Merrick agrees

Mercy and the gnoll exchange some words. You can tell she is being curt, which is amazing given how guttural gnoll sounds. She spits on the gnoll once its done barking at her. She looks at the rest of you, "They plan to take over the valley. Think it belongs to them or whatever nonsense."

Muireach considers for a moment and points his finger and thumb to the gnoll, "How exactly?"

The two exchange words again, but this time Mercy gets heated as the gnoll whines. "He says he doesn't know. They settled into the old village, he says, and apparently, they been there for weeks now."

Muireach looks down his nose at gnoll, smiles facetiously, and presses the blade ever so slightly more into the gnoll’s hide, “And how many are there? What can we expect to find inside?”

Luthok picks a lump of mushroom out of his beard. "As soon as you're done with the talking I say we put the mongrel down." He studies the mushroom for a bit before putting it under his upper lip. 

Dyoken shrugs. The fun of this battle has ended, but he understands the value of gaining information. He'll wait patiently and let the others do their thing.

The long and short of it seems to be that several warbands inhabit the village ruins, though Mercy notes that this is odd since gnolls are incredibly territorial even with each other. It sounds that they are under the command of, and she guffaws as she tells you this, Princess Szyth.

"So.. Are we attacking multiple mongrel warbands tonight? In that case i suggest little miss demon here give us some info on what the ruins look like." Luthok turns to Mercy. "Ye been in the ruins before, right girlie?" 

Muireach considers for a moment, “Perhaps gorilla tactics are necessary. That is to say with lurk in the trees and throw the massive ape at them to beat them up. Sound like a plan, Dyoken?”

 "Do we have a massive ape?" Dyoken asks, "Why don't I just beat them up?" 

Muireach goes silent. “Yes, do that.”

"Setting traps and ambuses? Aight that's not the worst idea." Luthok looks back towards the direction they came from. "No sleep for me then. I can't let a little girlie and a couple of amateurs go and take on multiple warbands alone." 

(Dyoken gets + 1 inspiration...)

Mercy nods and adds, "I've explored the old ruins. We might be able to get a good vantage on it and see what's going on. So... what do we do with him?" She gestures vaguely at the captured gnoll.

Muireach will take his head in one swing, “And like that, the problem’s solved.”

Mercy gives Vivi a look and whispers, "I almost get it. But I really don't."

Dyoken shrugs, then heads off to beat up some gnolls.

Luthok scoffs at the rest of the group and follows Dyoken. 

(Sorry this image turned out a bit fuzzy. I will try to fix later.)

Mercy gives you all a general idea of the village ruins. Rubblecreek Village is circular, and there could be a few points of entry. For now, you are approaching it from the southwest. There are signs of an old road eroded by time that leads into the village. There, you find a few gnolls easily. They seem to be guarding the 'main' entrance into the village with a couple gnolls hanging out on the balconies of other buildings nearby. Mercy (and possibly DK and Merrick) do a bit of scouting and see where all the guards are in this particular section of the town. There appear to be 7 gnolls stationed throughout the perimeter of the town, though it isn't certain if more gnolls may be lurking within any of the buildings, streets, and alleys. 

The gnolls appear to be at ease, for the most part, and you spot that most of them have crossbows or spears on their backs. The ones with crossbows also have clubs at their sides. Currently, none of them strike you as significant as the powerful gnoll, but looks might be deceiving as the rain continues to poor overhead. The gnolls are, in fact, mostly standing as close to the buildings as possible to avoid the water.

How would you like to tackle this? (PS, Luthok's stealth was good enough not to get caught at this distance unless he was going to loudly scream for no reason?)

 "Well," Dyoken says, "Are we going to take 'em all out, or just drive them off, hero of Stole?" He turns to Mercy gauging her interest here. "What's the goal of your little adventure?" He asks.