NDT Session 28: Gnoll Hypothesis

 Ext. Threshold

After returning from the haunted house the party’s thoughts turned to supplies for their journey ahead.

Despite warnings about the dangers in the mountains from gnolls, the party bought two mules. Rosie bet the ostler that they would return safely with them.

The next day they were ready to depart and started to follow the Foamfire river towards the mountains. The first day was uneventful but the morning brought signs of impending danger.

Firstly, they discovered the grisly remains of a campsite that had been attacked by gnolls. The bodies of some people had been burnt but there were no skulls.

Then as the mists descended down the valley they discovered a further horrors -  some human heads mounted on stakes and then a circle of gnolls corpses and skeletons ons stakes, which were identified by Rurik as the way that some gnoll tribes dealt with their dead. 

Before they could investigate further they were attacked. Firstly, by undead gnoll witherlings then a gnoll shaman and her entourage. These were swiftly defeated with the help of Stephan and the party decided to destroy the site with some remain call lightning strikes and bear attacks.

Some items were discovered (including potions in kobold skulls and some scrolls) but the party decided to move on before taking a rest.

A mile or so upriver they decided to take a short rest but they were interrupted about 30 minutes later…

TBC

DM notes: this part of the adventure is quite horrific - I’m surprised I wasn’t freaked out when I bought it when I was 11 years old.

The party have also done enough to make the gnolls extremely angry - even more than the module suggests.i think I may have given the impression that the staking gnoll corpses made the gnoll witherlings - the original module has ghouls but witherlings seemed more appropriate (plus I had a couple of minis)

Finally, my group seemed to have lost track of what was going on. Some of them seem to have forgotten they’d moved on from selling horses to finding a lost temple but when they were reminded they decided to press on instead of staying in town.