Gnoll Chief's Lair (#23/365)

Gnoll Chief's Lair (#23/365)

"This large cavern is adorned with numerous grisly skulls nailed to the walls. Amidst the squalor of several straw pallets and a low table strewn with rotting food, three Gnolls are playing a game that involves throwing daggers at an Orc prisoner chained to a stake embedded in the floor. As you enter, the largest Gnoll turns to face you, dagger held in their raised hand. Behind them, the Orc, already wounded, whimpers piteously.

'By the stench of the Pit, who the hell are you lot?' the Gnoll snarls."

Contents: This is the chamber of Snannab the Surly, chieftain of the Gnolls of the Tusk-Gnasher tribe, and his two loyal bodyguards, currently playing a game of 'Hit or Miss' using throwing daggers and a captured Orc prisoner.

Aggressive Heroes will be attacked immediately; however, if the battle is going badly, the Gnolls will flee and organize a resistance from Gnollish survivors to hunt them down. Powerful-looking Heroes or those that speak Gnollish may be offered terms of parley, along the lines of 'Give us more meat/Kill more Orcs and we won't attack you'. An alternative would be for Snannab to give the Heroes his Bronze Key and tell them a great treasure lies behind the bronze doors at #11 and the key is needed to open them.

The food on the table is the rotting remains of a Dwarf prospector that was ambushed in the gullies around the Found Tombs several weeks previously. It has badly decayed - any non-Orc or Gnoll eating it must lose 1-3 STAMINA points.

Hidden under one of the straw pallets is a locked wooden casket, opened with a Tiny Copper Key in Snannab's possession. The key won't disarm the trap (a Poison Needle, Test for Luck to avoid or suffer 6 STAMINA points damage from Black Rose poison). Inside the casket are the treasures of the tribe:

• 76GP in a sack
• 2 bottles of white wine (Shazaar Whitefire, see Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume 1, p. 55)
  
• 3 yellow Topaz jewels mounted in silver (10GP each)
  
• Gold torc engraved with a Phoenix (from Vatos; 30gp)
  
• Potion of Fire Water (see Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume 1, p. 106)

Smashing the casket destroys the wine and the potion which combust to explode in a fiery blast; causing 2-12 STAMINA damage to everyone in the vicinity.

Stats:

Snannab the Surly, GNOLL Chieftain, (see Return to the Pit, p. 94)

SKILL: 10

STAMINA: 16

Attacks: 1

Weapons: Throwing Dagger, Battleaxe

Armour: Chainmall Cuirass

Notes: Has 2-12 GP, a Bronze Key, a Tiny Copper Key, and a Bone Monkey Charm (see Encyclopedia Arcana: Volume 1, p. 99; Snannab will use this as a last resort if he needs to escape).

2 GNOLL Bodyguards: SKILL 9, STAMINA 7, Battleaxe and Throwing Dagger, Light Armour (Leather scraps)

Both Gnolls have 1-6 GP. One has 3 chunks of charcoal, the other a Whip, that they will use to try and ensare Heroes in combat.

1 ORC Prisoner: SKILL 6, STAMINA 2 (was 5)

The Orc has nothing and just wants to return to the Bronze Serpent Mercenary Company. He will speak highly of the Heroes to his fellow Orcs if they help escort him back to the Orc mercenaries' chambers.