought them here to the wilds of Western Vassa...
 
 
While we waited for Hammerfall's people to sort out the mess over the Dourstone's mines we had some times to ourselves... I spent the first few weeks traveling to Bloodstone City treating with the scholars of the Black Wing Library and at the Damaran Gate dealing with the Order of the Golden Cup at their great Bastion... At both I trade my stories, notes, and fears about the Blackfyre Adepts for their information on them... Those sessions pointed me to this valley in West Vasa as a point of interest and likely a location for a fragment of Slaughterguard...
 
Back to the scene below... The Adept's camp looks freshly slaughtered by the gnoll band... More disturbing is next to the savaged Adepts camp is the actual gnoll camp and amongst it are several tents of giant size... Not a good sign... After watching the camp we see a path along the right side that has the fewest gnoll bands... We attempt an approach...
 
In the camp we unfortunately round the corner of one tent into the face of a large gnoll band.... Right away Reed speeds around the flank and cripples one of the gnoll priests... The other priest sees the destruction Reed's fists rain and casts a spell of banishment on him! The rest of the gnolls charges our battle line... Ulfgar, Nick, and I take the charge and fight back while shielding Hallorin.... I hack down the gnoll on me and make a run at the gnoll priest maintaining the banishment... Hallorin kills the heavily wounded priest with an eldritch blast as I land blows on the other... It's still not enough to break his hold on the banishment... Ulfgar and Big Red keep the majority of the warband locked down and slowly hack through them... Finally I carve down the last priest freeing Reed from his banishment, then I run back and attack the remaining gnolls from the rear... Reed does chase down the one packlord that had withdrawn and was firing bowshots... After the last of that band falls we regroup and sneak towards the cleft in the cliff face we believe heads to our dungeon....
 
After sneaking by a another group of gnolls we get into the tunnel to find a guarded gate... We quickly finish off these gnolls and manage to get inside... This tunnel leads to another strong point guarded by more gnolls... This time the see us and rain arrows down on us... Reed is able to streak right up the wall and bring to fight to a couple of the archers on one side... Tinkerson trades firebolts with arrows on the single archer... Ulfgar and I take a few minutes but eventually he gives me the lift I need to get over the stockade... Once I'm on the other side and open the gates we all pour through and quickly finish off the remaining gnolls thought poor Reed is nearly smashed senseless since he held off two of the vicious gnolls on his own....
 
Taking a moment to survey our surroundings on this side of the stockade we see a giant elevator platform similar to the one in the Dourstone's mine complex... The only difference is that instead of a winch there is a huge cave troll with a helmet on and tied to ... It seems to be the mechanism by which the winch works... It greets us with a rumbling, "Who goes there..."