Session 59 - Breaking the Gnoll Camp
17 Ambyrmont 1010
General Summary
The party follows the trail of the Gnoll raiders further north, deeper into the foothills. After another day and a half of tracking, they see signs of a camp on a rise in the terrain.
Leo and Elincia take to the sky to scout out the area, and report back to the team. It's a wooded area with a U-shaped camp that is on a sloping section of hill - the open end of the "U" facing the south. There are four large tents distributed along the U, a couple dozen smaller tents, and at least half a dozen campfires. There are also many Gnolls, Hyenas, and Giant Hyenas scattered about the camp, though they don't seem to be on an alert of any kind.
After some thought about their approach, the party decides the southwest would be a good place to fight from, as they could stay back in the trees and use Wrath of Nature to their advantage to control the field. Leo will place Sickening Radiance on the eastern-most portion of the camp, which should alert the enemies to their arrival, and the party will hold back in the wooded section. Haish remains with the horses at a well-removed distance.
When moving to the positions, Leo is (unfortunately) not as subtle as he intends, and the camp becomes aware of their presence before he is able to place the Sickening Radiance, impacting its placement and effectiveness, as the Gnolls and Hyenas move toward the party.
The general area targeted is close to what was planned, though the eastern-most tents are not covered by the spell. This becomes a bit more of an issue than Leo initially intended, as the occupants edge around the area after seeing several of their colleagues affected and killed by the large cloud. It does, however, hinder their approach.
The party is a bit surprised by just how many Gnolls emerge from the tents over the course of the battle. They had thought initially that there would be fewer enemies but, by the time all is said and done, there are at least three dozen Gnolls and almost 20 Hyenas. Initially, the Gnolls and Hyenas go for direct engagement. However, this approach favors the party and the more successful attacks come from the Gnoll hunters, who hang back firing arrows and are not so quickly taken down. Eventually two stronger Gnolls emerge; one a caster of some sort and what appears to be the leader, as he barks out commands to the Gnolls around him. As the next wave of Gnolls gets in range, Leo drops a Synaptic Static on the leader, the caster, and a few others to attempt to slow them down.
The party continues its domination of the battlefield, especially once Elincia finally casts her Wrath of Nature in front of them, which greatly restricts the avenues towards the party. She uses the first round root grapple to grab the caster - he will never escape the grapple for the remainder of the fight. The Gnolls are thinning out nicely, as the leader finally makes his way down to Stavos. When the leader puts his bow away, and pulls out a giant, three-headed flail - this is no common leader, but a Flind! Nobody thinks too much of it at first but, as he engages Stavos, they find the flail to be devastating. In the first round, he takes Stavos almost down to zero hips, even with a penalty to his attack rolls, and Stavos loses his mind slightly, attacking Seraphina in a fit of Madness. Thankfully this is short-lived, and he returns to attacking the Gnoll. Heals are sent Stavos' way, and he takes a healing potion as well. Thankfully the second round of Flail attacks does not hit (as hard), so Stavos is able to hold his own, and before long the party plus the angry trees have whittled him down to defeat, clearing out the remaining regular Gnolls and the caster as well.
Report Date
01 Jan 2022
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