The figure remains crouched behind the ruin, though Cynara hears some noise to the side of the voice that suggests it is not alone. It laughs before replying "Skikrit born here too bearded two-legs... many things born here... many things dead-not-dead here too... Skikrit home here, not leaving because beardy two-legs come again" it's tone is not overtly aggressive.
Stonebrow speaks quietly "Not this day brothers... but soon. Let us see to the stone under sky first" continuing to slowly back away without taking his eyes off the were-rat.
"Very well, Skikrit. We will meet again soon, I suppose, if you don't reconsider."
Sotto Voce "Hmmm rats and dogs, as allies? Odd..."
Love keeps a watch on other approaches, including the ceiling.
Cynara silently nods in the direction of the wererat's voice and backs away with Stonebrow.
Padrym advances backwards, watching the shadows as his party retreats from the mine.
Dolgrym follows the rest of the crew back out of the mine, wanting more than anything to go back in and poke around in the object of their undertaking. "We'll be back soon," he mutters, to no one in particular.
"Aye, I don't like leaving, but we'll be back soon enough." Feigr follows with the rest leaving the mines.
Skikrit watches you as you back away, eventually coming from his place of hiding to pad over to the newly etched rune. Frowning the were-rat hits the carving with the butt end of a stick trying to mar it's form - but that which has been made with magic is not easily broken. You back out of vision and eventually to the camp itself. Just before you move into the encampment proper, Stonebrow turns to you and adds "I thank you for indulging an old man's folly. The gladdringgar is a mark of intent... and it is my wish that the next rune etched is within deeper halls"
The night passes reasonably peacefully... though the jumpy sentries at the mine entrance mouth cry wolf once or twice in the night. Once the offending monster was a particularly fat rat exiting the tunnel and the other was nothing more than shadows seeming to jump.
Morning comes and Love awakens in the watch-tower to a potentially unwelcome sight. Across the valley and towards the Eastern road he sees a small trail of dust and upon closer inspection... approaching gnolls. They are still a few hours away, and number only a half-dozen as he guesses - but they are coming closer and heading towards the ruined fort.
On hearing of the gnolls' approach, Cynara asks, "Shall we lure them into an ambush? I admit, I would prefer to keep our presence here hidden from the gnoll tribes to the east as long as possible."
"If we kill them the gnolls will send more. If we don't kill them the gnolls will send a lot more. Unless they are here to parley, we'll end them."
Padrym is speaking of the gnolls, but his eyes are fixed on the entrance to the mine.
"Been expecting this bright eyes. They know we are here."
"If we are lucky they can be bought off by playing nice and telling them how great they are. Explain how all this," Love gestures at the still smoking cairn where the gnoll bodies were burned. "was a tragic accident and that we would be happy to work the mine under their distant supervision. They will know we are lying, we will know they know we are lying. But they would loose many warriors digging us out so they might accept weregeld and a bit of kowtowing."
Love looks at the rather interm state of the fortifications.
"Might buy us some time anyway."
Khepri squints his eyes and says, "Gnolls are not to be trusted as servants of Lamashtu, or even worse Rovagug. I like not the thought of any gnoll being able to walk away from here and alert their tribe or others. We need to make sure they don't report to any."
Sangvit nods gravely at your counsel "Aye, for the short term it will be best to see that they don't return. And despite the thought I'd not think they'll listen to reason Lowfield. We'll have to deal with their brethren eventually, but I would feel more comfortable doing so from behind stone than canvas."
Gaelthrin pipes up "As we did before? - hide among the tents and hope they are drawn in? Though it might not be as easy this time as there are more signs of our presence..."
"That's probably the best idea, Gaelthrin. No reason to change something that seems to be working well."
Cynara replies tentatively, "I have another suggestion. Since there aren't many of them, why don't we send an obvious group away to the west with one or two of the wagons? They'll think we've been weakened by the dark stalkers and are running away. If they chase the wagons, the rest of us move to cut off their retreat. If they go for the camp, they'll be expecting to see changes, and won't be suspicious when they enter. Then those of us who stayed can ambush them--from the fort, the tents, or for that matter from the mine entrance."
"A good suggestion Cynara but what if they have a force we haven't seen? Now that we're here we're best off digging in and forcing them to come to us. It's what dwarves do."
And most of us do it well.
"I'd suggest we send someone with sharp eyes into the tower and see if we can see any beyond the force bearing down on us. The rest of us can dig in while that happens. We can always send a lure out if it is truly a smaller group."
Love returns aloft and can confirm that it is only the small group of six gnolls that is approaching. The dwarves make ready to hide, though most of them move to the safety of the ruined fort - as many of the ratty gnoll tents have been demolished.
"Small number of them and I don't trust hiding to lure them in. I think we either send a lure out, perhaps as simple as a couple of us or the wagon. Or, we just go with the small group of us. Too many of our force will just send them off for more help. I'm willing to be part of the lure."
Khepri steps up, "I volunteer as well"
Sangvit sees no harm to your words, but refrains from offering any of his own dwarves to the venture.
This promises to be interesting. Cynara steps up, spear in hand. "That sounds like too good a party to miss. Let's not go straight at them at first--give them a chance to chase us down, and if they don't we can cut back towards them. Sangvit's dwarves can set up their ambush here in case we fall." She turns her milky gaze to her other traveling companions. "Care to join us?"
"Sorry bright eyes. I don't feel like playing bait. And I know I can't outrun the dogs on these stubby legs. So for today at least I will take the traditional Dwarven path and hide behind stone walls and let trouble come to me.
You will likely be out of range but I'll be on the tower anyway. Any that come in close will get a nasty suprise."
"I think I agree with Love. Why would we go to meet them? The last time, our plan worked well. Let's get them as close as possible, then crush them again. Worst case scenario, we can chase them down if they turn and run."
"I don't think we can chase them down...I'm the only one who could keep up with them, and I might have some...minor difficulty figuring out which direction to move. That's entirely neglecting the small problem I'd have fighting more than one or two gnolls at a time.
"The problem is that the gnolls, not sharing my sensory limitations, may well see the changes to the camp from a distance and run off, with the aforementioned pursuit issue rearing its ugly head. Now, if a few of us obviously flee, the gnolls will not be surprised to see changes in the camp, and will enter more readily. Since only a great fool divides their forces in the presence of an enemy--" The elf smiles slightly. "--they will be less likely to suspect that any of us are left in the camp. Now, there is a chance that they would elect to pursue the decoy group, which is why I would prefer that the decoy group be strong enough to defeat the gnolls on their own."
"I'm not convinced, but I'm not going to let you all run around with gnolls chasing down the rest of you without me being there. How do you plan on executing this?"
"Let's stand in front of the walls and make them angry. They charge, we fight, the others ambush them. Honestly at some point the gnolls are going to come at us in strength, so we either need to keep killing off patrols or have them come at us in strength."
"What, have a few of us be obvious while Sangvit's forces stay hidden in reserve? That could work."
Love strokes his close cropped beard.
"Still not sure why you are all so concerned about whiping out this patrol. At least two gnolls escaped our assault so the nearby tribes know we are here. This group is coming openly so they very well could be here to parley. Either that or they are a returning hunting party."
"I saw most of my family slain in the battles for Solku. I understand you are trying to buy time, but they will see weakness. They are cowards when faced with strength. The best way for us to buy time is to destroy them and create doubt about what they face. we can destroy six with only part of our strength. I say we destroy them."
"I should mention, that was a minor part of why I thought that being seen was preferable to striking from ambush. That is, how will the gnolls react to a force approximately the same size as, or slightly smaller than, their own? The manner of their approach will undoubtedly tell us...well, tell the rest of you, anyway...a great deal about their intent. Parley signals should, I trust, be readily distinguished from war cries. Though these are gnolls we're talking about, so we can take little for granted in that regard. I suppose what I am suggesting is that we surrender initiative to the gnolls; I believe it to be an acceptable risk, since we have superior numbers at our backs. If they turn out to be more than we can handle on our own, that is."
The other dwarves make themselves scarce, leaving only the group in the open to meet the approaching gnolls. Love is high in the tower and observing as they make their way leisurely across the open area and towards the ruined fort. He is confident that there are but six of them and reasonably sure that there are none of great power or respect among them (based on the fact they all are wearing roughly the same armor and seemingly bicker among each other as equals).
However they will soon cross into an area where they have clear view of the approach to the fort...
"I still think moving away southwest is the better plan."
Dolgrym nods, and then follows the others away from the fort.
Padrym moves with the group, seeing no need to object on this matter.
The party waits until just before the gnoll crest into view before setting out to the South and West. You spy the gnoll come into view and they give a pause as they see you. Clearly the fact you have come from what they thought to be a stronghold of their kin is not to their expectation. Their forward progress halts and they begin to chatter among themselves - keeping in a reasonably tight group.
"Let's keep moving away from them, and perhaps look as though we're trying to pick up the pace a bit."
Dolgyrm listens to the cleric and follows in her path. "If we lure them a bit closer, I could fire off my spell hoping to knock a couple of them off their feet. That might let us get the drop on them," he hisses to the others.
The elf doesn't turn to face Dolgrym, but continues to keep her focus on the ground right in front of her as the party walks. "Oh, if they want to run us down they can. If they do, wait until they're close enough that Feigr, Padrym, and Khepri can reach them on a charge."
Sense Motive:
The gnolls watch for a few short moments, eyes flickering between the ruined fort and the group moving away. One of them then barks a high pitched yip and the gnolls move to chase down the party, running a slightly circuitous path that places their back to the camp. Their yips and yowls gradually grow closer to you, and they look to be readying to charge forward as they draw to about a hundred feet from you.
DM
Feigr picks up the pace, glancing over his shoulder and happy to see the gnolls are in pursuit. He whispers, "Let's see if we can take one of them alive and learn about that other group of gnolls and what they know of this one."
Once the gnolls are in range, he turns and charges attacking the first three without mercy and the last with non-lethal attacks.
The advance party turns upon the gnolls with savagery and fervor, quickly accounting for the gnoll party. The last creature is laid out with a fist by Feigr and breathes raggedly, but lives on. The dwarves within the fort wave acknowledgement of your swift victory and then await your return.
Cynara dispenses a quick round of positive energy to heal any minor scrapes and scratches inflicted by the badly overmatched gnolls. "It's always amusing to see the looks on their faces when they realize how badly they're outmatched. (Which we should take as an object lesson, when it comes to mounting attacks against apparently-inferior forces ourselves.) Now, before our captive awakens, if we're able to communicate with him, what shall we offer him to induce him to cooperate with us?"
"It was well fought, but Cynara has a point. There is nothing that leads me to suspect we are not as badly outmatched as these gnolls. We must be careful, and it seems our first plan of attack into the mine needs to involve a way of dealing with lycanthropy. Has anyone come up with ways to kill the rats and prevent us from sharing their fate?"
"Honestly, I don't think there is any way to avoid the lycanthropy other than simply not getting bitten. Striking them from range, and keeping them away from us is the most advisable strategy."
Once they return
"Nice plan but not workable. You saw how easily they can move among us. We should have some restraints ready for those of us who are infected."