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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7592980" data-attributes="member: 1210">This is not a city of heroes. Not now; not yet. The Heroes of Fandelose have had their day, and those days are past. They are dead, or old and retired, or just retired. A new crop may rise, and it may happen soon, but for now, the city's champions are less heroes and more adventurers.But villains- ah, villains. Fandelose is full of villains. Some are hidden in plain view, preaching to the city's poorest and most disenfranchised citizens, spreading the word of their foul god. Others keep their faces turned away from the public at all times, fearing the shining of the light of discovery on their unsavory activities. Some work invisibly within the organizations that the city must trust to protect it, undermining it from within. But there are others who are more blatant, whose faces adorn wanted posters. Others such as Pa'ash Svenko, tiefling warlock, known devil-worshiper, known bandit, wanted for murder, arson, robbery, destruction of property. Surely, if he were resident within the city, such a famous villain would be turned in to the authorities in no more than a few days. At the very least, someone would tip off the White Battlet as to where to find him. The price on his head would be too high to resist.Instead, such a villain, one who depended on raiding the civilized folk for both his own sick satisfaction and to ensure he and his lackeys can live in comfort, might choose a relatively safer place to live. Somewhere, perhaps, that offered an opportunity to cow and lord over weaker creatures, a place to set oneself up on top of a social hierarchy.That's right. Pa'ash Svenko lives in the megadungeon.And- oh, yes. Cast back your mind. Do you remember Mileen? Mileen, the missing colleague of Lazarus, for whom Dzedz was supposed to look so long ago?Whoops.***This time, the party includes Carl Hungus, David daVoi, Johann, Dzedz, Sarek, and the Iron Patriot. As they descend into the dungeon, the distressed dwarf complains incoherently, clearly telling them something very important to him.They follow the thoqqua hole to the gibberling level, then fight their way through a pair of giant spiders en route to the gnoll hole. “Hey,” says Dzedz, “didn't we leave ropes here before?”Indeed they did, but there is no sign of them now.“It was probably the gnolls,” Sarek says. The party drops new ropes and descends into another battle with the gnolls. They fight their way through, press forward into another area with gnolls and their pet hyenas. The party doesn't recognize the danger they are facing until it is almost too late.Among the enemy is a ghoul. It paralyzes David daVoi and Sarek, almost turning the tide against our protagonists before a raving Johann can call upon the power of the God-Bomb to turn the ghoul. They press further into the gnolls' area. Hideous laughter echoes down the halls, coming from hyenas, both normal and giant, and gnolls alike. There are enemies closing in from everywhere, from every direction. The party intercepts one group of gnolls, puts them to the sword. To their surprise, they find that the gnolls are transporting a pair of prisoners: a scared-looking halfling named Tommy and an elf named Keymaepa. “This is awkward,” says Sarek. “I mean, we don't want to leave you on your own here, but we're kind of in the middle of something here, and we haven't found much treasure yet.”Dzedz asks, “Do you have any useful skills?”The elf smiles. “I am a warlock.”“And I'm a druid,” the halfling answers. “And I'm pretty sure that these gnolls you just slew have our gear.”“I wouldn't mind the opportunity to get a little revenge while we're here,” Kaymaepa adds.“That settles it!” Sarek smiles at them. “You can come with us!”“Equal shares for all,” Dzedz says.***The party, swollen with their two newest members, advances further. The gnolls' areas tend to be ill-kept, messy, with garbage and waste often left lying in plain view. The party finds their meat larder, which hangs with both humanoid corpses and several sides of cattle. Solemnly, Kaymaepa touches one of the dead humans. “This was one of our adventuring companions.”“I'm sorry,” says Sarek.Further on, they cut through half a dozen guards in a foyer outside a well-appointed lair. Here they meet a much more dangerous gnoll than most they have met, dressed all in red plate armor, along with his four personal guards. Clearly, he is some kind of leader- but with such a large party, he and his guards have no chance. David daVoi finishes the gnoll captain off, slicing his throat.  “Too bad that armor is so big,” Hungus remarks. “You guys could use some plate armor.” He nods to Sarek and Johann.The party takes stock of itself. A few of them are a little banged up, and most of their healing has been expended by now, but Dzedz still has several powerful spells available, and Hungus has one or two tricks left up his sleeve. They decide to keep going.The next door they open leads to a large chamber, within which is a hydra. Tommy slams the door shut, and David daVoi throws his weight against it. “I don't think we want to fight that!” the halfling exclaims. But they may not have the choice. The door explodes outward and one of the hydra's heads smashes it to pieces.“Why not?” shouts Sarek, leaping forward into the room and slashing with his halberd. “The God-Bomb will protect us!” shrieks Johann, hitting the hydra with a sacred flameDavid daVoi shrugs and leaps to stand with Sarek. Hungus hangs back for a few moments, but finally rushes to the front as well. Tommy uses his last spell slot to coat the hydra in faerie fire, while Keymaepa unleashes eldritch blasts at it. The hydra is very dangerous, but as long as it is confronted by many targets, it seems that its heads are not very good at working together. Each snaps at whoever is closest to that head. And slowly, the party cuts it to pieces, finally finishing it with a flame bolt from Dzedz. The fight leaves the front line warriors all wounded, but only daVoi is knocked unconcscious. Tommy quickly scrambles forward to stabilize him. ***Everyone agrees that it's time to withdraw. Carting daVoi's unconscious form, they retreat back through  the gnoll level toward the gnoll hole. Halfway there, they are ambushed by a pack of hyenas. They cut the beasts down.“There!” Dzedz points just ahead. “The ropes! That's the gnoll hole!”They hustle forward but are intercepted by a trio of gnolls that barrels into them from a side passage. Hungus smashes one down, Sarek cuts the second one in half, and Johann's holy power eliminates the third. Tommy and Keymaepa scramble up the ropes, followed by Hungus. At the same time, Sarek quickly ties a harness around daVoi at the end of the ropes. Hungus hoists their unconscious ally aloft, his arms bulging with the effort. When he's done, he unties daVoi and drops the rope back down for Sarek. He and Dzedz climb up.“What do you think? Should we leave the ropes again?” asks Hungus.  Dzedz shrugs. “We might as well. We got enough loot to replace them, that's for sure.”“Someone somewhere is going to be collecting quite a pile of rope,” comments Sarek.***The party returns to the thoqqua hole and exits the dungeon via it. Once outside, the party parts ways.  Hungus, daVoi, and Johann sleep in the Black Gorge, intent on re-entering the megeadungeon the next morning, while the others return to Fandelose. “If you guys ever want to join up for an adventure with us,” Hungus tells Tommy and Keymaepa before they split up, “we hang out at the brewery a lot.”The next morning, after using up their healing to ensure everyone is in good shape, Hungus, Johann, and a revived David daVoi head back in.***They make it to, and down, the gnoll hole without any trouble. There are no guards at the bottom. “We must have depleted their numbers pretty severely,” Hungus remarks. They explore. The level is large, densely packed, with many rooms and numerous passageways. They find a sleeping ogre and back away, leaving it alone. Before long, they find a stairway down.“The God-Bomb will protect us!” Johann asserts. They descend, passing into a large chamber. And it is there that disaster strikes. Lurking in the shadows, a huge monstrous spider covered in bristles that drip acid senses the three of them. As they take in their surroundings, its scuttles forward with in silence, and before they are even aware of it, it sprays a cone of caustic acid all over them.All three of them shriek in pain. But Johann is quite literally half-dissolved. The cleric's God Bomb does not protect them after all. Hungus curses and strikes back, unleashing a mighty smite, but the spider monster shrugs it off. DaVoi's jab also hits, but barely hurts it. The two flee, retreating up the stairs. The spider lets them go, content to slurp up Johann's remains. Hungus has only a meager amount of healing ability left; he uses it now, but both he and daVoi are still wounded.David daVoi shakes his head. “This may have been a bad idea, cuz. I think we need to get out of here.”He's right. But as they move through the gnoll zone, they are intercepted by half a dozen gnolls and a giant hyena. The two of them freeze. “Drop your weapons,” growls one of the gnolls in Common. They have no choice.***In chains, stripped to their loincloths, they are cast before a tiefling who sits upon a large chair. “I am Pa'ash Svenko,” he says, sneering at them. “You are now my prisoners.” He looks them over.“This one had fancy armor,” one of the gnolls says, pointing at Hungus. Pa'ash glances at the platinum-chased armor that Hungus has invested some of his treasure in. Pa'ash smirks. “Good. We shall see. If your lives are worth enough, we shall keep you for ransom. If not...”daVoi says, "I'm a noble."***</blockquote>

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