The skeletal undead aren't exactly known for their climbing skills so you promptly head over to the steep rockface and set about climbing to a point beyond their reach.  You are almost at the top when the skeletons reach the base.  The attempt to climb but as you had hoped, they are substantially less successful than you.  One of them responds to the situation by tossing his hand axe at you and you move your hand just in time to avoid it.  You make sure it stays stuck in the rockface so it doesn't get to try again, then pull yourself up and over the top. 

 
You are glad to be away from those damn things and now that you are at a slightly higher elevation along the mountainside, there's a good chance you won't be seeing them again.  Just got to keep your cool and remember to be stealthy.  You continue your journey in the same general direction but keep to this elevation for fear of encountering those undead creatures a second time.  After a while, you begin to smell a rather curious smell up ahead.  As you approach you discover a camp situated in what is probably the only forested ledge on this entire mountain range.  You don't initially see anyone there, but you keep your distance and eventually see something hop down rather quickly from one of the trees and go behind another.  You didn't get a good look at whatever it was and you are hoping they haven't seen you. 

 

Nightfall comes and now the occupants of the camp are coming into view.  You never believed that at any time in your entire life you'd ever lay eyes on the creatures you are seeing.  The grippli, a race of humanoid tree frogs standing at 2 feet tall, have organized this camp.  There aren't more than a dozen tops, but grippli are known to be considerable fighters when they need to be and there is no way of knowing if there are more of them in the trees. 


They often prefer to fight with poison darts, nets, and bows as they would prefer to keep their enemy at a distance but a few bear swords.  You see one of them adorned in considerably nicer garb than the others and commands quite a presence from them so you surmise it must be their leader. 

 
Suddenly it occurs to you.  These creatures are in Craxil territory so odds are they work for the Craxil.  That means that instead of wandering the mountain range aimlessly you ought try and extract information regarding the Craxil's whereabouts from the grippli.  Ideally, you could get your hands on their leader but that is going to be easier said than done.  There may not be many grippli present, but each one is a challenge in his own right and you have no way of knowing how many may be in the trees to see what you do.

 
Eventually, the captain retires to his tent as do many others.  Three grippli remain near the campfire out front and again, you have no way of knowing what is still in the trees.  The captain's tent is near the back.  You surmise you could go around, giving the camp a wide berth, and sneak into the captain's tent.  However, you feel like you should at least do SOMETHING about the three on watch or you may be the one getting captured instead.  This is quite a dilly of a pickle indeed.

You try To Sneak Up On The Grippli Near The Campfire And Cut Them All Down Before They Can React

The way you see it, you don't really have a choice.  You can't risk going after the captain while these three grippli are here standing guard like this.  You'll be caught.  You have your doubts about whether you'd be able to lure the nightwatchmen away from their posts so you are going to just have to be direct about it.  There may be three of them, but once again you have the element of surprise and you don't intend to give them any time whatsoever to react to the onslaught you intend to bring.  You creep around into the center of the camp and approach the nightwatchmen from behind. 

 

 
As you approach, the light from the campfire makes your shadow apparent and the other grippli take notice.  After all your years of capture the flag success you'd think you'd know by know that it is much easier to creep up on someone in the dark than near a campfire.  Rookie mistake.  The grippli nightwatchmen rouse from their posts and draw their weapons.  As the three leap forth to attack you, grippli in the trees fire poison darts into your back and others are roused from their tents.  I don't think I need to tell you that this is...

 
THE END