A century ago, the nation of Mulhorand was ravaged by the Spellplague. Its ruined lands are now ruled by High Imaskar with most of the Mulhorandi survivors living in the ancient port city of Gheldaneth. The fertile farmlands of the region were laid waste, but in the decades since savanna and scattered copses of woodlands have grown in their place. Perched on the edge of this region the town of Tuk Maline looks northeast across the grasslands. Beyond this lies the edge of the ever growing desert of the Plains of Purple Dust. Beyond that wasteland are trade routes leading to the mysterious lands of Kara-Tur in the East.
The leaders of Tuk Maline have begun promoting the town as an alternate launching spot for commerce to the East. Caravans across the savanna and desert can avoid the additional days of travel to reach Gheldaneth. Plenty of merchants are eager to avoid the its tariffs and save themselves days of travel west when their goal lies in the opposite direction. Also this route avoids any contact with the treacherous land of Thay to the north.
Tuk Maline has also begun to attract young adventurers hoping to make a name for themselves serving as guards for eastbound caravans. Such individuals will find their way to the Inn of the Stumbling Yak. Old Durran Mull, the proprietor, is a veteran of many such adventures himself and will assist the worthy and respectful in finding employment. But the lazy and (overly) dishonorable will find themselves on his bad side.
The player characters should be young adventures (first-level characters) who have come to Tuk Maline seeking work. Unfortunately, they have arrived a few days after a major caravan departed. It may take two or three weeks for enough merchants and wagons to arrive to form another. Faced with no better prospects, you settle in to wait. Perhaps, an opportunity for an odd job or two will arise in the meantime.
[title size=”4″ content_align=”left” style_type=”single solid” sep_color=”” class=”” id=””]The Party[/fusion_title]
- Mabeline – Human Wizard/Sage – Gary
- Grode – Forest Gnome Druid/Outlander – Oona
- Mercer – Human Fighter/Pirate – Blayne
- Urist – Mountain Dwarf Barbarian/Folk Hero – Jeff
- Tomar – Human Cleric/Soldier – Jerry
The PCs meet in the tavern run by Durran Mull called The Stumbling Yak. There is no work that he knows of until enough merchants and potential guards arrive to form a caravan. Being the only young, able-bodied patrons in the room, they PCs gravitate to one another and began drinking together. The Fighter makes a good impression on Mull asking him to let the party know if any odd jobs turn up, and the Cleric tries his hand at a game of cards while the other drink and socialize in character.
An alarm sounds and Durran Mull tells the characters that this might be their chance to make a good impression on potential employers. They join the members of the watch going over the wall to repel an attack by savage looking Gnolls. These Proto-Gnolls have only scraps of clothes and improvised weapons. The PCs end up fighting a group of 5. They all survive the fight, but it is touch and go. As they are finishing their group, the rest of the battle concludes. The Grode spots 3 well equipped Gnolls calling out to the surviving savage Gnolls, and one of them runs off to join them. The party is in no shape to follow into the darkness.
At this point the Mercer wanted to return to talk to Durran Mull, and the Tomar wanted to talk with the watch captain about the events of the attack with some of the party going to each place. Both groups heard the same story. The area has been plagued with an over abundance of hyenas for the last few months. Then recently attacks by these band of savage Gnolls began. Back at the tavern, the Speaker for the Town Council offers a job to the party. If they will investigate the Gnoll attacks and put a stop to them, they town will pay them 15GP each and give them the best guard positions in the next caravan. The PCs accept.
The party sets out the next morning with the Druid, Grode, leading off the direction she thought the Gnolls she spotted at the battle went. Soon they find the tracks of a pack of hyenas and decide to follow. The trail leads into a small copse of trees. Inside they find a clearing with the ruins of what appears to be an ancient altar stone covered with dried blood. The tracks show the hyenas continued out the other side of the woods, so they take a minute to examine the scene. They ascertain the ruin is ancient in the extreme and too weathered to give any more details.
Without warning, the pack of hyenas led by two Proto-Gnolls attacks from all directions. This fight goes fairly smoothly for our heroes although everyone does take enough damage that the decide to take a Short Rest and spend their single hit die. Just as their rest is ending, they see 3 armored Gnolls approaching carrying the carcass of a gazelle.
They attempt to hide, but a couple of failed Stealth check brings up to a roll for Initiative. This ends up being their toughest fight so far with the Tomar being dropped to 0 HP near the end, but the Grode manages to save him. After it is over, the Druid lobbies for burying all the bodies but is overruled. They head out from the copse when they see 4 hyenas approaching the area. The are soon drawn back by their screams as the tainted flesh turns them into Proto-Gnolls. The party greatly outmatches these bewildered creatures, and this fight was soon over. They build a pyre for all the bodies and head out.
They follow the bloody trail of the 3 Gnolls back to their camp which is an hour or so across the savanna in a large wooded area surrounding a spring fed watering hole. As they approach the woods, they see a Gnoll Pack Leader who has been watching them and has surmised they are the reason his men have not returned. This battle went well for the party. Even though the foe was formidable, they easily kept him flanked and out maneuvered. Grode once again had to heal Tomar back up from the point of death.
They continued into the woods and found more of ruins and the big bad. The Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu was standing at an altar stone with another gazelle tied down to it. Behind him were a dozen hyenas in cages. As they walked into the clearing, he sacrifices the gazelle tainting it with Abyssal Energies. In broken Common, he tells them that it makes no matter that they have killed his soldiers because he is about to make more and turns to open the nearest cage.
At that point the Grode has an inspiration and uses Thorn Whip to grab the Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu and snatch him 10 feet away from the cages foiling his plans to release the hyenas. He knocks her down to 0HP for her trouble, but the other 4 quickly surrounded him and finished him off.
After another pyre to destroyed the tainted meat, they released the caged hyenas safely at the Druid’s insistence. They returned to Tuk Maline with the heads of the Pack Leader and the Fang to collect their reward and the admiration of the town. They have in their possession the dagger they took from the Fang which they believe is responsible for the transformative taint of the dead animals.