Poking around the Moathouse Part 2

To follow up the post from Monday, I thought I would put out the next part of this campaign log. We finished the last one with the company discovering a hidden set of stairs down into the dungeons beneath the Moathouse. Here is what happened from there.

The company's first instinct was to send Maudriel's familiar down the steps to check out what lay beneath as he was unlikely to be discovered. This simple plan yielded the fact that the chamber beneath was occupied by humanoids, but little else (with the snake being unable to relay more precise information). To follow this up it was  decided that with Adventous being the sneaky, stealthy sort, he would be the best choice for going down the steps to scout out what lay ahead. With no further ado, he crept off down into the gloom, following the faint sounds of guttural, animalistic voices coming from the bottom. When he reached there he observed two black uniformed gnolls engaged in a game of dice and a human woman in robes meditating. They all appeared to be looking after a number of strange items laid out on a pristine white sheet in the otherwise empty chamber. Adventus decided to return and inform the rest of his companions what was going on and what they should do about it. They discussed who these people might be, and came to the conclusion the best thing to do was go with the diplomatic approach and talk to them. Once in the chamber, the woman leapt to her feet and demanded to know who the intruders before her were, whilst the gnoll guards quickly stood and readied themselves for trouble. Maudriel, speaking for his companions informed her that they were simple explorers who had rid the Moathouse of the dragon keeping those beneath penned in, and that she should explain her presence here. The woman stalked across to the south side of the room, opened a door, looked inside and yelled "Seize them!", at which point an almighty fight broke out, with skeletons pouring out of the southern door and rushing the company as they stood at the bottom of the hidden steps.

The undead rush the party!

 Team work between the company at this point meant that Adventus rushed out and engaged the woman, whilst the 3 other company members dispatched the gnolls and turned on the skeletons. The battle was somewhat longer than expected, with bad rolls on both sides contributing to the length, but finally the heroes gained the upper hand. The fight was finally won by a combination of Maudriel's magic and Adventus resorting to punching the skeletons with his fists to beat them down. With their opponents defeated, the company realised they were near the limit of their capabilities for the day; however there was much more of the Moathouse to explore. It was decided they would camp in the room above, after resealing the secret door, and continue to explore in the morning.

The party settled down for the night in their bedrolls, with a guard posted and rotating every couple of hours, enjoying the rations that Adventus had thought to bring along (this was only supposed to be a stroll out to explore a historic set of ruins after all!). However, unbeknownst to the company, movement was afoot beneath their feet: gnolls working for the robe wearing priests trapped in the dungeons had been ordered to sally forth to discover who had killed the guards who were looking after recovered artifacts (that the companions had pilfered after the fight), and were now moving up the main staircase to explore the ground floor of the moathouse. Maudriel's sharp ears picked up the sounds of the advancing gnolls, and thinking quickly, he cast Hold Portal on the door to the chamber they were in before rousing his companions. The heroes made ready and hid, hoping to ambush the creatures as they entered the chamber, and make short work of them before they could call for reinforcements.

The gnolls burst in.... straight into an ambush!

6 of the fearsome hyena-men advanced into the room, looking round for where the intruders could be, but were taken by surprise as Adventus lept out of the shadows to strike. He was quickly followed by Kielle, who cast Soundburst, stunning most of the gnolls before they could act. Bronath tripped the lead gnoll, and proceeded to dispatch him before he could get back to his feet. With the rest of the gnolls stunned, the rest of the company took care of them before they ever had a chance to act. What could have been a dangerous situation for the heroes turned out to be a white wash for their assailants. The party readied themselves for the day ahead, and stalked back into the dungeon beneath their feet, ready for action.