Hex Crawl 23 #69: Junjeh's Gnolls

Three hexes northeast, two southeast of Alakran.

 

Using black-feathered arrows, Junjeh's tribe is the rival to Leetakh's gang. They are nomadic throughout their range, carrying their treasure with them, although for day sleeping and camping they do tend to favor a few water holes known only to them, as well as some defensible positions in the low northern hills.

They serve the other head of that dual demon, Mormo, who represents terror. As such they are viciously aggressive and calculatingly cruel. As of the end of the campaign they have not yet been decisively defeated, though they were on the losing side of the attempted invasion of Shasari by the blue dragon Razisiz.

The order of battle is as follows, again using Altered Beasts, Gnolls for special types:

Leader: Junjeh, Gnoll Warchief (at basecamp 25% of nights, otherwise on patrol)

Basecamp: Cave mother, 18 whelps, 2 cave gnolls (who carry Junjeh around on a throne of bones), 2 giant hyenas; and all the other gnolls during the day

Patrols (x3):

• 7 Hyena Mothers and Sisters (normal gnoll warriors)
• 2 Rageborn sisters
• 7 males (armed with slings; normal gnolls with only 3/4 of the hit points, worse arms and armor)
• 1 giant hyenas (mount for the strongest warrior)

As they raid and trade, their treasure stash is always in flux. Currently it consists of: 

• Black velvet mask stitched with silver thread (45gp)
• Cloth-of-gold vestments (250gp)
• Silver ewer (50gp)
• Small mirror set in a painted wooden frame (25gp)
• A magical staff, made of crooked dry wood carved with twisted blood-rubbed lines, that Junjeh uses to control birds when needed (once per day, dominate beast spell, for 1 hour)
• Junjeh's escape policy: a potion of shape change into a locust for up to 12 hours
• Junjeh's dire barbed longspear: +2 enchantment, if intentionally stuck in target for one melee hit does an equal amount of damage coming out on the next attack opportunity, no hit roll needed.
  
• Thirteen zircon gems each worth 100 gp
• 2300 gp in coin, mostly low-value (in pack on a basecamp giant hyena) 

NOTE: To easily remember NPC names, I sometimes reach for pop culture and celebrity resonances, as I did with the James-Earl-Jones-styled Kokumo. Junjeh and Leetakh are thus named after the best known members of this classic band.