"One again, thank you Muqaq. Truly the Dawnflower has blessed you with grand gifts."
Gruthic gains his feet and gathers his bearings. He takes in the newcomer's arrival with stoic nonchalance, trusting in Muqaq's leadership. He clasps Akhom on the shoulder, his grip indicating the recent wounds are still painful, despite Muqaq's aid.
"You were right to worry. I have grown lax, fighting bandits. My shield is strong and I was blinded by pride. I will heed the wisdom of your council more carefully in the future."
Akhom glares at Gruthic, though his anger is somewhat offset by the worry in his eyes. "Your stubbornness will be the death of you and me both," he growls, though his anger fades almost immediately. He sighs and claps the dwarf's shoulder in return. "Just don't die, that's all I ask. Now, I'd better see to Seif."
The young man moves over to Muqaq as he begins to place the comatose Seif on the horse's back. "Here, I can help him," he murmurs softly. Placing his hands on Seif he closes his eyes for a moment, and his hands begin to glow, as if infused by sunlight.
Riding in silence, N'Dateh takes the measure of her newfound companions. She smiles as she realizes how solid they seem.
At least, they've survived this far. That's more than my former comrades...
Xanyon runs silently with the group, mentally counting his ammunition and wondering how many gnolls will come after them.
Seif-al-Din groans as he is restored to consciousness.
"No Uncle, I promise that I won't get into the spiced wine again..."
When he realises that he is upside-down, slung over the back of a horse, he looks around, swiftly refocusing.
"What happened? Did we win?"
Seif-al-Din then starts healing himself.
N'Dateh scoffs as the man wakes: "Does it look like you won?" then turns, annoyed and keeps riding.
"We won, but barely. We're still running, as you can well see," Muqaq replies to his fellow oracle. "Might want to heal Gruthic if you can."
"Why does our winning always feel like losing?"
Xanyon continues to run next to the others.
"Because somehow we always manage to get in back to back battles with tenacious foes and no time to recover in between," Muqaq replies dryly. "However, despite appearances I think we've dealt the gnolls several heavy blows. Once through the pesh fields lets slow up for a minute and gauge whether we're actually being pursued. We don't want to lead anyone to the monastery if we don't have to."
"Monastery? Is it safe?"
"It was when we left. Lost a man clearing it out."
"I hate pugwampis."
"Two men."
The trip back to the monastery is done quickly, and without undue incidents. Watching over your shoulders as you retreat from the village, you see no sign of the flying creature that swept over you at the shrine the day before. There is a flurry of activity in the village, and you see some commotion erupt, presumably as the body if the dire boar is found, and the absence of the Schir is eventually noted. With all this however, there is no sign of mounted pursuit. Your surmise that it is likely that with all the loses they have sustained of late, that they may no longer feel confident extending their forces beyond the edge of their holdings.
Upon reaching the monastery, each of you upon sore and weary feet, except your new found ally who rides upon her impressive steed, you spot one of the guards standing atop one of the northern watchtowers. It is one of the men, though whether Utarchus or Dullen is hard to make out at this distance, as the two are of a like stature.
As you enter the monastery proper, you see a few of the other mercenaries running around, and there appears to be a bit of excitement. One of the women, Brotis, the taller of the mercenary women, stops and hails you over.
"Your back! Good timing. Things have been going crazy all morning; a cook fire got out of control and caused a mess in the kitchen, Utarchus fell off a ladder and may have broken his foot, and just now Hadrod said he saw 'a little man' ducking out of the courtyard and heading towards the north end. Almah fears it might be another of those gremlins, and wants the place scoured for it! If you see Sati, warn her, she's in the Sanctuary!"
Seif-al-Din groans.
"Well, it certainly sounds as if there is one or more of those damned gremlins in here. We need to find it, and destroy it, before it causes further mayhem!"
He then rushes in the indicated direction.
"Gremlins?" Akhom enquires as he draws his bow and follows Seif's lead. "You've faced them before?"
Seif-al-Din nods.
"Unfortunately, yes. This place was lousy with the little vermin. Bad luck quite literally seems to follow them wherever they go..."
"Luck is for fools. Will, destiny, and the grace of Sarenrae will bring us victory," Akhom proclaims with the arrogant certainty of a young religious adherent. He keeps a close eye out for movement or anything suspicious as they approach the aforementioned area.
Muqaq snorts at Akhom's zeal. "Yeah well, like I said, we lost two men clearing this place because of them." The Ifrit sorcerer follows the others into the sanctuary to look for the pugwampi.
N'Dateh gets off her horse and jumps to the ground, almost crouching on the floor as she lands. Slowly, she rises back up, seemingly stretching every muscle of her wiry body as she does. Her eyes shine at the mention of gremlins: "This place is not safe? And why are those men not with you in battle? It seems you have poor tactics! I have watched friends die in battle, and am weary of it."
"I'm surprised it would come back, they seemed quite cowardly."
Eyeing his pistol, Xanyon instead draws his sword.
"No sense risking friendly fire."
Muqaq snorts at Akhom's zeal. "Yeah well, like I said, we lost two men clearing this place because of them." The Ifrit sorcerer follows the others into the sanctuary to look for the pugwampi.
"Two men killed by Shorlrhu*?" the boy asks in a surprised voice. Quieter, so as not to insult Muqaq's memory of the men, he murmurs softly, "Their tactics must have been poor, and their conviction wanting..."
"Well, to be fair, there were a lot of them; we lost one man when part of the building collapsed on him, and the other to a giant flying bird the size of a horse..."
Seif-al-Din stops, and glares at N'Dateh.
"By all means, feel free to join them. You know nothing about the plans that govern our tactics. There is not enough man-power here to take on the Gnolls with a single frontal assault; a small force can make a series of hit-and-run forays, thinning their numbers, before going in for the kill. As for the guards who remained here, they belong to our employer, and are responsible for defending her and the other camp members. It would have been grossly negligent to take them, and leave the rest of the camp undefended."
He then turns his back on the woman without another word, and continues searching for the gremlin...
N'Dateh bows her head: "I am sorry if I have offended you. Your point is sound, as I was part of frontal assault, only four days past, that ended in bloodshed! I mourn still for my companion, and wishes to avenge their death. I will join you and try another way gladly."
N'Dateh waits to see if Seif will turn back to face her, keeping her head bowed.
Seif-al-Din lets out a great sigh, and has the grace to turn back to look at N'Dateh with an expression of contrition on his face.
"I, too, am sorry for my outburst. It has been a stressful couple of days. Death has seemed to dog our footsteps, but we have made significant, albeit small, gains. Hopefully, with a little more preparation, we will be able to cleanse the settlement of the Gnollish infestation, and avenge our dead."
At Seif words, N'Dateh' thoughts turn to the image of the young one she sacrificed in order to save her skin...
"Yes, they require vengeance."
The party scrambles first to the Sanctuary while looking for the little beast. There they find Sati, kneeling in prayer at the alter, and the unearthly Mohgwier sitting nearby, his gold eyes regarding the group. After passing on the warning that the creature is about, they catch sight of some movement and head off in a chase. After a few brief moments as the monster tries to escape by running this way and that, always managing move around a corner just in time to stay just out of bow or gunshot.
Finally, the creature becomes cornered in the Chapter House; the place where you originally found a nest of Stirges, now all dead. Perhaps it was hoping they were alive and might protect it, but alas for the poor monster, he is alone here. The room has only one exit, from which your party approaches, cutting off escape by the route through which it entered. There is a secret passage that leads out of the room, but unless the vegetation growing over it has been removed, the tint monster will lack the strength needed to force it open.
Gruthic gets a good look at their quarry for the first time as they corner it in the Chapter House. The miserable little creature doesn't impress him terribly as it cowers against the back wall.
"This? This creature is what all the ruckus was about? It's no bigger than a rabbit. A silly little rabbit. I'll go lop his head off."
He draws out his axe and moves across the room to the creature.
As Gruthic begins to move forward, Akhom puts a hand on his shoulder. "Wait - it may not look dangerous, but who knows? Why not let me just take it down with an arrow or two? If it charges us, then decapitate it."
"Nobody speaks gnoll? Damn. It would be good to know why it's here." Muqaq allows the others to kill the vermin if no one corrects him.
N'Dateh turns to Muqaq: "Gnoll I speak." She yells in a guttural bark to the creature:
"I speak their filthy tongue. What would you have me say?"
As N'Dateh calls out, Akhom draws his bow and trains an arrow on the gremlin.
Xanyon watches from the back, bemused by the ruckus created by such a small being.
"Maybe it's a distraction?"
The tone of voice clearly conveys he doesn't believe this.
The little creature cowers in the corner, looking terrified as Gruthic moves closer. His timid voice squeaks out in gnoll, "Ambapo ni mfalme Mokknokk? Mimi kurudi nyumbani kwangu, lakini Mfalme si hapa. Niambie!"
"It's rambling about some king. Moknok? He says he's returned but doesn't find him..." conveys N'Dateh, looking for firther input as she has no idea what the Pugwampi is rambling about.
Seif-al-Din shrugs.
"There was a more powerful Pugwampi who was probably the leader... maybe that is what it is referring to...? He is dead now - he was the one who killed one of our former comrades, when he deliberately collapsed part of the ceiling."
"Tell him we killed his king, and we'll kill him if he doesn't tell us everything he knows about the gnolls in Kelmarane."
Akhom spits out an aggressive sentence in the harsh tongue of the hyena folk, still looking down the shaft of his arrow:
N'Dateh hears Akhom's account and narrows her eyes, curious to see how the creature will react.
The little creature's eyes go wide when he hears you claim his King's death. However, he still has a gleam of pride in his eye. He stands up a little taller, drawing his dagger, though not holding it in any particularly menacing fashion, he says, "Mimi Waislamu na hakuna hata mmoja."
Interpreting the gesture if not the words, Muqaq says, "So be it, you deny redemption. Find then the edge of a blade," he says to the gremlin, not caring if it really understands him. To the rest of the team surrounding the pugwampi he says, "Kill the vermin."
"Wait! He's refusing to surrender," Akhom whispers to Muqaq in Taldane. "I will shoot it if you require, though it seems a little... craven to do so. Give me one more chance to get him to talk."
Then he shouts out to the gremlin again, though his voice holds more respect having seen the gremlin's bravery, however misguided: "Sisi kuua wewe kama sisi lazima. Lakini hakuna aibu katika kujisalimisha heshima wakati kifo ni tu nyingine uchaguzi!"
"Kusubiri! Sitaki kufa! Mimi mara tu kuja nyumbani! Sijui kitu kuhusu wale Mtakatifu katika kijiji. Sisi kuwaleta sadaka nyingi, lakini hawana hebu kukaa. Kusema sisi tainted. Wao ni wenye busara, na sisi ni wasiostahili kuishi katika presense yao, hivyo sisi ibada kutoka hapa."
The little gremlin looks about at the creatures facing him in a chamber of what used to be his home. His face looks a little resigned as only silence greats him after his statement.
N'Dateh looks expectantly at Dakhom, but shrugs as he remains silent: "He's willing to cooperate, for now. He says there are some holy ones in the village, that they lived here to worship them. Doesn,t make any sense to me..."
She turns to the creature, eyes filled with contempt: "Kuniambia nini kuhusu mbwa ni Mtakatifu haya!?"
"Ndio Mtakatifu ni uwakilishi kuu ya fomu yetu; kama sisi wao kubeba nyanja ya mahasimu fiercest, lakini ndani yao fomu ni idealized. Wao ni mashujaa kamilifu; wawindaji wengi mkali. Ni wao ambao siku moja ya utawala wote. Wao ni mteule wa mungu; kuundwa kukubwa!"
"Is he going to tell us of the gnolls or not? If not just kill him and get it over with. If we let that little bugger loose more people are liable to die in some horrible accident."
N'Dateh conveys the words to the others: "I have no idea. I don't think he knows much beyond its worship... Still, I'm curious to see... After the city is liberated."