. Caves of Chaos

The group tries to decide if they should head into the Inner Sanctum immediately or brave the white mist immediately incase the doors should close again. They play it cautiously and progress quietly into the whiteness. They walk carefully, not able to see the noses in front of the face, complete white out. Even their footsteps are muffled. They find another set of double doors. These open into a tiered chamber. Ahead and to the right the lower chamber is dominated by a leering idol depicting a howling minotaur warrior armed with a massive axe. Before this idol is an iron cauldron filled with a bubbling liquid that fives off a thick mist. A short staircase leads to a raised area stretching to the left. Three more cauldrons are set on this upper area, along with a simple stone altar. To the east of the altar a series of green ghostly runes have been scribed into the floor.
Two sickly looking humans stand swaying within the glowing runes. Their eyes are glazed as if in a trance.
A gnoll unlike any they have ever seen stands behind the altar. He is chanting in a voice that scratches at the backs of the adventures skulls. His large bat wings flex and stretch as he chants and tosses herbs onto a small fire on the altar. Huge curved horns stretch away from the top of his skull. He grasps a rod in one hand and a sheaf of parchment in the other.
A massive apelike demon; Bargula, stands beside him, while a snarling pack of carnage demons shove and snap at each other atop the raised platform. Looming over them all is a massive skeleton of a minotaur clutching a greataxe. You are unsure it is anything more than bones until the shrill howl from the gnoll spurs it to head towards you, it’s axe blade glinting in the firelight. Everything in the room rushes you except the humans in the runes, and the demonic gnoll casting the ritual. As the group is attacked the notice the gnolls guttural voice peaks and he screams “Yeenogu, Yeenogu, Yeenogu!” and suddenly in a flash of red light and explosion of black smoke one of the humans disintegrates before their eyes. Both the monsters and the adventures are bottle necked at the doorway, but the Bargula leaps up and sticks to the wall to the right of the door. With its enormous hands digging into the very rock of the walls, it agilely scurries along the wall and tries to get in behind the party. The party attacks demons and skeleton while the gnoll continues to chant. At one point he screams “I am Maldrick Scarmaker, leader of the Black Fang Gnolls. Witness! Before we smash your puny lives out of your worthless bodies, witness the glory of Yeenoghu. Witness the second coming of the great Yeenoghu!”

Testament to the groups fortitude and how far they have come as a party of adventurers, they are not swayed and ferociously enter battle. Slowly, too slowly, they battle Maldrick’s companions as the second human is sacrificed. As the dust remains of the slave’s body fall to the runes, all light seems to be sucked away as if it was hiding from Maldrick, Yeenogu, or both. The great minotaur idol of Baphomet shatters violently and the very ground beneath their feet trembles. A momentary pause, then light returns and the battle resumes. Finally with his evil companions out of the way, the group focuses on Maldrick himself.

They battle Maldrick sustaining some serious damage from the Demon Gnoll. Finally Mathers casts a spell that causes a large claw of shadow to pluck Maldrick up and drops him into the nearest cauldron. Great screams of pain emit from Maldrick’s burning body as the caustic liquid flays the skin off of his bones.

Finally they close the chapter on the Well of Demons and the leader of the ferocious Blackfang gang. They find a silver key on the altar along with the ritual papers that Maldrick was reading from. Mathers picks up the key and immediately has a mental flash, a clear vision of a secret tunnel. The key unlocks the magically hidden door, and will lead the owner to its location.

What of the slaves? No sign has been found other than the two whose bodies were sacrificed in Maldrick’s ritual. The group decides to head back to the Seven Pillared Hall to rest. On the way through the Well of Demons every minotaur statue or idol they come across has exploded or shattered. Cautiously they find their way through the labyrinth and back to the Seven Pillared Hall.

At this point Surina decides that she needs to head back to The Temple of Hidden Light. She tells the group that they are honorable fighters, and are fighting the good fight but she is unclear of their motives and needs to find others more aligned with her own ideals. She wishes them luck in their future endeavors.