IC - Mad King's Monkey

[Fangor the Fierce]

Eban kneels to the creature, asking, "What do you want with the spirit man?"

He awaits a reply before addressing the others and their intent on fighting.

"Good plan, but like this one said, they see in the dark with no problems. They can also smell us out, and will undoubtedly know where we are out there. You think they would not survey the area, make sure there is nothing amiss? Strategy is best laid out once we know what we have. Let's make sure this one can't hear our plans, just in case and come up with a plan."

Eban then surveys the house as well as the surroundings of the house. He looks for anything useful in a siege as well as anything that might have been missed from earlier inspection by the others. Hopefully they can defend it without too much bloodspill if it came to that.

Once he feels they are in a location that the dog-faced attacker can't hear them, he begins. "Best to stay here, in the house or on the roof. If they come through the door, then we can flank them and bring them down quickly if possible. If Libros has more of those charms to put them to slumber, then we use that as well from the windows to the next group coming in. We also can't leave out the dogs. They can sniff us out if trained to do so, as well as these dog-faced foes. Six foes and two dogs against the five of us. This is going to be tough, but perhaps we don't need to fight.."

 

[Electric Wizard]

"I fight best when they have their backs to me," Sukri says. "I will stand by the door."

He breaks away from the circle and begins searching the house. He is most interested in uncovering clues about the potion maker's disappearance or finding any valuables.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Jan tells of what he found at the house.

As Jan's eyes adjust to the gloom in the house it looks increasingly like the place has been ransacked. Furniture and clothing lies scattered around the room. Plates, jars, and bowls litter the floor, many of them broken. Opposite the front door, half hidden under a rug tossed up against the wall there is a gaping hole in the floor. Across the room there is another small room and a set of stairs leading up to the second floor.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Jan tells of what he found at the house.

As Jan's eyes adjust to the gloom in the house it looks increasingly like the place has been ransacked. Furniture and clothing lies scattered around the room. Plates, jars, and bowls litter the floor, many of them broken. Opposite the front door, half hidden under a rug tossed up against the wall there is a gaping hole in the floor. Across the room there is another small room and a set of stairs leading up to the second floor.

 

[doghead]

Day Two

Jan quickly confirms that the creature is a gnoll. Gnolls live in tribes in the mountains, and traditionally have little interaction with humans. The last big war-pack incursion was several decades ago. The gnolls were savagely beaten and the remnants fled back into the mountains. Since then little has bee seen or heard of gnolls to the best of Jan's knowledge.

Eban kneels to the creature, asking, "What do you want with the spirit man?"

The captive gnoll stares sullenly at Eban before answering. "Spirit man know where ..." he struggles a moment for the right word, "runaway pack are. Traitor pack."

The small clearing around the house is fairly empty. Down by the stream there is a small open fireplace with a couple of logs around it. Behind the house there is a swing covered in moss. Surrounding the clearing is forest. The ground rises gradually from stream. There are a few rocky outcrops around the edges like the one that the gnolls were hiding behind while they kept watch on the house. Obscured in the fringes of the trees on the opposite side of the clearing to the stream there is the ruin of a small stable. It obviously has not been used in many years and is now little more than a empty shell.

The house consists of three floors, the lower level is constructed in stone with a timber upper floor. Inside, the ground floor consists of the kitchen and living area, along with a small study. Upstairs consists of a number of bedrooms and a small bathroom. Downstairs is a reasonably sizeable cool stone basement. Heavy shelves line the walls and a heavy stone bench occupies and sizeable fire-pit occupy the centre of the room. Some of the contents of the shelves lies broken on the floor, but it seems some restraint has been shown in this room.

Throughout the house doors have been forced open, windows broken and the rooms ransacked. Shelves have been swept clean, draws and wardrobes emptied, furniture overturned. Books, most of them scholarly, lie strewn across the floor. From the wreckage, it appears that Henri lives a fairly modest but comfortable life. It is also fairly obvious that a fair bit has been taken, especially food.

[sblock=OOC]Good to be back. Hopefully this covers all the bases.[/sblock]

 

[Fangor the Fierce]

Eban raises his eyebrow at this, then asks more questions, as perhaps a fight was not needed. "Who did this to this house? Were you and your friends looking for something? Who are the traitors and what was their crime? Why would the spirit man know of this pack and why would he tell you where they are?"

Hopefully with the right questions, they could avoid more bloodshed...

 

[Scott DeWar]

"you are a gnoll, your kind was beaten back to the mountains, why are you trying to return? The traitors, why do you seek them?: asks Jan in continued rapid fire, trying to throw the creature off to give away too much information.

 

[Axel]

Bayar

Annoyed that nobody liked his idea, Bayar kicks the gnoll in the ribs again. Hard. Scowling at the creature he growls "Well then? What's a man got to do with your filthy lot? If your kind has wrecked his house there's going to be hell to pay." He concludes by running a finger across his neck.

[sblock=ooc]
Figure you can't intimidate a bound captive enough. Someone tell me if Bayar gets too confronting and I'll tone it down.
[/sblock]

 

[doghead]

Day Two

"Who did this to this house? Were you and your friends looking for something? Who are the traitors and what was their crime? Why would the spirit man know of this pack and why would he tell you where they are?"

"you are a gnoll, your kind was beaten back to the mountains, why are you trying to return? The traitors, why do you seek them?: asks Jan in continued rapid fire, trying to throw the creature off to give away too much information.

Unfortunately, the barrage of questions only serves to overwhelm the gnoll's limited ability with the language and it is a while before the confusion is sorted out and any information obtained.

The gnoll admits that his pack searched the house, but other than Henri, they were not looking for anything in particular. He explains that the gnolls that they are searching for fled the main tribe some years ago. It was an act of defiance that the gnolls considered treachery. Worse, they took with them the tribe's beast-speaker. In the years since, the tribe number one dog has been sending out hunting packs to search for the runaways. The runaway dogs must return and submit to the number one dog. That is the tribe number one dog's order.

A few weeks ago this hunting pack ran across a trapper who greeted them is gnoll speak. Then he tried to run away. The pack captured him and asked him questions. The said he knew other gnolls in the mountains and promised to take the pack there. They followed the trapper for many days. The pack number one dog got angry. Then the trapper tried to run away and died.

Then pack went to camp of humans near here and pack number one dog spoke to number one human at the camp. The pack number one dog says spirit-man knows where runaway dogs are hiding. So hunting pack came here, to find spirt-man.

With that the gnoll clams up and becomes uncooperative. He answers further questioning with snarls or threats. Further efforts to intimidate him seem to be ineffective. By now the afternoon gloom is settling in. Soon it will be threatening to slide into twilight.

 

[Scott DeWar]

despite the stubbornness of the gnoll, Jan asks, "Wait, did you say your number 1 dog spoke to the number 1 human?"