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Synopsis!
The party, unsure of how to proceed against a prison camp, observed for a night and a day. They determined that each of the towers had two people all night and one person all day. Prisoners were lined up in the morning, shuffled out to the farms, labored all day, then shuffled back in. They seemed to be allowed only limited amounts of food and water. The party made a sketchy plan that they decided to go through with at daybreak, so they set about to rest for the night, watching in shifts. It was also determined that there were four drow (or, at least, four drow seen), one of whom was female, the rest male. The female appeared to be in charge. The drow picked out five prisoners and took them to the main building, and the rest were sent to their evening rituals.
During the second shift, Bob seemed to see some shadows moving around, so he alerted the Elf, who had better night vision. It appeared that the four drow, four guards, and six prisoners were on the move. Some of the party who could see in the dark followed. When the fighter wanted to join, the wizard cast a spell on her to see in the dark as well. They followed the group from a distance, led by Elephant who flew silently overhead. Elephant conveyed to the sorceress that there was an area ahead that the group agreed was a good place for an ambush, so they moved to cut off the enemy party. They cast Silence on the party in order to mask their approach, and got to the ambush site well ahead of the enemies. The paladin and the fighter set up to attack in melee, and the rest moved uphill to attack from afar. When the enemies arrived, the ranger cast Entangle to freeze them in place. Arrows and spells were flung at the guards and drow, but soon the drow in the front of the group cast a darkness spell to protect themselves. The drow and guards in the back were quickly dispatched.
After a failed attempt to dispel magic, the sorceress prepared a spell for Elephant to deliver to counter the darkness spell, but just as she finished, the darkness spell fell on its own. The drow were holding two of the prisoners hostage, knives to throat. The sorceress took a gamble and had Elephant deliver the spell anyway, casting Daylight on one of the hostages in the hopes that it would startle the drow. The hostages' throats were cut, but the drow were quickly cut down. The guards surrendered and one of the hostages was quickly saved by a few healing spells. However, the other hostage died - and it turned out to be one of the two girls we were looking for, the barmaid who had been kidnapped because of our actions in the town.
The two remaining guards (who I want to call George and Lenny but are really Pete and Lenny) told their story. Well, Pete did the talking, Lenny seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake. Pete told us that he was more than happy to switch sides and help the prisoners, because they really were slaves, and he didn't think it was right. He had the party promise to rescue his wife and child if he helped us, fearing that they would be subject to slavery or worse if he betrayed his employers.
The heads of the drow were collected (the female drow was a priestess of Lloth [blame Jonathan if I spelled that wrong]), the bodies of the dead (other than the barmaid) were disposed of, and the party, ex-prisoners, and ex-guards-new-prisoners went back to the camp, with the barmaid's body. A raise dead scroll was found among the party's belongings, and the barmaid became an ex-dead-body, perhaps a bit weaker but every bit alive. The sorceress was much relieved that her mistake had not cost an innocent life (this time).
Pete told the party that there were other guards who would either fight by the party's side or stand aside as the party attacked. He could only tell them to do so, however, if he could get back into the town - and the only way he'd be allowed back in would be if he was so injured that it was reasonable for him to have returned. The party argued both about whether or not to allow this plan, and then how injured to make him, but eventually decided to give him some good arrow wounds and send him in with Lenny and an invisible wizard. The rest of the party would scale the wall when the time seemed right. Pete was told to have his people stand aside and not fight. The paladin suggested they take up gardening during the fighting.
The sorceress morphed to an owl and flew into the compound, unknown to Pete or Lenny. The guards let Pete in and sent him to the barracks to wait for a healer, and the wizard found a place to hide. The sorceress managed to find a spot in the rafters in the barracks, so she was able to witness Pete telling the other men in the barracks that the party was coming. She was about to go warn the rest of the party of what seemed to be betrayal when Pete dropped what appeared to be a codeword, "red dog", and suddenly chaos erupted. Two of the guards were knifed, and the rest dug up secret stashes of better weapons and armor. The guards ran out and started attacking their coworkers, and the yard outside became a sudden and unexpected battlefield.
Hearing the battle, the rest of the party scaled the wall, to find that their landing place was protected. The sorceress took this moment to go to the prisoner barracks to make sure none of the guards attempted to take revenge on the prisoners. The battle was quick and victorious for the red dogs, and they soon pulled a couple of mages and a cleric out, hands bound and mouths gagged. However, a big fighter remained, and the paladin moved forward to fight him in the doorway, where the rest of the party couldn't do much to help.
While the paladin did do some damage, the enemy fighter managed to knock the paladin unconscious. The wizard (or was it the cleric?) took a shot when the paladin fell, and it was just enough to finally kill the fighter. The paladin was quickly healed back to consciousness, and the damage was surveyed.
After a thorough looting of the main building, the wizard came up with the idea to destroy the compound by making it appear as if hill giants had attacked, causing enough disruption for any prisoners who didn't die to escape. He cast Mass Enlarge Person on anybody who wanted to stomp around and do damage, including some of the prisoners and guards and our own tall red blue-haired freak, Si Yun.
While the spell went off without a hitch on everyone else, Si Yun's worked twice as well, giving him four times the height instead of two, and lasting twice the time, giving the party a minor scare that it might not wear off at all. It did, however, and Si Yun had a grand time in the meantime causing destruction and leaving footprints everywhere. The barracks were spared, and the guards said they would torch them when they left with the prisoners, to go wherever they ended up fleeing to.
It was determined at some point that Bob's girlfriend was present and accounted for, and was typically one of the "workers" who got "extra favors" for doing "extra work." She was both happy and sad and slightly crazed to see Bob again.
Meanwhile, the sorceress will try to identify any of the scrolls and such that she can, and check the other found items for magic.
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