Session 1 - Tracking the Gnolls - Shiv's Notes

It’s been about a week since we arrived and weird shit has been happening. We have managed to gather a group of people who are willinging to brave the north to deal with the Gnolls. We meet up at Voroks house with Shiva, Verusa, Diiorehn, and two others (very sorry, I forgot to note down your names) [Editor's note: Cornelius and Hettie]
We head up north to where Verusa found the tracks, near the old bridge. We can still see the strange gold chemical floating on the water's surface. We ford the river and find the tracks that Verusa had come across. They look recent, a couple days old. Doesn't look like they crossed the river.
The path stretches upwards,heading up to a ridgeline. Verusa manages to keep track of them as we continue on. The morning passed and the landscape flattens out into a grassland plain. There is another track joining up with the track we are following. The path seems to loop around the back of a hill where we spot evidence of a camp.
No trace of people at the camp but we found more footprints, about 6-7 sets. Definitely more gnolls. We find a number of bones which have been cracked down to the marrow. It looks like there was not enough food to go around. The track continues north but split in 2. One track leads to the northwest, over to the ocean, the other northwest, towards a set of craggy hills. We take the path towards the hills.
We find a structure in the hills. Appears to be the remains of a tower. It’s been buried over time by rocks and dirt. We spot a broken window and decided to climb up and noted how the glass has been eroded over time and no longer has sharp edges. Inside the tower there is a tunnel that extends into the rock but has been caved in, 30 feet down the tunnel.
We take not of some giant text on the floor. Shiva took a look at it, but unfortunately it is an ancient dialect and she can only make out the first word which is “Thankyou”. The last word might be “give” or “take”. We find a slate which contains more giant text. Underneath the slate we dig up a whole bunch of polished stained glass. It has to be several decades old but seems to be of exceptional craftsmanship. The ancient giants were known to have inhabited this part of the world and were master’s of construction and experts of infusing magic into their creations.
Shiva looks over the slate tablet and a few more words pop out. It seems to be a ledger of sorts. The last half of it is dedicated to tracking something from a glass works. It makes a big deal about where it came from out west and the difficult terrain making transportation difficult.
We excavate a lock box which contains a number of pieces of bronze and copper. They are also marked with ancient giant text reading “Issued -- council --- free city --- Scora Bael”
Be bed down for the night and divvy up watch times. Shiva takes the last watch and I spot torch light and a few figure’s heading towards us, they are probably about an hour away. I shake awake the rest of the party and alert them to the incoming threat. We set up an ambush to intercept them. We over hear some of their conversation and they betrayed their friend, leaving him for dead.
The ambush was successful and we captured the leader of this pack of gnolls.
Diirohen handles the interrogation. Diirohen scared the living crap out of this gnoll by threatening to water board him, luckily it did not come to that. This gnoll tells us that Zeniir had moved their camp back into the canyon and that they don't attack the town as it's not in their turf. Another Gnoll family, the Lisgore family are more known for raiding the town.
Diirohen exchanges this gnolls life for him to lead us back to the Zeniir’s camp. While we walk, shiva ask’s him about the Zeniir, who is he? What is he?
The Gnoll responds “He is a great father and now father to many of us, many more each day. In the last 2 years he has proven himself, take more then we have. Joined many families”
He mentions the town “It will be ours one cay, we will break it's curse and take it”.
Shiva ask’s about he curse. “Old giant curse, bad things happen, no one lives near the statue, except...now they do, but you are foolish” Is reffering to the ancient giant statue of Sulat league
Shiva asked him to elaborate further but he doesn't seem to know it's significance or understand how it works.
Shiva asked him about the missing people, he explains that the gnolls were known for attacking the town but was under the impression that the Vulkoori in the southern jungles that killed everyone in the town.
He leads us to a cross road where we see a figure hunched over and tied to the mast. This is Vrind. Diirohen decided to end the gnolls life as he suspected treachery. Some members of the party were taken aback by this. This gnoll is much older.
We rouse him awake and he recognises the gnolls we killed as Ivern. Ivern had mentioned that they had betrayed Zeniir, Rind elaborated on this. “They betrayed me. They think Zeniir is going to be better. I wanted to go out west to the barrens to seek new lands. I have no family now, leave me for the fury, the devourer.”He was not happy with Zeniir and “he thinks he is entitled to us all because he takes more and more wives than us” (or something like that) We ask what family Vrind used to belong to. He used to be Braven. Also seems to think the Lisgore family is behind the raids on the town. “The Lisgore clan might have been. They were raiding a lot, back before the Vulkoori killed you all”
He confirms Diiroehns suspicions of treachery that he had about Ivern “He would betray family, he would kill anyone”.
Diiroehn offer’s him safe harbour in the town for knowledge about how to fend of the raids from the gnolls and knowledge of the Zeniir and Lisgore camps. He agrees to come back with us but doesn't know if he will stay in the town. Definitely won’t raise arms against his kinsmen.
The Lisgore main camp is away from the horde, about 3-4 hours north.
The Zeniir camp is a half day from there, in the canyon.
There are other clans to the east on the coast, in the old ruin.
The group decided to head back home after this, with our new companion.