The night passes quickly, having somewhat gone already.

Marpenoth 9, 1489 DR

You all begin to pack up your things, and as you do... you feel a bit stronger. You know each other better. You know yourselves better. You know what you're doing, at least for the moment, and you have a little more of an idea about what's going on. You're changing, as your circumstances change, and it's not entirely for the worse. It's almost certainly somewhat for the worse, especially for two of your number. But not entirely.

Everyone levels up!

OOC: yay! Level 4! Continuing the trend of sacrificing optimization for story, I took a level in barbarian, because I didn't meet the WIS score requirment for Druid. Before I make an actual post:

Gender roll: 11

OOC: looks like I'm extra masculine today

Threl stretches and yawns, standing up from his resting place. With a contented sigh, he busies himself with the packing up of camp, making sure everything is ready. He greets each of his party members with a cheerful smile, and they would notice he stands taller than normal, whether it be from some strange way of his Blessing or simply from a refreshed feeling of confidence.

As his party members finish their individual preparations, he leans against the wall (assuming we camped in a small cave for the night) and looks out over the wide expanse of the surface. He plucks the strings of his Yarting, a stringed instrument from south Faerun given to him by a gnomish minstrel who he met in his travels. As he tunes the instrument, a wave of uncertainty comes over him, his cheerful expression faltering for a moment. We're going to wipe out the creatures that gave me this curse today. Hopefully, that will cure me. Otherwise, I fear what will happen

     Nodjeim is just there and ready when everyone else is.  As always he is mostly quiet and reserved.  He shows no noticeable signs of change except, possibly, not quite as gaunt as he was the night before.  ((No new fancy feats or anything, just upped Wis for better AC and Con for better HP.))

Evelyn awakens feeling refreshed. If she didn't know otherwise, she wouldn't suspect anything was wrong with her at all. She smiles shyly at Threl, still amazed by the drow's ability to change their gender so fluidly. Masculine or feminine, Threl is looking better as well. Maybe the curse won't be permanent. If they can capture this Auntie creature, maybe they can stop the curse entirely.

Evelyn packs up her belongings and goes through her daily morning ritual of washing her face, cleaning her teeth, and brushing out her long, blonde hair. Once she is finished, she joins the others. "Time to head back to the cave?" she asks, somewhat hoping that their destination has changed to somewhere pleasant instead.

Olan potters about muttering to himself and occasionally toying with a pack of cards.

"Well, what's the plan? I take it I'll be out front again?"

As he woke from his trance, Valdruk started to work in the breakfast. His mind was filled with the knowledge of different spells, a thing he had experienced two or three times before. Meant he was stronger, made him confident that his training to fight without relying on his vision would show results in the battle of that day. He fried some eggs, sausages and tomatoes. A pinch of salt and fine herbs – dried parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil – on top. As everyone finished their meals he cleaned and put away the dishes.

“I think yesterday approach is our safest option, unless Ruthmum, can you send animals to scout. See the enemy numbers and position outside of the cave?” The druid did show the ability to command wildlife and speak through it. Maybe he could also speak with it and allow them to gauge the enemy force from a safer position. “There is chance Auntie is there and I don’t know if you guys noticed but there was an altar inside the cave. I think the ogre-gnolls there were somewhat blessed. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time. The one I though with Threl and Evenly back on the ruin of the village seemed specially hard to hit, even with magic.” He turned his crimson eyes to the wizard. “Any idea of who the dark deity could be?”

OOC: I know the gnoll just had really good rolls (and I really bad ones), but I couldn't resist the joke of the blessed gnoll.

"Aye, I can scout ahead. May take me a bit, but it's nae problem."

Evelyn thinks for a moment, scouring her brain for what she knows of gnolls and their deities.

History - 16

Evelyn has certainly heard of this in her studies. Gnolls are not exactly archaeologically-aligned creatures, creating few permanent edifices that might be studied. However, they are notable in terms of archaeological history, simply because they raze settlements. She recalls a town in the Shaar, which existed until sometime around the 6th to 8th centuries DR, by the name of Lhesper. She recalls that gnollish raiders destroyed the town, and a certain name cropped up often when Lhesper was being discussed: Yeenoghu. Demon Prince. Active in the material world like no other, a terrible hyena-thing that has marked his name on the world time and time again, in order to sate his eternal hunger.

OOC: very scary

"Well, if the gnolls really are blessed, let us pray to all of our gods that we can be blessed also. Anyone here especially religious?" Threla inquires

     "Spiritual," Nodjeim notes.  "Not religious."

Evelyn relays to them what she knows of the Demon Prince, Yeenoghu. "He's not a pleasant deity," she says, which is an understatement. "Like many wizards, I worship Mystra, but I am not especially devout. However, if praying to the goddess lends us her aid, I will gladly fold my hands in prayer."

“I know of a single deity and the only prayer I can offer her is for her torment and death.” He said after the others. His tone devoid of the usual courtesy and colder than that he directed even to gnolls. It carried a terrible sincerity that spoke of hate and cruelty. If there ever comes a day when the fate of Lolth rests in hands he would make her regret ever teaching anything to a drow. “Nothing that would help us.”

Veldruk didn’t know about Yeenoghu but very much doubt he could be worse than the Spider *****. Truth be told, to him, few things anywhere could be any worse. No time for that, decided the warlock while turning his eyes to the druid. We have a battle to face.

“You tell us how far from the cave we should get before you start the scouting, Ruthmum.” Then we finish what we started yesterday, he thought turning to Evelyn. “So we’re dealing with a demon trying to satiate an unending hunger.” A perfect fit for all they’ve seen. “Any particular weakness to him and his followers?” He considered asking about strengths, but he doubted they would fight this so-called prince there. “Think the Auntie is a worshiper of his?”

As far as Evelyn is aware, there is no specific weakness, besides the fact that the bellies of gnolls are often larger than their minds, and they really only seek to fill one of the two.

(Does the gang have anything else, or d'you just want the result of the scouting?)

While they wait, Threla will tap Veldruk on the shoulder, and give him a few words of encouragement, giving him a Bardic Inspiration die (+6 to a check)

OOC: Other than that, I'm ready

OOC: I'm ready for the scouting and Veldruk to hear about Eilistraee (he genuinely doesn't know about her and this week Ed Greenwood released a video on her).

((Have nothing I need doing…))

Olan is good to go.