Where to Next?

[Kultar]

Ok just as a side note gnolls have a really good scent and track ability and no matter where you go they will follow. That plus the rituals for sacrifice as far as we can tell are done at night.

Things to consider

-Is there any surrounding terrain/obsticles we can use to our advantage.
-Are there any other forces to be considered on either their side or ours.
-Does anybody have anything in their inventory that we might be able to get a little crazy with and possibly pull this off.
-What are we going to do with the hostages if we dont kill all the gnolls? Is there anyway that we can keep them safe? Any location that we could hide them at? Who is going to lead them away and who are they going to trust.
-What are we going to do about the guard hyenas? How do we plan to get by them/distract them?
-Who has what for spells/abilities left?

 

[BSF]

Ok just as a side note gnolls have a really good scent and track ability and no matter where you go they will follow. That plus the rituals for sacrifice as far as we can tell are done at night.

Really? Who made their knowledge roll and mentioned scent as an ability of gnolls?

Using Metagame knowledge immediately changes the parameters of the encounter.

 

[Macbeth]

Drawing the gnolls into smaller groups would be a very good idea. We can take them in small groups, but storming the camp is stupid. Li is honorable, and he deosn't fear death, but he's wise enough to not charge a camp full of gnolls. Regardless of how well/what/who (or how bad) the gnolls smell, we need to break them up.

So, how do we do that? Short answer: I have no idea.

But I have some possibilities. A fire might scatter them, especially if placed in the middle of the camp (forcing them to flee in different directions away from it). But how can we do that without endangering ourselves and the land around us? I really don't know. Do any of the spellcasters have ways to control the fire?

Failing a complete scattering with fire, here's my plan: we do to the gnolls what they did to us. THat's right, it's ambush time. If we were to figure out where the gnolls are patroling, or make enough noise to draw a patrol away from camp, we could ambush them.

Also, keep in mind that mobility is our strong suit. If we were to take out a gnoll patrol in one night, then move a ways off and wait for them to cvamp again, and take out another patrol, and so on, we can seriously weaken them.

Even if we can't draw them away, what about hit and run attacks? We approach the camp, draw a few gnolls into battle, kill them, and leave. A few nights of that should wear them down. Li doesn't like this option as much, but since it would be a pre-decided move away from the battle for strategic reasons, not a flat out panicked reatreat, he would be willing to do it.

One thing to consider is sleep time. If we raid them in the middle of the night, we would be missing out on sleep, and they seem to move during the day, making it harder to mount an attack. I think that we could still get enough sleep to be effective while making a short attack each night, but it might be a problem.

Basically, I think we need to use our mobility to our advantage, and take out small groups of them at a time, either by ambush, or by a skirmishing attack.

 

[Kultar]

Brother Oceas will bring up the point that he doesn't think the idea of numerous ambushes over a period of days is very wise. First it alerts those that didn't die on the first day to our presence. Secondly it doesn't stop them from sacrificing all or some of the hostages at will. We need to hit, get as many hostages free as possible and flee until we have some magic back. I believe we should attack this very first night so that no further people are killed. My bet is that they are killing the most healthy first to prevent escapes and will whittle it down to the weaker as they go until they are a nuisance to run with and will then butcher the remaining helpless victims. If we wait, then all that we could be left with is the weakest of the lot and then they will be in no condition to run with us to escape and we can't carry them. Find the camp, kill the sentries along one or two escape paths, try to scatter the gnolls quickly, grab some people before the gnolls regroup and run.....

 

[Kultar]

Ayla will, put in her two cents! Her idea is why not have her shoot at them with arrows and see if they send a little party over to her to get "rid" of the threat, but then others will be waiting with Ayla for the attack. It could draw some of them away and she might be able to kill one by the time they reach them. She has Range, use it to our advantage when they do not know we are here.

 

[Tormal]

Tormal sits quietly until there is a short silence...

"While the arrows would be effective I think that is probably a little too obvious. When arrows start flying at a war band they are probably going to think a full attack and mobilize. Maybe not... but thats what I would do.

Like everyone has said we need to scatter them. There is more truth in that then we think. On top of that we need to create confusion... and lots of it. While we may want to try and kill some of them our biggest priority should be to get their attention on soemthing else. An Ambush would work if they were on the move. But I agree with Oceas in the fact that we should attack once, hard and swift. Personally I don't think tonight is the best time for it... but if it will save lives I will put my vote in there.

I think we should incorporate most of these ideas into one. If we're gonna do this now we need to make it as elaborate as we can... no skimping out now. Personally I think we should start the evening off with a decoy fire right where we are now. We can bundle up some grass like Ceru suggested and place it all around. The problem is we wouldn't be able to tell if just a sentry will come or an entire group....

While we have that fire going we can be on the move away from it towards the campbut outside their pickets." He stops for a second realizing what he said.

"Wow... these gnolls are far more organized then I would have thought. Anyway, unless anyone else has a better idea I would say we use fire to our advantage. We can start fire(s) on either side of their camp and, at this point, Ayla can start shooting at gnolls. Hopefully this will draw their attention away from the camp long enough for some of us to move in and grab the hostages. I wouldn't mind doing that!...."

 

[Kultar]

Really? Who made their knowledge roll and mentioned scent as an ability of gnolls?

Using Metagame knowledge immediately changes the parameters of the encounter.

Dogs have good noses, hence the track and scent part, and gnolls, at least to tyrm, are large two legged dogs. Does not mean that they do or not. If you think its to far of a reach though i can edit it out of both my post and my mind.

 

[Kultar]

Is there anyway that we can use the golem to our advantage? Draw him to the gnolls or the gnolls to him?

 

[BSF]

Dogs have good noses, hence the track and scent part, and gnolls, at least to tyrm, are large two legged dogs. Does not mean that they do or not. If you think its to far of a reach though i can edit it out of both my post and my mind.

Do they? I didn't realize Tyrm had ranks in Knowledge (Nature) or in Handle Animal that would indicate he spent any time paying attention to such minor details of the world.

I would refer you back to the Game Administrivia post: Knowledge Skills. This falls under that roleplaying of willful ignorance. While we see drug sniffing/bomb sniffing/cadaver sniffing dogs in relatively common use today, there was a time when that was not the case. Heck, weren't bloodhounds the only dogs portrayed with useful tracking skills at one time?

DnD doesn't model the real world very well at all. If it did, all of us would have ranks in many, many knowledge skills. Willful ignorance is the key. I don't expect Ayla or Felix to understand the intracacies of a pentacle unless they have studied Arcana, or perhaps the Planes. I don't expect anyone besides Oceas and in some cases Ceru, to differentiate between different types of undead. I don't expect somebody that doesn't have any ranks in Knowledge (Nature) to be able to tell the difference beyond obvious details of mundane creatures and plants.

Is that a blue spruce or a pine? Now imagine that you are a native of a rainforest in Bali and you have been transported to New Mexico, will you know the difference? Unless you have studied, probably not.

Look it's a dog. People in my village kept them as pets. some of them even trained their dogs pretty well. Of course, while some of the other kids were busy playing with their dogs, I was speaking with the town elders learning about the ways of the world. Negotiation with merchants, the art of conversation to learn more from people, and even a bit about dweomercraft and jewellry are my strengths. Who needs dogs whenyou can get people to help you in your tasks?

That's kind of the slant I could see Tyrm taking with his skill selections. He is your character though, so the perspective he takes with his skills is your call, not mine. So long as he isn't trying to act on information he wouldn't have, that's fine.

As for editing the post, I have already made my adjustments. I wouldn't worry about changing anything on your end.

 

[Kultar]

This is Russ as you might soon guess. Hell I ain't from Bali, and they're all just pine trees to me. Blue Spruce, Ponderosa pine, etc.... just don't exist in my world. They're trees, pine type, period. There are three kinds of trees - Pine, Shade, or Fruit that come to mind right now.