Whip Them into Shape

General Summary

After negotiating their release, Axelrod Gunnarsson had six new recruits for his keep. He made Hobart his second-in-command, and with some new horses and the addition of Rodney the Mule, he had the makings of a functional unit. However, that morning Lyza told everyone that she was heading off on her own to find answers about her past. This cast a pall on breakfast, but everyone bid her good luck and an open spot in an adventuring party.
Bartimus, having not yet recovered from his gruesome face wound, went to the Temple of Nine Stars for healing. He quickly found Emmalyn Rainsoar, happy to see him again. She was exasperated with the chaos still in the church and was eager to begin adventuring again. To heal his wound, she took Barty to a senior cleric willing to regenerate his flesh in exchange for future service. Barty quickly accepted, and only then noticed that Emmalyn had both her hands again! High fives all around!
The Party soon left for Rybury to investigate the reports of gnolls in the countryside. When they made camp after the first day of travel, Axelrod and Hobart took the new recruits through their first paces as members of a legitimate organization. Through a display of respect, skill, and a little fear, the two "officers" had them looking promising.
After several more days of travel and training, the Party arrived at Rybury. Upon arrival at the Brass Flagon, Hobart moved through the crowd to gather information about the gnolls. He asked a few pointed questions to learn where the gnolls were the worst, and he was told to see the mayor for the specifics. The mayor told them that many adventurers had already gone after the gnolls, but they either returned defeated or didn't return at all. He also told them that the gnolls seemingly came out of nowhere and similarly disappeared as soon as the carnage was over. To coax the Party into action, he showed them a sack of valuable gems that had been collected from the wealthy citizens most impacted by the gnoll attacks. The Party took him up on the offer.
They traveled to the northeast edge of farms that surrounded the town. As night fell, Bartimus decided to polymorph into an owl to scout ahead, and it wasn't long until he came upon a small group of trees and the sound of savagery. They suspected this was at least some of the gnolls they were hunting. The group moved out, and Hobart decided to scout ahead. When the opportunity was there, he sneak attacked a gnoll, dropping it and drawing the attention of the rest. He then started a chase back to the rest of the Party, and Bartimus introduced himself to the gnolls with a powerful fireball. The greenhorns also stepped up into battle, and they performed well. The gnolls and their hounds were soon eliminated.
After a night's rest, the Party set out again in search of gnolls. This time, they spotted the gnolls moving in the tall grass before they could strike, but they also saw several large crocotta in the mix of enemies. The battle was heated, and one of the greenhorns fell to a crocotta's jaws, but the Party defeated their enemies. Even all the horses survived. After the battle, they noticed a lightly worn trail just up ahead, and they chose to follow it rather than search for other random tracks.
They came upon a junction of trails, and it looked as though the northern trail abruptly ended. Axelrod and Hobart rode forward to scout, and as if by magic, crocottas leapt out of thin air toward the Party. Soon to follow them were three gnolls wielding triple-headed flails. The Party were shocked by this sudden turn of events.
How will they handle this new threat? Find out next time...

Report Date

19 Jun 2021

Primary Location

Rybury

Secondary Location

Mystryl