Last session the adventurers cleared out one of the remaining objectives in the gnoll caverns (the gem-eyed statues), and learned that although Ondessa says the greatest treasure is to be found along the path that leads to where Tiburon is being kept captive, the slaves who escaped from that basement of the Beast Lord's palace report that their duties in the palace include cleaning chambers big enough for sixty or so gnolls, a dozen minotaurs, as many dog brothers, and fluctuating numbers of lizardmen. (Also, they escaped only after being brought past the hydra that guards the palace and using the harpies in the garden to distract the gnoll guards at the teleporter). Also, the party's last foray into the caves suggests that while the adventurers have successfully forced the gnolls to withdraw from their surface position, they continue to maintain an active and organized defense in a cavern that gives them a tactical advantage.
There certainly remain things to do in these caverns that don't involve tackling the gnolls head-on, which I will leave as an exercise for the reader, and there are likely strategies for breaking or bypassing the gnolls' defenses that might succeed. However, I thought I might remind y'all of some other leads for adventure beyond the caves:
- The Patriarch Zekon would reward those who could bring him the body of the Verdant Paladin, last seen in the digestive tract of a dragon that had been butchered for parts that were being driven towards Hruhrudingfallor in Mr. Toad's motorcar.
- Philomena knows the location of the sanctum of Tim the Moonslayer, but says she is forbidden from raiding it herself due to an injunction placed on those whose apprenticeships descend from Tim's lineage of magical teaching.
- The Ninth Menegril seeks information concerning and/or the death of his former trading partner Tizun Thane, a magician who began behaving erratically not long ago.
- John received a quest from the Sky-Father in Hruhrudingfallor that directed him to find a /+2 shield/ and gave some hints as to its location.
- The Nameless City is a wide canvas for urban adventuring and carousing.
- Maxsielle the Evil High Priestess, the necromancer Ashur Ram, the black dragon Scather, and the brothers of the red dragon Xiurephalor (and his own skull which now rests in the Cave of the Ancestors) are all personages who the party might seek to contact, play against one another, etc.
- In Belltower, the half-orc merchant society and the Gynarch might pay for one another's downfall. Also, while the mercenaries' contract has been paid for another twenty-five days, the party could at any time decide to reclaim its investment in their armor and sell the Dark One's caves to the half-orcs.