I run a World of Greyhawk campaign, centered on the Wild Coast, the Welkwood and the Gnarley Woods. Currently, the party is messing around with Necromancer Games' Tomb of Abysthor, which I've set deep in the Gnarley Woods. The wilderness map of ToA mentions a gnolls village, which is quickly becoming important to our campaign. The players operate out of a place called Corustaith, which was recently raided by gnolls accompanied by an evil priest of our favorite demon lord (ala The Witch of Serpent's Bridge adventure from a recent issue of Dungeon). Naturally this has the party itching for a raid against the gnoll village.
Here's how things have been developing.
The gnoll village will be along the lines of the burrow described in Mongoose's Slayer's Guide. Mongoose did a good job producing a usable and inspiring guide (and you can download it for less than an Abe Lincoln). I've decided to emphasize the hyena-aspect of gnolls, however. In particular, the gnolls of this burrow, the Crocuta tribe, will resemble the Spotted Hyena in appearance and behavior: they live in clans, dominated by large females; they are highly efficient hunters completely indiscriminate about their prey; they are highly efficient eaters who can digest even the bones, hooves, teeth of their prey; the clan is violently competitive and non-cooperative; they take little notice of most smaller goblinoid races , except when they take them as slaves; they despise ogres and trolls, while fearing giants; they typically eat where they kill, but occasionally cache food underwater.
The surrounding woods are eerily free of any fauna. The entrance to the lair is on a muddy hillside. A wooden stockade of mismatched trunks surrounds a debris strewn courtyard. The ground surrounding the stockade is covered in a strange white, stinking substance that is soft and moist on its topmost layer, hardened and dry beneath. This is gnoll feces, which is made white from bone consumption. Within the stockade, there are three structures: a shed covering the entrance to the underground burrow, a tool shed used by slaves, and a storage/well shed that covers the water hole the gnolls use for drinking and food storage.
At night the hillside is a hive of activity, with gnoll hunting parties coming and going, fights breaking out among rival females and young males and slaves attempting to appease their vicious masters. During the day only a few gnolls supervise slaves at work repairing broken equipment, keeping watch and performing other domestic tasks that the gnolls otherwise neglect. The stench of the place is unbelievable.
Within the burrow, seven families of gnolls struggle with each other for superior positions in the chaotic hierarchy of the Crocuta clan. The currently dominant family, the Nogas, are pretty secure, at least as long as their leadership lives. Raids by players may change the hierarchy, as dominant females are killed and others seek to replace them.
Alongside the gnoll-family structure, there are three extra-familial outfits within the clan.
1. The slave community. The Crocuta have between 40 and 50 slaves, depending on how many they've killed lately. For the most part the slaves are goblins and orcs. There are few humans this deep in the woods, and the clan has generally avoided human settlements, fearing retribution. The few humans who are enslaved, mostly lone hunters, trappers, bandits or adventurers, rarely survive their treatment at the hands of their fellow slaves, who have adopted the competitive dominance of their gnoll masters, to say nothing of the appetites of the gnolls themselves.
2. The male warrior-societies. Clan and family-life is dominated by the larger females, and males prefer to compete for food and mates than cooperate. This would lead to problems, particularly when the clan needs to act together to fend off a rival clan or other catastrophic attack. Some system is necessary to channel the impulsive competitiveness and murderousness of the males into useful activity for the clan, and the Crocuta (along with other successful gnoll clans) found it in the warrior societies. The primary purpose of the society is to serve as a structure within the burrow for the creation of fellow-feeling within the males of burrow; the societies hunt, eat and howl together. As time has gone on, the warrior-societies have developed new functions, serving as the shock-troops and intelligence agencies of the clan. Gnolls rarely marshal conventional forces for assaults, preferring chases and ambushes; when they do engage in frontal assaults it is invariably with the members of the warrior societies. Likewise, when a band of gnolls is employed as a mercenary force, this is usually a warrior-society. The Crocuta have two active warrior societies. (It is one of these warrior societies that is giving the village trouble in my adaptation of the Dungeon Magazine adventure, The Witch of Serpent Bridge.)
3. The Cult of the Demon Lord. Gnolls revere the moon, and worship a demon lord. The all-female clerisy of the demon lord exists in a never-ending tension with the dominant females, who regard the cult's priestesses as dangerous subversives who do not kill enough prey to justify their lives. For this reason, the clerics tend to live apart from the burrow, visiting to collect tithes of slaves and food, recruit novices and dispense healing and blessings. The warrior-societies have a historic alliance with the clerisy, which has blessed them as doing the work of the demon lord. Among the Crocuta, however, one of these societies has broken away from the gnoll cult, its members converting to the worship of Orcus (yep, that's the one that's causing the troubles).
As it's developing in my mind, this looks like a muddy, smelly, canine and completely uncivilized version of the drow of D-1,2,3 series.
I think I'll have to throw in some Flinds as well.
Anyone have any suggestions for running gnolls? If you were a player hitting the gnoll burrow, what would it be cool to run into? If you were dm'ing the gnoll burrow, what would you include? I want this to turn out very cool.
Here's how things have been developing.
The gnoll village will be along the lines of the burrow described in Mongoose's Slayer's Guide. Mongoose did a good job producing a usable and inspiring guide (and you can download it for less than an Abe Lincoln). I've decided to emphasize the hyena-aspect of gnolls, however. In particular, the gnolls of this burrow, the Crocuta tribe, will resemble the Spotted Hyena in appearance and behavior: they live in clans, dominated by large females; they are highly efficient hunters completely indiscriminate about their prey; they are highly efficient eaters who can digest even the bones, hooves, teeth of their prey; the clan is violently competitive and non-cooperative; they take little notice of most smaller goblinoid races , except when they take them as slaves; they despise ogres and trolls, while fearing giants; they typically eat where they kill, but occasionally cache food underwater.
The surrounding woods are eerily free of any fauna. The entrance to the lair is on a muddy hillside. A wooden stockade of mismatched trunks surrounds a debris strewn courtyard. The ground surrounding the stockade is covered in a strange white, stinking substance that is soft and moist on its topmost layer, hardened and dry beneath. This is gnoll feces, which is made white from bone consumption. Within the stockade, there are three structures: a shed covering the entrance to the underground burrow, a tool shed used by slaves, and a storage/well shed that covers the water hole the gnolls use for drinking and food storage.
At night the hillside is a hive of activity, with gnoll hunting parties coming and going, fights breaking out among rival females and young males and slaves attempting to appease their vicious masters. During the day only a few gnolls supervise slaves at work repairing broken equipment, keeping watch and performing other domestic tasks that the gnolls otherwise neglect. The stench of the place is unbelievable.
Within the burrow, seven families of gnolls struggle with each other for superior positions in the chaotic hierarchy of the Crocuta clan. The currently dominant family, the Nogas, are pretty secure, at least as long as their leadership lives. Raids by players may change the hierarchy, as dominant females are killed and others seek to replace them.
Alongside the gnoll-family structure, there are three extra-familial outfits within the clan.
1. The slave community. The Crocuta have between 40 and 50 slaves, depending on how many they've killed lately. For the most part the slaves are goblins and orcs. There are few humans this deep in the woods, and the clan has generally avoided human settlements, fearing retribution. The few humans who are enslaved, mostly lone hunters, trappers, bandits or adventurers, rarely survive their treatment at the hands of their fellow slaves, who have adopted the competitive dominance of their gnoll masters, to say nothing of the appetites of the gnolls themselves.
2. The male warrior-societies. Clan and family-life is dominated by the larger females, and males prefer to compete for food and mates than cooperate. This would lead to problems, particularly when the clan needs to act together to fend off a rival clan or other catastrophic attack. Some system is necessary to channel the impulsive competitiveness and murderousness of the males into useful activity for the clan, and the Crocuta (along with other successful gnoll clans) found it in the warrior societies. The primary purpose of the society is to serve as a structure within the burrow for the creation of fellow-feeling within the males of burrow; the societies hunt, eat and howl together. As time has gone on, the warrior-societies have developed new functions, serving as the shock-troops and intelligence agencies of the clan. Gnolls rarely marshal conventional forces for assaults, preferring chases and ambushes; when they do engage in frontal assaults it is invariably with the members of the warrior societies. Likewise, when a band of gnolls is employed as a mercenary force, this is usually a warrior-society. The Crocuta have two active warrior societies. (It is one of these warrior societies that is giving the village trouble in my adaptation of the Dungeon Magazine adventure, The Witch of Serpent Bridge.)
3. The Cult of the Demon Lord. Gnolls revere the moon, and worship a demon lord. The all-female clerisy of the demon lord exists in a never-ending tension with the dominant females, who regard the cult's priestesses as dangerous subversives who do not kill enough prey to justify their lives. For this reason, the clerics tend to live apart from the burrow, visiting to collect tithes of slaves and food, recruit novices and dispense healing and blessings. The warrior-societies have a historic alliance with the clerisy, which has blessed them as doing the work of the demon lord. Among the Crocuta, however, one of these societies has broken away from the gnoll cult, its members converting to the worship of Orcus (yep, that's the one that's causing the troubles).
As it's developing in my mind, this looks like a muddy, smelly, canine and completely uncivilized version of the drow of D-1,2,3 series.
I think I'll have to throw in some Flinds as well.
Anyone have any suggestions for running gnolls? If you were a player hitting the gnoll burrow, what would it be cool to run into? If you were dm'ing the gnoll burrow, what would you include? I want this to turn out very cool.
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This sounds really cool! I'll have to think on it for a while tho' to give you a good answer. Traps would go well with the lazy aspect of gnolls. I'll try to think later
