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Tumbling quickly out of the salt slide, you find yourself in a 70-foot by 50-foot by 20-foot room with many exits. Standing in a semicircle around the slide are 10 gnolls, aiming <light> crossbows and armed with longswords. They fire their crossbows  and reload very quickly.

The 10 gnolls all fire their <light> crossbows for
1 round (remember that the party is probably
slowed at this point). They concentrate
their fire on spellcasters. Then, 3 of the
gnolls and the leader draw swords and
defend the remaining 6, who continue to
fire crossbows. When 2 or more gnolls
are killed, the remainder all melee with
longswords, concentrating on 1 or 2 characters
at a time. Retreat up the slide is not
possible unless a fly or levitation spell is
used.

Each gnoll has 6 gp and 2 ep. 1
gnoll (the leader) has a gold amulet worth 50
gp and a <bone> scroll case. In the scroll case is what
appears to be a very thick piece of blank
paper, actually 2 pieces of paper glued
together with a 3rd piece in between. The
inner piece of paper can be discovered simply
by peeling the other 2 pieces apart or
by cutting them. It cannot he found by gazing
through the paper at a light source. The
concealed paper is a map of this room (or
one identical to it) with the southernmost
hallway on the west wall marked with an
"x." The ranger can tell that this exit is the
most heavily traveled if she spends at least
1 turn looking for tracks.

Gnolls: AC 5; leader 4; MV 9"; HD 2; hp 14,
leader 16; #AT 1; D <light> crossbow 1-4, <long> sword
1-8, leader 2-9
THACO 16
XP 56 x 9, 60 x 1 (total: 564)

>>3.