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PREVIOUSLY - CAMPAIGN DIARIES 42 - An Evening with Isteval
While investigating the attacks along the Trade Way north of Daggerford at the request of Sir Isteval, the Owlbear League sneaks up on a second pack of hyenas guarding the formerly luxurious Phylund Lodge.
They have just battled a second squad of hyens outside the building, the Owlbear League stands triumphant over their dead enemies when the doors to the south section of the lodge are thrown open and another squad of six gnolls gnarls and attacks.
The Owlbear League jumps to the attack.
Dain throws a javelin into the pack but fails to hit.
K'ronk casts a powerful Fireball spell and a bright streak flies from his pointed finger and erupts with an explosion in the midst of the gnolls, sending them scorched and flying. A couple manages to dive out of the way, one tripping over another and smashing its face.
The fiery blast kills four of the gnolls outright, and the remaining two scramble for footing with smoke coming from their singed hair and armor.
Immeral uses the spell ray of frost to blast one with a frigid beam, killing the beastly humanoid.
Atlas rushes forward and assaults the remaining gnoll with a flurry of blows empowered by her gauntlets of ogre power, devastating the gnoll. It reels, bleeding and battered.
Orryn simply points his wand of magic missiles and directs darts of purple magical energy at the creature. They riddle into it and destroy the remaining gnoll facing Atlas.
Lady D ambles over and chews off one of their arms, spitting out the leather armor like watermelon seeds.
Orryn give her a moment, then speaks with animals and asks the armored owlbear to go back into the trees for a bit while they go inside. The owlbear picks up the remains of the gnoll in her beak and lumbers off into the trees.
The Owlbear League creeps into open doors of the south wing of the lodge, and finds it to be the stables.
The shingled roof of this stable has been severely damaged, and the sky is visible through many cracks and holes. Wooden debris, like old cage bars or poles, is piled on the floor just inside the entrance. Old stalls, separated by barriers of bricks built on the southern wall, have been filled with heaps of dry leaves, straw, and dirty rugs. Other crude beds have been placed along the other walls.
The League does a quick search of the room and finds nothing of interest, so they turn to the door to the west. Nowhere listens and hears the chortling of more gnolls. Orryn peeks through the keyhole, but it reveals little besides a wall across from the door.
Orryn carefully turns the handle and stealthily peeks in, seeing a great hall with roaring fireplace. Two pillars in the center of the room support this hall which stinks of smoke and wet animal. The walls are cracked and damp with faded frescos showing in areas where the plaster has not fallen off the walls. A large rectangular tables stands in front of the fireplace. Chairs are scattered here and there, some broken or upturned. Bones, dried skin and pieces of rotting meat are scattered across the floor. A brick staircase leads upwards along the southern wall.
Inside the room, laughing and drinking are four larger gnoll - likely the captains. They seem better equipped, with stronger armor and better looking spears and longbows. One is red and wet, as if a glass of wine has been poured over him, looking barely able to keep from attacking another. The group is drinking from a variety of mugs and glassware and there is a small wine keg in the middle of the table.
The stealthiest of The League -- Orryn the rogue and Atlas in her cloak of elvenkind, slip into the room, prepared to attack the gnolls the moment their friend Immeral acts. Immeral creeps into the room, and from the shadows he points to the tightest cluster of the four gnolls and casts the spell lightning bolt. A crackling blue-white beam blasts out and strikes three of the gnolls, illuminating the very bones in their skulls and arms, exploding their eyes, tearing off their limbs and heads with a loud boom.
The remaining gnoll shrieks, grabbing his spear and throwing it at Immeral, but Immeral ducks back into a corner of the room. The others run into the room. Dain grabs the gnoll's spear out of the wall and spins it in his hands with a murderous flair, then throws it back at the gnoll, but glances off the gnoll's armor.
K'ronk runs in behind Dain and flings his magical fire bolts at the remaining gnoll, riddling him with the burning magic. The scent of burning hair fills the room.
Nowhere charges into the room swinging Icerazor at the gnoll and her quarry manages to dodge out of the way and she swings into the table, the sword sticking for a moment into the wood, causing her to hesitate in her attack.
Seraphina charges forward and casts sacred flame at the gnoll, but the wiley creature dodges out of the way of the flamelike magic and takes no damage, rolling under the table to emerge on the other side.
Orryn slashes at the legs of the gnoll with his rapier and draws blood, hobbling his enemy, but the creature still gets to its feat. Orryn spins and stabs with a dagger in his other hand, spilling more of the bright blood of the gnoll onto the floor.
Atlas runs off on the bloody beast-man and pummels him with a flurry of blows which sends him into unconsciousness and death.
The double doors to the room to the west flies open and three more gnolls barge in while an additional three more rush down the stairs from above.
The ones to the west appear greatly startled at the intrusion, and Nowhere uses the moment to charge them, howling with Icerazor.
She cleaves into one of the gnolls and drives deep into it with her icy sword and magical ice spiders crawl from the sword and bite for even more damage. With her dread ambusher skills she tries another attack with the sword, but it misses. The critically wounded but hearty gnoll falls back.
Seraphina casts sacred flame again, but the gnoll falls back and the spell fails again.
Orryn turns to the gnolls rushing down the stairs and stabs the lead gnoll with his rapier, drawing deep gouts of blood from the legs of the creature.
Atlas attacks the same enemy with a flurry of blows, pounding him and stopping his progress on the stairs.
Immeral takes one of the stars from his cloak of stars throwing it at the gnolls, and it transforms into seven magic missiles, purple darts of magical force which travel over and around his companions and strafe the gnolls on the stairs. The first gnoll is knocked out, and two others are pierced with darts of magical energy.
Dain loses his shit and flies into a vicious rage, screaming and running past his companions onto the stairs and slashes at a gnoll, but it jumps off the stairs out of the way. Dain swings again and hits the next gnoll with his great axe, severely wounding his legs, splashing blood onto the stairs.
K'ronk sees that Nowhere is fighting three on her own, so he runs up to support her, wielding his recently acquired black goat staff, and uses a charge of the magical staff to add necrotic damage to the hit, which strikes a gnoll, but it is still up.
The gnolls attack, one going after Nowhere with a bite, but misses. The second after K'ronk with a spear and misses. The third bites down on K'ronks arm, and he pulls his arm out of the gnoll's maw, leaving bits of flesh and his arm starts welting blood.
Another gnoll on the stairs dives down after Dain and bites down on his exposed hand, drawing blood, but Dain holds onto his weapon and pulls back. The last gnoll jumps off the stairs and goes after the first member of the League he faces -- Immeral, but Immeral dodges the spear attack.
The League goes into action. Nowhere's ice spiders continue to harry the gnoll they are climbing over, doing icy little bites through its thick hair. Nowhere swings Icerazor again, but stumbles and falls into another gnoll's swing at K'ronk, taking a light blow.
Seraphina casts sacred flame at the gnoll attacking Immeral, but it avoids the fiery magic.
Orryn attacks with his rapier, but misses his target.
Atlas runs up a few stairs and starts beating on one of the gnolls with her powerful blows enhanced by gauntlets of ogre power. The gnoll wavers, beaten and bloody, but still standing.
Immeral reaches out to the gnoll facing him to try a shocking grasp, electrifying the creature. His shakes with the energy and his fur smolders, filling the room with more of the foul smell of burnt gnoll fur.
K'ronk lets fly some fire bolts into one of the gnolls, and as they strike and burn the gnoll, he swings the goat staff, but misses.
Dain, still enraged, charges up the stairs at the remaining gnolls, hitting the first with his great axe, cleaving his feet out from under him. Dain dives off the stairs onto another gnoll and strikes it down. Dain kneels down, places his hand in the blood and wipes it over his face, howling like a madman.
The gnolls attack, first stabbing at Nowhere, but she dodges their spear. The next after K'ronk, and he is stabbed in the side, howling with pain, but it is only a flesh wound. Another stabs at Nowhere, but misses again. The last stabs at Immeral, but he dodges the attack.
Nowhere's ice spiders do more damage to the one gnoll, and as Nowhere gets up swinging Icerazor, one of the gnolls smashes down on her hand, breaking a couple of the ranger's fingers.
Seraphina casts sacred flame again, and this time it envelops the creature, killing it with magical radiant flame.
Atlas runs over to the remaining three gnolls, unleashing a flurry of blows along with a furious monk cry, and pummels the gnoll into unconsciousness.
Orryn pulls out his wand of magic missiles again, sending magical darts racing around his friends, but impaling the enemy gnolls, killing one, leaving one remaining.
Immeral runs over to the battle and releases a chill touch cantrip, hitting the final gnoll with a magical spectral damage, and it reels back, but it still stands.
K'ronk releases a fire bolt, but it misses the dodgy gnoll. He also swings his goat staff, knocking him back with a swing enhanced by the necrotic energies of the staff, but the gnoll still stands. It growls and is about to spring, when Dain attacks.
The maddened barbarian crashes through Nowhere and K'ronk, swinging his axe at the partially turned gnoll, severing its spine and nearly cleaving it in two.
The battle against the squad of gnolls is finally over, The League victorious.
The Owlbear League dusts themselves off from the fighting, assessing their wounds, but knowing there is still work to do... find out why the gnolls are attacking from Phylund Lodge. Dain starts searching the bodies, cutting belt pouches off the gnolls, finding a small amount of gold, silver and seemingly stolen jewelry. Maybe about 15 gold on each for the twenty eight they have defeated.
The League ascends the stairs to the second floor and finds a sitting room with a large fireplace with comfortable chairs nearby, a table and other chairs in the center of the room, and double doors to the west. It seems in better shape than the other rooms they have seen.
They listen at the door nearest the stairs, and hearing nothing they open the door. Inside is an old storeroom, shelves appear empty, broken and moldy. While looking into the room, the double-doors to the west fling open, revealing a bald man wearing fancy red robes with tattoos of symbols over much of his head.
The League recognizes he is dressed like the red wizard of Thay they ran into previously, Hamun Kost. "Oh bother," the man says, "can i convince you to leave now before I have to kill you?"
K'ronk considers casting charm person, but holds back.
Atlas asks "Why do you want us to leave?"
The wizard replies "You're clearly intruding." He mumbles something and a flash covers him, briefly, which Immeral and K'ronk recognize as mage armor.
Nowhere says "We're leaving, we were just adventuring and thought the lodge was abandoned. Our mistake, we've been lost in the woods and have been looking for shelter."
The wizard turns to someone unseen in the room he stands in, and motions for them to join him, saying "come, come." Steps can be heard, and a moment later, four monstrous looking dread warriors come into view. They are clearly undead.
They step over to guarding positions by the red wizard.
Atlas asks "What's your name?"
The red wizard replies "We're not having a conversation, you are just leaving."
Seraphina, seeing how this is going, recites a few fast healing word prayers, stealthily restoring some of her companions, but the red wizard sees the wound on K'ronk's arm close. She also heals Nowhere and Atlas.
"Very well, kill them!" the wizard says.
The four dread warriors charge into the room, two swinging their battle axes at Nowhere. She dodges and misses the first attack.
The second pair attacks Atlas, who also dodges the first blow with a backflip, but the second connects, lightly slash at the monk and drawing first blood.
The red wizard steps forward, casting a spell, but Immeral reacts with counterspell, dispelling the magical energy which was intended to blind/deafen K'ronk, and the wizard's brow clenches angrily, and he whispers a furious curse at Immeral, looking into his eyes "Damn you!"
Nowhere slashes at one of the dread warriors with Icerazor, but the undead creature blocks her attack.
Diminutive Orryn goes under the table and stabs out with his rapier at the legs of one of the undead, and additionally stabs with his dagger. Surprising the create and doing massive damage, but its undead vigor allows it to fight on.
Atlas runs up to an undead warrior - reaching into her Ki energy and with lightning speed throws an incredible array of unarmed strikes, powered by her gauntlets of ogre of power which batters the undead flesh, but it is still standing.
Seraphina activates her ring of command undead and the magical energy that flows from the ring takes over the undead. "Stop!" She shouts, "Attack the red cloaked man!" All four of the undead turn towards their former master and move towards him.
With shock on his face, the red wizard moves to close the doors.
K'ronk dashes forward and uses half of the daily power of his staff of frost to cast cone of cold which sends out a conical blast of magically frigid energy. The blast hits one of the dread warriors, freezing it to death and the red wizard dives out of the way, only taking partial damage, but his skin is frostburned and icy and he curses the dragonborn wizard.
"Damn your soul to the nine hells!"
Immeral removes another star from his robe of stars and throws it at the wizard, releasing a volley of seven magical purple darts which fly over and around all his companions to strike the red wizard, who howls in pain from the seven blasts ripping apart his flesh, but he rises to his feet, murder in his eye.
Dain launches himself through the undead, nearly knocking them over and swings his great axe at the wizard, just striking him and eliciting a gout of blood. "Bothersome adventurers!" the red wizard replies.
Cornered, the Red Wizard looks out the window and goes to cast a spell. Immeral reacts and casts counterspell again, disrupting the weave the red wizard looks to be forming. Realizing his powers are useless and the undead are nearly upon him, the red wizard's bravado falls away and he screams "Nooooooo!" as he backs into the corner.
The Owlbear League stand back and watches as the dread warriors close in on the wizard.
K'ronk says "I love this view."
Just as the undead pounce on his position, the man in the red cloaks glances out the window and is surrounded by a silvery mist and he disappears. He appears in the air outside the window and he drops ten feet to the ground.
The dread warriors look around in confusion.
Nowhere runs for the window and crashes through it, falling to the ground near the red wizard, blood oozing from the cuts received crashing through the window above.
The red wizard starts scrambling for the trees, and Nowhere places a Hunter's Mark on him.
Seraphina commands the undead to follow her, and she races back down the stairs to get to ground level.
Orryn runs over to the broken window and blows the horn he uses to call for Lady D in case she is needed.
Atlas jumps out the window, using the wall to slow fall and taking no damage, rolling to his feet on the ground.
Immeral uses ray of frost to send a frigid beam of blue-white light which flies and hits the wizard for some freezing damage.
K'ronk dashes over to the window, using staff of frost to create a wall of ice where the red wizard stands. It is the final charge from the staff, risking that it might turn to water, but the staff seems to survive the depletion of all magic. A ten foot block of ice erupts under the wizard who is thrown to the side and blasted with supernatural cold, literally freezing some of the skin off his exposed flesh, but the block of ice temporarily obscures the wizard.
Dain dives out the window and tumbles across the ground, bumping into the ice wall.
Suddenly, a ball of black necromatic energy erupts from a space just outside the windows, encircling a 30 foot diameter sphere, ripping into the heroes. Atlas and Nowhere dive out of the way, Dain starts running but the blast still catches him. Immeral and K'ronk tumble back, taking severe although reduced damage from the blast, but Orryn is squarely caught in the dark energies and is knocked unconscious, hanging onto life by a thread. The wall of ice crumbles, leaving a magical square of otherworldly cold, the red wizard standing in the frosty air just behind it, his skin pale white, blistered and peeling from the cold.
Nowhere uses her hellish rebuke, and pointing a finger at the wizard unleashes a fiery blast which sets the the cloak of the red wizard on fire and he screams in torment and finally expires.
Lady D runs over and starts tearing apart the roasted wizard, eating its head. The Owlbear League is exhausted from battle after battle, but has vanquished all visible enemies and breathes a sigh of relief. K'ronk looks down and sees on the desk between the windows the spellbook of the red wizard, and he is gleeful with the treasure he has found.
NEXT - Campaign Journal 44 - Base of the Gnolls.
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