Selm
Southern Gnoll Camp #4
"Yield!" Selm ordered, magic flowing through her lips. The gnoll's blade wavered, a hesitation in its movements that swiftly became its downfall. Eldrig's sword cut through the gnoll's neck. Its blood painted the ground in an arcing spray, but its head was still attached. Gnolls had thick necks.
She lamented that the gnoll had only wavered at her command and had not submitted completely. Utterancy was a powerful form of magic with many applications found in the other schools of magic, but one of its flaws was it was less useful against foes who did not understand your tongue. That and foes who had no means of hearing. That does not mean the magic does not work, but it is massively weakened.
"Get the fuck off!" Baz grunted, slamming his mace into the back of the skull of a scrawny gnoll that had splayed itself across Inathia's shield. Another good whack dropped it from its assault on the slab of wood.
"And that makes twelve," Runner commented, wiping gnoll guts from her blades. "We get them all?"
"Until every tent has been thoroughly examined, assume that we have not," Yule said sternly. Eldrig and Baz nodded in agreement. Runner rolled her eyes and scoffed, but she did not comment. "The noise of battle would have drawn all but the weakest in the camp to the fray. Runner and Selm, check that tent. Inathia and Baz check the one closer to the tree line. Eldrig and I will see to the last one. Understood?" His tone held little room for argument. They were quick to realize that Yule's strategies were founded in good logic, as he was similarly quick to point out when questioned.
This camp of gnolls had been the largest yet that they had cleared. Not the largest around, according to Eldrig's report, but those were being handled by the soldiers. The last two had two tents and the first was a small hunting tent that held only four gnolls.
They were only given the small outposts or camps that were deemed of lesser risk. At the very least, they were not being forced to march into situations that meant certain death. At the pace they had been making, however, their debt would still stand for the majority of this year, perhaps even spilling into the next. Selm had never spent winetus in the wild and she did not want to either. Most of her cold weather experience came from small walks to the Holy Grounds and back.
It was pointless to think of the cold months now. Those had only just passed when Selm had left Lordidan, Faitus be praised. I do need to acquire winter travel clothes, she thought absently to herself, following Runner to the large tent-like structure.
The gnolls were no masters of construction. Their camps were made of scavenged timber and putrid hides. To their credit, they were quite adept at skinning the things they hunted. Unfortunately, that included people too. Selm held back the bile in her throat at the memory of that poor woman's corpse they found in the second camp they assaulted. She was an unlucky human, at least according to Baz, who had the misfortune to be skinned and partially eaten. Yule had burned her corpse at Baz's request, along with the portion of a tent her skin had become a part of. None of them had an appetite that night.
That experience reinforced the fact that these gnolls were monsters. Plain and simple. Even if they were not blatantly skinning and eating people, they were destroying the ecosystem. The forest around the camps were quiet and filled with rotting meat piles, that much they saw on each time they approached. Those savages killed anything they came across, filled their bellies, and then left the rest to spoil in the open air. Some of the animals barely had a few bites taken out of their bodies. It disgusted her, and Selm was not even a fan of the great outdoors. By the Nine, Keldanis deserves better than these horrid wretches.
"Ready?" Runner said, stopping abruptly in front of the tent flap. One eyebrow arched as she looked back at Selm. The question was simple enough, but it irritated Selm further.
She nodded curtly, her blade still drawn. Runner would enter first, being more suited for melee combat and, to quote Runner herself, "slipperier". Should there be a gnoll waiting to gut the first person to come through the entryway, Runner stood the better chance of living through such an ambush. A point she had made clear the first time they had been tasked with clearing a tent by pulling Selm back by her collar. Selm understood the reason, but that did not give Runner a reason to be so rude.
The human listened carefully at the tent flap for any sound that would give away an ambush. After a tense few seconds she crouched low, a signal that she was about to rush in. Runner burst into the tent, Selm following quickly behind her. At the very worst, there would be a couple gnolls in here ready to kill them. In that case, they would quickly retreat and signal for the others to come to their aid. At the very best, there would be nothing in here but whatever spoils the gnolls had amassed in this camp.
Selm nearly tripped over Runner as she rushed in, her gaze swinging around fervently. "Oof- Wha-?" Selm bit her tongue, the question dying before she even finished asking it. Runner was staring trepidatiously at what was in the center of this tent. Something that was… strange.
The entire tent was filled with a red glow, the walls bathed in a pulsating light. Amidst a pile of bones, collected from boar, deer, and possibly people, was a gnoll. At first glance, this one was the only one in the entire tent. And its fur looked… red. A deep, unsettling red. As if it was once white but stained crimson time and time again until it too was such a color. The gnoll's fur pulsated, releasing that ominous light. Its eyes were closed, though, and it sat cross-legged in the center of these bones. Not only that, it had not even reacted to their abrupt entrance.
Runner moved out of her confused position, turning one of her daggers in her hand in preparation to stab this gnoll while it was unaware. She took a step forward, ready to put an end to this anomaly. It was at that moment Selm noticed something else amongst the bone piles, faintly glowing along with the gnoll's coat. Runes. Parts of a magic circle beneath the skeletal remains of sacrifices.
Selm quickly grabbed Runner's other arm and yanked her backward. They fell, hard, Runner on top of Selm in an uncoordinated collection of limbs. Selm felt the wind get pushed out of her, leaving her gasping for breath. Runner practically yowled in surprise at being thrown by her ally and was scrambling to get off of Selm, glaring at her before whipping her head back to the gnoll.
"The fuck is wrong with you, dumbass!?" Runner snarled, moving out of reach of Selm, circling around the back wall of the tent.
"Runes!" Selm wheezed, pointing at the bones. "Could… could be a trap."
Runner's eyes snapped to the bones as she continued circling. Those steely blue eyes narrowed when they too spotted what Selm had seen. She clicked her tongue and traced the outside of the bone pile.
Standing up and retrieving her rapier, Selm too took another look at the bonepile. Runner likely would have stepped straight onto the runes should she have tried to get close enough to gut the gnoll.
"Shit. Fuck shit."
She crinkled her nose at the crass language. It was accurate, but still crude. "I have no clue what this magic would have done to you, if anything at all, but better safe than sorry."
"Eshah. Yeah…" Runner cursed again. She was no longer snarling at Selm, looking a tad bit nervous at the magic circle. Nerves rattled by unknown magic, Selm took another glance at the magic circle. If more of it was revealed, perhaps she could work out what it was for, but unfortunately it was mostly buried.
"Huh."
Selm looked back up at Runner, who was now staring at the gnoll again. "What is it?"
"Well… is it just me… or…" She trailed off.
"Or what?"
"...or is the gnoll glowing faster?"
It was Selms turn to narrow her eyes as she examined the gnoll. She counted the beats between pulses, once ever few seconds. Her eyes widened in shock. Runner was right. They were getting faster!
Selm turned on her heel and poked her head out of the tent. She gathered air into her lungs before screaming out "Yule! COME HERE NOW!" The shout echoed through the camp, but it seemed to do the trick. She spotted Yule storming out of the tent he had gone to inspect, Eldrig quickly on his heels.
"By the infernum, what is it?" He said, breaking into a sprint towards her. Thankfully, her tone had convinced him that it was urgent. She certainly thought it was.
"There is a magic circle and we have no clue what it does. Whatever it is doing is getting faster." She quickly said, trying to give him an idea of what to do even as he approached. She held the flap open for him as he came running in. The half-elf was left a bit out of breath at his quick sprint, but his eyes immediately went to work assessing the situation.
"Did either of you touch the circle?" He asked, circling around closer to where Runner was.
"Thankfully not." Selm said. Runner nodded in agreement.
"W-what i-is that th-thing?" Eldrig said, sticking his maned head into the tent. Based on his confusion, he had never seen a gnoll like this before either.
"Whatever it is, it's giving off a seriously freaky vibe." Runner said, still holding her dagger at the ready.
Selm had to agree. The pulses had only ever increased in tempo and they have done so ever quicker. Before it was roughly once every four seconds. Now, it was down to two and a half seconds. Still, the gnoll had not moved from its position. Selm felt her spine tingle uncomfortably.
"It's a mutated gnoll. Something about this ritual it is performing is changing it. Everyone out. Now!" Yule spat.
Selm backed out, not questioning the mage. While she was no novice at magic, this was out of her wheelhouse. As far as she was aware, Yule was an educated scholar as well as a competent battlemage. If Yule said out, out is where she would go. Runner looked a bit hesitant, but at Yule's insistence, she ran out after Selm.
Both Baz and Inathia had come running over at this point, worried about perhaps another party of gnolls having attacked them due to the shouting.
"What's goin' on?" Baz questioned, his scarred face furrowed. Selm told him what she and Runner had found, and that Yule is in the tent trying to figure it out. The half-orc started for the tent flap. "He shouldn't be in there alone. Stay out-"
The large man was interrupted by Yule also backing out of the tent, his staff held high as he weaved some sort of spell. His eyes sparked with embers of flame and the end of the coiled wood in his hands left faint lines in the air. A faint hum was heard from the tip of his magical focus. He spoke a few arcane words, some of which Selm recognized as components of destruction. Wait… he did not intend to…
"Someone, if you will, please hold the tent flap open. Everyone, be prepared to run."
Selm balked. "You cannot be serious?!"
"Quickly, please!"
Baz yanked on the tent flap, actually succeeding on ripping the paltry stitching that held it to the wooden frame. Inside the tent, the bloody gnoll could be seen flashing in bright red light. The flashes were just under a second now and were speeding up even further.
Quickly, Yule finished preparing the spell. With a wave of his staff, an arcing bead of light hurtled into the tent. Selm had enough sense to take another few steps back before the inevitable happened.
The orb detonated.
A flash of fire and sound erupted from the tent, the gnoll in the center of the blast. Everyone shielded themselves the best they could. Runner had managed to take cover behind Inathia while Yule and Selm had both been nearly knocked to the ground by the force of the impact. Baz had taken a good amount of the force but had minimized as much as he could by throwing himself to the ground mere moments before the spell landed.
Dust and debris blew out rapidly, forming a cloud of projectiles. Selm had to shield herself from small shards of bone and splinters of wood that washed over her, feeling them find purchase on parts of her exposed skin. Stinging pain flared from her arms, where the majority of the splinters had pierced as she hid her face. I need my face to make money, anything but that!
A choking noise came from the cloud, hidden from visibility by the lingering billowed dust and smoke. Selm let out a light groan herself, the feeling of her skin being pricked a hundred times over was not a pleasant one. Yule wasted no time preparing a second spell, this one a bit weaker in strength. A glance at him showed that the initial explosive spell had taken a lot out of him. His motions were sluggish, yet they still carried the mage's methodical form of casting.
"Blasted fool! A warnin' would be kind next time, yeah?!" Baz grunted, staggering to his feet. His entire back was singed, revealing the chain armor he wore beneath his outer shirt. The half-orc appeared none too happy about being so close to such a detonation, but before he could further complain, another loud gurgle sounded from the tent's remains.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the form of the gnoll, now barely visible. Selm's hands lept to her mouth as she felt bile rise up from her stomach. Inathia made a noise akin to a startled bird, a sort of squawking, while Eldrig let out a rare growl.
The gnoll was twisting. The runes were now fully visible. The impact had caused the bone pile to scatter, but what was beneath was just as disgusting. Selm couldn't read runes as well as proper book and quill mages, like Yule, could. But she could tell these runes were abhorrent. They simply radiated malice and contempt into the air. Rancid decaying flesh and putrid guts were the only descriptors Selm could think of to describe the feeling she had when her eyes followed along the magic circle.
A harsh crack followed another gurgle. The gnoll's body was floating above the ground now, but it was in a bloody manner that Selm could not look away from. The morbid sight of the gnoll's limbs being twisted like pretzels around its body was horrifyingly fascinating to watch. That crack was from its spine snapping like a dry branch underfoot.
Hideously, the gnoll's face was visible in the center of this twisted ball of anguished flesh and blood. The wretch gushed life from an uncountable number of torn gaps in its fur. Spines made from jagged ends of bones poked through the flesh. It eyes were wide open the entire time, glassy and staring. Just staring. Gods above…
One last gurgle was silenced by Yule releasing the second spell he had been preparing. A smaller detonation caused the remains of the gnoll to collapse to the ground, burning. It was too much at that point. Selm stumbled away from the sight, feeling sick. She wretched, hearing someone else doing the same nearby. Foul. There was no other way to describe it. Foul. Foul.
By the time she was finished, Baz had already kicked the magic circle apart. Even Yule, who was curious about the types of magic these gnolls practiced, was not opposed. Seeing the consequences of when those magics failed was enough to deter and further curiosity. Even the mage looked a bit queasy, that sight likely burned into his cinder-esque eyes. It was clear that none of them would be sleeping well that night.
As they made their way out of the camp, it was Eldrig who broke the shaken silence first. "O-on the b-bright sid-side… I am s-sure I can g-get you m-more of a re-reward for… for that th-thing."
Foul. Just foul.