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"Pssst" I whispered, "up here"
Having scuttled away from the obviously impending sudden end of the short battle of the Gnoll Tower, I was safely hidden in an extra-planer pocket of space-time conjured into existence using the extremely handy little spell Rope Trick. This spell had become one of my favourites over the past few months, particularly since travelling with the generally thick and uninspired group of lack-wit adventurers that it had been my unfortunate luck to fall in with recently. In fact, if it wasn't for my fascinating love-HATE relationship with the absolutely stunning Helen, I may have left their company weeks ago. That and the adrenalin pumping, white-hot, non-stop, bloody exciting situations we always seemed to get into. Can't complain about boredom and that's for sure!
Xavier had just ambled down into the basement storeroom to which I had retreated before casting the Rope Trick and was casually looking around for somewhere to hide. Sounds of sword-play and screaming had stopped only minutes ago and the clumping of booted paws indicated that the arrival of a large group of very angry gnolls was imminent.
"Quick, climb up the rope you idiot" I called.
"Hey dude, cool place of quiet contemplation" said Xavier as he scrambled up into the "trick" What else could you expect from a Super Fosfait Priest!
The powerfully aromatic odour of stale sweat and Lotus smoke wafted ahead of him and once again reminded my why we wizards don't generally get on with those who promote the use of mind-affecting, intelligence-dampening, hallucinogenic drugs.
Just in time I pulled up the rope, effectively isolating us from the Prime Material plane and the salivating jaws and wickedly sharp glaives of about six extremely big and aggravated looking gnolls who descended into the gloomy basement and ambulated about, poking their weapons into dark corners and making lots of snarling barking noises.
A slightly concerned look came over Xavier's face as he looked down into said Prime Material plane. "They ... um, they ... ar, can't ur ... smell us in here can they?" he whispered.
I explained that we were totally isolated from the Prime Material plane and that there was almost no chance that anyone down there could know that we were here, and even if they did there was almost no chance that they could do anything about it in any event.
"Sweet" he said, "we could stay here for ages then."
"Actually, for about 56 more minutes" I replied, "The magical energy that maintains this pocket of extra-planer space has a finite duration and I am only able to sustain the region for a total of one hour. By then we need to have relocated back to the Prime Material plane or we will be violently expelled by the collapse of the space-time pocket."
"Oh, whatever" responded Xavier dejectedly.
The gnolls searched round for about ten minutes before moving back up the stairs to the entry level. From the sounds we could tell that at least four gnolls had positioned themselves strategically round the entry teleport pad to thwart any further attempts at infiltration, and intercept anybody trying to exit from the basement, e.g. us! A few minutes later Eve poked her head out from behind a broom handle, looked about and whispered "Hey, anyone else down here?"
Apparently the rest of the party were all captured, tied, and secured on the second level of the tower with the gnoll leader and at least five other guards. Four guards were positioned on the first level, as we had surmised, and the exit from the tower was probably somewhere above, but Eve hadn't managed to find it yet.
"I'll go and keep an eye on things" she said, disappearing behind the broom handle again.
"Cool trick" mumbled Xavier, "Want a smoke dude? It's good stuff"
Xavier puffed and I fretted.
Using careful timing and spell utilization we were able to perpetuate the Rope Trick hideout. As the timing ran down we carefully decended into the basement space, cast a new spell, and slipped in. I kept the height quite low so that we didn't have to spend time climbing up and down. Eve popped back every now and again to report on activity within the tower and we learned about the negotiations going on between the delectible Helen and the gnoll commander, with Dixie as interpreter. It was a good thing that Malechai had a gnoll speaker in their employ and that he, Dixie, hadn't been killed in the short fracas earlier!
Some hours and a few Rope Tricks later Helen and Dixie actually popped down to the basement to "try and find us" for the gnolls. They were "unsuccessful" but did manage to update us on the current situation. We were to stay put while Karl took a message back to the Malechai Temple to arrange suitable recompense for the gnolls recent tragic losses to a raiding party from the Iron city.
"Raiding party! who, us?" I asked "They have got to be joking"
"Gnolls never joke!" whispered Helen, "just ask Karl"
So we hid out inside an endless succession of Rope Trick pockets for the next day and a half, snatching small periods of rest between spell casting, spell re-learning, relocating etc.
Eventually a large number of naked bodies were carried into the basement by gnolls and hung on a series of meat-hooks along the side wall. These were the apparent Malechai Priests, paid over by the Temple to satisfy the gnolls' ideas of restitution. Didn't look like no Priests' bodies to us. There were even orcs and possibly some Shield Maidens (read well-built, muscular females)
Eve went off to sneak about and see how we might make our way out. It was all quiet for about ten minutes till...
"Help help, drop the rope quick, I've been spotted" yelled Eve as she slid down the basement handrail.
So we did, despite Eve being followed by two gnoll guards in hot pursuit. Eve made it into the space-time pocket just as the gnolls got to the bottom of the stairs and advanced on our location with determined expressions and what was worse, the sharp ends of their glaives jabbing at the interface of the Prime Material plane and our space-time pocket. They knew where we bloody well were!
Two Sleeps later and all was silent, but no doubt it wouldn't be so for long. They would wake up in about two minutes and then it would be tricky explanation time. Eve dropped down to gag and tie them up so we would have some time to plan our next move.
"Opps, they seem to be dead" she called back to us.
Xavier and I looked at each other and cursed. Surly Eve wouldn't have killed them, leaving us with two bodies to try and dispose of, and about twenty angry gnolls searching for us all over again. What an idiot!
We suggested she try and make it look like one of the prisoners wasn't quite dead and somehow managed to kill two heavily armed and armoured gnolls while hanging naked from a meat-hook. Surprisingly, it nearly worked, but they seemed a little suspicious, even sending Dixie down to stand about trying to lure us from our hiding place. Luckily, they only made her stay for about half an hour and the spell lasted somewhat longer.
We set ourselves up for a long-term stay in the basement, but fortunately the absolutely stunning gorgeous Helen devised a cunning plan and was able to negotiate our recovery and release after only another two days or so.
I never want to smell another gnoll as long as I live, which probably won't be long in any case.
14 Malechai "priests" were brought to the tower as payment to appease the gnolls.
Another five priests required to appease the additional gnoll deaths.
Four more are sacrificed to get the remainder of the party out.
Gnolls relations back to "Grumpy" (from "Dangerous"), so mission a "success".
Back in Iron City, Father Arnett rewards party with Wand of Death's Door and a +1 shortsword of Gnoll Slaying.
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