Gnoll

What seemed to my sleepy mind as the sound of insane lunacy screaming out from some wicked band of madmen, would later be found to have been the wailing laughter-like calls of a small tribe of Gnoll raiders attacking our camp...Luckily, my first encounter with these Hyena-like creatures was short...Having a great many capable and able bodied men with us that dark long night, the Gnollish invaders thought better of their plans and turned tail to flee... But don't take them lightly...Gnolls are large, strong, capable and most assuredly resilient in their stubbornness...Having the resemblance of Humanoid Hyenas, Gnolls are masters of the attack and flee maneuver...Coming in with no warning, hitting hard and leaving as quickly as they came, Gnolls are renown for their surprisingly high level of intelligence and their mastery of guerilla warfare tactics...They have a very civilized society (if Your a Gnoll that is), smithing their own armor and weapons, as well as cultivating their own crops and leading group hunts to sustain their families, whom they are loyal to the death...Females in Gnoll society are the dominate of the sexes (much akin to the Hyenas they resemble), the clan being led by an Alpha chieftain, whom is followed by lower chieftains and shamans of the clan...Surpsingly, unlike most "monstrous races" (i.e. Hobgoblins, True Orcs, Goblins, ect.), Gnolls rarely (if ever) war with members of other clans or tribes within their species...Disputes are settled through personal conflict between the two individuals having the dispute, but almost never do tribes or clans go to war with one another...This is surprising to many Zoologists, for on the battlefield Gnolls are renown for being extremely vicious and deadly...They've actually been reported to stop fighting all together so they might feast on someone incapacitated in the ensuing chaos...Many believe this stems from some form of "bloodlust" they may be prone too...It should also be mentioned that Gnolls prefer prey that give them a "challenge" to their hunting abilities...This often leads to them targeting small villages, hamlets and other "civilized" places during certain times of the year when they may be celebrating one of their many various "holidays", which usually deal with some type of seasonal/harvest/equinoxal significance...