15 July 2015
Behind the fateful door ... a storage room. Sigh. The party glanced over the pallets of spears and pole arms, and various barrels and crates. Next! The door beside that one led to a similar room, filled with similar goods: two pallets of shields, two pallets of leather armor, and some barrels. After their initial disappointment, a rough inventory of those chambers showed that the shields were all new, painted with a large, yellow eye, topped with flames. The leather armor was also new, though unadorned. The barrels contained chunks of salted pork of varying sizes, and behind those were two small kegs, most likely containing spirits. The first room held 50 spears, 10 glaives, 6 guisarmes, 3 battleaxes, 70 black capes with the flaming eye sigil, a crate of 120 arrows, another crate of 200 crossbow bolts, and 13 crates of assorted root vegetables.Rook sacrificed one of the spears (and almost sacrificed Barry the Bearer): he told Barry to go poke at the green slime by the stairs. Seeing the smoking destruction wrought upon the spear, the party discussed using the slime to destroy the stored goods, to ensure the villains got no chance to use them. There were counter-proposals to take it all back to town for a profit. In the end, it was decided they would re-lock the storage rooms and decide what to do with it all later. To finish off this western extent of the dungeon, the thieves ventured up the green-slime stairs, being careful all the way up, including checking for traps and looking above for slime. They found a gold ring forgotten in the corner of a step, and they found that the stairs led up into the burned pantry area where they had previously killed a nest of giant rats. Good. They burned the green slime to make that stairway safer for their use as a secondary egress. To finish off this western extent of the dungeon, the thieves ventured up the green-slime stairs, being careful all the way up, including checking for traps and looking above for slime. They found a gold ring forgotten in the corner of a step, and they found that the stairs led up into the burned pantry area where they had previously killed a nest of giant rats.
Now they were satisfied that the entire area west of the ogre’s den had been explored, and so they went back through the secret door, through the small antechamber at the bottom of the secret stairway, and through the secret door broken by Karox. Kheldar took point, checking the stairs for traps and for green slime. He neglected to check the secret door for traps, though he did spot the trip wire after the fact. It led from the door to a small crossbow mounted in the ceiling of the stairway, pointed at the door. Just as he turned to warn those behind him, Karox opened the door wider, so she could pass, and took a poisoned dart in her unprotected shoulder (where she had lost a pauldron to the green slime). Luckily, she made her saving throw and suffered only minimal damage from the dart. The thieves dismantled the trap and Kheldar gained a dart crossbow, albeit one with a very limited ammunition supply. The party negotiated the rest of the staircase without incident.
At the bottom of the stairs, the corridor branched east and west, so they went west, which then turned south, wiggled, and eventually let into a large chamber, with three doors in the south wall, and a passage leading off to the west. They checked each door for traps, and opened them one by one. The first let onto a small, empty room. The middle one opened on a blank wall. As they opened it, the party all heard a loud rattle and clang from somewhere in the dungeon. A chain led from the inner surface of that door, through the wall, which led them to suppose that they had triggered a trap elsewhere. The third door let onto a long corridor, bearing south, with a branch to the southeast.
They had closed that door and were considering their options, when a deep voice said from behind, “What ho.”
In the western passage stood a large, hyena-headed man in light armor. Others of the same sort stood in the passage behind him, all with weapons in hand but not ready.
The gnolls—as someone recognized—inquired as to the party’s purpose. When the party replied that they were looking for the necromancer, the gnolls remained neutral. In fact, the hyena-men were willing to look the other way while the PCs passed, for a price. A little haggling revealed that the price was 8 gold pieces per party member. During the haggling, more gnolls crowded into that passage, revealing their total number to be 9. Anaïs met their price from the party’s communal gold bag: 48 gp. There were dissenting opinions, but the loudest, Barry’s, didn’t count. The gnolls took their toll and went back the way they had come.
During the haggling, Kheldar managed to sneak past the gnolls. He found a dead-end chamber, plainly living quarters for the gnolls. It smelled badly of wet dog. Though a quick rifle didn’t reveal anything of real value, he did find an open water barrel, which he poisoned with the snake venom he had been carrying for some time.
Next: that southern passage. Karox opened the third door, and Kheldar led the way once more, staying to the left and checking for traps. [Despite many turns of slow progress, checking for traps the whole way, I hadn’t yet rolled a wandering monster.] Since the branching corridor was on the left, he led the party that way, to a door. Kheldar checked the door for traps and listened—both with negative results. He stepped aside so that Karox could open it, which revealed a corridor heading due east, with another door just past the one Karox had opened, on the north side of the corridor. Kheldar repated the dance, and Karox opened the door, though not without some (loud) struggle.
When she did finally open it, she saw a long corridor running to the north, and two ranks of three crossbowmen each, 30 feet from the door, with more armed men behind them. She also saw three crossbow bolts penetrate her armor, though none did her much damage. After the surprise had worn off, she closed the door, and the party reversed course, in haste. They were chased back to the gnoll-parleying room, where they made their stand. One thief stood to each side of the door, while Karox and Graham stood in the middle, about ten feet into the room. The first pair of enemy fighters took the bait and charged in. Anaïs backstabbed the one on her side, killing him, but Kheldar missed his. No problem: when the fellow moved into the room, Kheldar managed to trip him, and their new illusionist friend, Rook, stepped in close to throw darts at him.
The bad guys rethought their tactics, and let the door close. They shouted through the door, in Gnollish, “Come out and kill the intruders! Where are you?” When Karox opened the door, there was a double rank of crossbowmen again, though this time she wasn’t surprised and didn’t get hit. The standoff was broken when the gnolls came into the room again, appearing interested. Rather than be attacked from their flank, the party elected to go through the door. Karox charged the crossbow men, and got hit twice, once critically. That bolt struck a nerve, stunning her. Fortunately, Billet Graham was right behind her, and used his own Sanctuary-protected body to shield her. As the crossbowmen reloaded, he cast Hold Person, freezing two of them. That ended his Sanctuary spell, but seemed a good trade-off. More enemies appeared behind the ranks of crossbowmen.
Meanwhile, Kheldar, effectively invisible and silent with his elvish gear, sneaked past the increasingly dense mass of enemy troops, back down the southeast corridor. That was not easy, dodging so many jostling men. For fun, he called back, in Common, “Kill the gnolls!” loudly enough to be heard by the gnolls. For his next trick, he managed to slip through the first door unobserved. Through the next door, however, he found a pretty man in fancy plate mail. Though the man didn’t apparently see him, he definitely saw the door open. Kheldar beat a strategic retreat, and hid in the eastern corridor that the party had not yet investigated.
Rook took out one of the crossbowmen with his Color Spray spell, while Graham fought with swordsmen. Anaïs turned the tide with trickery: she called to the gnolls, “Did you hear that?” (referring to Kheldar’s fake command, “Kill the gnolls!”). She lied, “They’re coming for you,” which was sufficient to incense the gnolls [who were greatly dissatisfied with the loot and other opportunities presented by the Master]. They ran past the PCs, and chased the human enemies back the way they had come. That gave Kheldar a chance to rejoin the group, and sufficient time for Karox to recover from her waves of pain and nausea. That respite also gave Rook some time to have a poke around the gnolls’ living area. He found one thing of possible value: a chunk of carved wood with a gnoll likeness. He made off with this “gnoll tiki,” because you never know.
Before long, though, the gnolls were beaten back. Only four of the nine survived to run away, back to their lair. That seemed an opportune time for another strategic retreat on the party’s side. This time they fell back to the relative safety of the ogre’s chamber. Oh: their way was barred by a portcullis that had dropped from the ceiling, blocking their way to the stairs. No matter: Karox easily bent the bars widely enough for her to pass, which let everyone else easily pass.
The party heard clanking noises from beyond the secret door, but no one was brave enough to look.
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