Seeing the giant gnoll carrying Nodjeim away Olan decides to slow it down.

He launches a barbed arrow at the creature, hoping that the other gnolls are distracted by the vines and the darkness.

Attack 13 Damage 4 + 6 (sneak attack)

Bonus: Hide

Stealth 21

Edit: Also hoping it will drop Nodjeim

Evelyn surveys the battlefield and formulates her own strategy of attack. Manipulating a strand of spider web from her component pouch, she speaks the incantation, and suddenly a huge, sticky spider web appears on the field, trapping as many gnolls as possible (you can layer the web where you think it makes the most sense, I was thinking at least getting the two gnolls north of Olan).

Action: Web

(Olan, you are in plain sight here. No chance of hiding unless you run and provoke opportunity)

The web goes down on the two gnolls, while Olan's arrow ricochets off of the large gnoll's armor. Olan fades into view, and the gnoll turns to him. (Moving him back a few feet so that the arrow attack makes more sense.)

Threl, Veldruk, it's your go!

Veldruk, you can see the crowned gnoll in the darkness, clearly blinded but not restrained by the vines.

OOC: well, that went badly. Before I go, can you repost the map? It isn't showing up in the spoiler on Post #582

Threl looks around, hearing the sounds of combat, and rushes out to the side of the orb of darkness, and takes in the scene. 

Map:

OOC: thank you. Hopefully my bloodlust doesn't activate! I threw the map in Roll20, and measure how far it is from me to Nodjeim, and it said 60ft on the dot.

Threl waves his hand, and and with a shout, calls out for the fleeing life force of Nodjeim "Soul of the one who has been wrapped in cloth, return to your vessel!" as he casts Healing Word at 1st level on Nodjeim for 6 HP of healing

OOC: as for his main action...god, I wish I had a bow. Well, let's see what the dice say:

WISDOM Save: 11

For his main action, Threl will, surprisingly, charge forward, and slid down the slope. He lands in a roll, as it seems he is always one for theatrics, and springs up, Rapier in hand. With a shouted declaration of slaying, he runs past Veldruk, and attempts to sink his blade into the giant gnoll which is being carried by the bird.

OOC: Since the bird seems to be halfway in and halfway out of the darkness, I assume that Threl can at least partially see the Giant Gnoll, so I'll make this attack a straight roll, if that's fine

Rapier Attack VS. Giant Gnoll: 15 to hit, 4 non-magic Piercing damage.

OOC: note to self: buy a bow (maybe a magic one), and get some lessons on how to use it better from Olan. If only the bow of melodies wasn't very rare.

Nodjeim bursts to wakefulness, as healing magic rushes through him. Threl thrusts at the hovering gnoll, but its mad thrashing in the claws of the bird make it hard to hit, and a stray leg ends up sending Threl's blade sailing down to impale into the ground. The drow can easily pull it out, but the gnoll is rapidly moving out of his reach, as the vulture begins pulling it up.

     Nodjeim awakens, opens his eyes, moves his head around a bit and tries to figure out what the blazes is going on...

Nodjeim awakes to find himself cradled in the loving arms of a giant ******* gnoll monster. Oh dear.

He's going first in initiative next round, so he can say his action now, but it won't take place until the end of this round.

((Was going to wait... but if you want it now to speed things along...))

     I'm being carried?  Nodjeim thinks to himself.  By... Oh.  Not good.

     Nodjeim's first instinct is to attack.  It is likely not the wisest but when you wake up in the paws of a giant gnoll monster...  You attack.

Unarmed Strike: 27 to hit for 8 bludgeoning damage

Bonus Action, 1 Ki Point spent for Flurry of Blows 
First Blow:  15 to hit for 8 bludgeoning damage
Second Blow:  19 to hit for 9 bludgeoning damage

((Is Nodjeim grappled?  Cradled or held doesn't necessarily mean grappled...  If not grappled, Nodjeim moved 35 feet away from the creature, risking the Opportunity Attack.  If grappled, he stays put...))

(Nodjeim is in fact grappled)

Veldruk, you're up!

Veldruk looked at the party behind him and finding it in position nodded to his companions. As fast as he could he rand, sliding down the hill, unsheathing his blade and whispering arcane words. Steel hit the ground before his feet and the sword carved in the sand brought forth Darkness. The spell covered the sight of the crowned gnoll and the warlock decided it was time to go onto the offensive.

The song of a battle echoed in the air, Olan was visible, Nodjeim awakened and one of the ogre-like creatures was… Being dragged by a flying creature? Ruthmum, he understood running into the opponent. He needed to keep the creature focused on him and believe the surprise attack got the attention of the whole band.

“Run!” He shouted to monk and rogue, somewhat hoping the crowned gnoll would take the word as a command and defy it, engage in battle. The thing follows a demon prince, let’s hope it doesn’t have a devil’s sight. A single word followed the thought and his will channeled the Weave into his weapon. Turned arcane energy in thunderous force as with an horizontal slash aiming at the neck, but likelier to hit the torso if it managed to hit at all, Booming Blade was cast.

Notes: Veldruk uses his movement to get into melee with the crowned gnoll, then makes takes the attack action with his pact weapon. Since I don't know if the enemy is blinded by the spell, meaning that I don't know if the attack should have advantage or not, I'm leaving the roll to the DM (+8 to hit, 1d8+6 slashing damage and 1d8 thunder damage if the enemy is hit and moves).

Veldruk swings on the crowned gnoll, who is indeed blinded. However, the shield spell does not require line of sight. It holds up a hand on blind instinct, some darker impulse telling it that an attack is approaching, and a gaping opens in reality. It clamps its teeth around Veldruk's sword, slurping the spell energy off of his blade and preventing the metal from biting into the gnoll's flesh.

(I'm so sorry... by all means you should have hit this even through the shield, but the dice don't lie. See below.)

Nodjeim swings thrice upon the gnoll holding him, and it roars in agony as blow after blow rains into its face, every attack hitting.

The two gnolls currently in the web manage to avoid getting trapped in the sticky substance (accidentally rolled strength saves, but it's the same bonus for them either way) and move out of it. Meanwhile, the gnoll trapped in the vines attempts to break free, but fails.

All gnolls train their arrows upon the recently-appeared Olan, seemingly leaving Nodjeim to the larger gnoll. Eight arrows fly towards the poor exposed rogue, four landing. 5 damage. 9 damage. 4 damage. Finally, a crit, for 14 damage. Olan goes down, peppered with spiked points.

Meanwhile, Chakka swings on the restrained gnoll for an easy coup de grace, before throwing a bladed disk at the giant gnoll with Nodjeim, missing.

The giant vulture pulls the giant gnoll up. And up. And up, and up, and up. Then, it drops. The gnoll falls 60 feet, falling prone and taking 28 damage.

Olan, give me a death save. This will happen before anyone else acts, since your initiative is higher. Veldruk, Evelyn, you're up.

 1st roll 19 Success

I thought I'd already posted this but apparently not.

Thought its form was different, Veldruk recognized the Shield spell. It was one of the few he knew himself and more importantly, it proved that having the Darkness in place was the right call. The crowned gnoll was a dedicated caster and, going by the lack of retaliation coming from it, it was blinded. Who could tell what kind of deadly magic the creature would have unleashed if any light could reach its eyes.

The fall of the ogre-like gnoll echoed, making the drow notice that the vulture had with free claws and Olan was down. I should’ve told him to enter the gloom if his invisibility ever wore out. Didn’t matter at that point. They needed to get the rogue out of there and fast.

“RUTHMUM! GET OLAN OUT!” The drow shouted in the direction of the giant vulture, as loud as his lungs would allow. “Nodjeim, Chakka! To me!” Both of them would be harder to hit inside the dome of shadows. “And you…” He focused his eyes on the crowned gnoll. “…to the Abyss.”

Whispering a single word, Veldruk made steel fall over the enemy’s head. His will bent the Weave and covered steel in thunder. A horizontal slash, firm, centered, fluid, almost beautiful. The attack felt completely right.

 Notes: Veldruk uses his action to cast Booming Blade, making a melee weapon attack (28 to hit, 14 magic slashing damage + 7 thunder damage if the enemy moves). The advantage from darkness really made the difference this time - from nat 1 to nat 20.

The blade digs deep into the gnoll's body, causing it to bark in agony. Nothing can be seen from within the darkness, but you all hear it scream.

Evelyn, your turn.

Evelyn groaned when the gnolls managed to break free from her webs. Now she couldn't set them on fire like she had planned. Well, she could still fling fire at them, but there was no point in lighting up the webs anymore. Instead, the wizard focused on launching three rays of fire toward separate targets (the map isn't showing up for me).

Action: 8 fire damage