Our rest was interrupted by the arrival of Dr Raven Grimnacht, a fellow escapee of Ostrastein. Held in the depths of the prison alongside Lestadt and forced to put his scientific mind to use in Brother Malon’s sinister experiments, Grimnacht had taken advantage of the chaotic riot and made his escape. Now a free man, he was once again focused on his own research and had hoped to find useful reagents among the gnoll’s carved-bone trophies, however he instead found himself among potential allies who might help him on the long road back to civilisation.
Agreeing to search the den together, the morally dubious talents of Tess and Grimnacht were put to use constructing a foreboding effigy from a goat carcass, much to Forgeburn’s disgust. This ploy succeeded in frightening a few gnolls away from the den, but that was not enough - we needed to venture inside.
Taking a surprisingly nonviolent approach, Grimnacht revealed an unrequited fondness for jackals. Venturing deeper, guided by Aurelia’s familiar, we freed Krukk the exile, an imprisoned gnoll who told us that the Bonemist tribe had been driven here from the north by the arrival of the Empire. He claimed that the cave contained ‘cursed bones’, but that his pleas to find a new home had been dismissed by the Matriarch who wanted to remain here, violently settle a blood-feud with Zalathi village, and resurrect their long-dead god Grishnak.