Before the fight was over, eight fire giants appeared in the hallway behind, cutting off any escape to the outside. But the party didn't intend to escape. They were about to chase down King Snurr. Sarril started by casting Evard's Black Tentacles to slow down the giants and try to keep them in place. It was mildly effective, holding one of them in place and damaging the others. As the rest of the party ran down the hallway behind the secret door, Sarril cast Boccob's Rolling Thunder on the advancing giants, significantly damaging all but two who seemed to be staying behind. This resulted in five of the eight giants fanning out in front of Sarril at the door. Sarril still had mirror images active, so he had a couple of rounds of actions before he was truly in trouble. He decided to use his wand to cast Cone of Cold on the giants, who were especially susceptible to the cold damage. This move finished them off and he was able to rejoin the party who had found that the tunnel came to a dead end, where Cadwin was certain there was another secret door, but no one could find a way to open it.
It took a full turn before someone finally found a hidden lever, which opened the door into a lavish bedroom, which looked likely to be the private quarters of the king. Searching the room revealed nothing of value, so the group moved westward, encountering six hellhouds lounging in their beds. The king was clearly fond of these dogs. The hellhounds attacked, but the fire protection cast on the party rendered their breath attacks useless, and the party made short work of them.
After searching the rest of the room, they moved to a heavy iron door that opened inward. The door was far too large and heavy to be opened by a non-giant, so Sarril used a Passwall spell to create a tunnel in the stone to the right of the door. Two fire giant elite guards with throwing hammers were outside, waiting for the party to emerge. Pontus was first into the fray and began taking the brunt of the damage, engaging in melee with the first giant. Sarril stepped out next and used his Wand of Frost to make a devastating attack on the second. Dalron came in behind and finished them off easily, clearing the hallway ahead of them. This hallway connected back to the throne room, where there were still three fire giants waiting. That party, feeling pretty good about taking down giants in small numbers, went after them and finished them off pretty quickly. They were now left with an empty throne room and king's quarters - but no sign of King Snurr.
The party decided at this point to spend some time searching, looting bodies, and removing gems from the throne. This all took a few hours, during which time nothing bothered them. They were pretty certain this floor was clear, but it left a mystery as to where the king had gone. That's when someone cleverly remembered that Dalron is a ranger and can track. Dalron, who had been too distracted actually killing giants to remember that he could track them, decided that's a good idea and agreed to give that a try. It took a while, but Dalron was eventually able to determine that the tracks led through a secret passage behind the throne, but stopped halfway and didn't continue to the king's quarters. After searching and being unable to find a secret door, Sarril decided to cast Meld Into Stone to look into the wall where the tracks stopped and see if there was anything on the other side. There was. A passage, with stairs going up. Clearly this is where the king and drow woman went, but how to get there still wasn't clear. If there was a secret door here, it is very well hidden and the way to open it couldn't be found. The party decided they should finish searching this level and come back later.
Further searching of the dungeon revealed some rooms with fire giant women and children, whom they decided to leave alone (for now). They then found a kennel with hellhound puppies. The puppies got scared and ran away, but Pontus chased one down and picked it up, hoping to raise it as a pet. The puppy bit his finger and Pontus snapped its neck in response. The rest of the puppies ran north, into a room with six adult hellhounds, which attacked when the party entered the area. Again, with the magical fire protection everyone had on them, the hellhound attacks were useless. While they were fighting, however, a hellhound, larger than the others, came up from behind and attacked Sarril. After unleashing its (useless) breath weapon, it transformed into a fire giant and began an attack. Dalron responded and took the giant down quickly and the party was able to search him, finding a magic cloak and a few other magic items in a nearby room.
The next interesting room contained a table and chairs that were humanoid sized, with 8 gnolls. The party quickly dispatched the gnolls and searched the room, finding several chests full of gold (one for each gnoll). They also found an attached bedroom with a small bed (smaller than humanoid) and treasure chest, and a locked door they couldn't open. Another door from here led to what looked like a war room, with large table, maps and some alcoves. A trapped chest was collected and placed in the portable hole, along with a *lot* of paperwork (to be reviewed later).
The final fight of the session came as the party investigated another room down the hall, which contained two fire giants and chimera. The chimera's breath weapon was useless, but the six attacks per round it got with its three heads were enough to quickly destroy Sarril's mirror images. Sarril fought the chimera while the rest of the party took out the two giants. Fortunately, the chimera's
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