D&D post game 3-3-18 Part 2

The following morning the party awoke a bit groggy  and sluggish from drinking with dwarves the night before. They made their way to the courtyard of the keep where the other mercenaries were tearing down their camp and prepping their weapons for battle. Soon they would make the ride to Kara’s Dale and prepare for a possible attack.

Two hours later and the adventuring party and sixty-ish mercs rode quickly toward the village of Kara’s Dale. Along the road they encountered the occasional small family or group of people heading North toward Cloveshire Keep. They had little news to hare about the advancing gnoll hordes, but word from a few local hunters was that a large group was burning their way toward their village.

By late afternoon, the group of warriors was riding into Kara’s Dale. The village consisted of a dozen small cottages, a trio of barns, a small tavern, several animal pens and a trio of small silos. The mercenary band quickly cased the village and found it was devoid of human life. Only several cows, pigs and goats remained in their pens.

The barbarian ordered the dozen archers to take position atop the tavern. They then sent four of the smaller stealthier mercs to scout the countryside around the village. The rouge and monk also took off into the nearby countryside. Half an hour later the rouge and monk return without having seen anything. After another half hour the merc scouts still had not returned. It was then that the roof top archers began to yell and then all Hell broke loose!

What probably happened to the mercenary scouts......

The archers had noticed a bit of movement in the tall grasses and winter wheat surrounding the town. As they nocked arrows the grass and wheat fields erupted with gnolls! They had been slowly crawling through the fields (and a pair of party scouts botched their perception rolls…) advancing toward the town. The mercs formed up in small groups of ten as the archers began to rain arrows into the advancing wave of gnolls. The party sprang to action as well. The  first wave of gnolls rushed into Kara’s Dale.

The beasts fell upon the mercs with weapons swinging wildly, mouths foaming eyes wild and jaws snapping at anyone they could reach. The monk and rouge soon paired off to tackle a group of gnolls advancing from the South of town. The barbarian stood his ground in the center of town. He flew into a battle rage and did all he could to pull as many of the beasts toward him as he could.

Minutes after the first wave hit the town a second wave rushed the village. This one was larger and had a larger more boisterous gnoll leading it. Upon his arrival the gnolls in the town began to yell, bray and yip in the their strange dog language. This also seemed to drive them into  a frenzied battle rage.

Mercs and dog men were falling in droves as they clashed. The ½ orc barbarian was soon standing upon a small mound of dead gnolls. The rouge was dashing from target to target dodging blows and burying his dagger in exposed flanks and backs of the enemy. The monk was able to use his water bending abilities to attack and pull the gnoll leader to him. He knew that slaying him might  break the spirit of these beasts and force them to flee. The archers continued to fire volley after volley into the village taking trying to thin the gnoll numbers.

It was then that a group of eight gnolls broke off from the center of the village and began to climb the tavern walls to get to the archers. A group of mercs was then mobbed by thirty gnolls. They were pulled to the ground and hacked to pieces. The monk and rouge were able to quickly kill the gnoll leader, but it appeared his death made no difference. The gnolls continued to attack with reckless abandon.

The battle continued to rage. The archers fought for their lives against crazed gnoll berserkers. The ½ orc barbarian continued to wreak a bloody toll on the gnolls. The monk and rouge were soon outnumbered  and surrounded. Another grouping of mercs was cut down and torn apart. However a dozen mercs fought valiantly and dispatched group after group of attackers facing them. The center of the small village had become a slaughter house.

Minutes later the monk and rouge had fought their way back to the center of the village to form up with their barbarian friend and last dozen mercenary warriors. The gnoll numbers had dwindled to roughly twenty, yet they still fought on oblivious to their staggering loses. The roof top archers were able to fend off their assault, but at a very high cost. Three remained, and added the last of their arrows to the assault below.

Minutes later the last gnoll was dispatched. The battle was over. The town was still intact as was most of the livestock and all the crops. The village of Kara’s Dale had been successfully defended. The mercenaries only numbered eleven from their original sixty. The gnolls had lost a little over one hundred warriors in the attack. The rouge began to rummage through the bodies of the dead gnolls
 ( and mercs when no one was looking ). The barbarian and monk too stock of their situation. They were going to have to hold up the night here to recover their strength and energy.

The surviving force set up what defense they could in the tavern. They set watches in fear of another force of gnolls rushing the town. As the sun set for the night the party of three stood atop the tavern and viewed the their surroundings. That is when they noticed a dim orange glow on the Northern horizon. It appeared that Cloveshire Keep was under attack as well.

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