Chapter 15: The Gnoll Fortress
The weathered sandstone cliffs ended abruptly. A deep river had slowly worn a gash in the landscape, and water rushed past at a breakneck pace below the narrow path they'd followed for the past hour. A single rickety bridge spanned the river, and the path continued onwards on the other side through a similar rocky landscape.
"So, who wants to cross first?" Ember asked.
"I'll go," Imoen said. She stepped daintily out on the bridge. Ignoring the rope rails, she stretched out her arms and walked with exaggerated, delicate steps in a straight line, as if she were a tight rope artist at a fair. She had crossed half the bridge in this manner when two large, ugly heads, covered with shaggy dark hair, appeared behind a rock outcropping at the far end. Imoen immediately dropped her arms to her sides and halted.
"Half-ogres," Kivan muttered. "We should avoid fighting if we can; it is not safe here."
"Stop!" one of the half-ogres called out to Imoen. "You go nowhere! This our bridge, you pay to walk it!"
"Yeah, you pay!" the second half-ogre added. "Two hundred for all heads, or lose heads!"
Imoen turned and looked questioningly at the others. Kivan nodded. Imoen shrugged and turned back to the half ogres.
"Fine, we'll pay!" she called out to them.
"Okay! You pass, right?" the second half-ogre replied.
"No!" the first half-ogre exclaimed. "They pay 200 gold pretty quick! Maybe got more gold! Maybe rich!"
"Yeah, you smart! We take heads anyway, and get lots gold!"
"Great," Imoen mumbled. She turned and started to run back to her friends before the half-ogres even set foot on the bridge, the planks creaking in protest beneath her with every step. The bridge swayed threateningly with the heavy tread of the half-ogres as they stomped on to it, and Imoen almost lost her balance in her last few steps on the bridge. As soon as she reached solid rock, she dodged sideways; Kivan and Minsc had readied their bows and began shooting arrows at the attackers as soon as Imoen was out of the line of fire. One of the two was felled rapidly, but the other dodged most of the arrows with a surprising ease and made it all the way across the bridge before being cut down by Ember and Ajantis.
"At least we know the bridge can handle us, now," Imoen said.
Kivan quietly bent over the closest of the dead half-ogres and examined the body. The half-ogre had somehow obtained a pair of magical bracers, but had little else of note; Kivan removed the bracers and put them in his pack. "We must have these identified later. I suspect they will be of use," he said.
"There does not appear to be any more of them," Ajantis announced.
"Let them come!" Minsc cried. "Minsc and Boo will take care of anyone who blocks their path to Dynaheir, with sword and teeth!"
---
The path was labyrinthine. It twisted and turned between rocky outcroppings and along narrow ledges, split, rejoined itself, and led them astray. They made several wrong turns down paths that appeared to lead directly to the fortress but instead only brought them to caves full of xvarts. The diminiutive blue creatures would invariably charge them with shrill cries as they brandished short swords; some of the xvarts would even be waving spell scrolls around, seemingly trying to activate the magic by shaking the parchment. The outcome of these encounters was always the same; the xvarts would attack and be cut down till only a few were left, whereupon the last ones would lose their nerve and run away. The xvarts were not able to significantly injure them, but the skirmishes were time-consuming and wore down everyone's patience, Minsc's in particular.
"We take too long!" Minsc said as he cut down half a dozen xvarts at once. "My charge is in desperate peril!" Another wave of the creatures rushed towards him, only to be struck by another slash of his large sword. "Feel the wrath of Minsc and Boo, evil blue men!" he shouted.
It came as a relief to everyone when they finally arrived at the base of the fortress. The foundation and lower levels were severely weatherbeaten, but also appeared to be built with more forethought than the upper levels, which they had seen from afar the previous evening. The structure appeared to be the ruin of an older fortress which the gnolls had rebuilt after their own design.
"I have heard of such things happening," Ajantis said, "but not with a building of this size."
"We should move with caution," Kivan said. "There may be hundreds of gnolls within."
Imoen nodded. "We'll sneak in, find Dynaheir, take her and sneak out."
"And try not to alert every gnoll that might be there in the process," Ember said.
"Minsc wants to kick every gnoll out of the fortress and into the river, but Dynaheir must be safe first."
"There will be patrols. We must deal with them swiftly and completely. None must escape to warn the others," Ajantis said.
They paused at the base of the fortress for a while, sharing a brief meal of bread, dried meat and water. The wind was picking up and whispered around them as they ate.
"There's something unnatural about this place," Imoen murmured to Ember as she chewed the last of her dried meat.
"I agree. I'll be glad to leave," Ember replied. The wind was humming mournfully as it caressed the sandstone cliffs and pillars, picking up wisps of dust here and there that drifted away like smoke. It was a bright, sunny day, but the light felt harsh and cold, and Ember searched in vain for a spot of green to rest her eyes upon. "It feels dead here," she said.
They moved slowly up the winding steps that led into the fortress, and before long they ran into the first group of gnolls, guarding a ramshackle gate made by lashing together logs. Some thin branches were still sticking out of the logs, and had been used to display the skins of dead animals and the skulls of dead people. The gnolls - almost a dozen of them - were lazing about behind the gate, but sprang to attention when the party approached. Kivan, Minsc and Imoen quietly drew their bows and showered the gnolls in arrows, while Ember and Ajantis charged the ones who tried to either get closer to the party or run away from the gate. They acted in silence; no battle cries passed their lips, no cheers for particularly good hits, and only muffled groans when they themselves were injured. The only sounds were those of metal on metal and the yapping snarls of the gnolls, and those were soon silenced. The victors sipped healing potions and waited, listening attentively for reinforcements.
"They must not have noticed yet," Kivan murmured after a couple minutes. "Let us continue."
The steps turned abruptly to the left and contiued up in a straight line, with a wall to the right and a sheer drop to the left. Gusts of wind rushed around them, channeled by the shapes of the walls, and all but blocked the distant murmur of doglike yaps and whines. The straight steps offered less cover than the winding steps had, and the party was spotted before they got within shooting distance of the log gate at the top of the steps. Three gnolls charged towards them, and by the time those three were dispatched, another score of them were gathered at the gate, snarling and hissing at the invaders. Minsc barreled his way into the throng, knocking gnolls out of his path with his bow, and shot down two gnolls that were running towards a narrow staircase to their right. The rest of the gnolls were fully focused on their attackers, something which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the gnolls blocked each other from using their halberds efficiently. Everyone but Imoen engaged in mêlée combat; she shot down any gnolls that tried to escape the throng as Kivan used his hammer and the other three used their swords.
The gnolls were eventually all cut down, and Minsc led them to the large open space beyond the gate. To their left was a low wall and then a dizzying drop to the sandstone labyrinths, and to their right was the bulk of the fortress. It appeared to be built more recently and in a much more haphazard manner than the level they had already passed, and the single narrow staircase appeared to be the only access point. The open space in front of them held three large, circular pits of different sizes.
"This is the front courtyard, if I am not mistaken," Ajantis said quietly. "Their main force is more than likely up there."
"I agree," Kivan said. "This wind is fortunate indeed; it carries our sounds away from the fortress. There would surely have been reinforcements by now if it were otherwise, as I do not think these were the only gnolls here."
"What are those large holes?" Imoen asked, wandering towards one of the circular pits and looking down. She promptly retched and backed away from it.
Ember glanced quickly into the pit and turned away in disgust. A dead human man lay at the bottom of the pit, shackled to the floor and surrounded by the knuckles of previous captives. The body had been there long enough to no longer smell, and the flesh seemed desiccated. What did they do, leave him here to starve to death?
Mercifully, the other pits were empty aside from a bone or two. There was no trace of a female captive, nor of one having been in them recently. "They must be holding my Dynaheir up there," Minsc said, pointing towards the flight of steps that led to the upper level. "We must find her, quick!"
"We must not be overrun," Kivan said. "I will go first; follow when I beckon."
The elf moved quietly up the narrow steps, staying as close to the wall as possible. Once he got to the top, he crouched behind a low wall, glanced around it, then beckoned to the rest to follow. He held one finger over his lips as he beckoned; silence was crucial. The others moved as carefully up the stairs as they could and crouched behind the wall along with Kivan. Whem Ember leaned forward and glanced around the wall, she saw several more pits like the ones on the lower level. Behind the pits were several shoddily constructed huts and tents, set up around a large central campfire. A myriad of gnolls were there. Some were eating, others were working with weapons, but most of them appeared to be resting. All told there were probably a hundred of the creatures in a very small space; if Dynaheir was being held in one of these pits, it would be very difficult to get her out.
From the look of it, they were not far from the gnolls' midden; bones were strewn everywhere, and flies were buzzing energetically around a pile of matter that Ember did not care to try to identify. There were more skulls on display here, mounted on the top of poles in a manner that seemed to imply they had a decorative purpose. Most of the heads were merely white bone, but some of them still had varying amounts of flesh and hair on them.
Minsc screamed in anguish.
His friends turned to find him staring blindly at one of the displayed heads. It was the head of a dark skinned woman with a tangled mat of red and brown locks on top of it.
"Dynaheir!" Minsc shouted. "No!" He stood up from the cover of the wall and drew his sword. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and fire blazed in his eyes.
"You will be avenged!!"
Minsc screamed at the top of his lungs as he charged the gnoll encampment.
