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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4507689" data-attributes="member: 386">From last Thursday's game:After having defeated the Crusaders of Torog, the PCs began to interrogate their captive.  He told them how he came to the Seven-Pillared Hall - a long, circuitous route that went through "the devil-dwarves' Horned Hold.  We had to trade slaves with them in order to get through."Oh, slaves?  Everyone perks up.  Take us to them!"It's a long trip, but the scent-trail should be strong enough."Scent-trail?  They figure out what this is when their troglodyte guide starts smelling his way deeper into the mountain.After descending a long staircase, he tells them that some of his friends are waiting in a nearby chamber.  The PCs enter and see a pair of troglodyte maulers.  The Warlock fails a Bluff check, and we roll init.The guide doesn't know what to do at first, but he's commanded to charge - and he gets swatted down by the maulers.The Rogue slips around for a good shot but is suddenly attacked by tentacles emerging from the gloom of the vaulted chamber!  A grell descends on him.In the fight, the Rogue and Wizard are pounded, the Warlock nearly dies, but the grell can't seem to hit with his poison beak and the PCs prevail.  The grell escapes, however, flying deeper into the labyrinth.I described the walls as weak, masonry chipping, and each missed ranged attack knocking pieces off, but no one used the terrain feature - rockslide!  I should have used it myself, or made it explicit.  Oh well, next time.The PCs, beaten and bruised, head back to the main hall.  They head towards the Seven-Pillared Hall and whatever passes itself off as civilization in this evil place.On the way there, they hear some hobgoblins taunting a halfing.  The Rogue slowly sneaks up, opens the door, and nearly kills one of the warriors with a quick dagger throw.  In response, the hobgoblins slam the door shut and bar it.  This gives the hobgoblins time to form a defensive line, as well as time to stab the halfing.The PCs burst in - Rogue first, who gets a bunch of Readied actions.  Pulled behind the lines from the hobgoblin warcaster's force lure, he gets smashed badly.  But the Fighter leads the charge to the front, and the Warlord buys the Rogue enough time to slip onto the large casks, away from the hobgoblin's flails.After that, the PCs cleaned up.  Restil the halfling survived the stabbing, and introduced himself to the group.  He knows Finn and Neb, two of the Rogue's halfling Entourage, from a night of drinking in Fallcrest.  Restil tells them he runs an inn down here, and with that news, the PCs don't need a guide who stinks worse than an open grave used as an outhouse.  The trog guide dies.In the Seven-Pillared Hall, Brugg the Ogre asks for a tax for all the suits of armour the PCs looted off the hobgoblins.  The Wizard bluffs his way in, passing himself off as one of the Mages of Saruun.  No tax today!The PCs rest.  Malchior The Warlord is approached by an old friend, a Mage of Saruun named Orontar.  He tells Malchior that Malchior's uncle Paldemar, a Mage of Saruun, has gone missing.  Last seen in the cisterns, nearby the temple of Torog.  The map tattooed on the flesh of the curse chanter is pulled out, and a quick deal is worked out for it (a treasure package, the PCs are low on funds).  Orontar tells them they will assault the trogs who have been plaguing the Hall, and the PCs ask to join.  They're given a few days to rest.The Rogue and Warlock head out to sell some goods and end up trading with the duergar "devil-dwarves".  The duergar offer 8 gp for the 4 suits of scale, and the Rogue declines and leaves.The duergar ask the Warlock to hang around, as they can sense the Infernal Pact.  They offer him a job, if he can prove himself worthy - a pitfight with Brugg.  He agrees.The next evening, the Fighter challenges Brugg to a pitfight.  Brugg wants to fight without armour and weapons, but the Fighter calls him a pansy afraid to get cut, and Brugg accepts the fight to the death.Odds are given for the match: 2-1 for Brugg.  That changes to 3-2 once the Wizard and the Warlord put down 300 or so gp on the Fighter.  The winner of the match gets the trophy: the head of the last champion!We draw the map up quickly, adding a pit or two, chains that hang down over it, a chained deathjump spider in one corner of the pit, and a caged animal in another.  Each combatant enters and the fight's on.Brugg charges, smashing the Fighter, who pushes Brugg into the big pit; Brugg grabs onto the chains and swings around, knocking the fighter back a square, into the corner.The duergar, watching the fight, zap the Fighter with a psychic ray.  The Warlock asks, "What the hell?"  "Your friend is good.  Let's see how good.  If he can survive, even with the odds against him, we'll know you can put together a good team and we'll accept you."The crowd cheers as Brugg gets a few good hits in, but the Fighter responds in kind.  Things aren't looking good for Brugg, so a goblin shoots at the Fighter with a poison dart.  The Warlord and the Rogue make sure he doesn't do that again.Brugg moves into the corner, and the Fighter is closest to the deathjump spider.  The owner of the bar releases it (yes, the fix is in!) and the spider jumps on the Fighter's back.  But the Wizard knows a thing or two about spiders (i.e. successful nature check); he knows that they feed on vermin, rats especially.  So he covers Brugg in an illusory rat swarm, and the spider switches targets.The fight doesn't last long after that.  The Fighter does not kill Brugg, so he does not get Brugg's head, but he does get the last trophy.  He hitches it to his belt and looks scarier than ever (+2 bonus to Intimidate checks).That was that.  The pitfight was cool because we got everyone involved, but we didn't use as much terrain as I would have liked.  I should have given Brugg some kind of Push-ing attacks.  Oh well.</blockquote>

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