Chapter 11: The Rescue - Day 11
At first light they broke camp. Determined to move quickly and expecting combat they left their bedrolls and other camping supplies behind and set off for the fortress. Lightly encumbered they moved quickly and were at the rope bridge within an hour. The bridge looked to be a couple hundred feet long and swayed menacingly in the wind.
"Imoen and I are lightest, so we should go first to test the bridge." At this comment Jaheira snorted. Smiling, Jeral gave a mocking half bow and said, "Dear lady that fact is, of course, only due to your heavy armor and equipment and was not meant to imply anything about the lady within the armor." Khalid openly laughed until he was silenced by a glare from Jaheira.
"Very well, you two go ahead, just be careful."
Imoen and Jeral started to walk across the bridge. It felt solid enough under their feet and they believed that it could safely hold the entire party.
When they were close to the other side of the bridge they noticed a good size hut camouflaged in some trees near the base of the bridge. Noises could be heard from inside the hut and a cooking fire with a vaguely human looking torso on a spit was in front of the hut.
"This can't be good."
"I fear you are correct Imoen. We may want to rejoin the others before we are noticed."
"Good idea Jeral." The two started slowly backing away from the end of the bridge.
A large ogrillion strolled out of the hut. Jeral immediately recognized the beast from his studies back in Candlekeep. The summary about the creature quickly flashed through his mind. Closely related to their larger ogre cousins, ogrillions are still around seven feet tall and incredibly strong. They crave human flesh and have an excellent sense of smell.
The ogrillion checked the food and tore a large slab off and started eating it. He turned to walk back into the hut but as he turned he saw Jeral and Imoen on the bridge not four feet away. Snatching up a nearby axe he walked towards the bridge.
In a fractured common the ogrillion snarled "Hey! Me Gnarl, you stop! You pay to walk bridge."
"Uh let us ask our friends."
"Yeah, what he said, wait here we will be right back."
With that Jeral and Imoen turned and raced back across the bridge.
The raced to the end of the bridge and turned to see the ogrillion still walking towards them. Behind him they could see a second creature, wielding a large sword starting to cross the bridge towards the party. The party readied their weapons and Jaheira, Minsc, and Ajantis formed a first rank while the other party members readied missile weapons.
As Gnarl reached the end of the bridge he was attacked by all seven before he could prepare himself. After taking a few blows from Ajantis and Jaheira he was finally decapitated by Minsc and the headless torso fell to the ground. The second ogrillion, seeing the attack roared in anger and charged. Riddled with missile weapons he fell dead at the feet of the front rank of the party.
Imoen quickly looted the bodies and found a handful of gems, a pouch of gold coins and a pair of studded metal and leather gauntlets. Garrick examined them with a practiced eye. "I think there are to make one more agile. I know they are enchanted but I am not completely certain as to their purpose. What do you think Jeral?"
Jeral turned them over in his hands and stared at the gauntlets intently. I believe you are correct sir. These gauntlets will make the wearer extremely agile. Or course some of us are already extremely agile so we do not need them."
Flashing a smile Jeral tossed them to Jaheira. "Why give them to me child?"
Seeking to avoid calling her uncoordinated, and willing to overlook the child crack, Jeral quickly blurted out that her role as a healer made her extremely vital to the party. And since she spent much time in hand to hand combat without a shield this would help, when combined with her ankheg armor, to keep her safe. She seemed to accept this and put on the gauntlets. Twirling her staff a few times it was clear to all that she was more agile than before. She would now be very well protected in combat.
The party proceeded across the bridge and reached an intersection where three paths split off and headed into the fortress. Minsc knelt down and spent a few moments sniffing and eying the intersection closely. He slowly stood up and stated that the gnolls has taken his witch down the center path. There were fewer tracks on the side paths. After much discussion the party decided to stay on the center path since it provided the most direct route to Minsc's witch even though there was no chance to surprise whoever lay ahead.
"Prepare for anything." was all Jaheira said as they moved out. Minsc was in the lead and was followed by Ajantis and Jaheira. The remainder of the party hung a few steps back, and they were prepared to fight with missile weapons. Garrick walked a few steps behind the last rank and frequently looked behind the group to ensure no one could take them unawares from the rear.
After a short walk they came to a crude wooden gate that was adorned with skulls of many creatures. Jeral recognized many human, elven and Halfling skulls as well as other stranger ones that he did not recognize. Imoen was clearly shaken by the skulls. Jeral hugged her and they continued on. The party came to some wide stone stairs that were heavily weathered and started climbing. Ahead they saw three gnolls coming down the stairs. They were large creatures, taller than Minsc and just as broad. They looked like dogs but walked on their hind legs. They were clad in ill fitting armor, clearly taken from previous victims, and wielding an odd assortment of spears and halberds. With a roar the three gnolls charged the group.
Minsc, Ajantis and Jaheira stood side by side on the stairs ready to intercept their charge while the others opened up with missile weapons. One gnoll fell with an arrow in its throat and the other two closed to melee with the party. Since the gnolls were on a higher stair the back ranks could still safely attack the gnolls with missile weapons over the heads of the ranger, paladin and druid. The two remaining gnolls quickly fell to a combined assault with no damage to the party. They ran into two more small groups of gnolls as they climbed the stairs. Both were quickly dispatched. Less than two weeks ago a single gibberling nearly killed me. I have come a long way in a very short time. Jeral smiled to himself and felt ready for anything as they continued to move deeper into the fortress.
The party came to a second set of stairs that went into the actual fortress itself. They entered into a long stone courtyard that stretched a few hundred feet to the east. At regular intervals there were large open pits in the floor. There were only narrow ledges on each side of the pit allowing for single file passage across the open air courtyard. A large group of approximately a dozen gnolls stood in front of a large gnoll sitting on a throne. He sniffed the air, pointed at the party and the gnolls all lumbered to attack. The chieftain remained at the back of the pack waving a wicked looking battle axe above his head.
Jeral quickly realized that they must find a way to negate the gnoll's numerical advantage or they would all quickly die.
"We cannot face them all at once! Move forward to the pit so they can only attack around the sides. We must block both sides. The party raced forward and quickly split off into two groups. Minsc headed left followed by Ajantis, Garrick and Jeral while Jaheira, Khalid and Imoen raced right. The reached the narrow ledges on each side of the central pit and prepared themselves for battle only seconds before the gnolls reached them.
The gnolls charged in a mass and came up short when the lead gnoll was felled by a blow from Jaheira's enchanted staff. A second gnoll fell from arrows from Imoen and Khalid. The gnolls milled around in confusion. A roar from their leader, and a few backhanded smacks sent 4 other gnolls followed by the chieftain circling to the other side of the pit. The chieftain pushed the 4 gnolls in front of him. The lead gnoll found himself neatly sliced in half as Minsc took a huge overhand swing with his sword. The other gnolls slashed viciously at Minsc and Ajantis. The two men dodged the most dangerous of the blows but both were bleeding from several small cuts. Aided by Jeral and Garrick they quickly dispatched the three remaining gnolls in front of the chieftain. Minsc was clearly winded and Jeral was running low on arrows. The leader stepped forward and started trading blows with Minsc. Minsc managed to get in a good blow against the large gnoll, slashing into his left arm, but it only slowed the beast slightly.
The chieftan then sidestepped an overhand blow from Minsc and swung his axe sideways. The flat of the axe head caught Minsc on the side of the head. Lacking a helmet a gout of blood spurted from the side of the ranger's head. Minsc was hurled by the impact of the blow into the pit. Ajantis was standing between Minsc and the pit and was carried over the edge by the impact of the bulky ranger.
Drunk with the excitement of battle Garrick threw down his crossbow and drew his short sword with a flourish. Declaring, "Life is temporary, glory is forever!" He charged the gnoll chieftain while singing a drinking song. He ducked under a horizontal axe swing and stabbed the gnoll in the stomach. His sword buried itself in the gnolls stomach and only the hilt prevented it from going completely through the gnoll's torso. Howling in pain the gnoll stepped back and slashed quickly downwards with his axe. Garrick's sword clattered to the ground. Garrick's right hand was still firmly clutched to the hilt of the sword and was no longer attached to the young bard's body. Whimpering in pain and shock, Garrick fell to his knees cradling his stump of an arm. Blood spurted from the severed limb and the color was quickly draining from his face as his life quickly drained out of his body.
Jeral knew he had to kill the chieftan or else they would all probably die in the next few minutes. Swallowing his fear Jeral dropped his long bow, drew his long sword and prepared to engage the large gnoll.
You are weak and will always be weak. The way of the bard is not a worthy path. The way of the warrior is the true path for one such as you.
Jeral was frozen by the voice he heard in his head. He had heard it before but never as clearly as he did right now. He feared that it was true. He had only turned to life as a bard after discovering that he had limited aptitude for magic and after realizing that life as a mere warrior would not hold his interest. He knew that his decisions had disappointed Gorion and that he hated knowing that he could not even protect his father from death in the woods.
Jeral snapped out of his trance in time to sidestep a wicked slash of the gnoll's axe. In doing do he stumbled over Garrick's now prone body and dropped to his knee. He looked up to see the gnoll preparing to deal the killing blow. He held up shield arm and realized that the small buckler would be of little use against the groll's massive battle axe. Jeral took a deep breath and prepared to die.
Just before the gnoll could strike, two arrows buried themselves in his side. Roaring in pain the wounded gnoll chieftan turned to his left to face the new threat as Khalid and Imoen readied more arrows. Seizing the opening Jeral lunged forward and buried his sword in the side of the distracted chieftan. As the gnoll roared in pain Jeral twisted the sword and slashed downwards. With a howl the creature sunk to the ground and Jeral watched as the creatures innards slowly slid out of its now lifeless torso. Jeheira rushed over, dropped her staff and knelt over Garrick. She ordered Imoen into the pit to check on Minsc and Ajantis. Khalid stood with his bow ready looking back and forth to ensure they were not surprised by any more gnolls.
Jeral slowly got to his feet. Jaheira cast a healing spell and declared that Garrick was alive but barely. His hand was still on the ground and he looked very pale as blood continued to slowly leak from the stump at the end of his arm. Wearily Jaheira got to her feet.
"Jeral, make a fire, and quickly. I need to seal his wound else he will likely die of infection or continued blood loss." Looking down at the bard she continued, "You will live, but there is naught I can do for the hand. Healing abilities far greater than mine would be required to reattach it, and none are here. By the time we reach civilization it will be too late." Garrick only nodded his head numbly, clearly still in shock from the situation.
Jaheira cautiously descended the worn stone steps into the pit to tend to Ajantis and Minsc. Ajantis was unharmed, merely badly bruised and winded from the fall into the pit. Minsc was in bad shape with a deep wound in his skull. It took a healing potion and Jaheira's last healing spell to restore the burly ranger to health.
While Jaheira was tending to Minsc, Jeral quickly made a pile of wood from broken arrows, halberd shafts and other detritus from the fight. Once the pile was complete Jeral started to strip off his chain mail.
"Jeral, I do not think it is w-w-w-wise to remove ones armor right now. We are still in great danger and far from safety."
Nodding Jeral continued removing his armor. "I know Khalid but we need a roaring fire quickly and there is little here to start a fire with the traditional way. I happen to have a short cut."
Muttering a few words Jeral fanned out his fingers and aimed at the pile of wood. Jets of flame shot from Jeral's hands and the pile of sticks quickly transformed into a roaring blaze.
Jaheira stopped and stared at Jeral for a moment. "That was…..unexpected. You never mentioned you had magical abilities."
"Well I do not have many magical abilities Jaheira. And they do not work while I wear armor so I do not use them very often. I can still use wands and scrolls while in armor however as I can use the magic in the item vice the limited magic I control. You needed a roaring fire quickly and now you have it."
Jeral bent down to put his chain mail back on while Jaheira found a broad spear head and placed the end of it in the fire. After a few minutes it was white hot.
"Ajantis, Minsc, please hold Garrick still." The two men wordlessly walked over and laid Garrick down with Minsc holding Garrick's wounded right arm steady.
"Screaming may help." Was all Jaheira said as she laid the spear head against the stump of Garrick's arm. He wailed and screamed like a wounded animal and struggled fiercely but the two warriors held him still. Jaheira eyed her work critically and apparently found something not to her satisfaction for she again placed the spear head back against his arm. The sound of crackling flesh and the smell of burned meat was too much for Imoen and she started to retch. Garrick mercifully passed out after the second application of the spear.
Tossing the spear to the side Jaheira eyed her patient and then stood up wiping her hands on her breeches.
"He will live. There will be no more blood loss and likely no infection. Let us find your witch Minsc and be gone from this place. The screams and smell of burning flesh will surely bring any remaining gnolls down upon us."
Jeral busied himself by picking up the few arrows that he could find that were undamaged. After reclaiming as many as he could find he wandered down the courtyard to the gnoll chieftain's throne. He felt horrible for Imoen and secretly he was queasy as well from watching Jaheira tend to Garrick. As he looked beyond the throne Jeral saw a pile of corpses next to a large black cauldron. As he approached he noticed the cauldron held the cold remains of a stew. Human body parts were clearly visible in the stew. The smell from the stew and the pile of corpses reached Jeral. Overcome by horror Jeral stumbled to the edge of the nearest pit, bent forward at the waist and was sick.
A shrill cry of anger and disgust from within the pit startled Jeral. Drawing his sword he walked around the pit to the stairs and descended. In the pit was a dark skinned woman. She was clad in torn, dirty mage robes and was busily wiping vomit off of herself. She was a short woman, no taller than Imoen, and clearly was a magic user. Her face had the regal bearing of one used to being obeyed. She was pretty despite the haughtiness of her features.
Smiling, Jeral sheathed his sword. "I presume you would be the witch Dynaheir? Minsc will be thrilled that you are safe."
"You have met Minsc? Is he well?"
"We have more than met him; we have traveled with him here to rescue you. As for if he is well I suggest we both check right now, for we have been in fierce combat and Minsc led the way every step. I am Jeral of Candlekeep. It is a pleasure to meet you. Also, um, my apologies for the vomit."
"That is no matter for you have saved me from a terrible death. It is always pleasant to meet ones rescuers. Please take me to Minsc."
The two exited the pit. They saw Minsc standing with Khalid discussing the battle. Minsc clearly was none the worse for wear from the experience and Jeral suspected he had experience suffering head wounds. Seeing Jeral and his witch approach the large ranger stood and smiled.
"Hamsters and Rangers everywhere, rejoice! Minsc is reunited with his witch." He raced over and picked her up in his arms.
"Minsc's witch smells bad but Minsc does not care because she is safe."
"Please let me go Minsc." Quickly he complied.
Laying a hand on his arm she smiled. "It is good to see you too large one, and Boo as well."
I must thank you Jeral of Candlekeep. Not many would willingly follow Minsc into battle for that is generally not a wise or safe decision."
"Dynaheir, allow me to introduce my companions. This is Imoen. She is my sister and also from Candlekeep."
"Nice to meet you."
"This is Khalid and his wife Jaheira. They are both warriors of note and she is also a healer." They both greeted Dynaheir.
"The gentleman on the ground over there is Garrick, a bard from Beregost. I fear he is still somewhat the worse for wear."
"And this is the Paladin Ajantis."
"It is a pleasure to meet all of you. Thank you again for my rescue. In gratitude all I can offer is our assistance. I am a wizard of some skill and I see you lack that ability in your group. And Minsc, well he is Minsc but he is a very capable warrior and ranger. Please consider us at your service."
"I would welcome your skill as well as that of Minsc. And I must not forget Boo as well." That last comment earned a pleased squeak from Boo. Imoen pulled some spare clothes out of her bag. Jaheira made all the men turn their backs while Dynaheir doused herself with a full water skin and changed into clean clothes. Jeral thought two women in matching purple getups was a little much. Imoen always did like her bright colors, even if they made her ill suited to be a thief.
Jaheira handed Dynaheir her sling and bullets so the mage would have a weapon as they set out to exit the gnoll stronghold. Jeral handed her a small block of cheese and a heel of bread that she gratefully accepted. They were both quickly consumed as the mage was clearly close to starvation from her time in captivity. Garrick leaned on Jeral as the party departed. Minsc lead the way followed by Ajantis and Jaheira. Imoen and Khalid brought up the rear ready to support with their bows and ever wary for anyone coming up behind the group.
They ran into a few additional small groups of gnolls on the way out of the fortress but they were quickly dispatched without too much effort. Due to Garrick's injury and their dwindling supplies of missile weapons they decided to return to Nashkel with all speed. They reclaimed their field gear and reached the river by nightfall. Before dark they took turns bathing in the cool waters of the stream. Minsc returned with some game and before too long they all were seated around a roaring fire eating rabbit and venison. Everyone was in good sprits, all save Garrick. Jeral moved to sit next to the bard and handed him a skin of wine. Garrick fumbled to open the skin with his left hand before taking a long deep pull on the skin. Wordlessly he handed it back to Jeral.
"We will be back in Nashkel in a day or two Garrick."
"That is true but what will I do? How can I be a great adventurer with only one hand?"
"You may still sing the praises of others. When I was in Candlekeep bards were some of the greatest chroniclers of history throughout time and across the world. If you hear about it you can sing about it, write about it and make it your own. Besides, how many bards can tell a story of how they rescued a damsel in distress from an evil fortress? And how many bards can say that they were grievously injured while in hand to hand combat with the leader of that fortress? You sacrificed of yourself in order to save the damsel. For the rest of your life you get to be a bard that carries a badge of his honor and bravery. You are a hero."
After a long silence Garrick slowly nodded and took a deep breath.
"Maybe you are right. This may all be for the best. If I am honest with you I absolutely hate adventuring. I hate the dirt and the danger and the sleeping outdoors and I really hate wiping myself with leaves. I am much happier in a nice warm tavern with a plump waitress on my lap while I make music or drink ale. Now I can sing about the adventuring life and never have to do it again. I think you are right Jeral. This may indeed be a blessing in disguise."
Jeral helped Garrick to his feet. "I adjusted your sword belt so it can now hang on your right side. You are doing to have to get used to using your left hand for many things." Garrick nodded his thanks and slowly sunk back to the ground deep in thought.
Jeral stood up and walked away from the bard. He walked to the end of the firelight and looked out at the river. Imoen came up to stand beside him. The stood next to one another in silence for a time. Finally Imoen broke the silence.
"Well we should be back in Nashkel in a few days right?"
"Correct."
"Good. I am not sure I am cut out for this life. I miss Candlekeep. I miss Winthrop, I miss my room, I miss Gorion." Imoen broke down in tears. Jeral comforted her for a while and then placed her in her bedroll where she fell into a deep sleep. As she fell asleep Jeral whispered "you are stronger than you know and I would be lost without you," as he watched her sleep for a few moments. Jeral took her turn at watch, in addition to his own. The night passed without incident and after another long day and a half in the wilderness the party reached Nashkel and headed straight to the inn.
The party rented four rooms. Khalid and Jaheira took one, Dynaheir and Imoen took the second, Garrick and Minsc took the third while Ajantis and Jeral took the fourth room. Imoen and Jeral shared a few furtive plaintive looks but accepted their lodging arrangements for the evening.