The Problem With Gnolls (RP)

The Problem With Gnolls was an rather long-running RP session on the FRPG, the phpBB2 version. The full Hungarian-language logs can be read here.

Gnoll Hunt
While en route to the city of Dracfold, Manuel Comnenos hears hyena-sounds and human sounds from the nearby forests - a human being molested by Gnolls. Rather than helping him and risking his life, the Lawful Evil Manuel Comnenos decides to instead hurry up and flee to the city gates, where he is allowed into the city. He enters the Rested Wolf Inn, where a short-haired young female bartender flirts with him in order to get tips. Manuel asks for a meal consisting of cooked pork, bread and beer. While eating and drinking, Manuel overhears some angry locals talking among each other, complaining about the fact, that the guards don't do anything to protect the local farmers, and that "if things contain like this, those gnolls will take away everything".

Manuel ends up walking up to those two locals, and asks them if he could offer help to their problems, being a sellsword. The locals explain to him, that the local hamlets and villages are being plagued by a recent problem: gnolls. That previously, they broke into farmsteads during the night to steal domestic animals, but now they have gotten far more insolent, and are trying to do it during broad daylight as well! They also tell Manuel, that some shepherd tried to eradicate the gnolls recently, calling that shepherd suicidal.

Manuel exists the inn, and approaches the location he first heard the sounds from, only to find a rather gut-wrenching sight: the man he refused to save was the aforementioned shepherd, whose bones were broken into shreds. His flesh smelled fresh, From what remained of his neck, it was holding a small medallion, which wasn't made out of a noble metal. It was clear from the scene, that he wasn't a victim of a bandit raid. Three hours of looking around in the forest, Manuel finds three gnolls guarding a cave, surrounded by sheep and all sorts of other things apropriated from the counterside. Manuel waits, two of the three gnolls go into the cave, allowing Manuel to assault the one that remained, quickly cutting off its head. The two gnolls come out, but Manuel kills them both. Afterwards, Manuel scouts the cave, killing several gnnolls within it, including a gnoll child that was scared to an unimaginable degree. Afterwards, Manuel returns to the city a decapitated gnoll head as a trophy to prove his deed. He is rewarded 12 golden coins for his deed. The gnoll head is put on a spear, which is put somewhere in the forest to act as an anti-gnoll scarecrow.

Enter the Spinejackal
Manuel spends some of the earned money on a lost bet in gambling, drinks wine and eats chicken. The guards find him with a hangover in his room, and inform him, that their boss, Lord Nexington would like to hire him to clean out the local mines of the gnolls who infested it, and that he will have someone helping him: the Dark Elven Assassin Orikexir Spaendjekkel - it seems that the Brotherhood of the Dark Moon was also contacted by that lord, and the brotherhood replied by sending Orikexir.

Unfortunately, Orikexir found himself stopped by highwaymen, who demanded 20 golden coins for passing through. The brigands included a 2-metres tall (roughly 6 feet and 6.7 inches) human named Zord who weighed 120 kilograms (roughly 264lb), equipped with a claymore; a half-elf with two sticks and a halfling with a crossbow and a shortsword. Orikexir quickly dropped an exploding into the big man's, Zord's face - which staggered him and caused some burns - and a smoke bomb to the general direction of the halfling, so that he could focus on the half-elf. Sadly, this tactic only works partially, as he could not kill the half-elf as easily as anticipated, but manages to stab Zord in the leg, who is immediately brought to the ground, albeit still alive. Then he drops a smoke bomb to the half-elf, and kills the halfling with his chain, breaking his neck after quite a bit of choking. Orikexir uses a bomb to incapaciate the half-elf. Both of them end up still living, begging for mercy, which he gives them, telling them never to show their faces again.

Afterwards, Orikexir arrives into the city, and approaches the mine together with Manuel. They are joined by a young male Human Battlemage named Konrad Y'dat, and a male Dwarven Warrior named Lokhin Thin.

The Mine
Orikexir acts as the scout of the four-man team, where he informs everyone, that they are not going to use torches, as those give their enemies an advantage. After some walking around, the team splits up, with Manuel and Konrad going one direction, Lokhin and Orikexir going another.

The Dark Elf and the Dwarf encounter a hostile creature: a large spider with a human-like head. At the same time, Konrad and Manuel see a shadow among the stalactites - the shadow turns out to be a real creature. A humanoid troglodyte of some sort, with wings, dark skin and a tail. Both of them end up killing their respective encounters - Orikexir and Lohkin kill the giant spider by splitting up, with the Dark Elf attacking from over the spider, the Dwarf sliding under it and attacking its abdomen from underneath, both stabbing it over and over, then Orikexir giving it the mercy-kill by using his chain to choke the creature; while Manuel and Konrad have a more typical fight with the creature, one that would be expected from duelists. Two similar creatures once again assault Manuel, while Konrad is busy chanting a spell. One creature is set aflame by Konrad's spell, the other is killed by Manuel. Konrad remarks, that the creatures they killed look like some weird hybrids between Lizardmen and Halflings, notices that their bodies immediately started rotting, leading him to suspect Necromancy.

Manuel and Konrad go further and encounter some gargoyles, one of which asks Manuel which god he serves, asking him "If you answer correctly, I'll let you in.". Manuel claims to worship Titanius, the god of light, to which the gargoyle responds "I did promise i'd let you in, but I did not specify at what costs! Mwahahahahaha!". Afterwards, the gargoyles come alive, Manuel attacks one with his mace, Konrad attacks the other after casting some sort of spell on himself, that makes his eyes red and the air heated around him, his sword bursting into flames. They eventually kill the gargoyles by hitting their weak points - their eyes. They go further, only to encounter a voice coming out of nowhere claiming that the two of them have desecrated the Shrine of Darkgore with their presence. The voice makes itself seen in the form of a human-shaped shadow, telling them that time of Darkgore is soon here...

... meanwhile, Orikexir and the dwarf continued going forward after having killed that giant spider. The Dwarf explains to the Dark Elf, that these creatures are the mixture of a dead human body and the disgustingness of chaos, created by the poison of their queen, at least according to a legend. According to another legend, if they kill the queen, the danger will be over. They kept going forwards, and encountered spiderwebs. Lots of it. The Dwarf made the assumption, that they encountered their nest. They encounter some small spiders and rotten human bodies, killing the spiders. They encounter another giant spider, one that is like a centaur, but with the horse replaced by a spider, with the head being female this time. They have encountered the queen. They spider queen temporarily incapaciates Lokhin, leaving Orikexir alone to fight it - he starts by using his chain and sword to cut off its legs, causing it screech, killing it afterwards by stabbing her abdomen. The dying creature screeches one last time - "Darkgore will have his revenge!". Afterwards, he frees the dwarf, and they begin killing the little spiders, only to be interrupted by the impending collapse of the building, causing them to flee.

At the same time, Manuel and Konrad are attacked by more cave troglodytes, getting surrounded eventually. Konrad uses a fire wall to defend them, they attempt to fight them off, with Manuel getting heavily wounded in the process, but ultimately defeating them. They make the "sanctuary" explode, then they too too begin going back.

The two teams reunite, and finally smell fresh air again. They tell the lord their tale of what happened. The lord gives them rewards and invites them to a celebration, but only the NPCs Lokhin and Konrad accept - Manuel has to get his armour fixed and get well at the hands of a surgeon, while Orikexir has to return to his brotherhood's headquarters as soon as possible, where he'll be paid his due by the brotherhood.

Tropes

 * : The dwarv Lokhin uses an axe.
 * : The two surviving bandits who tried to mug Orikexir.
 * : The Lawful Evil Manuel Comnenos ..
 * : Orikexir's secondary weapon.
 * : The Gnolls are 2-metres (roughly 6 feet and 6.7 inches) tall -men. They don't seem to be able to speak to humans, but they can use tools and weapons, and they're implied to be.
 *  /  The Dwarf Lokhin Thin initially dislikes the Dark Elf Orikexir Spaendjekkel, but ends up growing to trust him and like him after they defeat the spider queen together.
 * : The monsters that Orikexir and Lokhin run into.
 * : The screeches made by the monsters they encounter in the mines.
 * : At least, Manuel, Konrad, and to a lesser extent, Orikexir do.
 * : Orikexir spares the two wounded bandits who tried to mug him.
 * : The bandits try to do that to Orikexir first. He kills one of them.
 * : The cult of Darkgore is implied to one.
 *  As if being a spider wasn't bad enough in itself, the ones that Orikexir and Lokhin run into are some sort of part-undead beasts that feed on decaying corpses and incorporate dead human body parts into their body.
 * : Discussed. In the beginning of the plot, some angry locals are complaining about the fact, that the guards do nothing to protect the people of the countryside from the recent gnoll attacks.
 * : Manuel has absolutely no problems with killing a gnoll child who is so scared for its life, that it doesn't even resist.
 * : The troglodytes initially attempt to do it to Manuel and his companion Konrad Y'dat..
 * : The troglodytes initially attempt to do it to Manuel and his companion Konrad Y'dat..