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Well my group is being creatively brutal in their efforts to flush out the person who is attacking their friends. (Not even connected to the temple really, just a hlf orc living in Rastor seeking revenge for the party razing the orc village near the CRM.

I had sketched out a village that had been taken over by orcs in the last war. (Acutally it was a modified sketch of Hommlet from the green module circa 1970 something )
The party (8th and 9th level) scouted the area out, located the building housing the priests of Gruumsh, the smithy and the granary and mill. They teleported in some of their lower level apprentices as archers and footman to provide some extra muscle.

The rogue/assassin/scout snuck into the center of town and climbed to the roof of the building. The ranger hid in brush nearby, covering the building with his bow. After scouting the roof and walls, the rogue decided to break into the building through a window. Several rolls and descriptions later he is inside the servants quarters in the attic. orc female drudges sleeping, then killed. (elven bias/assassin oriented class against all orcs. it's part of his backstory). he creeps through the building and starts slitting throats.
He decides to push his luck and go for the head cleric, creaping to the second floor he scouts around and sees the orbate door that has to lead to the leaders room. He goes up to it, listens, and eases the door open.

Which sets off the glyph of warding he failed to check for.... oops. His save allows him to duck out of the way, and he draws his dagger, which casts darkness on him. His vision allows him to keep seeing the world around him, and he kicks open the window and dives out to the courtyard below.

The ranger sees the globe of darkness drop out the window and knows something is going horribly wrong. Servants and guards on the first floor raise the alarm, and in a few rounds the alarm bell is ringing.

Meanwhile Skeld and Aisha and the mage (umm, I forget the name) along with their lower level buddies are heading to the mill. They cross the stream, head to the door. As the alarm is being raised they kick in the door and attack the orcs as they start to answer the call to battle.

They splash oil around the mill and set fire to it from the outside. (My story of the explosion in the mill in Hommletwith my last group to do RttToEE was remembered). They head to the granry and lob in alchemists fire and oil to try and get it ablaze as well.

The priest Aisha and some rangers headed to the nearest building and dispatched some lower level orcs.

Meanwhile the rogue has dropped the darkness and is simply hiding in shadows in the lee of the chimney of the temple/building, the ranger is waiting for targets. 3 guards come running from the south around the east side of the building and head towards the north side of the building, where the broken window is. the ranger opens fire and hits one, the rogue steps up and dropsdrops the other 2 in a round or so. He moves back to the chimney and waits for more targets.

The mage moves towards the house and sets up a vantage point next to a tree. The ranger fires at a face in the window on the second floor. The priest is injured, but survives and yells out where the arrow came from.
A 5th level cleric came from the west side of the building and looks for the ranger. He gets shot with an arrow for his trouble and dives behind the fieldstone wall, severly injured. The cleric in the window is still shouting out directions to the guards who are assembling on the far side of the house, preparing to charge the ranger.

The mage decides that having a director with a good vantage point is not a good thing and sends a fireball in through the open window. 9d6 of damge and the hallway, orc and the bedroom beyond are on fire.
The orc cleric heals himself but stays hidden below the wall, the fireball having him understandably cautious.

The rogue can hear a large force of orcs assembling just around the corner, he decides to make a strategic retreat to the rangers location. He starts to run north away from the temple, he passes into line of sight of the orc, who casts Clutch of Orcus (renamed Clutch of Gruumsh on the fly of course), fails his save miserably (a 2 was rolled), and is paralyzed and takes 11 points out of a possible 12 of damage. (Spell Compendium pg. 49)

As the rogue is falling the ranger has shifted to Cooshee form (Aspect of the wolf, but mimicing his Cooshee animal companion), and raced from his tree to the side of a building across the field from the tree, changing locations to confuse anyone trying to target him.

The Orc force, led by a 9th level cleric whose bedroom had the Glyph of Warding on the door comes around the corner. They have just heard the roar of the fireball going off on the back of their home, and they see a humanoid running north away from the scene of the crime. A few arrows are loosed, missing, and then I have the cleric cast Flame Strike. The rogue fails his save on THAT spell as well, and everyone in town knows that something bad is happening at the temple. The ranger knows where the rogue is, a 40 foot tall column of fire is a good beacon.

The rogue is in serious trouble in terms of hitpoints, and he is still paralyzed. He fails his save the next round and takes another 8 points from the Clutch spell.

The northern force moves to houses along the road and attacks the citizen orcs as they spill out into the street in answer to the alawm bell. The cleric casts Sound Burst to great effect in softening up any orcs that head towards them. Cleave is used by the warrior Skeld to deadly effect as well. It is a slaughter, no quarter asked or given.

The orc Cleric moves towards the rogue, knowing that the next spell will kill this intruder. The mage sees the orc and casts Firebrand (Spell Compendium pg 93). This does 9d6 damage to all the orcs approaching the rogue, killing the lower level ones and severly injuring the cleric leader. The mage moves towards the temple to draw fire away from the rogue, who has finally made his save and ended the Clutch spell. he climbs up and over the wall, drops to the ground and digs for a potion of healing.

The cleric Casts Earth reaver (SC pg 75) (heavy emphasis on elemental type spells of all types, given their association with the temple, plus it's fun to throw new spells at the party). The mage is hurt and knocked down. The ranegr and his cooshee charge the temple fence just as the 5th level orc gets to his feet and prepares to attack the rogue. He is cut down with a spectacular critical hit and a silly amount of damage rolled.

the head priest has seen his forces slaughtered easily, only 1 man down (who gets to his feet this round), and fires burning in the north end of the village. He steps back into the lee of the temple (out of line of sight of the ranger) drinks a potion and flies south and then west, heading to the warriors hall where the orc warriors are gearing up on their mounts.

The ranger sends his Cooshee to protect the rogue, as the heavily singed rogue stumbles north towards the rendezvous point. He links up with the mage and they head away from the village.

the ranger runs into the burning temple and moves from room to room, looking for any survivors (to kill, not save if orcs, to save if human or elven slaves). The temple has a statue to gruumsh, it is toppled. He scoops the religious symbols and altar pieces into a sack, and splashes oil on the altar. He is trying to desecrate the altar, perhaps hurt the priests ability to regain spells due to loss of face in the eyes of Gruumsh.

he heads out of the building and travels west along the road until he can see the warriors training hall in the center of town. He then casts Enlarge person (Strength Domain Spell (He's also got a couple of levels of cleric ), making him around 12 feet tall. He then casts Blade of flame, so the orcs looking down the road see a 12 foot tall giant with a very large blade of fire. He then ducks behind a house, and runs north to the meeting point, dropping the spells as he goes, (IMC you can end a spell whenever you want).

So the orcs are howling for revenge and are heading out to look for the group. The party makes it to the tress and then disappear, casting 2 rope tricks to provide hiding spots for everyone. These will last for 9 hours.

And that is where the night ended. I don;t think a scry will locate them in their extradimensional space, nor will Locate object or person.

All in all they were very bloodthirsty and intent on hurting the orcs as best they could. They want the person harassing them to move more openly, so they can meet head on and settle things.

The roguee left the dead umber hulk room (CRM35) and the rogue scouted ahead to rom 36. He saw the trolls there and the party buffed up and attacked. The trolls managed to raise the alarm and Krall the troll warrior from room 37 opened the door to see what was happening. He ducked back into the complex tor aise the alarm.
The attack had an empowered fireball blasting the trolls as an opening salvo. The ranger increased his size to 12 feet tall and waded in with his sword. Krall saw this large warrior and ducked back for reinforcements, the ranger saw the troll and knew more folks were coming.
The trolls in 36 dropped quickly and the party decided to out flank the reinforcements. They moved back up towards room 35, out of sight of the doorway. They cast a rope trick and climbed up into the extradimensional space and pulled the rope up. They then watched and counted as the reinforcements came up the passageway hunting for the intruders.
I had D'gran with the forces, looking for more folks to torture like Descritad. I alos had a few of the warriors from room 45 and Tippesh the female spellcaster. This make a good strike force IMO. (I decided this BEFORE the party said they were evading).

So the party watches the group moving up the passage and then the rogue drops down and follows them. I had the war party move through 35 past Krall's kill and down into 31 to look for the party. I thought the warparty would scout the closest tunnels first, which led them into area 33 with the young Umber Hulk. The rogue heard the sounds of a fight (and I sort of expected the party to come dropping down the rope to attack from behind, but they surprised me again)

The ranger and the wizard dropped down and moved south towards area 36. I had 2 human warrior guarding the door. They dropped quickly to the rogue who stealthed in (and I forgt if he just charged in with a globe of darkness or was stelathed another way)

the ranger and rogue moved in the bridge complex and peeked around corners. I had Huenar at the raptor cage feeding and preparing the raptors for combat. The group moved into the Barracks in room 45 (empty because the warriors there are currently killingthe Umber Hulk. They went down the eatern corridor out the back of the barracks and towards area 46. They had a peek across the Stalagos and heard the Hill Giant lumbering up the hall and resume his patrol at area 46. The rogue hurried back to area 36 and signalled the rest of the party to come out of the rope trick and head into the complex. They snuck across the hallway where Huenar might be able to see them and into the Barracks.

In the hallway just east of the barracks they cast rope trick again and climbed up out of sight. Their plan is to wait several hours until the alarm dies down and then drop into the barracks (while the warriors are sleeping) and stealthily start slitting throats. If that is not an option they drop down and start blasting things in a loud and spectacualr fashion and fight their way back to the tunnels.

The group left the southern gnoll barracks and headed back towards the Human barracks and D'Gran's last know location.

Rounding the corridor heading north they spy 4 humans blocking the hallway, behind the warriors stand the two spellcasters, peeking from around the intersection of the hallway leading to the fire bridge and the great Hall. The ranger Allun (12' tall with the Enlarge person spell) charges towards the spellcasters, crushing through teh puny humans (accepting the attacks of opportunity) in order to attack the half orc caster. Finlandel the rogue is right on his heels and heads towards the human caster Teppesh. Their armour class protects their rush. Skeld the warrior is bringing up the rear and is headed right for the human warriors.

I have changed the treasure for the casters, Teppesh has handed her wand of Fell Drain Magic Missile to Huenar while she casts a fireball. Allun and Fin make their saves versus the fire, but have no protection versus the magic missiles and take a few points each form them (1 missile each), but because they took damage from the spell they both gain a negative level, no save. - 5 hp's -1 to all attacks, skill checks etc, very nasty. They continue to crush through teh human line to engage the casters and prevent that wand from going off again.

The spellcasters are pushed back to the walls behind them, and Allun and Fin notice the raptors and troll standing out of sight, held in reserve in the cross corridor. Skeld dispatches three of the warriors with a great Cleave event. Aisha the Cleric drops the last remaining warrior with an energy vortex.

D'Gran appears at this point SOUTH of the party, he had been standing invisibly in the Gnoll room with the doors leading south into the CRM. He fires his cone of cold at Devlin and Aisha. They make their saves and take some damage. Devlin turns and sends a fireball at D'Gran. Devlin rolls a 26 for Spell Penetration, and does a huge amount of damage. Even with a save for half and damage reduction this hurts D'Gran, who has taken every healing potion in the area to heal himself after the LAST fireball from Devlin.

Krall attacks Fin with claws and bites and rends him. He has prepared for the battle with a potion of BUl's Strength and heroism. Fin takes over 40 points of damage.
Allun picks up the half orc wizard in a fine display of high heroics storytelling theatre, (12' tall and a 26 strength), and uses him like a club to engage Krall. Huenar is knocked senseless/beaten to a pulp and Krall takes a few points of damage.

Skeld moves forward and intercepts the raptors as they charge from the Great Hall. He criticals the first and drops it, and cleaves on the second. hurt but still standing. It rakes at Skeld with its claws.

D'gran uses this time to go gaseous and fly off into the CRM to the south, he's been hit twice with spells that did over half his hitpoints in damage, getting past his SR and fire resistance. He knows this group is tough and the Inner temple must be warned.

Krall attacks, crits and rends Finlandel again and does 40 points to him. Fin is killed, shredded by the claws. Even his fast healing one (Persitent Mass lesser vigor trick cast by Aisha, (Divine Metamagic) ) will not save him.

Teppesh is killed by Aisha with a maximized Deific Vengeance. Allun wades into Krall and crits him. He wins initiative the next round and Krall is finished.

And that is where we ended things, short night, just one combat, but we had our first death in the party, and the group got tot aste what happens when they are the ones who are ambushed, even if I did make several mistakes about positioning.

I looked in the SRD and it mentions that spell like abilities have no Verbal, somatic or material components, so D'Gran is fine in a silence spell for his effects.

Fin stats to explore the Dwarven area. The party closes the secret door so no patrols can come at them from behind.

The party waited in the Dwarven area until the cleric could memorize Break enchantment and return Fin to elven form. Devlin the wizard used a mage hand spel to lift each hammersphere off the reliquary and into a bag for safekeeping. A few of the Hammerspheres were identified and the party plans to use them.

Once everything was as back to normal as it gets for this group, they cast hteir prep spells and headed back out into the CRM and south towards the Air temple.

The Air Temple is on alert thanks to the warning from D'Gran, so they are expecting trouble.

The party split up and assaulted both tunnels simultaneously. Alun the ranger bowed several targets while his Cooshee companion charged in and attacked warriors on the ground. An alarm bell was rung, so the temple forces further south are aware there is an attack taking place. Alun charged the 'tower' and wiped out the warriors there.

In the eastern tunnel Skeld and Fin attack the guards with darkness and a charge. Devlin casts a magic missile to soften things up and the warriors drop quickly, Cleave and great Cleave are excellent for clearing rooms of low levels.

The party regroups and actually pulls back to the stairs from 70 to 71-72 area. They are expecting a counter attack and want some cover/funneling effect so they can concentrate fire on any attackers.

So at this point I thought I would try and surprise them with some ideas stolen from the boards here. I had Fachish summon an Air elemental and cast silence on it. I had gargoyles (Invisible) follow it up one tunnel and be ready to charge into the group.

Fachish then cast a wind wall down the tunnel to confuse and blind the party. The wall curved across teh end ot the tunnel and then onto the stairs. it forced the party to move to the sides of the stairs to avoid the effects of the wall.

Under the cover of the wind wall the Air elemental flew in to silence the casters and possibly toss folks about. It worked for the first round. The party hunkered down, the mage took a severe hit from teh elemental, but then everything went to hell in a handbasket for the Air temple.

Alun and Fin held positon at the tope of the stairs on either side. The gargoyle got an excellent hit in on Alun, but was critted in return for major damage.

Skeld attacked the elemental and did excellent damage, Devlin had a silenced spell ready ad also did excellent damage. Aisha stepped forward and Used her Death Domain ability of Death Touch (unused since the fight with big U) and rolled 48 out of 60 possible points and kiled the elemental. So much for my sneaky plan.

Fin pushed forward to engage the wave of warriors other temple forces coming towards them. His darkenss spell from his legacy blade blocked off the vision in the tunnel for the temple forces, and he attacked the group, dropping one of them immediately. The cooshee attacked the Claaginred the gargoyle as well.

Claaginred attacked again, and did good damage on Alun, but another heavy hit, and a spell from Devlin dropped him.

The party advanced, getting past the wind wall and Fin dropped the darkness effect as the party moved into the tunnel to engage the temple forces. it was over in a couple of rounds as Skeld again used Great Cleave to drop all the low level warriors and gnolls. Fin dropped several as well with excellent use of feint bluff and flatfotoed sneak attack damage.

So here is where things stand. I had thought to send in 3 waves, 1 after the other to take on the party as they battled the heavy hitting gargoyle and elemental. The first 2 waves dropped in about 4 rounds thanks to crits, and cleaves. I held back the 3rd wave and they retreated back to the temple.

Fachish now has to figure out how to deal with a party so powerful that they dropped his elemental in 2 rounds.

The temple has lot a lot of the lower level grunts in a few rounds, and the party does not seem to be all that hurt. (And will be at full health in a few rounds due to the fast healing they have).

Choranth is likely to use this as a chance to betray fachish, but so far the party has never been known to parley.

The party is checking both tunnels for possible attackers and decided which way to head down towards the temple area.