S58: Therack Raised

Dorus, Nom, and Fay rush into the Recompense House (the main building in Theracks law enforcement barracks) quietly closing the door behind them. They move forward hoping to develop a plan to free the town’s prisoners as they go, but instead come face to face with Arkak, the leader of the gnoll horde -- someone of whom they are familiar from the druid grove. Arkak is also not expecting this meeting as his jaw goes slack at the sight of his foes. Fay wastes no time for introductions as she rushes one of the largest gnolls she has ever seen driving her blades deep into his chest. Arkak lets out an angry and painful growl as Nom follows suit attacking Arkak with a flurry of sword attacks. Dorus opts for a less direct route blessing himself and his allies for the battle that has begun. Arkak pulls Nom’s blade from his chest as it disappears from his hand to reappear in Nom’s. Arkak turns directly to Fay snarling “I remember you” recalling the audacity of this particular elf and the disrespect she had shown him not too long ago. Arkak attacks. With two swift, direct, and heavy-handed blows, Fay’s body is wracked with pain and she falls unconscious. Arkak looks toward Dorus and Nom as he produces a small copper tube, puts it to his lips, and blows. Nothing happens. Dorus understands how strong this foe is and how it is unlikely they will be able to beat him in a fair fight so he begins to concoct a mixture that could hopefully knock his foe unconscious if needed with the help of a little pill he had pilfered from a past interaction at Cottonmouth’s. Arkak then pounces on Fay’s body. With ease, Arkak’s strong clawed hands rip Fay’s chest open revealing a still beating heart and without hesitation Arkak tears the organ from Fay’s body, swallowing it whole. Arkak stands, smiling victoriously and as an added insult rips Fay’s throat from her body tossing it aside. Arkaks eyes widen with pleasure. Just then, Dorus and Nom's ears perk as they hear a rush of padded feet heading their way. Nom is less cerebral but understands the odds are against them. “Submit and you will be spared for now. Be caged with the others.” Nom reluctantly agrees, trying to gather what remains of Fay’s body. Arkak does not allow this interaction planning a large hyena-like foot strongly on Fay’s arm. Her bones break under the pressure. Nom watches as the doors to the room burst open with a half-dozen gnolls. “Feed”, Arkak commands as he pushes Nom toward the cells and away from her dead friend. Dorus follows, once again defeated. The two watch as Fay’s body is ripped apart and devoured within moments. The gnolls exit as quickly as they had entered with full bellies and pieces of Fay in their maws. Arkak barks two more gnolls enter standing at the ready. Two robotic legs, a pack, and two blades lay in a pool of bloody pieces. Nom knows that they must have Fay’s belongings to defeat this evil and save Grimshackle (especially the mirror shard). With adept trickery Nom retrieves Fay’s pack without Arkak noticing moments before they are tossed into the Recompense House’s cells.

Below the city waits Mokon and Alora, along with a few party additions, Jivers, Echo, Torin, and a still unnamed and sickly toddler. Originally the plan was to wait 20 minutes to hear back from Dorus, Nom, and Fay, or leave the city. 20 minutes have now passed, during which time Alora and Mokon noticed a murmur of voices coming from deeper in the sewers -- human voices. Alora, wanting to be helpful, decides to scout out the source, finding a prison full of Therackians along with a heavily barricaded metal door fortunately with no guards. Alora convinces Mokon to help her try to free the prisoners. They begin to unpile the refuse blocking the metal door. After only a few moments they begin to hear cackles voices coming from the sewer from which they had entered. There wasn’t enough time. Frantically looking around they notice an almost completely submerged sewer pipe leading deeper into the sewer. Choosing stealth over a fight Alora jumps into the disgusting brine of sewer water and enters the pipe. Unknown detritus bumps and slides against Alora’s skin as she does her best to keep her mouth and nose above the sewage in the 2 inch gap of air toward the top of the pipe. She gags as the taste of the air is almost as bad as the smell. Escaping the other side she swims upward. She is clear and inside the prison area. She whisper-yells to Mokon and the others who follow suit except for the young child who is passed to Alora through the gate. Once inside they blend fairly easily with the hundreds of villagers that are being held hostage. Looking down at the small child she holds in her hands Alora notices a bluish tint to his skin and shallow breathing. Instinctively she heals the child unsure how she did it. Mokon takes some time to assess their situation. Four gates all being guarded by gnolls, three grates to the surface, and hundreds of starving and sickly villagers. 

Above ground, Nom and Dorus review their current situation. Prisoners are shoulder to shoulder with barely any room to move. Dorus hears a familiar voice. Groc the sheriff of the city is yelling loud from the outward facing part of the cell. “Are you all too scared to face me one on one? Come closer I’ll show you pain.” Dorus and Mokon squeeze their way through the group, they hear a yelp and dull thud -- strange. As they move further they notice a deep pit in the floor where a grate used to be. Looking into the pit they see many eyes looking up at them, along with a man picking himself off the ground below. They are using the sewers as overflow for the prison.  As Dorus approaches Groc (a large and muscular Dragonborn) he notices other soldiers from the city. It appears they are forming a wall at the front of the cell, perhaps to protect the villagers within. “Dorus, how did you get in here?” without waiting for a response he continues “We need to get these people out of here. We need a plan.” Currently the group has no plan. After a few moments of catching up on the situation they are informed Krom is below. They decide to head into the sewers maybe a plan will present itself. One by one Dorus and Nom slide their way into the sewers and are almost instantly reunited with Mokon, Alora, and the others. Now to find a way to free these prisoners.

As the group discusses ideas. Alora notices a group of sobbing women. She approaches and overhears them discussing their taken children and their fears that they have been eaten by the gnoll horde. Knowing the group cannot carry around a sickly child she offers it to one of the women. The woman tears up eagerly taking the youngster and holding him tight. Just then she feels a sharp searing cold pain in her back, then an explosion of ice shrapnel. The woman in her immediate vicinity yelps in pain as ice shards cut their skin. Alora whirls around to see Torin whirl around to look behind him. “Guys, that gnoll, around the corner, down the hall, and through the gate just shot ice magic at us… that bastard!” Alora is appalled at the agility of the gnolls magical prowess. She is just glad Torin was injured. 

Dorus begins to search for Krom. It only takes a few moments before Dorus notices a thick blond mane turn a corner. He yells to Krom. Krom stops, his ears perk, he turns in place and locks eyes with Dorus. A wide smile crosses his whiskered lion-like face. Bro-hug time. After a short reunion Dorus explains they are here to help the villagers escape… Krom is 100% in.

A plan is created. Alora will convince the gnolls to open the gate. Mokon will lie in wait below the sewage with only his eyes above the brackish liquid. Nom and Krom will lie in wait for the entering gnolls. (While in wait Krom takes the opportunity to turn on the charm with Nom giving her a delightful hand kiss.) Dorus reproduces his knock-out concoction he was never able to use on Arkak. Jivers will be ready in case all hells break loose. Echo will protect Torin… from himself. The plan begins. Alora approaches the gate (in the area they had originally entered the prison.) She hears the gnolls discussing Jarnigol Holdings and how they have lost many gnolls trying to break into the vault for an item Arnak wants… interesting. She then loudly clears her throat and pretends to be talking to another villager about a recently dead child one of the mothers had in her possession. The three gnolls stop talking. In unison their ears turn toward Alora. She continues to elaborate on the “deliciousness” of the child. The gnolls turn toward her interested, but not convinced. Alora turns up the incentive by making a small cut on her 15 year old arm. The gnoll's noses begin to twitch, and their pupils dilate. “Get this door open,” he barks. ”We don’t have the key,” another yelps. “Go get it… NOW!” One gnoll runs back down the sewer tunnel. The remaining two gnolls, crazed on the thought of human veal and the smell of young blood begin to tear at the barricaded iron door. It bends and twists to their mania. In only a few moments the gnolls squeeze themselves through a small bent opening in the bars and rush inside. Alora darts toward the Nom/Krom ambush with a gnoll close on her heels. Scared and frantic (the gnoll is much faster than she anticipated) she thinks of ways to stop the beast approach. The first item that pops into her head is a sharp guillotine blade. She continues to run, rushing past Nom. She hears a swift sharp swish of a blade and yelp of a gnoll. She turns to see a bloodied blade crash to the floor and a gnoll stumbling and falling forward reaching for an open wound where his left foot used to be. He falls backward toward Nom who has a blade pointed and ready. Krom swings a giant steel bar downward on the flailing gnoll sending its body directly into Nom’s readied blade. With fleshy satisfaction Nom’s blade is buried deep into the gnolls head as his body goes limp. A second gnoll passes a waiting Dorus as a trunk wraps around his midsection as two large strong hands pull him back. A honey-sticky cloth covers his mouth and nose. As the gnoll squirms to escape his eyes grow heavy. He drifts into a deep sleep. Dorus drops him to the ground. Mokon continues to lie in wait patiently waiting for the third key-bearing gnoll to return. Mokon’s eyes cross as he watches various unknown objects rub past his nose, lips, and face. Strangely his mind goes to curiosity more than disgust. As he gets engrossed in one particular log of… something, he is pulled back to his task at hand when he hears a gnoll cackling and running toward his position. He waits. “Where did you all go? I have the key.” The gnoll begins to loudly and clumsily unlock the door. Mokon strikes. Leaping out of the liquid waste he brings a large blade directly down on an unexpecting gnoll. A key clangs to the ground as a blade severs the gnolls head in two. His limp body hits the floor as its fingers twitch with the remnants of life. Mokon picks up the key and unlocks the door. 

Dorus yells up to Groc letting him know they are ready. Groc looks directly at Dorus and Krom. “Don’t mess this up boys.” Krom’s voice cracks as he responds to a very intimidating Groc.

The group begins to file villagers into the sewer tunnel. They will await Groc’s OK and the darkness of night before they exit into the Therackian river. Once the prisoners are in position Dorus signals Groc. Groc and the soldiers yell one threat to the gnolls then jump into the sewer. Groc pushes his way to the front of the group. “I’ll take a group upriver, those who can swim ride the current. Stay low. Good job boys. I’ll see you on the other side.” Groc signals as a large group of prisoners follow him up river northward along the river banks. including Jivers. (Jivers has a little remorse at leaving Krom and Dorus -- the only other two people he knows who has a similar gym routine.) A smaller remaining group begins to enter the water and float downstream. The SOP follow the group downriver floating fairly effortlessly, except for Mokon who spends more time underwater than above. 

“Hoooowwwwwlllll… Grrrrrrrrraaaaaaa…”. An unnatural yell is heard from within the Recompense House. “Find them!!!!” Arkak is not happy. 

The group decides to hold up on the outskirts of the city -- close by Jarnigol Holdings. They will decide their next move here. Alora is cold. She wishes she was in a warm place. She blinks and finds herself within a dome of comfort. So weird… she could get used to this! The rest of the party also enter the hut. They are exhausted. It has been a day. Alora lays down to rest. Chester wraps himself over her. She pets his skinlike fur as she begins to drift off to sleep. Then she feels something damp touch her leg. She opens one eye to see Torin pushing his back against her. She watches the terrible sleep-acting unfold. She is annoyed, but is willing to let him rest beside her until he gets a little too handsy by putting an arm over her body at which point she aggressively expels him from Chesters warm embrace. She tosses a damp patchwork cloak to him for warmth then sarcastically turns her back to him -- the slightest of smiles cross her face. Dorus and Krom get some bro-time reminiscing about the good old days and decide to have a push up competing. Dorus demolishes Krom by ten fold. Krom probably just pulled a chest muscle benching his max last week. Nom sorts her stash of 50 keys she had retrieved from Chester -- 40 seem inane while 10 seem to be something more. She then spends some time pretending to sleep while watching Krom closely. Her heart speeds up a little as she does so (probably just because of the preparedness in case Krom turns out to be something other than he appears -- definitely not due to any sort of lust.) Mokon spends some time cleaning questionable items from within his armor. Echo sits quietly.

Tomorrow they decide their next steps.