. Caves of Chaos

24th of Eleint
The group wakes up, stiff and sore from their many battles and from sleeping on the cold stone floor. They ponder the meaning of their visitor while munching rations almost as cold and hard as the floor. They decide to listen at the set of double doors to the east. Through the cracks between the doors a horrible stench assaults their noses as they listen for any clues as to what lays beyond.
Boldly they shove the doors open to reveal a long corridor. A couple of magical torches light the corridor showing two exits, one to the north, and one to the south. The corridor ends in a room and at the far end of their vision they see cage. Dark Face with his ability to see in the dark can see several huge doglike creatures snarling and growling. They immediately start howling and barking loudly. Their teeth snapping and echoing down the stone hallway.
Suddenly a door on the south wall burst open and a huge creature like a human dog hybrid rushes into the corridor, a large bow at the ready and brown hair standing up on its neck. It sees the adventurers and heads towards the hyena cage.
Dark Face lets fly an arrow that rips through the Gnoll’s ankle, essentially hobbling the foul beast.
The group rushes forward to engage the Gnoll, but then two more even meaner looking Gnolls enter the hallway.
Gandor takes a spear to his side, and Mathers uncharacteristically teleports to behind the Gnolls. Without much difficulty they kill the Gnolls and then search the area. The first room they passed seemed to be some kind of mess hall. A pile of coins and some dice still sit on the table. The room the Gnolls came from appears to be their sleeping quarters. They find a container under the bed, dug into the floor where they find more coins and large topaz.
The stench from the Hyena cage is almost overwhelming. Rotten food, and feces are mixed with the straw several inches deep. The half starved Hyenas continue to snarl and laugh-bark at the adventurers. They decide to cut up one of the Gnolls and feed it’s body to the Hyenas. Once they are satiated Gandor attempts to befriend one. The Hyena seems to accept Gandor as a friend and they let it out of the cage. The remaining Hyenas are let free into the Well room. After that house keeping is done they head south down an even longer corridor.
They stop at the first door on the West wall of this corridor and listen again. More Hyenas bark, snarl and scrape at the door. They take their Hyena back to the Gnoll’s area and then drag another Gnoll body to the door. As they fumble with the body and try to decide how to open the door safely, a door further down the corridor bursts open and four Gnoll archers run towards them. They unleash a flurry of arrows with devastating results to Gandor and Dark Face. Gandor fires a burst of cold wind down the corridor essentially freezing the Gnolls in place. The group rushes in and finishes them off without much difficulty. Just as they finish off the last Gnoll a new Gnoll enters the corridor from the room to the east. It steps between the party and Rayrond. This Gnoll is bigger than the others, he also has many bony protrusions sticking out of his spotted fur. He is wielding an enormous flail which he slams down with violent force. The party suddenly coalesces into a finely tuned fighting machine. Mathers who previously could not hit the side of an inn with a flagon of mead is suddenly a force of warlock fury. Within a couple of minutes they destroy the demonic Gnoll. Weary from their string of battles they enter the room with the Hyenas. They find four more Hyenas and Gandor is again able to lead them out to the entrance of the Well of Demons without harm.
A strange sight awaits them inside the room where this second group of Hyenas were. An enormous Dire Boar is chained to a post in the middle of the room. His body is riddled with piercing wounds, and hyena bites. It is malnourished and extremely agitated. It tugs at it’s chain trying to keep as far away from the adventurers as possible. They feed it some more delicious Gnoll, and Gandor soothes the animal. They eventually release it into the wilds of the labrynth.
Finally they decide to rest. The rest is short lived, with Dark Face once again on watch. Pendril wakes suddenly as a short sword plunges into his side. He screams in pain and awakes the rest of the party. A Tiefling in black leather is crouched over the cleric. He scans the room, and Dark Face attacks him with Fairy Fire which lights his body with a purple glow. The would be assassin suddenly pops out of existence, but Dark Face can see the outline of his invisible body in the hallway. He chases him down and kills him. A second Tiefling attacks from further down the corridor then also disappears.
The group gathers, then heals the cleric. Eye’s of Alarm are set up around the group’s make shift encampment and they make it through the rest of the night.

After surviving the ‘trap’ the adventures made it back to the Seven Pillared Hall. A quick meeting with Orontor to show him the notes they acquired from the bodies of the tieflings. They decide to find out what Maldrick Scarmaker and his Blackfang gnolls are up to in regards to the slave trade in the area. Paldemar’s note:

To Maldrick Scarmaker, Exalted Chieftan of the Blackfangs and Chosen of Yeenoghu: Paldemar offers you the corpses of these champions as a gift of ongoing friendship, that our arrangement might continue to be mutually beneficial. May you savor their blood. Your friend and ally, Paldemar

Using the attached map and their new guide and temporary companion Surina they found the entrance to The Well of Demons. A typical dungeon corridor leads into a large, square chamber. Five columns, three set near the room’s corners and two in the middle of the chamber, rise up 15 feet to the ceiling. Each column has the face of a leering, fanged minotaur carved onto it. You notice a well in the southeastern corner of the room, and two passages lead away, one to the east and the other to the south.
As they enter this room one of the minotaur faces animates and with the deep tones of a powerful minotaur says:

Greetings, seekers of Baphomet’s boundless glory.
Those who prove unworthy of his attention
Shall be claimed forever as his slaves.
Those who prove worthy
Shall be granted power beyond mortal reckoning.
Mask, bell, blade, and tome.

Shortly after Gandor notices a humanoid form skulking behind one of the pillars. As their eyes meet it immediately races across the chamber to attack. As they engage this gruesome Ghoul the stench of death and disease wafts off it.
Suddenly from the darkness of the ceiling two incredibly thin long arms reach and claw at Gandor.A small grey creature with long thin multi-articulated limbs clings to the ceiling and grabs at the adventurers. Another grey chocker grabs at Rayrond, and thick many puckered tentacles burst through the thin tiles lining the chamber floor. With Rayrond grabbed from above and below the group fights on. At one point the chocker uses Gandor’s small body to block an attack from his loyal drake.
With Rayrond close to death due to acid leaking out of the tentacles, Pandril starts dishing out major healing. Finally there is only the Phalagar left, and the entire party focuses their attacks until severed tentacles are draped over the floor.
They toss the tentacles and the bodies of the two chokers and ghoul into the well and rest.

During the first hour of sleep, the ever alert Dark Face notices a small cat-sized shape flitting around one of the pillars. It finally approaches by crawling along the floor and stopping in front of the Drow. The creature stretches his wings, and then in a voice like a dagger scratching into stone it asks what they are doing in the Well of Demon’s. It tells Dark Face that it can answer three questions if the group is friendly to Demogorgon and not Baphomet, and if he pays either 100gp or a piece of “your life force”. Dark Face asks if it is safe to camp where they are, and the Emissary answer “I found you easily enough”. Dark Face wakens Pandril (keeper of the loot) and they ask it another question. Gandor hears them talking and wakes up.
After answering a third question the tiny imp takes their gold and disappears. They now know that this place is called the Well of Demons. Does this refer to the well in the room with them, or to a more sinister well deeper in the dungeon?