You don't know how many days pass by as you pass in and out of consciousness inside the rib

cage of
this skeletal behemoth. You are barely fed and given little in the way of drink. In your brief periods of
wakefullness you realize you are surrounded by a significant force of foul undead, demons, and that
most hated enemy of your people, orcs. These orcs are unlike any you can recall seeing before with flesh
scarred or ridged with exaggerated tusks and the very flames of hell burning in their eyes. Their
brutishness surpasses any orcs you've seen, and you hear many of the orcs speak of them as being gifted
by Herne the Hunter. Eventually, you make your way eastward and the High Forest looms before you. As
you pass under the eaves of one of the mightiest forests in all of Faerun the despair of your situations
hits home. Even were you to escape who knows where your companions are, and how could you prevail
against these foul creatures that have captured you. Your despair turns to welcome nothingness as orc
horns sound a greeting note to a large encampment just before the knotted fist of a particularly large
demon orc punches you across your face before turning to your friend and fellow captive to laugh and
strike them unconscious as well.

When you awake you find yourself caged in the ruins of what appears to have once been a significant
Dwarven hall. The hall itself appears to have collapsed or been sunk into the earth with only one exit
across the hall from your cage with what appears to be a large pit in the middle of the ruined hall. The
flames of various braziers placed throughout the hall cast long shadows on the walls, and before you can
observe more your attention is drawn to a bestial roar from the pit where you see a soft looking
"southern" youth wearing a tabard bearing a symbol you recognize as Tempus, the Father of Battles,
being roughly tossed down into the pit followed by a crude orcish battle axe being thrown in after him by
a couple of cruelly laughing half orcs. Immediately after the boy is tossed down into the pit several more
orcs wrestle a grizzled looking man into position before a struggle breaks out with the human
headbutting one of the orcs hard enough to splatter their nose across their face before the others
manage to push him down into the pit as well. The orcs, roaring with bloodlust, overwhelm the sound of
whatever monstrosity awaits these poor souls down in the pit, and a handaxe of orcish make is thrown
down in the pit after the feisty elder gets thrown in.

At this point describe a fight between a troll, one of Jon's retainers (who gets killed by the troll), and
Chas's fighter who improvises a torch and demonstrates enough martial prowess to take down the troll
at which point Kansif makes her appearance casting Hold Person on Chas's character enabling the orcs to
knock him unconcious long enough to throw him in the cage next to Raven and Heimdall, the same cage
holding Jon's character, and Brandon's Bard. In the third cage should be Matt's Warlock, maybe Brant's
character if he shows, and if not one or two Elves who will later become ghouls.

At this point allow the pc's to rp a bit, make introductions, etc. Describe that in a couple of nearby cages
of a bigger size they can see multiple wretched, slavering, ghouls and ghasts. Do not introduce the
Maurezhi yet. Chas's character is extremely reserved after returning to consciousness not saying
anything as he maintains a glass eyed thousand yard stare. Once it appears that the PC's have finished
rping and such describe the following:

The next few days blur together as the utter horror of your situations presses in on you. Each day you see
a few captives brought to the pit and thrown in where they are promptly slaughtered by either more
trolls, including a huge multiple headed one, packs of ghouls, cursed lycanthropes mostly of wolf and
boar varieties, and finally demonic orcs. The half orcish woman you come to know as Kansif seems to be
the leader here, and you see her work powerful magic raising captives into ghoulish undeath and other
foul unnatural uses of dark magic. The brutality of the situation presses on you, but the horror of your
captivity is not limited to the merciless slaughter you are witnesses to, no, there is something more
sinister going on here. You are witness to depraved acts of debauchery that would make even the most
brazen harlots of Illuskan blush. Werewolves and Wereboars infect as well as mate with orcs and, to the
horror of Raven and Heimdall, Uthgardt against the will of these subjects. To what end you know not
what is going on here, but the savagery and lust of this captivity begins to weigh on your minds.

At this point a few things should happen: The elvish captives and Matt's character should be thrown in
with one or two tanarukka to fight in the pit. The other Elvish captives should die horribly and brutally,
but Ember should survive through the dramatic use of an ability, probably an eldritch invocation I'll
discuss with him beforehand about. Allow Matt to try and escape after the successful killing of the
Tanarukk before Kansif recaptures him through a mind spike spell (work out with Matt beforehand) and
maybe a counterspell/dispel magic. The body of the Elves will then be dragged out from the pit where
the Maurezhi will reveal itself for the first time falling on one of the corpses and devouring it. Make sure
to describe to the PC's after they watch in horror as it consumes the corpse it takes on the likeness of the
elf it just consumed. The other couple of elves are tossed into the ghoul and ghast cages where they are
immediately set upon by the ravenous creatures.

Heimdall, Eran, and Tolgas should be brought before Kansif to have a conversation where they can ask
her questions, but also be asked about their celestial heritage. She will try to persuade them to
voluntarily mate with Uthgardt/Orcish/Half Orc women in return for their freedom (a lie). After the
conversation progresses for a bit have a grey wolf uthgardt woman held captive nearby (sort of like a
slave leia scene with Kansif in place of Jabba) sniff the air dramatically before exclaiming wildly and
pointing at Heimdall, "he is one of us". Kansif jerks the woman's chain with a smile before exclaiming to
her, "Yes, he would make a fine mate. Your offspring would be blessed of Herne, and fine soldiers in
Grintharke's Russet Horde. What say you?" asking Heimdall. Allow this to RP, Kansif is extremely
intelligent and can provide a lot of information if asked the right questions. If the PC's agree to
contribute their seed she will follow through on releasing them from their captivity in cages, but under
no circumstance will she trust them. Her superior, Ander, the Howl of Hell has special plans for Heimdall
and left instructions that he is not to be harmed.

Lastly, whichever PC did not participate in any of the above should receive a visit from one of the
namesake ghosts of the hold who may either help the PC with information, or if persuaded actual help in
battle (or even help in escaping). The ghost is a dwarf of ancient Besilmer, and should be persuadable
especially if the PC's express contempt or aggression toward the orcs and trolls. Laying the ghosts to rest
is beyond the scope of this adventure but could be a sidequest the party comes back to later as a thanks
for any help the ghost is able to provide.

By this point time should be up, but if not allow the PC's time to think over an escape plan that could be
executed as part of a skill challenge. As far as they know there is only one escape route (though the
ghosts might be able to tell them of a secret way underneath the brazier near the cages which leads into
old Dwarven tunnels), and a large encampment of baddies waiting outside the ruined hall itself.
Attempting to "shoot" their way out will most likely result in a tpk, but failing the skill challenge need not
be lethal as Kansif would like to add Aasimar seed to her breeding efforts, and the non aasimar seem to
provide good sport at least.