Shade Gnoll

Story so far

Everything the party learns about shade gnolls comes from one specimen and a floor full of bodies. Unlike the jackal-faced transit security gnolls of the rail system, the shade gnoll reads as hyena, and the only living one at Station 75 is the level-25 bartender Growler Gary of The Downward Dog. He speaks of the station's garrison as his brothers and sisters, all of them killed when the ghouls came — and of the woman who came through afterwards, took everything from them, then tore his throat out and stole his liquor, only for him to wake in a pool of his own blood.

Their hands turn out to be a species-level piece of infrastructure. The Iron Tangle's rapid-response carts can be started only by gnoll left hands on paired sensor plates, so gnoll biology is literally the ignition key of the floor's emergency service. When the party goes looking for a corpse to harvest instead, every gnoll body in the station has been chewed to hell — a thoroughness Carl is certain was deliberate. Even Katia Grim's 98% gnoll form, which the system itself designates as gnoll, cannot substitute. Gary alone is indestructible, regenerating minutes after death with his hands restored, sober, and with no memory of having died.

Appearance

Hyena-faced rather than jackal-faced gnolls; the surviving one mangy, apron-wearing and bloodshot, the rest chewed down to broken spears and armour.

Role

The gnoll variety whose left hands key the interdiction carts, wiped out at station 75 but for one indestructible bartender.

Relationships