The Jaws of Gnolls - Session Report Number Two - Appendix N Goodness

 Gnolls by LadyofHats 

In tonight's Cha'alt/Godbound Las Vegas campaign  the PC's freed a number of slaves from a group of Skeevers slavers who were operating right on the outside of main city. The PC's had to deal with two groups of Skeevers with over forty slaves in toe.  The Skeevers were infiltrated with the Hyena men or Gnolls. They were led by several Flints. What the Flints actually were a cell of the cult of Yeenoghu. 

Flint straight from the Fiend Folio.

 The gnolls have some very interesting Appenix N origins according to the Wiki Gnoll entry; "The creature described as the gnole first appeared in 1912, in Lord Dunsany's story "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art upon the Gnoles", and reappeared in Margaret St. Clair's The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles. In Middle English the word noll could refer to a stupid or very drunk person.^[2]

Lord Dunsany's story gives little or nothing in the way of physical description of the gnoles, but they live on the edge of a sinister wood and watch intruders through holes bored in trees. They are said to own emeralds of very large size. In St. Clair's story, they also live on the edge of a wood, watch through holes bored in trees and prize emeralds, but a "senior gnole" is described as looking "like a Jerusalem artichoke" and, although he has feet, has tentacles rather than arms and no ears. His eyes are small, red and faceted like a gemstone."
Lord Dunsany was the originator for many of the later pulp writers. The inspiration for tonight's wasteland terror came straight from Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 


Gnolls make excellent bounty hunters & escaped slave trackers. Flinds are smart enough to use relics & minor artifact weapons. With the added benefit of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition Monster Manual's demon lord Yeenoghu.  
At first it might seem that AS&SH might not be a good fit for the wastelands of Cha'alt. But that's simply not the case here given the alien wilderness & wastelands of Cha'alt. The gnoll tribes  & their flint leaders are the perfect addition to the already horrid alien wastes of Cha'alt. AS&SH just provided the right hint of science fantasy goodness. 
B4 The Lost City by Tom Moldvay is still extremely useful even if the players might remain remember the module.  Once again this is where Tim Branna & myself completely disagree in the several points. For example there are tons of lost levels that the module has & Cha'alt  can provide just the right amount of science fantasy goodness.  
The second near TPK encounter in tonight's game was the spider droid that was haunting the ruins around in the ghost town sanctuary. But it looks like the players are not gonna go for this sanctuary at all. The spider droid really seems to have them spooked. What they don't know about is the cult of Zargon operating near the outskirts of Vegas. They will next week!