A brief chance to catch our breath and bind our wounds, and not forgetting a few jabs of the prisoners, we descended again, our interrogations revealed where the "king" was and we made our way it.
Advanced notice of our previous forays and the habitual kicking down of doors gave the enemies time to prepare and we were presented with a kill corridor of sorts, at the end some archers accosted us, but summoning the great Mar Nod's will I made them stiffen, the warriors then charged but hidden behind the wooden walls was some boiling oil to trap us, my faithful army of chaos suffering burnt feet.
But our brave dwaven warrior was badly scorched, and so imbibed a potion that made him gigantic! Kicking over the wooden corridor he scattered the enemies, a pair of spidery creatures took one look and scarpered, and a band of cultists was put to sleep by our mage, meanwhile a number of hairies fell to our swords and spears.
Just as we gain numerical advantage the other wooden wall was collapsed to reveal another group who bungled their boiling oil but not before a retainer was scorched beyond life, meanwhile our doughty knight had perched upon the throne yelling insults, as a band of hairies and hairless ones led by their "king" rushed into the room.
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Mar Nod, the most wise and unpredictable, warns us of hubris, impatience and following rules, and perhaps a hasty but well understood tactic of catching the enemy before they regroup is not as presumptuous as it appears.
The battle began to stall as the enemy deployed more boiling oil and magical darkness, we were unable the bring our deadly arrows to bear, a refreshed giant dwarf engaged with my lieutenants as backup began to make inroads into those surrounding the knight who took wound after wound, dispensing with a couple of hairless ones.
Charging through the darkness I battered my shield to bring forth the scare of battle but the enemy was uninfluenced, and my spell to scare one of the hairless was disregarded, our blows failed to connect as if the gods play with weighted dice against our favour.
As soon as it looked as if the battle may turn, our knight took a fatal blow and collapsed, my lieutenant also fell by my side, the "king" roared in glory over his defeat of our best warrior and gave us the choice, to be massacred or to leave with our wounds and heads hanging.
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Shaking our fists the giant dwarf took the body of our finest warrior and we began to move towards the exit, planning our route, the crew assembled in the corridor from where the battle had ended, amongst the magical darkness and firey oil.
The "king", magnanimous in assumed victory seemed eager to hurry as out, the gleam of vengeance in his eye should have been our forewarning, but consumed with saving our skins we retreated only to have the floor open beneath us, I and others unwittingly descending a chute into a pool some depth below.
The miscreant fake-king had condemned us to a watery doom, the rest of crew, including my brave chaos army, now faced the decision to leave us below, face the monsters with reduced numbers, or join us.