Zinnath fires at the same gnoll as SK (if it is still up), otherwise, he fires at the other one.
vs touch
Neither Domeric nor Fezzik have much luck pushing against the remaining gnolls. Zinnath manages to land a shot, injuring the one fighting Domeric.
The swath of carnage proves too much for the gnolls. The one fighting Domeric throws down its weapon, followed by the one facing Tronar, and lastly the one by the huge multiple-crossbow weapon slinks back against the wall, paws in the air.
The gnoll tilts its head at Domeric, growls, and snarls.
Avendryl stands by, blade in hand, ready for if this devolves back into combat.
You don't seem to have any languages in common with the gnolls, who whine, keep their snouts down, and look about furtively.
"What do we want to do with these guys?" Avendryl asks.
"They look timid and defeated now, but just a few seconds ago they were trying to kill us, and I'm not convinced that they wouldn't give it another go given the opportunity."
"Creatures of their ilk are often want to follow dragons in our conquests!"
"It might take me a while, if I get lost, or distracted!"
”Someday, but my magic is not yet powerful enough for that.”
Bataleigha scratches her head and inadvertently activates some dormant brain cells.
"Hey--I've got create water prepared!" she gushes suddenly. After emptying the wall font, she casts the spell as many times as it takes to fill it. "You're welcome!" she says to the gnolls.
The gnolls, hunched and watching suspiciously, stay in the corner.
You take steps to shut the room so that you can leave the gnolls stuck inside while you figure out what to do. You hear them whining from the inside and some banging, but eventually it ceases. Either they don't care that they're trapped, or they expect someone else to come along and free them.
Avendryl rubs his chin as he looks at the quadruple crossbow. "That's neat. I wonder if we could take that with us..." he muses mostly to himself.
"Nope that doesn't seem to be working. You folks want me to disable it so that it can't be used anymore. That I'm pretty sure I could do pretty easily."
"Dismantling it would probably be for the best," Bataleigha opines.
”I can break it if desired.
Bat peeks out the eastern door; it enters a south-heading hallway with another door on the side across from it. There is a small slit in the wall on the north side so that the quadruple crossbow has a lane of fire down the hallway.
Tronar attempts to take a look at the crossbow to learn its secrets.
"It would take more skill than what I can muster to dismantle it."
Avendryl disables the quadruple crossbow for now, so that the gnolls don't get any funny ideas about using it against you when you return. He fastens the door behind you so that the gnolls can't get out of the room.
Domeric sweeps the area with his honed paladin's senses but does not sense any strong supernatural evil - nothing more than the residue of the temple itself.
The door across the hallway is a stout door just like the one to the room with the gnolls; the hallway heading south goes to a split that heads east and west.
Avendryl walks up to the door. "No sense in leaving a potential enemy behind us...or any treasure for that matter." he says, listening at the door while he searches it for traps.
Quietly, Avendryl does his best to get the attention of his companions. "Psst...sounds like there's someone behind the door."
Grinning, Bat tries her best to use universal sign language to relay to Fezzik: I'll open the door; you hack whatever's on the other side in two. When the big guy's ready, Bat tries to open the door.
Fezzik nods to Avendryl and looks at Bat, trying to figure out what she is trying to mime. Shrugging his shoulders in indifference, he grips his great sword in anticipation of entering the room and silencing whatever is in there. He looks at the other two, waiting for one of them to open the door.
Zinnath plops down on Fezzik’s shoulder and waits to see what is behind the door!
Everyone stands around waiting for someone else to open the door.
Eventually that becomes boring.
Nobody answers from the other side, nor does anyone come exploring to find you or figure out what happened to the gnolls, after ten minutes.
Bat must shove the door hard twice before it opens.
(129)
This 20' square room was obviously a guard room. Racks for weapons still remain on the eastern wall. A table with 4 chairs takes up the northwest corner. A water barrel, nearly full, stands beside the west door, with a bundle of ten torches beside it. A single torch burns on the south wall. Two candles light the table. Some rectangular bone markers are on the table, by a jug and several ceramic mugs. Several pegs and hooks on the south wall hold old brown cloaks, a leather bag, and a shortbow with a quiver of five arrows.
Several human guards occupy a hallway that exits the far side of the room. They've obviously been waiting for you. They wear mail armor and brown surcoats, with shields covered in brown leather and bearing a black triangular boss. (The black triangle is also sewn onto their surcoats.)
The guard at the near end of the hall (closest to you) is kneeling and bears a loaded heavy crossbow. The guard standing behind him likewise bears a crossbow. Further back in the hall you can hear the rustling of arms and armor and the exhortation:
"Fell the intruders!"
Party <--
Guards
Zinnath casts improved invisibility on himself and flies up into the room, at least 15’ If there’s that much room.
Allies ”I’m inside and high up guys, don’t blast me please!”
Avendryl moves into the room, sticking along the wall to make room for his more martially inclined companions. Once in position, he fires an arrow at the lead guard.
(PBS vs. FF AC)
(PBS, Sneak Attack)
Seeing how cramped the area beyond the door is (or will be, once Fezzik enters), Bataleigha opts to hang back and buff the big battler for now.
Fezzik steps into the room, scanning it quickly to find a target. He grins then steps up to the nearest guard and takes a mighty swing with his great sword.
Zinnath watches the hapless opponent get smashed by Fezzik, ”Well done big guy!”
Seeing that there is a nice bottleneck blocked by Fezzik, Tronar steps forward with his Longspear and readies to attack anyone that comes within reach.
Avendryl's arrow sticks in the armor of one of the guards, while Fezzik moves up and simply splatters the kneeling man in front, separating his arms from his body at the shoulders with a twisting, descending chop. The man falls forward, instantly dead.
The rest of the team waits...
A crossbow bolt (fired by #2) hits Domeric's shield at an angle and deflects off.
Guards in back (#3, #4, and #5) advance cautiously, keeping their shields up for defense. In spite of their attempts at total defense, Fezzik shatters one of them (#3) with a heavy blow as he closes in and sends him to a heap on the ground next to his friend. Fezzik's stab at his compatriot deflects off his shield, though.
The guard moving up to engage with Domeric also stays on defense to get in close as Tronar attacks with his spear, but fails to connect.
You hear more guards approaching from the slanted hallway above and more shouting.
Zinnath flies down the corridor, and fires a ray of cold at the guard just below him and to the west...
vs flat footed touch
Tronar steps forward and pokes the nearest guard.
10'reach