Session 55 - Who's Laughing Now?
In-game timeline: Nightal 20 - Nightal 21 DR1489
Our "Heroes" are tending their wounds outside a hyena (and gnoll?) cave after facing, and defeating some hooked-limbed creatures that had emerged from the cave entrance and attacked them.
As all except Drogan head to the outcrop opposite the cave entrance to try to see if anything else will emerge from the cavern, whilst the barbarian dwarf remains above the entrance, behind a pile of dead hooked creatures.
Drogan drops a flask of lamp oil onto the floor by the cave and light is, allowing the others to see a little further, and a little better, into the cave. Alwaith spots some movement behind the flickering light, in the cave itself.
As Drogan peers over the dead bodies to see what is happening at the cave entrance, he is surprised to see three arrows thud into the dead bodies around him, and a fourth arrow impales into his armour-less body. They seemed to come from above.
As Drogan clambers down the side of the hill to try to get more cover for flying arrows, another two arrows hit him as he descends. All of a sudden, some hyenas emerge from the cave, running towards the group opposite. The light from the lamp oil ensured the group are not surprised, but the hyenas attack. Dwarrow had a crossbow bolt readied and manages to take a hyena down before it reaches them.
The group make fairly short work of the attacking hyenas, including the giant, armoured hyena, though the beasts do get a couple of bites on the party, and in the process of attacking the hyenas Drogan is exposed to the arrow shots from above and receives more arrow hits.
With the hyenas despatched, Drogan - keen not to lose his rage and wanting to get under cover from the arrows above - rushes into the cave entrance, following quickly by the others, cursing Drogan's name under their breath as he once again rushes into the unknown.
And Drogan finds himself emerging in a large cavern, facing a massive ballista that is pointing straight at him! A giant crossbow bolt fires towards him as he emerges from the entrance, but luckily for the barbarian the bolt misses and embeds itself in the wall behind him. A lucky escape!
Not so lucky, however, when a well-aimed arrow fired by a nearby gnoll on a ledge does hit Drogan.
As the rest of the party emerge into the cavern a tactical battle ensues. A number of gnolls are positioned on ledges around the cavern, firing at the party, with the party returning fire and seeking cover behind a wall of wooden posts that seems to be walling off a muddy path. To cut a long battle story short, the party take out all of the gnolls that were firing on them, whilst luckily managing to avoid the large ballista bolts, but taking some damage from gnoll arrows in the process and Drogan needing to drink a second healing potion.
With most of the gnolls taken care of, Dwarrow scouts around the cavern a little, spotting a pit in one corner and a bridge by a chasm in another. Drogan and Devon find an injured hook-monster and quickly despatch it with no mercy. Alwaith and his pet spectre, Phil, come upon a couple of gnolls in a tunnel, and manage to take care of one of them, but with at least one more approaching, they quickly run back into the large cavern, warning the rest of the party of approaching enemies. But the enemies do not appear.
After ensuring there are no more baddies around the cavern, the group head down the tunnel where Alwaith found the gnolls but find they are no longer there. The do discover what appears to be a 'bedroom' cave, and a tunnel that leads outside, to the top of the hills, but there is currently no sign of the gnolls.
Feeling a little wounded, the group decide to spend a long rest in this tunnel. They hear some movement during their rest, but nothing appears to interrupt their slumber and they manage to get 8 hours of respite.
And so we leave our "Heroes", resting once again and allowing another night to pass.