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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 1534081" data-attributes="member: 743">The party decides to head back out and revisit the bandit camp for further exploration, so they gather up their gear and leave through Ironside's massive gates. They get three hours down the road and see three humanoid figures atop the next hill. The party prepares for battle, but one of the Ur-Gurlock seperates himself from the group and walks down towards the party with his arms outstretched and empty.They allow him to move forward, and he grunts at them "You come see boss."When asked who the boss is, the Ur-Gurlock "diplomat" repeats his command. "You come see boss." When asked where the boss is, he again replies, "You come see Boss." At this point Nadeem points out that it is probably the only words he knows. He tests his theory with a few choice phrases, to which the Ur-Gurlock replies, "You come see Boss."Lord Tahm and Nadeem volunteer to go see "Boss" and begin following the Ur-Gurlocks. They are led back to the Caves of Chaos and into a cave they had noticed before but not examined. The diplomat leads them past ranks of flail-wielding Ur-Gurlock warriors, and Nadeem and Tahm realize that if they are in a trap they will most likely die.In a large room whose only major furniture piece is a stone chair carved into the wall, the two psychics meet a huge Ur-Gurlock. This one wears full plate and has a massive greatsword sitting at the side of his throne. He speaks to Tahm and Nadeem, exercising his poor Common to the fullest."You great warriors destroy the Alakabar. We pay you for more. Dinks make trouble, steal food. We cannot follow them into caves, they are too small." He puts his hand down to knee level to indicate the height of a Dink. "We give gold for their death. We would feast on their bones."Nadeem asks if the Ur-Gurlock have any psionic devices, and the chief tells them they have a rope and an axe, and the group may have one of them in exchange for killing the Dinks. Nadeem and Tahm excuse themselves and tell the chief that they will discuss it with their fellow mercenaries. As they leave Tahm tells the Ur-Gurlock that they will return when the task is complete or proves insurmountable. On their way out, one of the lesser Ur-Gurlock is given orders to show them to the Dink cave. Outside he points to a small copse of trees and grunts something in Ur-Gurlock which presumably means, "right there."When they get back to camp, the rest of the group agree to take the job, and the party heads to the cave entrance. The tunnel is short, a mere 4 feet from floor to cieling. It is also more narrow than most of the caves here, being only six feet wide. Nadeem hunkers down and slips into the corridor. He gets about 30' in and the floor beneath him collapses, dropping him into a pit.As soon as he hits the floor he hears loud squeeking and scratching coming from up above. He looks up just in time to see hordes of rats, some as big as his leg, barreling down into the pit with him. The swarm of rats and their dire cousins bite into his flesh and chew mercilessly as he is forced to climb out of the pit and flee outside.He gets there, and the large rats quickly fall. The smaller ones are harder to attack though, and it takes the entire party to chase away the ones they cannot kill. While they are dong that, 3 dinks (small lizardmen with thick tails) come out of the end of the tunnel and begin firing crossbows at the people they can see. The pit between them and the party protects them from the group's swords, but not the energy rays and crystal shards, and so the two surviving dinks fall back.The group fears more traps like that in the corridors and decides that perhaps chasing the dinks into their homes is a poor idea. They instead elect to try to smoke them out. Gathering up kindling and chopping wood, the group builds a fairly large-sized fire directly in the mouth of the cave. For the most part though, the smoke escapes out through the sides of the hill via airholes the Dinks had cut for just such an occassion.Nadeem moves up to close off one of the holes and falls into yet another pit trap. This one drops him into a pit in the center of a medium sized storeroom. In the room with him, expecting someone's arrival, are two armored dinks. One of them throws a wire mesh net into the pit with Nadeem, entangling him, while the other throws a flask of Alchemist's Fire, setting Nadeem alight and forcing him to roll to put the flames out.The rest of the group head to the top of the hill to help, and a rope is thrown down. But as Nadeem climbs up, wicked spiked chains lash out at him from the two armored Dinks. His hold is broken on the rope and he falls.Tor jumps in in an effort to help, but finds that he too has trouble climbing out with spiked chains lashing out at him. The Dinks move towards the edge of the pit to lash downward into it, but retreat when one of them is killed. With the room emptied, Nadeem and Tor are free to climb out. Attempts to cover the airholes with bedrolls and continue to feed the fire are stymied by the dinks. The tent used to cover one flue is shot full of holes with crossbows and falls into the pit below. Another of the flues is covered with a bedroll, but those are pulled down inside the tunnel. Tahm, left to fan the flames on the fire, is ambushed by two crossbowmen and a Dink Wilder. The wilder pummels Tahm with memories of past wounds that become real, and the nobleman moves away from the fire.A few of the Dinks are killed during their entry-tunnel attacks, but the party is losing the war of attrition and has no idea of the numbers they face. They decide that perhaps these Dinks will be harder to deal with then they thought. Vides comments that it makes sense that the Ur-Gurlock have been unable to wipe this tribe out, and the party returns to town to rest and purchase large metal sheets to use to cover the air holes. The party returns three weeks later and begins to move towards the airhole pit traps and the entrance. As they get closer they trigger several traps, and spring-loaded spiked lattices slam into them. The thick grey paste smeared on the spikes burns and stings as it hit, causing small muscle spasms in those affected. Up above, two of the group falls into the enlarge antlion-like trap around the original airhole. It funnels them into the pit and they once again find themselves fighting for their lives against alchemist's fire, spiked chains, and the Wilder. The rescue effort is hard, but they are pulled out alive, and the groups gives up on their mission altogether, leaving without even telling the Ur-Gurlock of their failure. When they return to the Keep they discuss things and decide to explore the ancient tree city the bandits had used as a camp.</blockquote>

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