Great Forest Campaign > A Year of Near War

The Story of the Eight Gnoll Litter

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Asinjin:
Part 1

What you know of your earliest years seems normal to all eight members of the litter.  That there are eight of you, all brothers, in one litter, seems normal enough.  Some other families had eight siblings, and there are litters of five and six around.  The fact that there are eight of you doesn’t not feel any different; at least in the mind of a very young gnoll.  What you notice that is different is that you have only one parent.  Your father, who is called the equivalent of sir, raises you without your mother.  As soon as you are old enough to understand, you grasp that she is dead.  None of you have any memory of her.  Servants and extended family aid your father in raising the eight of you.  It is happy and normal enough, especially having known no better.

As three and four year olds, you come to several realizations about your situation.  One of your brothers cannot see.  Your father is protective of him, but he must still do many of the things the rest of you do.  You have half siblings that visit and stay sometimes with their mothers.  This is normal enough in gnoll society that it does not make you feel out of place.  In fact, even in your young minds, you sense that your father is powerful and respected because of it or has it because he is powerful and respected.  Your home is large enough for all of you, and if not for the eight of you, it would be a large home by gnoll standards.  You see your father as a large gnoll, and when you see him next to other male gnolls, you are certain he is big for a gnoll, although not monstrously big.  You hear talk of such gnolls but do not see any.
   
The first event the litter remembers that shaped their lives was when they were four years old.  It is shortly before you birthday, in the dead of winter.  Your father comes and tells you all that he must go.  For the first time, he will be away from you all for more than a day.  He explains that he must go to make sure the family stays safe and that he could be gone until spring.  Your father’s brother and the mother’s of your half-siblings will look after you.  “Take care of each other.  Other than your father, no one is more important to you than each other.  Dedestroyt will torment those that do not protect their family.”  With that, he leaves.  Your uncle comes into the room minutes later; he is smaller than your father and says less.  He spends much of the next month in your home, rarely leaving.  He takes care of you but is less interactive than your father.  The mother’s of your siblings come every other day and tend to you well.  Life with the other mother’s is easy.
   
After nearly two months, your father has not returned.  Nervousness has spread through the community.  Whispers of bad things reach even the safety of your home.  Your uncle and the other mother’s do not let you go out much, and in the middle of winter that is not uncommon.  As the cold drags on, there is a ruckus outside.  No one is inside with you, and you are all awake, so you go outside to see.  In the center of the village, not far from your home, two humans are arguing with several gnolls, your uncle among them.  A human is a rare but not unheard of occurrence.  You have seen one before.  Unfortunately, none of you speak common.  You only understand what is said by one of the humans.  “We do not know when it will end.  You must be wise with your supplies.”  Your uncle and others argue with the humans about battles and food, but after a minute or two, the other mothers see you and move you inside.
   
An hour later, your uncle storms into the home.  Even though he is not your father, angry, he is imposing.  He has a dagger.  You hear commotion outside.  “There are too many, we must cull the herd.  If you all want to live through the winter, Dedestroyt must be appeased.”  He moves towards your blind brother and it is then you all understand what he is going to do.  Jumping to action, you swarm your uncle.  You are all brave and valiant, but he is a full grown armed warrior.  Most of you take a beating, some get cut.  With the most feral of you clamped onto his leg and the strongest wrapped around his neck; while the others are too beaten to act, he moves to slit the throat of the blind one.  In a rush, one of the humans comes into the home.  He tackles your uncle and beats him into a daze.  The strongest and most feral help the human.  Your uncle subdued, the human turns to one of the brothers who is bleeding.  He tends to your brother who is wounded the most.  He says something you don’t understand.  You see one of your other brother’s collapse, and then oddly, you can understand the human.  “You don’t understand me do you?  Oh, you do.  Your father should be applauded.  Do you best to help your brothers.  I will return when I can, I must make sure that no one else is harmed.”  He goes to leave, but stepping out, he turns back and says, “If you need help, call out for me.  Remember, my name is Grant.”  You don’t see him again.
   
Later other gnolls from the community take your uncle away.  The other mothers take care of you and tell you everything will be okay.  You are suspicious, but they are proven correct.  Your father returns within two week.  He tells you that the community is now joined with others under the rule of Warlord Akrak.  You are all safer now.  Your uncle is never allowed in your home again, although you see him around the community.  Your father, even more than before, is respected by the rest of the community.

Asinjin:
Part 2
   
Over the next four to five years, as the litter ages from 5 to 10 years old, they learn basic life and survival lessons.  It is during these years that the impressiveness of your father becomes apparent.  You always thought he was strong, but when you see that no other gnoll can pull his bowstring at a festival game, you know it to be true.  You always thought he was clever, but when he tricks a group of Vass raiders to leave without a fight when they had the village in danger, you know it to be true.  You always thought he was tireless, but when he alone among the extended family does not fall ill during the black hair epidemic of 775 and takes care of everyone, you know it to be true.
   
During those years, each of you also began to learn individually from your father.  At first, he would teach you the basic skills of gnoll life: the bow, the spear, tracking, hunting, and such.  All of the skills that every male gnoll needs to learn.  Even your blind brother was taught the skills, as best as your father could teach him.  He was however, able to make due and complete some of his training better than anyone dreamed, although he was far more tired when it was finished than the rest of you.  It was not clear in the beginning of those years, but it was clear by the end, which of the litter was good, which were great, and which were bad at the basic skills.  Unlike other litters that you saw, the weakest in yours were not beaten, given less, or put out.  Your father worked even harder with them to make sure each learned what was needed.
   
At the age of seven, one of your half sisters came to live with you.  She was older by two years.  Her task was to help your father with the daily goings on of the home.  It worked for a time, but the eight became too much for her after a year and she had to leave.  When it was to your father again, with no help in the home, it was fine for a while.  But then, even your mighty father began to wear down.  The eight of you were too much for even him to keep up with, and he realized it when you neared the age of nine.  It was in the autumn of that year when he came to the eight.
   
“I am going on a hunt.  It is a dangerous one and I may not return.  If I do, we will be better off for it.  If I do not, you will be taken care of, but separated.  Do not fear for me, I will succeed or I will be blessed in Dedestroyt’s realm.  If I do not return, take care of each other, nothing is more important.  When you are older, take care of the village, it is second.  Honor your faith, master your skills.  If any of you fail at this, when you reach Dedestroyt’s realm, I will be the one that torments you.”  He leaves the next day.  For a month, you are left in the care of the other mothers and for the first time in many years, your uncle makes an appearance to bring food.
   
After a month, your father returns.  He is successful and the proof is the mighty tooth he brings into the village.  You all realize immediately what it signifies, your father has gone on an epic hunt, one that few gnolls attempt and fewer return from, the hunt of a Hebablam.  A feast is held, a celebration ensues.  Over the next few days all of the parts of the great animal are displayed.  Your father is adorned with praise and reward.  Even the great Warlord Akrak makes an appearance and praises your father.  Even at this age, you understand that this accomplishment means that your father and his family will never want to anything again.  The largest honor given to your father, one which he had for a few years held in reality if not in name, is the title of pack leader.  This meant that he was in charge of the defense of the village and all matters of safety and hunting were his to decide.
   
In the year or two after that, he had a great deal of time to spend with the eight.  He commanded things be done and they were by the other gnolls of the village.  The village worked smoothly, safely, and well.  You and he were happy.  Feasts became more common and even your uncle and the few others that your father had at times told you not to trust joined in on the success.  The village grew in size in those two years.  Gnolls were attracted to the village and your father.  The eight of you were treated well, and life could not get better.

Asinjin:
Part 3

At the ages of 10 through 14, the litter becomes well known in the community.  The eight boys of the pack leader are referred to by most.  The young don’t think to challenge you, the old think twice before denying any request or the eight.  Only those in your age group ever offer any resistance.  Your father makes every effort to reign in all of your attitudes, as you become skilled and big-headed.  Through these years, several events shape what comes next.

Several times your father is called away to protect the community or work for the warlord.  He is never away more than a week, and he usually returns with a story and a prize.  As these years go on, his trips become less frequent.  You all think little of it.  When he returns, what you do notice is that he is angrier with every trip that passes and his anger is focused on the eight of you.  Beatings become more frequent and more severe.  Punishment is quick, and reports of your behavior while he is gone become more frequent.  To you, jealousy fuels those tales.

What actually happens during those trips goes on and gets worse during these years.  The eight of you take advantage of your position.  You never fight one another, and you always have your brothers’ backs in any confrontation.  Whether it’s corroborating the lie of a brother or ganging up on an older gnoll in a fight; you are there for your brothers.  While your father is gone, you take food as you please.  He always returns home with good food, so should you.  While your father is gone, you order things to e done for you.  He always has others acting on his behalf, so should you.  Stories of your actions are sometimes overdone, but always have some truth.  You have the females wash your feet.  You take the best baked bread from the batch.  You pick the teams (always the eight of you together) for any competition.  You decide what gets taught when the young gnolls are gathered for a lesson.

When your father is around, which is still most of the time, there seems to you to be no need for these actions.  Your father commands what gets done, and you and the others do it.  You don’t have the slightest inclination or desire to contradict what he commands in the community while he is home.  For that matter, you never think to do anything he explicitly forbids before he leaves.  On several occasions, you get in trouble because you made an assumption that he did not, but that’s just the trials of getting older and more experienced.

Life is good in these years, although different than before because not everyone seems to share the same level of happiness as you.  It is also in these years when each brother begins to come into his own.  Each develops talents and skills that some don’t have.  It becomes clear which will be the largest and which the smallest.  Some are more adept at hunting, others more devout, and others with odder talents.

There is a large gnoll, bigger than any of all of you and older by two years.  His name was Garpat.  He, for at least a year, was the only gnoll that stood toe to toe with all of you as you rushed him.  After fighting to a standstill, and while your father was away, you decided to outsmart him.  Leading him into the woods, away from any other gnoll, you planned to get him lost.  Your plan was working when one brother stopped you all and had a vision.  A vision of a hidden pit where Garpat would fall into and be trapped until you all rescued him and looked the heroes.  Sure enough, within minutes, that very thing happened.  But as it did, the brother with the idea collapsed.  Terrified, you all rushed him back to the community and in a fit of nervousness, revealed what had happened.  Garpat was found, with several broken bones.  Your brother recovered, but not before your father came home and the strap was not spared.

Another time, the group of you were angered when the big farmer of the community refused to give a fat pig for you to feast on for a holiday.  Plotting how to make the farmer see you were correct, you devised a plan to poison the pig and make the farmer see what happens when you are crossed.  Taking herbs you learned would do the task, you made your way to the farm.  You poisoned the troughs and snuck away, one brother commenting that he wouldn’t be unhappy if all the pigs died from it, wouldn’t that be a lesson.  The next day, the pigs were dead, and the brother that had mentioned it felt as if he would be.  Again, when your father returned, he figured out what had happened.  He did not reveal it to the community, but he made sure the farmer was taken care of, and the payment came out of your hides.

Luckily for you, as time went on one brother became very good at predicting what actions would go very poorly, the first time was when one of you suggested one of the females should be taught a lesson in servitude.  The brother leaped in front of the rest and demanded you to stop, collapsing as he did.  You took the message and retreated to home.

During these times, your blind brother only participated if some of your antics, becoming less and less involved in them.  However, the rest of you never thought ill of him.  After all, he is your brother.  That attitude did not translate over to your half brother.  Nearing your fifteenth birthday, you discovered that he, who went by the name of Skupt, was using your names to get the things that only you deserved.  You confronted him about it one night while your father was away.  He demanded that it’s his right to have what you had and in a near fatal mistake on his part compared his mother to yours.  The beating he took was severe and made worse as one brother’s anger erupted in flame that burned most of his body.  As that brother collapsed, another, realizing that Skupt’s death would be a line too far, dove on him and exhausting himself somehow saved Skupt.  When your father returned, Skupt and the two brothers were not yet recovered.

“This is a sad day.” Your father said to all of you in a voice you had rarely heard.  “I must now split you up.”

Asinjin:
Part 4

The next few months were the most difficult so far in the lives of the brothers.  Anticipation of being split up was terrible, almost as bad as the moments when you were actually separated and sent away.  The first one to be sent off was the most straight forward.  One of the brothers, the one that had erupted with flame and nearly killed Skupt, was sent off to Yekel, an associate of your father’s who is a known Ettin hunter.  Within two weeks of the incident, that brother was gone.  The day he left was agonizing.  Yekel came and carried him off, having to wrestle him into submission before he could.  You all saw fires lighting the trees right before your brother was subdued.  The rest of you were nearly just as angry, but your father’s presence and stare kept you in place.

The brother that saved Skupt was next, a week after the first brother was sent.  The gnoll that arrived for him was known to all of you.  A veteran of many battles and an elder gnoll of nearly 90 years, Vokseeg is a legend.  However, his fighting days are long behind him and now he is known as a restful cleric of Dedestroyt.  When the old gnoll, blind in one eye and walking with a staff for support, arrives; despite your anger at your brother’s imminent departure, no brothers can muster the courage to act except one.  Your brother who has always had the greatest trouble controlling his anger is filled with it overflowing.  He rushes forward, unable to control himself, moving faster than he ever has before and with such force that he throws aside Vokseeg guards.  The rest of the brothers take heart and feel compelled to join the rush, inspired by the act.  However, it ends moments after it began.  Your brother falls feet from Vokseeg, collapsing from some unknown force.  You drag him back at your father’s command and the small group leaves, leaving you now at six.

It is nearly a month before the next of the brothers is sent away, and to your shock, he is not allowed to say goodbye to his brothers.  The raging one that almost attacked Vokseeg is gone when you wake up one morning.  “I cannot risk him having an outburst.  He has gone to a trainer, one that will make sure he can harness that.”  No mention is made of who that trainer is or where he lives.  Similarly, two other brothers are sent off with little fanfare over the next month.  One is sent to the east, and the gnolls that take him are from a tribe that you do not often see.  They show great respect to your father when they arrive.  The other leaves with gnolls from the town of the Warlord, members of his pack, to whom your father defers.

That leaves but three of you: the one who warned of the danger, the one who is blind, and the one that made the gnoll fall into the pit.  While you all hear about where the other went, or at least the circumstances of their departure over the next few years, it is not until you all meet up again that you hear about the departures of these last three.  It takes three more months for two of them to be sent off.  The first is sent the farthest away.  He is sent to learn with, to your shock when you learn, with someone named Hemino, definitely not a gnoll name.  His teacher is a Nipit.  His home is in a small village deep in the forest to the north.  The second Is sent with a pack of gnolls that travel to the east, to train near the Boiled Forest.  The leader of this pack is a gnoll named Kaklan.  That name is known to all of you, as he is called ‘the diseased’, a rare gnoll that has been ravaged by them and survived.  He is an outcast, as he has been known to spread them to other gnolls, are rare thing.  Despite that, your smallest brother is sent with his pack to train.

That left only your blind brother.  It is not until you return home that you find out that he alone remained with your father.

Asinjin:
The next part of the story will take place after you have all trained and are called back together.  I will not be able to post that part until everyone has their characters settled (not completely done necessarily, but mostly done).

In the mean time, I will be sending out individual stories about each of your time in the interim, which is about 5 years in game.

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