So right off the bat, one day at college I get a text from a good friend of mine who says he wants to run a campaign. Its a homebrew campaign thats primarily focused on how the Elemental plane is becoming undone and how we need to work together in order to fix the world and prevent all 4 planes from collapsing in on themselves. "Sweet!" I say and I go ahead and roll up my character.
Now I want to get one thing cleared up, I. LOVE. GNOLLS. I always thought gnolls were very cool and I've always wanted to be able to play as one ever since I started playing dnd in early 2018. Volo's guide to monsters always makes me angry thinking about it because gnolls were the only monstrous race that was left out, but despite this I pressed on and asked my DM. I go ahead and created my PC and show him his backstory. He was actually a half gnoll, that his father was a gnoll and his mother was a human ranger. The premise of them getting together was that his father Odok was an intelligent gnoll who was born somehow without Yeenoghus influcence corrupting him and telling him to kill, so he always had a strong moral conscience that other gnolls typically didn't posses. Eventually, baring witness to all the killings his heart shattered, and he became a deserter who eventually ran into a ranger named Vone who saved him. One thing led to another and boom, we have the birth of Zazz.
Like all rogues Zazz's backstory is filled with tragedy, he was seperated from his family at a young age when attacked by another gnoll hunting party and lost his way home, forcing him to adapt by living amongst the wilderness of our worlds Savannah. Now even though I had been playing DnD for over a year now I never really develop my characters backstories that much, and when I do, its typically very simple. One thing that I love about Zazz is the amount of time I put into making him, which made me really attatched, which my DM loved.
Speaking about the rest of the group they consist of mostly new players, one other person who was also experienced, but for the most part, me, our parties cleric, and our DM were the only veterans with everyone else being noobies. We we're all friends with eachother which also made the game pretty hilarous at times. Our party is as followed, a water genasi monk named Jorbis, a rich human rogue named Maxwell Jhonsan, (and yes he mispelled it and went with it which was pretty funny), an aaracokra archer fighter named Cra, a goliath Barbarian named Azzora, and another mystery race pc cleric named "Church" who also kept their appreance hidden.
With our party set we went off from the island we met each other on and teamed up to save the world from ending! After a couple of fun encounters like dungeon puzzles, sea hags and then some, we land on our first major continent Pyronus. A hot desert/savannah like environment thats close to the elemental plane of fire, and home to many other things including Gnolls. This place also served as Zazz's homeland, which we'll get into later.
We arrive at our first major town, a hunting town that is filled with other hunters who were taught by a mysterious human woman years ago who vanished into the wilds around a decade ago. We go to the local hunters guild and ask for a job, and we get the task to dispatch some gnolls who have been attacking travelers. Now one thing I didn't mention, was that Zazz was someone who was very fearful of people finding out he was a gnoll, so he had to always conceal his appearance and no one in the party knew he was half gnoll until later. We accept and one day later we roll out.
The combat was pretty enjoyable, we all get to do a lot of things and we all have our moment to shine. We were tasked with killing the gnolls and taking back their pelts as proof of our victory, but when we finish, Zazz is conflicted. His father taught him about morals at a young age and instilled into him a moral guideline focused on being good, helping people, and being polite and civil. Deep down he wished he was born human and hated how the world treated him for appearing to be a monster, so this is where his cover begins to slip, as he speaks in gnoll against the final dying gnoll before he throws a dagger into his skull. He skins them, and collects all the pelts and we promptly return to town. Upon returning one of our other party members, our cleric, knows and is somewhat suspcious of him.
When we return everything, we're told of an execution to happen tomorrow. About how a gnoll ate and killed the guildmaster Chromwells son, and how it's supposed to be this big spectacle because apparently he had been tracking down this gnoll for ages. We're all interested and get ready to rest up for tomorrows showing and move on. Before we all rest, the party cleric comes to talk to Zazz. I don't quite remember how the dialogue went, but it went something along the lines of; "You're in pain aren't you? You conceal your appereance because you're afraid the world might lash out at you for how you look." "Oh yeah? What would you know about that?" And the scene continued for a few minutes while the two have a genuine heart to heart. Both hitting a common ground whilist the two grew close having learned secrets about each other.
The next morning, we arrive at the guild hall, and enter a large show room with a stage and dozens of onlookers. We witness the guild leader, with his massive hobgoblin structure who is ESTATIC about today. After he gives a speech about his deceased son, onto the stage comes Odok, and Zazz is speechless. With millions of thoughts racing through his head, Zazz is terrified about what to come, but despite everything all happening at once, he leans over to the party and whispers, "Guys….That monster up on stage….is my father." To which the party was rightfully shocked. Before the execution commences Zazz stands up and shouts "WAIT!" as loud as he can. He steps forward and lies about how that gnoll killed his father and he wants to kill him too, upon recognizing him. Despite having very poor charsima for basicially having no social interaction for 2/3s of his life, Zazz rolled very well, and was able to get the honors of beheading his own father. He whispers to his dad in gnoll, who recognizes him; "Don't worry dad, I'll save us both." And he turns and throws the battle axe wildly into the air, he grabs his father, and screams at the party to run as fast as they can and to not stop.
Eventually, after probably several hours of running in game, Zazz finally sits his father down, and asks him if he actually did it, to which his father replies, "I'm…not sure. I remember we were attacked, that day, I blackced out, and you were gone, and I was in someplace…very dark." Zazz was heartbroken, that the idea that the man who taught him everything about the world may have very well became a beast just like the ones he slew earlier. Eventually we ended up finding a hut seemingly in the middle of nowehre, and that this was Zazz's childhood home. His mother, Vone the whisper showed up and the three we're finally a happy family again. We had some good RP, our barbarian was flabbergasted at the idea that one of his rogues were a gnoll, everyone else treated him with a bit of caution, and our parties other rogue tried to steal random things his family owned, like zazz's baby pictures, which was probably the funniest thing that happened that night.
But all good things must come to and end, a misfit Lizardfolk hunter named Talon shows up and he tells us that Chromwell is nearby, and he and his men are out for blood, yet also wish to speak. A few minutes of planning passby, and Chromwell is outside and says; "I just want to talk, come out now and we can work this out with no bloodshed." I agree but the party is nearby incase I get jumped, along with vone and Odok. Execpt for maxwell who snuck out back and is hiding in our trash.
I vouch for my father and say that he would never kill someone, and that the execution isn't just. He presents a broken tooth, thats a match for the missing tooth Zazz's father lost at some point. Zazz still doesn't belive it and says that he can find the actual gnoll who did it. Chromwell hits Zazz with an ultimatum; "You have 72 hours to track down the bastard that did it, and if you fail its your fathers head, and your banned from the city. And if I see you again I'll personally skin you for wasting my time, deal?" Zazz spits in his hand and shakes on it. So the quest to save his father begins.
We spend the first day looking for an underground ruined templed that apparently the gnolls used as a hideout and ritual altar for bizzare cult shennanigans. With the help of our missfit ranger ally, Talon, we find it and enter. A fun side note is that the door requires the blood of a gnoll to open, so when Zazz slices his palm and opens it, it only opens halfway. A small tidbit but one that I thought was funny.
Anyway we press on, after several gnoll combats, a couple of traps and puzzles, maxwell almost dying because he tried to clear a maze of spikes by wall running and failing horribly, and sneaking past the rest of the gnolls, we find another room that was a jail cell. The holding cell had a book written in gnoll that spoke of a captured gnoll who was turned back to his primal roots, who apprently desire the flesh of humanoids. This breaks Zazz's heart, knowing that this was about his father, and that Chromwell may've been right, but netherless, the dungeon still had some things left untouched and we had a job to finish.
We finally find the altar room, we encounter a dangerous, intelligent gnoll named "Fang". Fang reveals that he's looking to bring fourth a champion of Yeenoghu, and that Odok failed and that Zazz was the perfect vessel. Being intelligent, fast, strong, and even possesing magic (Hes an arcane trickster), that he was perfect for it. He goes on a evil BBEG speech about how their master/creator believes in a world where gnolls reign supreme, crushing all other races and turning them into caddle, eventually Zazz notices that he's also missing a tooth, a tooth that matches the same shape like his fathers, and he tells him to shut up and tosses it to him to find a match. He complies and its a perfect fit and his eyes widen larger than the grand canyon.
Eventually when he's done, Zazz tells him that he's insane, that he's going to stop him, not because he's evil or anything, but because he hurt Zazz's family, almost got him and his father killed, and that he took away essentially everything from him. That this was personal, and about revenge. At this point in the story, let me tell you dear viewer, I. AM. LOVING THIS! I never got to play as a character who had a backstory that was involved in a campaign, so all of this happening made me feel really included. Prior to all of this happening, I always thought that a PC's backstory was only about flavor and wouldn't really come into play in an actul campaign and let me tell you this was a very pleasant suprise. Shoutouts to my DM, Dan, for doing this for me. He's a great DM, and a greater friend.
Anyway we have a really intense fight, at this point, we're all only level 3, and Fang has a hefty health pool, ranger abilites like hunters mark and favored foe, and when he hits, he hits HARD. The fight goes on for a while, Zazz almost gets knocked unconscious, but our Aarakocra fighter lands some clutch shots that kill Fang which cause something very odd to happen. When fang dies this weird monument we were fighting around shatters and it releases a shockwave that resonates all over the country, and all the gnolls we pass, minus Zazz are unconscious. Zazz releaves his adversaries head from its shoulders and they leave the dungeon and return to town. At town, justice is served and something even more bizzare happens, all the gnolls that used to attack travelers and villages suddenly became much more friendly, and even try breaking off peace with the town that once used to hunt them. Chromwell rewards Zazz and the party for their efforts, and we continue in that campaign in a world we're we somehow mangaged to liberate a monstrous race from an evil, controlling god. The campaign is still going on to this very day, and we're all having a blast.
[zombify_post]
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