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The group follows the blood smears out the door. They lead through the passage with the illusionary pit, though exiting from this side the illusion is not visible. After entering the turntable they head south and the smears continue up the stairs to the third tier, and then to the central chamber with the brass tubes. The pit trap from the floor above still hangs open, and the smear marks end below the trap door.
On the level above the spear marks continue from the lip of the pit and several discarded lengths of rope are here. There is also another dead body of an emaciated human; this one is a woman and looks middle aged. She lies on the floor in front of the open door on the brass tube to the west (which you never opened), and there are several darts buried in her left side. Brathas takes a quick look at there and sees that there is a hidden catch in this door and several suspicious holes in the wall.
The party turns and goes down the passage to the suth leading to the exit; the smears lead this way. But rather than turn right at the corner, they stop, and above you can see that the area above to corner of the passage is open to the sky! The wizard lock on the door to your west still holds, but clearly the gnolls bypassed the door by prying up the bricks of the pyramid and shifting them. At this particular spot they only had to go through about four feet of masonry to get from the surface of the stairs to the ceiling of the corridor.
There does not seem to be anyone guarding this "hole." You can hear the barks and laughter of the gnolls in the distance.
"WHAT??"
Brathas cannot believe his eyes. Using slaves to trigger the traps, that was not surprising, but that they pried up four feet of masonry?
"Okay, can we Wizard Lock other doors that are harder to bypass? If Zynazyr actually casts the spell, rather than a wand, we can come and go as we please, correct? While the gnolls cannot? It's something. But he can't prepare spells today because his sleep was interrupted. So we use the wand for now, then come back and use Zynazyr's Wizard Lock the next day.
Or we give up and flee for the city.
The idea of the 'gods of the pyramid' scaring them off is no longer possible, at least not until the gnolls get all the way down to Zargon."
Let us first see what we can see it may be possible to still save your friends from a Gnollish stewpot.
Ferrous says before seeking to climb up on of the statues and look out its eyes to see how far off the Gnoll party is and how many are there.
"Yes. If they aren't back to the main band of 50 yet."
Ana is quite obviously angered by this turn of events and paces anxiously while Ferrous attempts to spy out. Her weapon is at the ready as she monitors the hole.
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Brathas climbs out through the ceiling to have a look at the gnoll camp. The moon shows a waxing crescent and he can see moderately well.
From the steps of the pyramid he can see a lot of activity in the camp. It looks like several cookfires have been lit from sagebrush. It is hard to tell how many gnolls are there but it seems like most of them. He can also see a few sentries standing around, but he does think the camp would be easy to sneak into.
The blood smears continue down the steps towards the camp.
Then he reports back.
"I could try poisoning the cookpot, if we had any poison that would withstand the cooking."
"There is another way we might divide and conquer them. If, while I am still invisible, I give one the paste-gem necklace and announce that the gods of the pyramid make the bearer the king of gnolls for their daring. I would need Ana to teach me to pronounce the phrase correctly, or she could use Ventriloquism."
"Rather than the gods being outraged at their presence, which will no longer work, the gods are impressed. And we'll do the fireworks as well."
He thinks.
"That's assuming the witch-doctor who led the raid isn't their actual leader, and that proclaiming him such would start a fight. I would have to sneak forward and observe the camp more to determine that."
"Any other ideas?"
Then it appears like there is no saving the bodies from the stew pot of these Gnolls. We need to meet these dogs with force. They know people live down here so we should expect a return. I say we lay a trap for them tonight.
"I can sneak out and take a look around the camp. But I think you are right, Ferrous. There are too many to fight out the in open."
Ana grips her sword tightly at this news. She had hoped that their numbers had thinned enough to openly assault them, but she also knew that a direct attack against so many was suicidal.
I agree with Ferrous... but we need to make sure they are funneled to us so as you, Ana, and I can engage without them being able to go around us
"Would be a shame to let this Invisibility go to waste. I'm tempted to go sneak into the camp to scout out some more. Don't know what I could do there; steal a few waterskins, maybe. Untie the camels or a captive or two. Whatever wouldn't break Invisibility. Any ideas?"
Maybe you can steal somethings from one tent and plant them in another tent. You know start some in fighting between the Gnolls. Ferrous says dejected that there is no rescue for the magi. We should have just stayed in bed. We were no help here.
"Good idea, Ferrous. I will try that."
Brathas is also very dejected at this turn of events.
"This is the worst point of the whole expedition. My fever dreams were better. A massive gnoll warband comes out of nowhere. We think up a clever ruse that only needs a day to set up. That plan is ruined AND our allies massacred by the gnolls being far more persistent and resourceful than I'd have thought. Maybe Montague is with them as a guide.
But perhaps we can do something good here."
Brathas has a thought.
"Ferrous, can you see me with your infravision? If you can, the gnolls could too. If you cannot, then I will head down and try to cause some mischief."
And another.
"We can't let them rest. If they are awake in the night and sleep in the day, we should send sorties throughout the day while we sleep in shifts. Snipe them from here and run back down. Or anything else we can do, noise or fireworks or whatever, to force them to rouse their whole camp every hour."
Ana carefully examines the hole that the gnolls have created. How many gnolls can fit through at a time? "Might we be able to hold a line here, face them one at a time?"
Brathas will move closer to observe the gnolls for a bit. He will try to determine if there is a chief other than the witch-doctor, and where that chief's tent is. Probably the one with guards and/or trophies.
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Brathas creeps down to the edge of the stairs. He observes though that while he makes no significant tracks when he sticks to the stone, once he steps on sandy areas he will begin to leave tracks.
He gets down close to the base of the pyramid. There looks to be about a dozen tents, with two ones looking different than the others. One is simply much larger than the others, and actually has two guards standing outside. The other is tall and has a long pole in front, decorated with a large horned skull, possibly of a cow, along with a number of other odds and ends which look like bones, bits of fur, and feathers.
These two tents sit across from each other with the central fire pit between them.
There are also three pens; one for camels, one for dogs (which after a second look Brathas realizes are hyaenas), and one for human slaves. There are at least a dozen such slaves in the pen.
Are the pens guarded?
Brathas is not yet on the sand.
He reports back.
"I see a chieftain's tent and a shaman's tent. At least a dozen human slaves. The gnolls or their hyenas might be able to smell me, or see my tracks in the sand. So we need a diversion.
Flaming arrows or oil to set the leaders' tents on fire, while I am down to free the slaves and have them run back into the pyramid with us? Some will not make it. But they are all dead in the gnolls' clutches, since the gnolls are using them to find traps in the pyramid.
Then we fall back to the second level, maybe after killing a few gnolls as they try to come through this hole. We Wizard Lock one of the doors to the central room on the second tier now, and the other door after we pass through it.
We can't save the Magi's bodies from the stew pot. But we can avenge them."
Zynazyr can you use your warrior servant to accomplish this distraction Brathas speaks of?
Well I can certainly fire a bow with a few burning arrows if you want
Although I think once roused, they will not simply return to sleep... it'd be like stirring a hornet's nest
It may be best to just cause them to come at us in the enterance, afer having laid some deadfalls.. if they are in a frenzy, they won't stop to use slaves to check for them.
"We have three more items to consider that I can think of. The Oil of Smoldering, the Flask of Recovery, and the Wand of Paralyzation. If we can use distractions in the right places to get the gnolls grouped together - like all coming after us in a horde - we can use the Wand to paralyze them. It's a big area, isn't it? Could get 20-30 of them at once.
I think we can do this. Fistep throws oil to light the leader's tent on fire, with the Ring of Sparks to ignite it. Might be more likely to succeed than a burning arrow. Ferrous tries aiming the fireworks to ignite the shaman's tent. Zynazyr throws the Oil of Smoldering in the Flask of Recovery, or maybe uses his summoned servitor to throw it, in an area where many gnolls are. But not too close to the slave pen, I want to be able to see that. The fire and smoke should prevent them from smelling me or seeing my footsteps.
I liberate the slaves and hurry them back to the pyramid. The gnolls eventually regroup and come after us, hopefully after some delay. Ferrous and Fistep take the front lines. We paralyze as many as we can with the wand. We use the steps of the pyramid to our advantage, make them fight uphill. Ana should have the wand so she can move to the front to use it without hitting our own people. We fall back and keep fighting, then go through doors and Wizard Lock them if needed.
We have two Potions of Minor Healing left, if Ferrous and Ana want to drink those. I am sorry we can't have Wallia here, but we will need his healing spells in the morning."
He thinks for a minute.
"We could try to get the Warrior Maidens to help, or wait until the morning when Wallia can help. But I'm liking this plan. I had forgotten about the wand, but it seems ideal for this situation."
I think the plan is good. I like it better with the Maidens at our side and Wallia with us. Ferrous says glumly. Is there a way to insure that the Gnolls don't return tonight? Would we try to do this in the morning or wait for cover of night?
"We can Wizard Lock the interior doors on the second tier, the ones heading out from the central room. The gnolls probably can't tunnel around those without bringing the first tier down on their heads, unless they are skilled miners. It would be good if Zynazyr could cast one of the Wizard Locks rather than using the wand, so we could come and go as we pleased."
"I suppose you are right, let's wait. And try this in the morning. Cover of night won't do us much good since gnolls have infravision like you do. And the human slaves can't see in the dark."
"I agree that we should bolster our forces with the help of the warrior maidens. I will go and speak with them."
Perhaps offer the banner in exchange for their aid. the dwarf suggests.
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The group returns to the pyramid and heads down to the third tier. They activate the turntable to align with the entrance to the enclave of the Warrior Women. The entrance is quiet, and there is no sign of life. The portcullis is up.
The barracks beyond has been ransacked, though there is no blood here. Furniture has been overturned and smashed. The water barrels are missing, as are the food stores.
The next room contains the vault which only Ana had seen previously. The vault door has a number of scrape marks from some kind of tool but looks intact. At the north end of this room are the bodies of three Madaruan warriors and one dead gnoll.
The side chamber has one more dead Madaruan on the floor by the door. The room contains a winch to raise and lower the portcullis, and a peephole to see in front of the portcullis. An empty weapon rack stands on the east wall.
The door stands open to the ritual chamber to the north, and clearly a great battle took place here. Three dead gnolls and two dead hyaenas are here, along with two Madaruan bodies. Four more pools of blood suggest that others dies here, and blood smears on the floor lead out the southwest door of the ritual chamber. The bodies here are cold and the blood on the floor is drying, suggesting that whatever happened here happened hours ago.
Counting the bodies and the blood smears, Ana thinks that not all the Madaruans are accounted for. Pandora is not among the dead here.
At first Brathas was blaming himself for the Magi being attacked.
Did we leave the spinning corridor going to the Magi?
But on seeing the Maidens' complex, he reconsiders.
"They can make it through the traps and operate the corridor. Do you think they have a Cynidicean with them? Or Montague, perhaps? I wouldn't have thought gnolls so expert at this sort of exploration."
He doesn't suggest Wizard Lock on any doors just yet, until we have decided on a plan.
"Ana, I would guess the Maidens are behind that vault door. If you have a password, they may open it for you."
He also looks at the hyena bodies. "Meat. Not much of a silver lining but something."
Ana adjusts her mask and knocks at the vault door. "Pandora? It is Ana. I am here with friends."
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The vault remains silent. You try listening at the vault door but no one can hear anything. However, the door is quite thick.
The group looks over the vault door. Brathas realizes that attempting to pick the vault lock and failing will trigger some sort of trap. He also notices that there is a section of ceiling that has a seam around it just above the door. Brathas suspects the trap involves something dropping on whoever triggers the trap.
Well if something drops at least the trap won't rearm itself. The dwarf says glumly.
Brathas will try to place things to stop or at least slow the ceiling from falling. Jamming the seam if possible. Placing furniture, the weapon rack, and other heavy objects to either side of him as he tries to pick the lock. That way, if the section of ceiling falls, they may slow it down enough for him to get out of the way.
He then tries to pick the lock.
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Picking the lock on the vault takes Brathas less than a minute. The vault unlocks with an audible 'click,' and the ceiling stays where it belongs.
Opening the vault reveals the interior which is a 5' x 5' x 5' cube. Within are several stacks of coins sorted in baskets. All told there are 600 ep, 1000 gp, and 300 pp. There is nothing else in here aside from coins, and judging by the dust it doesn't look like the vault has been opened for some time.
The baskets could be used to carry the coins but they have no lids.
While valuable turns to Ferrous, Quit drooling! Think we have more pressing needs that worrying about coins... lets return to the magi and then to camp
"Agreed. I will lock the vault again - if any of the Warrior Maidens have survived, we don't need them angry at us."
"We have no allies. We have to do this by ourselves in the morning. Maybe with whomever of the other survivors can shoot a crossbow. Ana will need the best protective items, like Ferrous's magic shield, along with the queen's scepter. Once they realize she can use the scepter to paralyze them, she will be their main target."
I hesitate to say it but there is a third faction in here. Should Fistep and I inquire with them?
"I suppose you are right, let's wait. And try this in the morning. Cover of night won't do us much good since gnolls have infravision like you do. And the human slaves can't see in the dark."
I am going to check on the Brotherhood of Gorm. Follow if you like. Ferrous is going to start heading towards the Brotherhood of Gorm's camp. He is looking for signs of conflict but will continue until he sees if there are any survivors.
Brathas sighs.
"Didn't you kill some of them already? I wasn't in that fight. They don't know me, and I'm masked like a Cynidicean. And still invisible. If you really want to check on them, I can go ahead."
Er, Ferrous... might let Brathas take a peek; if the gnolls have used people on the trap door, then ok the Brotherhood might have been impacted, otherwise doubtful.
Brathas will go ahead to scout out the Tier 2 section, looking for signs of battle. If there aren't any, he'll look for the trap door and search for gnoll hairs or other signs of their passage.
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The group returns to the enclave of the Gormites. Brathas was not present when they fought the Gormites, but the directions are simple, and he scouts ahead.
The enclave on the second tier consisted of two rooms. Both rooms had bunk beds for the men stationed there. The rooms are in disarray and much of the furniture has been smashed. There are a few bloodstains, but they look quite old, and Brathas suspects that they are from the time that the group battled the Gormites.
The southern chamber had a trap door in the floor and the group had moved furniture around in the room so the trap door would be blocked by the furniture and difficult to open from underneath. The furniture has been moved, and some of it has been smashed; the trap door stands open.
Below he can see a 20' x 40' room. The southern portion contains what remains of a number of crates and barrels, though they seem to be empty, and like other places around here many of these containers have been smashed. The northern half of the room has a floor covered with sand, and a number of wooden practice weapons hang on the walls here, though clearly some are missing judging by the hooks on the walls. There are two crossbows among the weapons, and though the strings have been cut they might be made serviceable. There are also several crossbow bolts scattered among the debris. Despite the wreckage there is no sign of blood or any actual violence here.
Following behind Brathas, Zynazyr realizes that three of the bolts are magical bolts +1.
The door beyond is not locked and Brathas detects no sound or traps. The next chamber is quite large, and looks like a ritual chamber of some kind. The walls have been painted sky blue and there is a golden-colored marble altar next to the east wall. The altar has been defaced slightly, and there is no sign of any ceremonial equipment, but there is no sign of life here, and no bloodstains that would suggest a battle.
The other door that leads out is the one that is magically trapped, but Brathas feels confident that it is safe to open from this side.
Obviously these Gnolls are a bigger threat than we anticipated if they have wiped out all three factions of Cynidiceans. Shame about the crossbows being broken. Ferrous says glumily. Perhaps we gather the few remaining Magi and return to our camp and then down further towards the city.