Lost Trails 3: The Hollow Way

[alhoon]

"Children?" Raen says in barely contained anger. "Are the innocent the target in all the worlds?"

[ewancummins]

Alain also spots a little gully that drops into the lane on the south side, not far ahead.

The gravely dry stream bed does not dip too steeply, and it would be easy for the party to guide its horses down into the holloway, and so hide from anyone looking across the plains.
A man on horseback can easily rise in the saddle and peek up over the grassy walls of the holloway to scan the open country.

Samus moves her men down.
She says to Benn and the others,
"This trail seems fresh. I think if we use the lane and ride hard we can overtake them before they reach the swamp. Gnolls are lazy and they have prisoners, so they won't be going full speed. And they've no mounts. But this pack seems cautious, so I expect they will have one or two of their number topside, maybe hiding behind a scrub oak or in a ditch, taking turns as lookouts. I am wary of possible ambush coming from either side with all of us down here, but it is the best chance we have of swiftly reaching them and achieving some measure of surprise. We won't kick up so much trail dust that can be seen at any distance, down here, and they won't as likely sniff us unless the wind blows right at our backs. What say you?"

[Adam]

"We've a better chance of catching them here than in the swamp, so let's go get them," Bennedict grimly replies.

[ewancummins]

Riding hard down the holloway, with only occasional pauses the check the trail ahead, the party finds the floor of the holloway getting a little softer as they go...


After a half hour on the trail, the dirt and rock walls on either side begin to noticeably dip lower.
Here and there, scratches and scuffs show on the vertical surfaces, as of heavy things sliding down into the road.
The party moves on, walking the horses.
Brush grows thicker on either side above sunken path but the weeds and brambles in the lane bottom all lie trampled flat.
It doesn't take a ranger to follow the trail now--nor to notice an increase in the number of monster paw-prints.


After maybe an hour, the party comes across a small cut in the road that runs southwest.
Sneaking up and peeking round the corner of the side-trail, the scouts see a derelict house close by: weathered masonry, dry-rotted timbers, the roof mostly gone.

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Noises come from inside the ruin: growls, yelps, snarls, whimpers.
Kat glimpses a clump of big shaggy things lurking in the scrub oaks and tall grass near the house. It's hard to make out details without getting closer.

[RocEter]

"I will distract these...beasts. Lure them out of the ruined home, so that the rest of the group can sneak in and rescue the captives." Clive says.

[kintire]

Katrin silently points out the group she has seen.

"I think that's dangerous. We ant to keep the fight away from the prisoners. I suggest those who can slip closer, quietly, eliminate all norls near the captives and defend them in some suitable place. Hopefully the norls will keep their captives somewhere suitable! Then, everyone who can't slip closer quietly takes down the main grup of norls while we keep them from threatening or killing the prisoners..."

She eyes the house cautiously

[ewancummins]

Katrin silently points out the group she has seen.

"I think that's dangerous. We ant to keep the fight away from the prisoners. I suggest those who can slip closer, quietly, eliminate all norls near the captives and defend them in some suitable place. Hopefully the norls will keep their captives somewhere suitable! Then, everyone who can't slip closer quietly takes down the main grup of norls while we keep them from threatening or killing the prisoners..."

She eyes the house cautiously

The huntsman, who is with Kat helping to scout the scene, whispers,
"But where are the captives?"

[alhoon]

Raen whispers, "I assume they are in the house. I would also agree with Kathereen's plan"

[ewancummins]

Raen whispers, "I assume they are in the house. I would also agree with Kathereen's plan"

The huntsman nods, then creeps back to the main body of the party to make his report, leaving Raen and Sir Clive crouched with Kat behind brush at the trail-side.

...

When the huntsman returns to the main party on the sunken lane, after several minutes's absence, he tells Governor Samus,
''The sneaky woman, that big fellow, and the wizard are hidden just up the little southwest trail. There's a ruined house up there, and sounds like monsters are inside. The woman spotted something in the brush nearby--looks like maybe gnolls. Dunno how many. Dunno where captives are... Trail looks like the same one we've been following.''
He takes a swig from his wineskin.
"The woman and the wizard want to sneak up and try to find and free the captives. The big guy wants to walk out in plain view by himself! Distraction. Sounds crazy to me, but he tangled with a troll and came out on top, right? "
The man shakes his head.

Samus lays her right hand on her sword hilt.
"A distraction might prove helpful, but let's find out what we're up against and where the captives are being kept--if they're still here and alive. Let a few go in stealthily. Keep our main strength close by and on watch. If our spies get into trouble, we'll have to take the risk and rush into battle. But I'd prefer knowing more before we move. Can't take long, though. We might be discovered. "
She turns to the adventurers with her,
'What do you think?"
Though she addresses them as a group, she seems to be paying the closest attention to Klokulf.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"I can take a closer look at the scene from a distance, if that would be beneficial," says Klokulf.

[ewancummins]

"I can take a closer look at the scene from a distance, if that would be beneficial," says Klokulf.

Samus says,
''Yes, do so."

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

"I will need to get a slightly closer look. I will return shortly."
Klokulf stalks up to the lookout position, making relatively little noise but being rather oblivious to where the good cover is on his path.

[ewancummins]

"I will need to get a slightly closer look. I will return shortly."
Klokulf stalks up to the lookout position, making relatively little noise but being rather oblivious to where the good cover is on his path.

Klokulf feels a flash of vertigo as the scene before him abruptly vanishes, replaced by a downward view from over the broken roof of the house.

There, almost right below his magical eye, a woman and a child seated in the middle of the ruin. Possibly bound. They're moving some, so they must be alive yet...

Nine shaggy beastmen, big ugly things,surround the prisoners, crouching in the dirty interior of the house. One has just gotten up and moved toward the doorway. It's now looking in the general direction of Klokulf and the other spies...

Klokulf shifts his gaze.

Just outside the house, on the far side from the trail, a half-dozen malformed wolf-like critters loll in the shade of the wall, scratching their bodies and playing with what look like gnawed bones.
Turning the eye around in a circle, he looks for more enemies in the ground about the ruin.


More beastmen lurk in the trees and shrubs, but it's hard to get a clear count. At least three in plain sight, but shadows under the trees suggest more moving out of his view...

And there's a pair of big, bare, green feet sticking out from under the boughs of largest oak in the area, close to the house on the north side. It seems like some quite large person/thing is sitting or lying under the tree's shade but the tree and the angle of his view prevents him from seeing more of whatever owns those feet.

[Wolfglide of the Fraternity]

Klokulf draws a bit of wax from his pack and rolls his sleeve back over his holy symbol. He mutters a few words that don't sound like Vaasi and makes a gesture.

[ewancummins]

A shrill cry sounds from someplace in the west. An eagle?

Kat, pressed into the dirt of the smaller trail with Raen and Sir Clive beside her and screened from plain sight of the ruined house by brush, overhears a growing commotion from the direction of the house. More growls, getting louder. Movement.
Voices that waver between rumbling and whining, speaking in an unfamiliar tongue.

She notices Klokulf, who had just come up and (rather inexpertly) hidden not far from the scouts, now turning away and skulking off toward the sunken lane where the others wait with the horses.