EooD Session 2: Exit, Pursued by Gnolls
General Summary
7/4/900
After surviving the street fight with the bearded devil, the party composed itself and paid its final respects to Vama Hasidor. Shad Stixs led the group out into the outskirts of Qilthani to find a respectable clearing, and with Pino Chio's help the the surviving members said some parting words in honor of Vama before returning back to town. The death of a party member in the first encounter proved to be a terrible omen.
Back in Qilthani Mickal Irakosk checked on some of the residents on the same street as the Devil's Bargain bookstore to glean any more information about the gnolls that broke into the shop. An elderly tiefling man described the gnolls as being dressed in fancy suits of red and blue and how unusual it was that they didn't cause a more violent scene of destruction when they came into town. Seeing Mickal's disheveled condition, the man advised the party to rest up at the Laughing Gnoll before they set out to find the well-dressed gnolls.
Thanking the man for his intel, the party headed over to the Laughing Gnoll in the western part of town. The tavern was a popular destination for travelers and merchants passing through the city, a diverse variety of races drinking and carousing at the bar. A golden-haired tiefling woman with bright yellow eyes danced around the tavern, taking orders and serving drinks to the evening rush of patrons. The party took a table of near a window, and Shad ordered whiskey and drinks for the party after some awkward flirting with the golden-haired woman. Per Pino's request, he also obtained some rusty pieces of silverware for her to chew on at the table.
Rakka's Heroes discussed the intelligence gained from the devil, and they decided to head out into the Rakkan wilderness to find these well-dressed gnolls and the books they stole. Mickal and Shad wanted to do some shopping before heading out the next morning, so the party agreed to call it an early night and start work at the crack of dawn. As Zayin was finishing his drink though, he overhead a pair of hobgoblins talking about a thief known as The Red Whisper making moves in the factory city of Rel-Kadrar. Zayin spent years tryng to hunt down this master thief in Kassadeia, so regardless of what happened with the gnolls he wanted to head west as soon as matters in Qilthani were settled. Zayin and Pino suggested that Shad should pick a fight with somebody in the tavern, but the massive firbolg was content smoking on his pipe of herbs.
The next morning the party traveled down to the docks to shop for supplies and check on some leads. They ran into the sailors from the steamboat that escorted them to Qilthani, and they all had a ton of fun trolling the crew before going about their day. Mickal finally found the shop he was looking for, a small tent where a traveling tailor named Cressel Rel-Khiat had set up a luxurious clothing store. Mickal asked if he'd sold several fine blue and red suits in the past month, and Cressel confirmed that an aasimar woman named Hedera had stopped by to buy large bolts of blue and red fabric. Content with the information, Mickal went with Shad to an herbal remedies store to pick up some herbs while the firbolg bought a medicine kit. Cressel asked for Pino's measurements before the party left, promising to craft her a gorgeous outfit in a matter of weeks. Zayin bought a cloak.
Stocked up on supplies, the party began its journey into the rocky wilderness of inland Rakka. A few miles outside of Qilthani they ran into a large farm where Zayin convinced the owner to loan them an old horse and cart to use on the journey. According to the farmer the gnolls were about a week away from town, so the party would be out in the wild for at least two weeks. Mickal cast 'Goodberry' every night to keep the party well-fed on their journey and to preserve the group's resources.
After four days of traveling the party passed by a cart full of pots and pans run by a pair of goblins. The goblins said they were traveling to Qilthani to sell their kitchenware at the docks, even though Shad and others in the group could tell that many of the pots were stolen. Pino bought some more silverware to chew on, and with the goblin's help they learned that a camp of well-dressed gnolls was only a couple days away.
8/1/900
After a week's worth of traveling the party finally spotted its target: a gnoll in a well-dressed suit keeping watch atop a rocky plateau. The party hid beneath a patch of bushes, and it was decided that Zayin would go up and try talking to the gnoll before resorting to blows. Sure enough, the gnoll didn't attack Zayin as he made his way up to the plateau apart from a couple of suspicious glares. Up close, Zayin noticed the cut of the gnoll's suit was unlike anything he'd ever seen with the cut of the jacket and the strange piece of fabric tied around the monster's neck. The gnoll asked Zayin if he was there for the poker game, and Zayin said yes.
The kalashtar was taken down to a small valley where a pack of eight gnolls were playing poker in well-made suits, tossing around pieces of raw flesh as poker chips. A sinking feeling hit Zayin when he saw that the face cards all had devils on them. The gnoll pack leader asked Zayin what kind of flesh he was betting in the game, and he pointed over to the old horse given to him by the farmer. A gnoll went with him to untie the horse and take it over to the site of the game, but along the way Shad and Mickal revealed themselves and asked to take part in the poker match. The gnoll allowed Mickal to play with Shad to be used as the betting flesh, but Mickal insisted that he'd only be betting his own flesh during the game. Shad stayed close behind Zayin and Mickal, keeping his weapons close in case things turned violent. Pino stayed hidden behind the bushes, readying a handaxe attack against the gnoll keeping watch atop the plateau.
Finally, the poker match began in earnest. In the first round both Mickal and Zayin survived with all their limbs intact, and together they used the leverage to speak with the gnoll pack leader about his relationship with Hedera and Naberius. The pack leader explained how Naberius and Hedera made a deal with his gnolls a few weeks ago: if they managed to take some old books from Hedera's bookstore they'd be given nice suits and playing cards to do with as they pleased. The pack leader filled in the gaps of the party's knowledge on the break-in, revealing how once the theft was complete the gnolls gave six of the books to a group of drow as Naberious ordered.
A sense of dread filled Mickal and Zayin as they realized that a dozen books were stolen from the bookstore, not six. When pressed, the pack leader explained that Hedera had taken six of the books with her out west to some large factory town (presumably Rel-Kadrar) to do Naberius' bidding. The party got the info it wanted, but each answer deepened the mystery and breadth of this conspiracy between Hedera and Naberius.
But before they could act on this new info, the party still had another round of poker to play. The pack leader raised the stakes, agreeing to bet pieces of his own flesh if Mickal and Zayin did the same. Mickal broke even and didn't lose any body parts, but Zayin came up short and was forced to offer up half of his body per the rules of the game. But as the pack leader reached over to tear off one of his limbs, Zayin unleashed an 'Eldritch Blast' with his efreeti ring and ignited a fight with the pack of well-dressed gnolls.
Zayin and Shad found themselves surrounded by gnolls in a matter of seconds while Mickal managed to race from the center of combat and rush towards one of the nearby plateaus. Pino rushed from the bushes towards the nearest plateau to dispatch the nearby gnolls. One gnoll kept running up the plateau's rocky wall to try and get to the warforged, but every round she grappled the poor monster and tossed it down the hillside to deal serious amounts of bludgeoning damage. Nearly half of the gnolls were killed, but Zayin and Shad were both knocked out from the relentless gnoll attacks. Zayin hid inside his efreeti's ring for a moment to avoid an attack that would've left him dead, popping out a few seconds later to catch the pack leader by surprise with another 'Eldritch Blast'. The pack leader didn't take well to being fooled twice, and in a single attack he tore Zayin to shreds in a monstrous frenzy. Meanwhile Shad got his throat torn out by a ravenous gnoll, killing him instantly. Half of Rakka's Heroes active forces were killed in the course of a single minute. Mickal and Pino, the only survivors from the fight, ran into the woods to regroup and process the disastrous encounter.
Character(s) interacted with
- Decarabia Goldeneye - owner of the Laughing Gnoll
- Cressel Rel-Khiat - tailor at Qilthani's docks
- Toughnose - goblin merchant met on the road out of Qilthani
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