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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 7584382" data-attributes="member: 1210">The second level down consists of three rooms. To the the southwest is a chamber with several inches of mud still on the floor. There are piles of rotten old robes on the ground, but they are in such bad shape that no details can be discerned. The door is jammed shut by mud piled against the far side, but Kane manages to shove it open with a little work. This leads the party to a empty chamber with a faint smell of snake in it. The largest room on the level holds an altar graven with images of snakes with fangs that drop venom, set upon a dais. The thick pillars bracing the ceiling are shaped to resemble great masses of snakes coiling together. The pump hoses run from the chamber above down another set of stairs. “This is devoted to Zehir,” Karl says of the altar, “a god of serpents, poison, and assassination.”“That seems to fit these guys,” Shar comments.The party searches the room. They find that the pillar in the northeast has a small hollow section. Sepia manages to trick a hidden panel open; within the secret compartment is another serpent amulet, similar to the one that they found previously. Sepia listens for noise coming from below. “I can hear the sounds of work going on somewhere down there,” she reports. “And distant voices.”Shar nods. “We must have drawn everyone who was near the top outside.”“Hopefully,” Kane says, “the rest of them aren’t expecting us.”Down they go. Each level that they descend is larger than the last. Mud has been cleared from fewer surfaces below than above, but where the walls are visible, the motif of the serpent continues, often depicted devouring or poisoning mammals. The hoses continue along. The party creeps forward, finding an old chamber with shelves still holding stale incense, a partially-excavated garbage pit (complete with the withered corpse of an otyugh), before abruptly finding themselves in a chamber full of snakes.Battle!Kane leaps forward to attack, blade singing as it slashes serpents in half. The other rush to back him up. The snakes can’t withstand their fury, but a group of yuan-ti and cultists rush in to defend them from another chamber.“Watch out!” Karl cries, blasting them with a fireball. Sepia cracks her whip at a cultist while P-69 slams his Morningstar down on the largest snake. Even Bradford manages to cut down a few serpents. Soon, the battle is over, and the adventurers stand triumphant.  “I guess we didn’t draw out all of the yuan-ti near the surface after all.” Shar uses a healing word to restore some of the damage Sepia took.***There are no other yuan-ti or snakes on the level, though there are several more chambers. When they find a giant snake skeleton, it is perched at the top of a wide ramp that descends into the next level of the pyramid. Crushed bones lies all around it, but it proves inanimate despite the misgivings of the party.The bottom of the ramp has more yuan-ti guarding it, waiting in 2’ of water and muck. The party attacks. The guards defend themselves, but our heroes force them back with the strength of their initial assault. Karl’s fire burst opens the battle, and Kane leaps forward in a rage. The cracking of Sepia’s whip sounds over the shrieks of the cultists.But then Kane gives a cry of his own. Hidden beneath the mud and water, the room is trapped with pungi sticks. But in his rage, Kane cares little. Bleeding from his left foot, the barbarian ignores his pain, ignores the filth threatening to taint the wound, the stabbing daggers of the yuan-ti. His attention is focused solely on one thing: kill.The yuan-ti fall back, pressed by Kane, with the others right behind him. But the noise has drawn more trouble. As Bradford drops another cultist, a pair of gray chickens come chicken-walking into view.“Bawk bawk!”The chickens rush forward. “Watch out!” Karl shouts. “Those are cockatrices! They can turn you to stone!”Kane snarls and hacks at the first cockatrice. P-69 explodes into his constituent crystals, then reforms near Kane and joins the melee.Behind the cockatrices, another yuan-ti appears. He wears a wide-brimmed sable fedora and has a whip coiled at his waist. “Wait!” he cries. “There is no need for this!”Kane drops one of the cockatrices and turns roars.Shar, however, never one to turn down the chance to negotiate, calls back, “Call off your minions! If they stop attacking us, we’ll stop attacking them!”“Will we, though?” mutters Bradford.But indeed, despite Kane’s tooth-gritting rancor, the fighting between the party and the remaining yuan-ti and cockatrice halts. There is only one yuan-ti other than the fellow with the hat. Karl strains to hear any sign of others nearby, but he can’t hear anything over the heaving breaths and movements in the room. “There’s no need for this!” the hat-wearing yuan-ti says. “Why are you attacking us?”Shar answers, “We’re not going to let you perform your ritual here.”“I take it that you’ve already cut your way through the others above?”“That’s right.” Kane grins.“Then you have nothing to worry about. It wasn’t my ritual at all. It sounds like you’ve already slain the cultists who were planning the ritual.”“Then what are you doing here?” demands Karlinden.“I am an archeologist. You might think of that as being somewhat like an adventurer, exploring old tombs and suchlike. My name is Survik. I’m here because this is a sacred place to my people. Long ago, these lands were ours.”P-69 speaks. “What was the cult’s plan? We know there was a ritual. What would it do?” “Ah, that. That’s why they were here- it can only be performed at one of a few select holy sites. They wanted to create a plague of serpents. The ritual causes snakes within the affected area to grow a second head and split into two snakes, doubling the population every few weeks. Of course, many of those snakes would move outward, seeking less crowded conditions.”“How long,” Karl asks, “would the effects of this ritual last?”“A year.”“Then it’s a good thing we stopped them,” says Shar.“From your perspective, certainly.” Survik shrugs. “It makes little difference to me.”“You don’t care that we stopped them?”“As I said, they were pursuing their goals, and I was pursuing my own.”“Which are?” Shar asks.“I am exploring a lost site created by my people.” Survik makes a gesture to indicate the ziggurat around them. “I’m not really interested in doing anything threatening to you. I want to learn. I’m a scholar.”The party confers. It’s obvious that, should they decide to, they can lay the remaining snake-folk low along with their cockatrice, but there is a danger that one of our heroes could be petrified before the fight is over. “And I believe this guy that he’s not a threat,” adds Shar. “You think we should let him go?” Kane frowns. “He could bring more of his people here so that they can try to perform the ritual again.”“And we know where they are. We can stop them again.”After some debate, Shar makes the decision: they will allow Survik to live, and periodically send scouts to check the situation at the ziggurat to ensure that the yuan-ti don’t attempt to cause more trouble there.“We’re going to regret this,” Kane grumbles.***The party returns home and has a nice stretch of downtime. For almost two months, they are confronted with no major threats. As winter nears, things are looking pretty good for them and their lands- food stores are set aside, damaged buildings are largely repaired, and so forth.One day, late in September, a stranger arrives in Goldwash, seeking an audience with the Governors. This is Rualiss, an eladrin- and he comes to beg for aid. “There’s something wrong in the Feywild,” he tells Shar and Shifty. “There is something… something corrupting fey folk.”“What do you mean?” asks Shifty. “Corrupting how?”“It’s like they fall under some sort of malign influence. The become filled with rage and aggression, and eventually vanish.”“Any idea where they’re going?”“Yes. The Garden of Graves.”“That sounds… ominous.”Rualiss winces. “Normally, it’s beautiful. Honored heroes of the Feywild are laid to rest there. It’s a place of peace and harmony. But lately… well… we don’t know why it’s happening. But it seems likely that the source is in the Garden of Graves.”“And you want us to find it and destroy it,” Shar says.“Yes. We’ve already sent two expeditions on our own, but…” He shrugs. “We presume that they succumbed to the power behind this.”“And what do we get in return?” Shifty asks.“We can give you a number of minor magic items.”“Sold!”Next Time: Our heroes travel to the Feywild and the city of Moonstair!</blockquote>

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