The gnoll sputters water and comes to snarling until Ushari's touch calms him tremendously. He shows her a mouthful of plaque-ridden and crooked canines. You think it is a gnoll 'smile'. His Common is passable. "I don't like to bath. Water is drinking for."
Jayse leans in to whisper in Ushari's ear, "Make sure to treat him as is we came simply seeking some information. Don't bring up the conflict unless he does, and then reassure him we meant only to ask questions. They did, after all, charge out first. We acted out of fear and respect of their reputation and battle-prowess."
Ushari rolls her eyes at Jayse before she responds to their prisoner, "These are my friends. Treat them as you would me. Yes, we only came here seeking answers. We responded to your attack with respect for your battle prowess. My question to you is why did your leader have you assembled in front of your palisade?"
The gnoll sits up with difficulty in his bindings and gives a confused shake of his shaggy head. "We defense from human attacks." He sniffs the air, taking in your various scents. "Maybe not you-humans but the other human. Yes, we smelled him."
Jayse suppresses his frustration at Ushari's eye-roll, "What other human? What did he look like? And he's been attacking you? Alone?"
The gnoll regards the question from the man who beat him senseless and weighs it against Ushari's words of friendship...
"Yes, HardHands. One human we have smelled. Seen only a bit; his cunning. One after one he takes from us - our pups, our females, our old, our less-strong. One after one, then more. Now, we guard all night. Watch and wait to kill. Then you come."
"What did he look like?"
The gnoll gives an ugly but humor-laden grin. "He is small like all human. I see him once maybe. Smaller than HardHands and SongMaker. Maybe bigger than ShinyHair..." He says with a nod at Ushari. Then he looks to the gnome. "Much bigger than Sh!tsized." His laughter is a hyena bark.
Jayse narrows his eyes at the gnoll, "Watch your tongue, fur-ball, or s#%%-sized here will leave a smoking crater of your remains. You said you've seen him once. Do you remember any specifics? What was his hair look like?" He points to his own hair to make sure the thing knows what he's asking for. "Is his skin…" and he touches some of the open skin on his forearm, ".. lighter or darker than mine? What does it look like?"
He pauses for a second, then realizes he's asking specifics while giving the creature context may shed some light, "it seems like your… pack... is experiencing something the humans are. Children are being stolen from them, too. Do you know anything about this?"
Ushari keeps her voice neutral, and asks carefully "If you smelled him again, you could recognize who he is right?"
"Can we not keep calling me by that moniker, please." Strae looks at the monk, "Thanks for the defense but I'm sure our good friend here was merely being descriptive of my size compared to his... well, I'm sure it wasn't intended as an insult."
Jayse narrows his eyes at the gnoll, "You said you've seen him once. Do you remember any specifics? What was his hair look like?" He points to his own hair to make sure the thing knows what he's asking for. "Is his skin..." and he touches some of the open skin on his forearm, ".. lighter or darker than mine? What does it look like?"
He pauses for a second, then realizes he's asking specifics while giving the creature context may shed some light, "it seems like your... pack... is experiencing something the humans are. Children are being stolen from them, too. Do you know anything about this?"
The gnoll puzzles over the barrage of questions. "Seen him once in woods at night over long distance. Can't say color-color. Didn't see long hair. He not built like fighting man - smaller and narrow?"
"We do not cross tracks with human pack in long time. We move around their riverlands." Jayse is convinced that the gnoll is being entirely candid.
Ushari keeps her voice neutral, and asks carefully "If you smelled him again, you could recognize who he is right?"
The gnoll snaps his jaws decisively, anger instantly visible. "I know him smell, ShinyHair."
He considers Jayse's words about Straehan, regards the gnome with whom he is now eye-to-eye, and surveys the fire damage and charred bodies through the drifting smoke... and thinks better of his words. "Sorrying, Sh!tsized. No insult from heart. You are just.... small."
"Uh... I am small." is the only reply the pint-sized sorcerer can come up with to the strange apology.
So he's shorter than me but taller than Ushari, with a slight build and 'not long' hair. Jayse's mind files all this away as he regards the knoll.
"It seems we may have a mutual enemy. Like I said, the human pack is also experiencing their young being taken. The tracks away from those events seemed to lead us towards your lair here. Out of curiosity, where have your kind been getting stolen from? Is this human sneaking into your den and taking them? Or has it happened out in the surrounding areas?"
Once he gets his answer, he looks down at the ground in thought, then turns back to the group, including the gnoll in the discussion, "So we have two groups experiencing the same problem. I can only think of two explanations." He holds up his pointer finger, "One is that we have someone or something stealing the young and weak from the area - regardless of race - for some purpose." A second finger joins the first, "Or this person - a crafty creature by this gnoll's experience - is pitting the two groups against each other. Again, for some unknown reason."
He stops and mulls it over some more, two fingers held forgotten in the air as he scratches his chin with the other, "Ya know, somehow the fact that only lumber-folk children have been taken feels a lot more important now, though I can't put my finger on the why." He drops both hands behind his back, clasping them in a very practiced manner as he begins pacing - something you've seen him do when he's really working through things mentally. "I'm thinking that may come to light if we can identify who this child-stealer is." He stops his pacing and looks at the gnoll, "The simplest way would be to bring you into town to help us locate him. Though that's going to be very dangerous to you. Since the humans think you took their young, they are pretty much willing to torture and kill any of your kind who come near their home. Would you be willing to come with us to try to identify this person? I will try my best to keep you alive, but I can make no guarantees. The only promise I can make is that if you can help us identify this crafty child-stealer, I will make it my goal to see them brought to justice. Is this something you're willing to help us with?"
"...where have your kind been getting stolen from? Is this human sneaking into your den and taking them? Or has it happened out in the surrounding areas?"
"Many taken while foraging near or far... while hunters hunt away. Later, close to camp. Some taken outside fence. No man-smell inside fence."
"Since the humans think you took their young, they are pretty much willing to torture and kill any of your kind who come near their home. Would you be willing to come with us to try to identify this person? I will try my best to keep you alive, but I can make no guarantees."
The gnolls cocks his head to the left, like a dog that is looking at something strange. "Not understand... you do not control your pack? They will kill when you say 'no'?" He seems to find this puzzling but irrelevant. "I will help for ShinyHair and for vengeance."
"The only promise I can make is that if you can help us identify this crafty child-stealer, I will make it my goal to see them brought to justice. Is this something you're willing to help us with?"
The hair on the gnoll's muzzle and back bristles. "Gnoll justice - tear flesh from bones; gnaw on entrails; crack skull; eat brain. Then let CunningOne die. What is your justice?"
"Or this person - a crafty creature by this gnoll's experience - is pitting the two groups against each other. Again, for some unknown reason."
Strae pulls at the dit of hair below his lip. "Perhaps this isn't a two-hand but a three-hand game... If the Striper is pitting gnoll against human. He might also be pitting lumbermen against fishermen."
Strae pulls at the dit of hair below his lip. "Perhaps this isn't a two-hand but a three-hand game... If the Striper is pitting gnoll against human. He might also be pitting lumbermen against fishermen."
Ushari replies "That makes as much sense as anything I can think of right now." She glances over to the palisade, "I wonder if we could pick up the trail back where we found that gnoll flesh."
"Many taken while foraging near or far... while hunters hunt away. Later, close to camp. Some taken outside fence. No man-smell inside fence."
Jayse narrows his eyes, "How about wolf smell?"
"Not understand... you do not control your pack? They will kill when you say 'no'?" He seems to find this puzzling but irrelevant. "I will help for ShinyHair and for vengeance."
"They're not our pack. We're just helping them find this Cunning One." When the gnoll agrees to help, jayse simply nods.
"Many taken while foraging near or far... while hunters hunt away. Later, close to camp. Some taken outside fence. No man-smell inside fence."
Again Jayse nods, "Justice has many forms, but in this case the form is for you to decide. You and the human pack were the ones wronged, so I'm happy to let you decide what the justice is. I'm guessing in this regard your two packs will actually see eye to eye." He gives another mirthless chuckle, "Plus, I don't see this Cunning One going down without a fight… he may seal his own fate."
Straehan and Ushari's comments make Jayse think again. "That's probably a good call. If our kidnapper is in town, I hate to leave him there un-watched, but given that we don't really know who he is yet, I hate to leave the trail of those kids un-followed. We'll have a lot of devastated parents if we come back empty-handed."
"Wolf? No wolfs walk into camp. They are delicious."
He indicates his bindings with a sniff. "You untie me now and wake my pack?"
Straehan looks across the field of battle, his mood turning as black as the scorched earth he created. Eyeing the body count and the size of the palisade...
"How many of your pack have been taken by the Cunning One? How long has he been hunting your people?"
The gnoll snaps off the count of the missing like a bone, "Thirty and three." He chews on the other half of the question before answering. "Of days, maybe three times that many."
He indicates his bindings with a sniff. "You untie me now and wake my pack?"
Ushari nods decisively, "We will be like packmates, as we hunt this Hunter down."
She then moves to untie the gnoll...
Ushari cuts the gnoll sergeant loose and he rises to his full 6'6" height, shaking his limbs loose. He looks at the two unconscious gnolls.
"My littermates can't not lay here. Not safe. But they will find hard to know we are not fight. I am lead of them. I tell them to find sister-tribe and they go. This is safer. Our tribe is gone. I will stay with ShinyHair until justice happens."
The gnome slowly shakes his mop of dark hair and looks between the cleric and gnoll. He feigns exasperation, "What IS it with you and tall, furry guys?!"
Jofram maintains a rigid stance, but says nothing as Ushari moves to untie the gnoll.
As Ushari cuts the gnolls bindings, Jayse looks up at his former opponent, his eyes giving a clear but wordless warning, This is my pack. Do not turn on us.
Straehan's quip breaks his gaze, and Jayse can't help but smile, "You definitely seem to have a type… well, the necromancer from that one town aside." As he checks the position of the sun, he double-checks his gear - scarce as it is - and turns to the gnoll once more, "Do you need to take care of anything else here? And…what should we call you?"
While waiting for an answer, Jayse unconsciously rubs his hand across a few of the injuries he took during the quick but brutal fight, "Any of you have any healing you can spare? I don't like the idea of going into another fight beat up. Might be smart to give him," he hikes a thumb at the gnoll, "some healing as well. If he gets caught by an arrow before he can identify the Cunning One, things will get far more difficult really quickly."
Ushari laughs at Straehan's quip. "Ya know, Strae, jealousy is an unbecoming trait you have a tendency to display at times!" She winks at him, "Maybe there are some magical arts you can experiment with to...ummm....compensate!"
She looks over everyone's wounds and decides channeling would be most efficient here.
Ushari's healing energy revitalizes everyone including the unconscious gnolls. There are some initially tense moments as they are awakened but, true to his word, the Sergeant manages to secure the peace with a great deal of snarling orders, fur standing on end, a bit of alpha male domination, and one or two cuffs from a strong paw. The lesser gnolls eye your group with suspicion but don't offer any threat.
His men jog to the palisade and return with their few meager belongings and a chest. He gives yet more instructions in Gnollish, pats both men roughly, and sends them North with their possessions and the chest. They never look back.
The Sergeant watches his people go with an inscrutable look. He raises a furry paw as they disappear into the treeline. He doesn't look away from the treeline as he answers Jayse, "Name me Shaggar." He picks up his blade and quickly strips the better armor from his dead commander. "Ready go."
Jayse eyes the big blade before giving the Shaggar a nod and turning to the half-elf. "Unless anyone has anything else, let's go find that trail."
You set off through the forest as the sun sets, hoping to catch the prints before all light fades into darkness. In less than an hour, you have covered the distance and stand amid the large boles, looking at the gnoll tracks as they take a quick turn to the SouthEast.
Even through the falling darkness, Jofram follows the trail with ease. It winds inexorably Southeast for a couple of miles before sharply bending East. The ranger frowns at the change in the pattern of the steps. They become noticably harder to follow... as if the gnoll was trying to elude trackers. Still, in the dim slivers of light left as the sky goes fully black, lit only by a thin slash of a moon, Jofram dogs the footsteps faultlessly.
Another couple of miles fall behind you in the ancient forest, as the trail (which continues East) becomes more difficult to follow. It breaks from the forest into a clearing of tumbled granite and tufts of low bushes. The ribbon of granite bisects your path, traveling approximately North to South - for a few miles at least, and is a couple hundred yards across. In the dark, across the unforgiving surface, it is almost impossible to follow the trail... and yet the ranger doesn't fail to note every subtle scuff mark or fallen leaf that indicates the creature's trail.
You move across the granite, lit mostly by the pale radiance of the magical globes conjured by the sorcerer to ensure the humans don't trip in the near blackness. A sound catches your ears - running water. You continue on and run into a wide, swift stream that has carved a snakey path through the granite. Through the years it has hollowed out a trench through the stone. The water level is approximately 6' below the land's surface. No doubt it runs higher in Winter. Jofram scouts along the lip of the trench and finds the spot where the gnoll must have entered the river.
Jayse follows along, straining his ears against the quiet of the night. He's fascinated with Jofram's ability to keep them moving forward. Finally he can't help himself, and he moves up beside Straehan, "How the hell does he find tracks across rock ground in the dark? Remind me not to steal from him… at least not where he can realize I did it. Never be able to shake the bastard loose."
When they come to the stream, Jayse looks up and down the water-way, trying to think of an easy way to cross. "Damn. I hate to lose more time here. So we the kidnapper either crossed over or he went up or down-stream. Shaggar, you a tracker? It might go better if we can split our efforts here to refind the trail."
Jayse follows along, straining his ears against the quiet of the night. He's fascinated with Jofram's ability to keep them moving forward. Finally he can't help himself, and he moves up beside Straehan, "How the hell does he find tracks across rock ground in the dark? Remind me not to steal from him… at least not where he can realize I did it. Never be able to shake the bastard loose."
Straehan considers the issue with gravity. "Yeah, I'd suggest you get him a bottle of that 'Hellbroth' stuff and make sure he's about 3 mugs in before you try robbing him... at least that is my plan for when I pawn his bird." He gives a little follow-up wink.
Shaggar, who seems to have taken on some odd mantle of authority since donning his predecessor's armor, makes a throaty chuffing sound which you take as a 'no'. "Know smells. Sometimes can scent prey if close. But not follow tracks, no, and smells here are strange - city-women smells."
Shaggar, who seems to have taken on some odd mantle of authority since donning his predecessor's armor, makes a throaty chuffing sound which you take as a 'no'. "Know smells. Sometimes can scent prey if close. But not follow tracks, no, and smells here are strange - city-women smells."
Ushari concentrates on not stumbling around in the dark, and keeping up with the others. Her silence is broken only by Shaggar's comment. "Were you referring to me, or did you scent someone else?"
Shaggar chuffs again. "Know your smells, ShinyHair. Not you, not person... is smell... errrr... smell on city-woman, like clothes. Get it?"
"Wait, so you have someone else's scent? The last child taken... boy or girl?"
Shaggar chuffs again in frustration. "Don't have word. No, is not human. Smell like smelly stuff city-women have on skin... to confuse city-men. Fake flowers."
Ushari glances at Jayse. "Sounds like he is referring to perfume."
Shaggar tries on the word for size, "Parfoom?"
"Shaggar, have you been smelling this perfume since we got back on this trail? Or just in this area?"
Ushari smiles, "Close enough, Shaggar." Her face then turns serious. "Something just occured to me. The Striper may be a woman and the perfume belongs to her. It may not belong to one of the victims."
"It is here. Other side of water, think. Before here - death only in wind."
Jayse stares at the ground on the other side of the river, hands clasped behind his back . "This just gets more and more complicated," he mutters.
"Shaggar, is there any way a gnoll could have been stealing the kids from town? are there any other gnoll packs in the area?"
Ushari smiles, "Close enough, Shaggar." Her face then turns serious. "Something just occured to me. The Striper may be a woman and the perfume belongs to her. It may not belong to one of the victims."
Jayse nods, "Yah. I'm beginning to have some theories on that."