ADVENTURE 82: SNAKE CHARMERS
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NPC Roster:
Game Session Date: 28 September 2024
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"Wait," said Thurloe, frowning from the back of his pachycephalosaurus mount, Boney. "You mean you paid money for someone to make your shield less effective?"
"Not less effective," corrected Wakuren, astride his own bonehead mount, Perseverance - he didn't want to cause undue commotion by riding through the streets of the drow city of Endobar on a horselike steed made up of clouds. However, he'd also thought he might blend in better himself by covering his own half human, half orc heritage with the disguise self properties of his robe of blending, taking on the appearance of a half-orc whose other half was that of a drow. However, he seemed oblivious to the open stares his disguise brought him, as drow were more or less horrified at the thought of a drow mating with a lowly orc to produce such an offspring. "Differently effective - at will, I can have the shield of Cal vibrate to cause those I hit with it to fall unconscious rather than to get battered to death."
"I prefer battering to death," admitted Thurloe. "It's more permanent."
"Then I will leave the slaying to you, whenever possible," countered Wakuren, "and I will concentrate on leaving foes alive for questioning. But you do realize that in order to slay your foes, you have to be willing to enter battle with them - and not only after you've had the luxury of covering yourself in half a dozen protective spells first, but sometimes right away." The spellsword just frowned and grumbled under his breath, unable to refute the charge.
"Hey, look at that!" interjected Alewyth, trying to change the subject. She pointed at a drow woman seated on the ground along the marketplace buildings just ahead, who was playing a tune on a flute. Immediately before her, a cobra, hood flared, was weaving back and forth, side to side, as it slowly rose up from the wicker basket in which the majority of its body was coiled. Alewyth had never before seen a snake charmer at work, and gawked from the back of her dinosaur mount Lapis.
But the snake charmer had apparently never seen an orc/drow hybrid before, and she gasped aloud upon first seeing Wakuren's illusory appearance. Her tune stopped, and the cobra - seemingly mesmerized by her flute playing - was freed from its effect as soon as the tune faltered. In a shot, it threw its serpentine body over the edge of the wicker basket, slithering for freedom and heading directly for the small caravan of visitors from Armaturia, led by their halfling escort Beetle astride Yellow-Belly.
"Don't kill the cobra!" cautioned Wakuren. He'd been warned by Beetle that Endobar's authorities were notoriously crooked and liked fining strangers for ridiculous charges; best to let Alewyth deal with it by employing a hold monster spell, if she had one at the ready. But Thurloe, as usual, had his own ideas on the subject, and fired off a scorching ray spell at the fleeing serpent. Two gouts of flame erupted from his fingertips, burning the cobra to a crisp in an instant. Wakuren looked over at the snake charmer to start to apologize, but she was already on her feet, eyes wide in terror, and dashed for the back alleyways as if fearful the next spell would be turned her way. The half-orc knew there would be no way to find her any time soon in that twisting maze of narrow passageways, so he didn't even bother to try. Instead, he glared at Thurloe, who was waving at the startled drow merchants and customers in the area. "You're quite welcome," the spellsword said, oblivious to the fact none of them understood his language and had no idea what he was saying. "No need to thank us for saving you all from the vicious cobra, it's all in a day's work for us. Although, come to think of it, if any of you wish to toss a coin or two our way, we'd be more than happy to accept...no? Nobody?"
Alewyth wore her magic helm which translated all spoken languages to her ears, and heard the drow muttering to themselves about the strange visitors; particular attention was focused on Wakuren's horrific appearance, although there were some comments about the "round-ears" as well. "I think we'd best be going," she suggested, and Beetle spurred Yellow-Belly forward. The others followed.
Lunchtime found them at an outdoor cafe (Beetle had been there before and liked their hardbread and soups), dining on a decent meal, when they were approached by a drow guardsman. He strode up to the waist-high fence that separated the outdoor eating area from the street, and said, "Say, you fit the description of a group that had an encounter with a runaway cobra this morning." Without saying a word, Wakuren immediately pointed to Thurloe; he'd spent some of their down time over the past several weeks learning the drow language from Beetle and thus understood the guardsman's words perfectly.
"Why, yes, we're the ones who saved your marketplace from a potentially deadly outcome," Thurloe replied, once Alewyth had translated the drow's words to the spellsword. She didn't need to translate Thurloe's response, though, for the guardsman saw Thurloe's nodding head and gathered he was admitting to the crime.
"The cobra's owner is pressing charges," the drow informed the group with a smile. "I can bring you in - unless you'd like to pay her for the cost of a replacement cobra. This is her livelihood you're putting in jeopardy, you understand."
"How much for the cobra?" Zander asked, his permanent tongues spell translating the foreign language as needed. "He says 100 pieces of gold," the sorcerer told Thurloe after the guardsman answered in his own tongue. "And he added that if we don't have that much money on hand, we could earn it in a week or two working in their mines."
"Ah, yes," replied Thurloe, looking around and seeing no support from his friends. He reached into his coin pouch, counted out 100 coins, and passed them over to the guardsman. The drow counted them out again to his own satisfaction, then said, "I see you have forgotten the customary 25% processing fee," as he looked expectantly at the spellsword. Zander translated for him, and Thurloe realized he was getting shafted by the authorities.
"Tell him this," Thurloe said to Zander, pulling out another 10 pieces of gold and holding them out to the guardsman. "Ah, but you apparently forgot the 15% discount for visiting travelers," making up an excuse on the fly - he was willing to acknowledge the city's corruption and play along, but thought he could talk down the amount. Zander just stared at the spellsword like he was crazy and refused to translate the lie for him.
"Best to just pay it up," hissed Beetle. "We don't want any trouble - this place is even more corrupt than Du'dorach, where we ended up in the arena."
"What was that?" gasped the guardsman, feigning surprise at the words being said in a language he didn't understand. "It sounds like you were making plans to overthrow the city government. You know, that's quite a serious offense. Are you sure you don't want to rethink your options here?"
Wakuren had had enough of the spellsword's loose tongue getting them in trouble. "Apologies for my idiotic friend," he said in the drow tongue, handing over a pouch of fifty gold pieces. "He was dropped on his head as a baby and doesn't have a lick of common sense rattling around in that empty head of his." He smiled at the guardsman, who made eye contact with the half-orc and visibly blanched at his half-drow appearance. But he gotten what he had come for - and then some! - and suggested the group stay out of further trouble during their stay in Endobar.
"Let's get out of here," grumbled Beetle, wiping up the last of his soup from his bowl with a piece of hardbread and popping it into his mouth. Xandro put enough coins on the table to pay for their meals, and the group got ready to depart. But then they were approached by another drow, this one a young girl that Xandro - as a human - would have put at about 14 years old, although he wasn't sure how quickly drow aged.
"Excuse me," said the girl. "Are you guys adventurers - like in the stories?"
"We are indeed," assured Zander. "What seems to be the problem?" He noticed she looked out of breath, as if she had been running. "Is someone chasing you?"
"No," the girl, Adriasta, replied. "I was in the Temple of Feron, and I saw a snake-monster ripping the head off the statue of Holy Feron." Further questioning revealed the full story: Adriasta, who lived on the streets, was sleeping in the back pew at the Temple of Feron, when she was awakened by the sounds of men talking. She sat up and saw a massive snake with arms twisting the head off the statue of Holy Feron, as if trying to snap her neck. Adriasta fled, ignoring the calls of two drow men in the temple calling for her to stop. "I just ran, and then I saw you, and you looked like people who could help..." Adriasta said. Zander assured her they would do what they could and asked her to escort them to the Temple of Feron, since they didn't know where it was. She agreed to lead them there, although she feared going back inside. Zander assured her that wouldn't be necessary.
The Temple of Feron was a single-story affair of carved stone, although the building was a good 15 feet tall. It was circular in build with numerous hemispheres jutting out at regular intervals. Adriasta said there was just the one entrance, the double doors at the front, at the top of the wide steps leading into the building. "Well," said Alewyth, "Let's go see about this snake monster."
"Combat spells first," suggested Thurloe, looking askance at Wakuren to see if he was going to give him any ribbing over wanting to be prepared instead of just going in half-cocked. But the half-orc was already casting spells: a shield of faith spell on himself and a protection from evil spell on Xandro. Xandro cast a heroism spell upon himself and then activated the ring of invisibility Wakuren had given him, admitting the bard/rogue could put it to much better use than the cleric/paladin. Thurloe cast a protection from evil spell on himself, while Alewyth cast a magic circle against evil spell centered on her. Then Zander cast a haste spell on the group and gave the thumbs up signal that he was ready for action.
There was a sign hanging from the closed doors, with drow characters spelling out "Closed for Cleaning." Alewyth just snorted in contempt as Thurloe pulled open the doors. Standing just inside were four drow men with stern faces. "We're closed," one said in the drow language. "Come back in about two hours." Thurloe just ignored them - he couldn't understand what they were saying anyway - and started towards the back of the chapel, noting the 12-foot-tall stone statue of Holy Feron, her head seemingly perfectly intact. Two of the drow made a grab for Thurloe as he passed, but the extra speed from the haste spell worked to his advantage. Unseen, Xandro followed invisibly in his wake. From outside, they could hear the opening strains of Robin's song of inspirational courage; she'd opted to stay outside the temple with Beetle, Adriasta, and the dinosaur mounts, but she knew her magical song could boost the combat abilities of those daring to enter the temple and face down whatever snake-monster dwelt within.
Alewyth stomped her way inside and was told to leave by the other two drow; she ignored them and made a point of getting a firm grip on her dwarven warhammer Sjondra. Behind her, Zander cast a stoneskin spell on himself and followed her into the temple.
"There's a breach!" called out one of the drow, as all four reached behind them and pulled out shortswords. "Intruders in the temple!" From the back of the temple, three more drow came rushing forward, two from the left in clerical robes and a third from the right, dressed like the four up front. But they all had short swords out and ready as they approached.
Wakuren stepped into the temple and was immediately set upon by one of the four guards, as two more went for Alewyth and the fourth swung his blade at Zander. Thurloe swung his bastard sword Spellslicer at the drow cleric coming out of the office in the back, striking the man and triggering the two spells he'd loaded into his blade the night before: vampiric touch and bestow curse. Once again, the first spell flooded the spellsword's body with stolen vigor, but the second spell had no effect as the drow was already dead at that point. Then Xandro popped into view as he stabbed the second robed drow to death with his enchanted rapier Deathwhisper.
Alewyth made quick work of her two foes, slaying them one after the other with Sjondra, while Zander slid away to the right and checked out a closed door, finding nothing more exciting than an empty bathroom on the other side. But of the two remaining drow in the front of the temple, one continued his attacks upon Wakuren while the other chased down the elf, his blade striking the stoneskin spell protection and dealing the sorcerer little harm. Then Wakuren, using the new merciful property of his shield of Cal, knocked out the two drow one right after the other. He got a close look at them as he slammed his shield into the sides of their heads, specifically the way their pupils weren't completely round, as one would expect, but somewhat vertical. That, plus the occasional patches of scaly skin among the otherwise smooth, dark coloration of the drow, led him to an obvious conclusion: "Guys! These are yuan-ti we're fighting!"
There was only one such "drow" yuan-ti still standing, the one making his way down the aisle between pews towards Wakuren. But despite not understanding the half-orc's announcement (spoken, as it was, in the common tongue of Armaturia), he nevertheless saw the other six members of his race had already been taken out, and he stopped in his tracks, then decided it might be a better idea to head back the way he'd come and find a place to hide until these powerful intruders left.
Thurloe, out of immediate enemies to slay, wandered into the office the two drow had exited. He gave it a quick once-over, finding it looking like most temple offices he'd seen in his time, although he couldn't make any sense of the titles on the few books in the bookcase. But there was another door to the south, and he headed that way. Xandro, in the meantime, looked up at the statue of Holy Feron, trying to see if there was any damage to it at all; it didn't seem like the snake monster had managed to do it any harm.
"I think we're pretty much done in here," Alewyth called out the open front doors to Robin. The bard stowed her lute on her back, entered the temple (leaving Beetle and Adriasta to watch over the riding mounts), and helped Alewyth drag the two dead drow/yuan-ti up against the doors to keep them closed, since they didn't have any locking mechanisms. Then the dwarf checked out a nearby door, finding it to be the men's bathroom (Zander had unearthed the women's), but it had another door to the north. Going through it, she entered a curving corridor that led to Thurloe coming down it from the cleric's office. There was a door on the side that opened into a storage area, empty of any threats, so the two heroes went back the way Thurloe had come, through the head cleric's office and back into the main part of the temple.
Zander cast a shield spell on himself with the wand, while Wakuren slipped through a door to the north of the women's bathroom, went down a curving hallway, and met up with the seventh and final yuan-ti pureblood, attempting to find a place to hide. Unbeknownst to him, Xandro had renewed his invisibility and was standing behind him. When Wakuren called out for the drow to stop where he was and surrender peacefully, promising he wouldn't be hurt if he cooperated, the drow sheathed his short sword and raised his hands. "I'm casting a discern lies spell," Wakuren advised his captive. "I have a few questions for you, and I'll know if you stray from the truth."
"I wouldn't lie to you," replied the yuan-ti. "After all, you're my best friend, just as I am yours...." Wakuren's eyes started to glass over at the attempted charm person spell, but then he shook his head, regained his mental senses, and snarled at his supposed captive. Seeing the angry look on the half-orc's face, the yuan-ti turned and tried to flee - and impaled himself on the invisible Deathwhisper, which Xandro had out and pointed at Wakuren's suspicious captive. Blood spilling from his lips, the pureblood dropped to his knees, then fell over to the floor, dead. Xandro wiped his blade clean on the man's clothes.
Zander, in the meantime, had activated his scout's headband and granted himself a few minutes' worth of true seeing, looking all around to see if there were any hidden exits from the temple. He sent his pseudodragon familiar Petey up to the head of the statue of Feron, and his loyal friend called down telepathically that there was a horizontal line across the statue's neck. <I think it was made to swivel,> Petey surmised. <But it's too heavy for me to move.>
His discern lies spell still active, Wakuren stomped over to wake up one of the two yuan-ti he'd knocked unconscious earlier. "I can tell if you lie to me," he told the frightened "drow." "I already know you guys are yuan-ti, not drow. So, what's going on? What do you know about a snake monster with arms?"
"I don't know anything!" the false drow insisted.
"That was a lie."
"No, seriously! You should wake him up and interrogate him" - here he indicated the other unconscious yuan-ti able to pass for a drow lying next to him - "He's got a much lower pain threshold, so you could probably torture any answers you wanted out of him!"
"Another lie."
"I..." The drow face suddenly fell, as the yuan-ti pureblood realized he was in over his head and there was no real way out of this prediction in which he found himself. "Okay, listen, we really don't know all that's going on - we were just told to close down this temple for two hours or so while the leaders performed some kind of ritual downstairs. And that's it - we're not privy to the details of the plans of the higher echelons." Wakuren frowned; this time, his prisoner was telling him the truth.
"How do we get downstairs?" he demanded.
"I honestly don't know!" Wakuren's frown only intensified; he was telling the truth again. But then Alewyth called out, "I got it!" Looking toward the back of the temple, the others could see the dwarf priestess had activated her butterfly brooch and flown up to Holy Feron's head, giving it a good twist to the left. Once in position, the entire statue - and the plinth upon which it stood - moved forward with the grinding sound of stone on stone. Flying back down behind the statue, Alewyth saw a ramp leading down to an underground level.
"You're in luck - I don't have any more questions for you," Wakuren told his captive. Then he slammed his shield of Cal into his face, returning him to unconsciousness. There was no use tying him up; as far as he knew, all yuan-ti could transform into snakes, so he made do by dragging the two still-living yuan-ti into the women's bathroom and blocking it with a piton hammered into the floor.
Before going down into the darkness of the ramp, the heroes decided to cast another round of spells. Xandro provided both Alewyth and Wakuren with heroism spells; Alewyth cast a bless spell upon the group; Thurloe further protected himself with a shield spell from the wand he and Zander shared; and Wakuren cast a magic circle against evil spell on himself, freedom of movement spells upon himself, Alewyth, and Xandro, and a mass bear's endurance spell on the assembled group. Then Thurloe led the way, looking over to make sure Wakuren could see his blatant act of bravery.
The ramp led down for some distance, eventually opening up into a circular chamber with a pair of double doors at the far end. But in the middle of the chamber was a creature the likes of which none of the heroes had ever seen before: a giant snake with a humanoid torso and a pair of arms, but with a tangle of no less than six serpentine necks and heads exploding out between his shoulders. Flanking him, two to a side, stood four yuan-ti half-bloods, humanoid in build but with serpent heads and scales covering their bodies. They each wielded a curving-bladed scimitar, while their anathema leader held a massive falchion.
Thurloe plopped a fireball smack-dab in the middle of the circular chamber, the blast expanding to encompass all five yuan-ti. The four half-bloods hissed in pain, but the anathema in the middle seemed completely unscathed - inherent resistance to spell energy, most likely. Thurloe raised his lip into a snarl - he hated spell resistance! Back to being invisible, Xandro went down the ramp and stood by Thurloe, his rapier at the ready. From the top of the ramp came the song of inspirational courage, Robin knowing full well her part in this - and any - battle.
Alewyth was the next to react, and she cast a wall of stone spell across the back of the chamber, sealing off the double doors. "Are you crazy?" demanded Thurloe. "We might need to go through those!"
"An' I've a soften earth and stone spell at the ready when we do," Alewyth informed the spellsword as she hefted Sjondra in anticipation of an attack by the yuan-ti. She didn't have long to wait, for the four half-bloods came rushing up the ramp, scimitars raised for the attack. One went for Thurloe, and another tried to rush by the spellsword only to find Xandro there stabbing him through the gut. The rogue kicked the dead body off the tip of his rapier, now fully visible after his successful sneak attack. The other two half-bloods took the opportunity to rush past him to get to the others, and Xandro managed to slice one of the two up good as he passed.
Zander ignored the approaching half-bloods and cast an Elobar's black tentacles spell in the center of the circular chamber, causing waving ebon appendages to rise up from the floor. They managed to wrap themselves around the hindmost of the half-bloods, but once again the yuan-ti anathema seemed immune. Wakuren cast a chain lightning spell, targeting the entangled yuan-ti as his primary and sending arcs off to hit the others. All three remaining half-bloods were slain by the blasts of electricity, and if the anathema survived the attack at least this time he was affected by the spell. But the half-orc followed up his spell attack by running into the field of waving tentacles, secure in the knowledge his freedom of movement spell would keep him safe.
The anathema saw him coming and slithered forward, his movement slowed by the tentacles but not stopped. He brought his massive falchion down upon Wakuren, who caught the blade on his shield of Cal but still felt the strength of the blow all the way through his entire left arm. Thurloe fired a ray of enfeeblement at the six-headed yuan-ti, siphoning off a bit of his strength, while Xandro reactivated his ring of invisibility and went running into the tentacles. Alewyth followed suit, taking a blow from the anathema's falchion as she did so. But then she gave as much as she'd taken, bringing Sjondra swinging to crash into the serpent's side, likely crushing a rib or three.
Zander cast an enervation spell that made it past the yuan-ti's inherent resistance, weakening him even further. Then Wakuren channeled Cal's smiting energy into his shield and slammed the monster as hard as he could, choosing "battering to death" over "saving him alive to interrogate" for this once. The serpent's six snake heads came snapping forward to bite at Wakuren and Alewyth, but the heroes' feast they'd eaten that morning made them immune to the great serpent's venom, and their active freedom of movement spells prevented him from being able to tangle them up in his coils.
Thurloe, still on the ramp and unwilling to enter the tangling tentacle-field without a freedom of movement spell covering him, opted to cast a greater invisibility spell on himself and stand there, waiting for an opportunity to open up. But the other invisible hero, Xandro, had by that time made his way behind the anathema and was stabbing him again and again in the back, the power of his blade devouring bits of the serpent's strength and vitality with each strike. Alewyth swung Sjondra into the anathema's breastbone, causing an audible snap, and while Zander's next spell - a finger of death - failed to make it past the yuan-ti's spell resistance, Wakuren was there with some good old-fashioned shield-violence, bludgeoning the six-headed monstrosity to death. Once it lay unmoving on the floor, Zander dismissed his grasping tentacles and Alewyth cast her soften earth and stone spell on the section of stone wall she'd placed in front of the double doors, clawing her way through the now claylike substance until the doors were once again revealed.
Thurloe opened the doors, finding four more yuan-ti standing guard, all of them female and looking like drow until you noticed the white-scaled serpents entwined in their hair. But as they were standing in a uniform arc around the double doors, the spellsword cast a wall of fire spell that arced exactly where each of them stood, and they were all suddenly engulfed in flames. Before they could react, Xandro rushed up to the tainted ones and slew three of them in as many seconds, leaving the fourth for Alewyth to bludgeon to death with Sjondra. Just that quickly, they were dead, before they'd even had a chance to attack.
Over the strains of Robin's inspirational song, the heroes could hear chanting coming from the left side of the corridor, which seemed to curve around the back half of the circular chamber in which the first five yuan-ti guardians had just been slain. Not wanting to wait for Thurloe's wall of fire spell to run its course, the elf sorcerer estimated where it ended and used his magic staff to cast a passwall spell into the side wall of the circular chamber. A hole opened up in the wall, revealing a smaller, circular chamber, in the middle of which was carved some sort of summoning circle. At the five equidistant points of the pentagram inscribed within the circle stood a yuan-ti abomination: very much like an anathema, but with only one serpentine head. They were all focused on their sibilant hiss/chanting, and it was apparently working, for a form was taking place in the center of the pentagram: a being very much like themselves, but with a more human head and six arms in place of their two. With a start, Zander realized this was the first part of the dream they'd encountered when the dream naga was apparently giving them hints about their possible future. (Zander was a bit miffed the dream naga had failed to mention the five abominations they had to fight in addition to the marilith they'd already fought once in their dream-encounter.)
Thinking to stop their ritual before it had been completed, Wakuren cast a greater command spell, calling out (in the drow language, thinking if the yuan-ti were trying to pass for drow they must all speak that tongue), "Halt!" Unfortunately, of the four abominations he could see enough to target, three of them managed to shake off the effects and only one froze up as commanded, but it was too late in any case, for the marilith took solid form on the Material Plane and hissed in irritation: bad enough to be summoned away from Abyssia, but by mortal fools who couldn't see to their own proper defense? Bah!
Thurloe, who had run up to attack the tainted ones only to find Xandro and Alewyth had beaten him to it, returned to the circular chamber and spotted the marilith through the opening Zander had created between the two chambers. Robin saw her as well, and backed away from the opening, putting herself out of the demon's line of sight and still continuing to play her magical tune to the benefit of her friends. Xandro reactivated his ring, mentally prepared himself for pain, and ran through the still-active wall of fire, not wanting to waste the time required to backtrack and go through the passwall opening.
Alewyth cast an empowered flame strike spell into the summoning chamber, engulfing the marilith and three of the five abominations. They hissed in pain and advanced towards the passwall opening, the first abomination reaching in and clawing at Zander with its off-hand. The elf stepped back and cast a prismatic spray spell, slightly burning the first abomination with flames, slaying the next in line with a powerful blast of electricity, turning the third into a bubbling mass of acid-scarred tissue that collapsed into a pool of goo on the stone floor, and petrifying the fourth abomination into a stone statue. The fifth abomination - still immobile due to Wakuren's greater command spell - was fortunately around the corner and out of Zander's line of sight, and the marilith got off easy with a blast of fire to which it was already greatly resistant.
Wakuren cast a thunder strike spell on the marilith, which fizzled against the demon's resistance to spells. The marilith tried attacking Wakuren in turn, but found an invisible barrier - the half-orc's magic circle against evil - keeping her at bay. So she backed away and cast a blade barrier spell, the razor-sharp blades of force energy extending across the summoning chamber, directly in Wakuren's path and accidentally hitting the invisible Xandro as well. But while the armored half-orc stood there and took the numerous blade-strikes in surprise, the nimble Xandro leaped out of the way at once, landing on the side of the spell by the marilith and desperately hoping she had no way to easily detect him.
Expending a daily charge of his torc of the titans to momentarily increase his strength, Thurloe swung Spellslicer into the only abomination actively fighting, remaining invisible even after the attack. Xandro went straight for the marilith, popping back into visibility but somewhat safe inside the radius of Wakuren's protective spell. But seeing the open wounds on several of her friends, Alewyth cast a mass cure serious wounds spell to heal up at least some of the damage they'd suffered thus far.
The abomination backed away from Thurloe's blade and tried turning Wakuren into a snake, thinking to impress the marilith with its forward thinking. But Wakuren's mind was too strong to allow the transformation to take place and the attempt failed. But before the half-orc could step out of the blade barrier spell, it too fizzled away into nothingness - in this case thanks to a greater dispel magic spell Zander had just cast upon it. Wakuren staggered a bit but held up his shield of Cal, ready to do a bit of bashing if it became necessary.
Knowing she couldn't affect Wakuren with his magic circle against evil spell up and active, the marilith teleported into the larger circular chamber, hoping some of the other intruders weren't similarly protected. Thurloe pressed on his attacks against the abomination, slaying him at about the same time the fifth abomination finally snapped its mind out of Wakuren's greater command spell, no longer feeling compelled to halt everything. If he felt daunted by the deaths of the other four of his kind, he didn't let it show.
Xandro charged the marilith, sliding Deathwhisper's blade between her scales. Robin scooted back over to the ramp, still playing her inspirational tune while hoping to keep herself out of harm's way. Alewyth stepped up directly behind Xandro and tried an implosion spell, but failed to penetrate the marilith's spell resistance. Zander was a bit luckier with his finger of death spell, and while it didn't slay her at once it at least took a bit of the life out of her.
Wakuren was now a full chamber away from the marilith, but he could see her - so he cast a summoning spell, bringing forth a celestial polar bear directly behind the demon. The ursine roared and lashed out with its claws, to little initial effect. However, the marilith grinned an evil grin at seeing so many of her foes lined up like that and, slithering herself out of the way, brought forth another blade barrier that cut through the celestial polar bear, Xandro, Alewyth, Zander and Petey, and Wakuren; once again, only Xandro (who by this time was getting awful tired of blade barriers!) was able to leap aside in time.
Thurloe finally slew the last of the abominations over in the summoning chamber and looked around, wondering where everyone else had gotten to. Then he heard the cries of his friends as the blades of force energy cut them to ribbons, and he had his answer.
Xandro rushed up to the marilith and stabbed her for all he was worth. Alewyth extricated herself from the flashing blades of force and struck at the demon with Sjondra, getting in a good blow to the side of her head once she'd gained enough altitude with her butterfly brooch. Zander exited the blade barrier as well but wasn't as tough as his friends; he needed a moment to gather himself as Petey flapped back onto his shoulder, telepathically asking his master if he were okay. Wakuren came running out of the blade barrier next, slamming his shield of Cal into the demon after infusing it with the Storm God's smiting energy. Even the celestial polar bear gave it his best, swiping at the scaly demon with its claws. But even though the great bruin failed to pierce her thick scales, being surrounded by so many foes meant she was cut down in the act of trying to erect a third blade barrier to hopefully deal with at least some of her foes. As a summoned creature, once she was slain her body discorporated, returning to the fiendish plane from which she had been brought forth.
After taking a moment to heal up the worst of their wounds with curative spells, the group took the other way around the curving corridor, away from the summoning chamber, and found a pit containing three drow men writhing in pain. Guarding over them were three more yuan-ti, these broodguards the most serpentine-looking of any the heroes had dealt with thus far, with hunched backs, entire bodies encased in serpentine scales, and vestigial tails. All six figures were slain. the broodguards for being the monsters they were and the drow - already showing signs of their transformations into yuan-ti - to put them out of their misery. While the men were attending to that grisly detail, Alewyth went back to the summoning circle and used Sjondra to break it up, ensuring it could bever be used again.
"So now what?" asked Robin, stowing her lute on her back now that her contributions were no longer needed.
"Now," replied Wakuren, "we get to deal with the city government again - this time, to warn them the Temple of Feron had been overtaken by a den of yuan-ti in drow disguise. We've got these dead bodies as proof, and the two captives imprisoned in the bathroom upstairs, if they haven't awakened and found a way out by now. I imagine the Feronian faithful will need to reach out to other Feronian temples, to send over new clerics to tend to this one."
"But in the meantime," Alewyth added, "Adriasta will have a place to stay, off the streets at least. Nobody should have to live like that."
"And after that, we can leave this corrupt town?" asked Zander. "I don't think I like it here much at all." He wasn't the only one with that opinion of Endobar.
- - -
Leave it to Dan have his PC kill the cobra and then try to beat the corrupt guardsman at his own game. (That corrupt guardsman, by the way, was a yuan-ti pureblood, and if they'd have refused to pay up, he'd have departed, only to return with six more guardsmen - these ones fully drow, and unaware of the yuan-ti in their midst - with a dark naga ally tossing in spells from afar as needed, but it didn't come to that.)
- - -
T-shirt worn: My "Chaotic evil means never having to say you're sorry" black T-shirt, perfectly in alignment with a marilith demon (and the yuan-ti summoning her).
PC Roster:
Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 17
Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3/spellsword 10/eldritch knight 1
Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 9/paladin 8
Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 6/rogue 11
Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 17
NPC Roster:
Beetle Darkcloud, halfling ranger 6
Robin the Balladeer, human bard 6
Game Session Date: 28 September 2024
- - -
"Wait," said Thurloe, frowning from the back of his pachycephalosaurus mount, Boney. "You mean you paid money for someone to make your shield less effective?"
"Not less effective," corrected Wakuren, astride his own bonehead mount, Perseverance - he didn't want to cause undue commotion by riding through the streets of the drow city of Endobar on a horselike steed made up of clouds. However, he'd also thought he might blend in better himself by covering his own half human, half orc heritage with the disguise self properties of his robe of blending, taking on the appearance of a half-orc whose other half was that of a drow. However, he seemed oblivious to the open stares his disguise brought him, as drow were more or less horrified at the thought of a drow mating with a lowly orc to produce such an offspring. "Differently effective - at will, I can have the shield of Cal vibrate to cause those I hit with it to fall unconscious rather than to get battered to death."
"I prefer battering to death," admitted Thurloe. "It's more permanent."
"Then I will leave the slaying to you, whenever possible," countered Wakuren, "and I will concentrate on leaving foes alive for questioning. But you do realize that in order to slay your foes, you have to be willing to enter battle with them - and not only after you've had the luxury of covering yourself in half a dozen protective spells first, but sometimes right away." The spellsword just frowned and grumbled under his breath, unable to refute the charge.
"Hey, look at that!" interjected Alewyth, trying to change the subject. She pointed at a drow woman seated on the ground along the marketplace buildings just ahead, who was playing a tune on a flute. Immediately before her, a cobra, hood flared, was weaving back and forth, side to side, as it slowly rose up from the wicker basket in which the majority of its body was coiled. Alewyth had never before seen a snake charmer at work, and gawked from the back of her dinosaur mount Lapis.
But the snake charmer had apparently never seen an orc/drow hybrid before, and she gasped aloud upon first seeing Wakuren's illusory appearance. Her tune stopped, and the cobra - seemingly mesmerized by her flute playing - was freed from its effect as soon as the tune faltered. In a shot, it threw its serpentine body over the edge of the wicker basket, slithering for freedom and heading directly for the small caravan of visitors from Armaturia, led by their halfling escort Beetle astride Yellow-Belly.
"Don't kill the cobra!" cautioned Wakuren. He'd been warned by Beetle that Endobar's authorities were notoriously crooked and liked fining strangers for ridiculous charges; best to let Alewyth deal with it by employing a hold monster spell, if she had one at the ready. But Thurloe, as usual, had his own ideas on the subject, and fired off a scorching ray spell at the fleeing serpent. Two gouts of flame erupted from his fingertips, burning the cobra to a crisp in an instant. Wakuren looked over at the snake charmer to start to apologize, but she was already on her feet, eyes wide in terror, and dashed for the back alleyways as if fearful the next spell would be turned her way. The half-orc knew there would be no way to find her any time soon in that twisting maze of narrow passageways, so he didn't even bother to try. Instead, he glared at Thurloe, who was waving at the startled drow merchants and customers in the area. "You're quite welcome," the spellsword said, oblivious to the fact none of them understood his language and had no idea what he was saying. "No need to thank us for saving you all from the vicious cobra, it's all in a day's work for us. Although, come to think of it, if any of you wish to toss a coin or two our way, we'd be more than happy to accept...no? Nobody?"
Alewyth wore her magic helm which translated all spoken languages to her ears, and heard the drow muttering to themselves about the strange visitors; particular attention was focused on Wakuren's horrific appearance, although there were some comments about the "round-ears" as well. "I think we'd best be going," she suggested, and Beetle spurred Yellow-Belly forward. The others followed.
Lunchtime found them at an outdoor cafe (Beetle had been there before and liked their hardbread and soups), dining on a decent meal, when they were approached by a drow guardsman. He strode up to the waist-high fence that separated the outdoor eating area from the street, and said, "Say, you fit the description of a group that had an encounter with a runaway cobra this morning." Without saying a word, Wakuren immediately pointed to Thurloe; he'd spent some of their down time over the past several weeks learning the drow language from Beetle and thus understood the guardsman's words perfectly.
"Why, yes, we're the ones who saved your marketplace from a potentially deadly outcome," Thurloe replied, once Alewyth had translated the drow's words to the spellsword. She didn't need to translate Thurloe's response, though, for the guardsman saw Thurloe's nodding head and gathered he was admitting to the crime.
"The cobra's owner is pressing charges," the drow informed the group with a smile. "I can bring you in - unless you'd like to pay her for the cost of a replacement cobra. This is her livelihood you're putting in jeopardy, you understand."
"How much for the cobra?" Zander asked, his permanent tongues spell translating the foreign language as needed. "He says 100 pieces of gold," the sorcerer told Thurloe after the guardsman answered in his own tongue. "And he added that if we don't have that much money on hand, we could earn it in a week or two working in their mines."
"Ah, yes," replied Thurloe, looking around and seeing no support from his friends. He reached into his coin pouch, counted out 100 coins, and passed them over to the guardsman. The drow counted them out again to his own satisfaction, then said, "I see you have forgotten the customary 25% processing fee," as he looked expectantly at the spellsword. Zander translated for him, and Thurloe realized he was getting shafted by the authorities.
"Tell him this," Thurloe said to Zander, pulling out another 10 pieces of gold and holding them out to the guardsman. "Ah, but you apparently forgot the 15% discount for visiting travelers," making up an excuse on the fly - he was willing to acknowledge the city's corruption and play along, but thought he could talk down the amount. Zander just stared at the spellsword like he was crazy and refused to translate the lie for him.
"Best to just pay it up," hissed Beetle. "We don't want any trouble - this place is even more corrupt than Du'dorach, where we ended up in the arena."
"What was that?" gasped the guardsman, feigning surprise at the words being said in a language he didn't understand. "It sounds like you were making plans to overthrow the city government. You know, that's quite a serious offense. Are you sure you don't want to rethink your options here?"
Wakuren had had enough of the spellsword's loose tongue getting them in trouble. "Apologies for my idiotic friend," he said in the drow tongue, handing over a pouch of fifty gold pieces. "He was dropped on his head as a baby and doesn't have a lick of common sense rattling around in that empty head of his." He smiled at the guardsman, who made eye contact with the half-orc and visibly blanched at his half-drow appearance. But he gotten what he had come for - and then some! - and suggested the group stay out of further trouble during their stay in Endobar.
"Let's get out of here," grumbled Beetle, wiping up the last of his soup from his bowl with a piece of hardbread and popping it into his mouth. Xandro put enough coins on the table to pay for their meals, and the group got ready to depart. But then they were approached by another drow, this one a young girl that Xandro - as a human - would have put at about 14 years old, although he wasn't sure how quickly drow aged.
"Excuse me," said the girl. "Are you guys adventurers - like in the stories?"
"We are indeed," assured Zander. "What seems to be the problem?" He noticed she looked out of breath, as if she had been running. "Is someone chasing you?"
"No," the girl, Adriasta, replied. "I was in the Temple of Feron, and I saw a snake-monster ripping the head off the statue of Holy Feron." Further questioning revealed the full story: Adriasta, who lived on the streets, was sleeping in the back pew at the Temple of Feron, when she was awakened by the sounds of men talking. She sat up and saw a massive snake with arms twisting the head off the statue of Holy Feron, as if trying to snap her neck. Adriasta fled, ignoring the calls of two drow men in the temple calling for her to stop. "I just ran, and then I saw you, and you looked like people who could help..." Adriasta said. Zander assured her they would do what they could and asked her to escort them to the Temple of Feron, since they didn't know where it was. She agreed to lead them there, although she feared going back inside. Zander assured her that wouldn't be necessary.
The Temple of Feron was a single-story affair of carved stone, although the building was a good 15 feet tall. It was circular in build with numerous hemispheres jutting out at regular intervals. Adriasta said there was just the one entrance, the double doors at the front, at the top of the wide steps leading into the building. "Well," said Alewyth, "Let's go see about this snake monster."
"Combat spells first," suggested Thurloe, looking askance at Wakuren to see if he was going to give him any ribbing over wanting to be prepared instead of just going in half-cocked. But the half-orc was already casting spells: a shield of faith spell on himself and a protection from evil spell on Xandro. Xandro cast a heroism spell upon himself and then activated the ring of invisibility Wakuren had given him, admitting the bard/rogue could put it to much better use than the cleric/paladin. Thurloe cast a protection from evil spell on himself, while Alewyth cast a magic circle against evil spell centered on her. Then Zander cast a haste spell on the group and gave the thumbs up signal that he was ready for action.
There was a sign hanging from the closed doors, with drow characters spelling out "Closed for Cleaning." Alewyth just snorted in contempt as Thurloe pulled open the doors. Standing just inside were four drow men with stern faces. "We're closed," one said in the drow language. "Come back in about two hours." Thurloe just ignored them - he couldn't understand what they were saying anyway - and started towards the back of the chapel, noting the 12-foot-tall stone statue of Holy Feron, her head seemingly perfectly intact. Two of the drow made a grab for Thurloe as he passed, but the extra speed from the haste spell worked to his advantage. Unseen, Xandro followed invisibly in his wake. From outside, they could hear the opening strains of Robin's song of inspirational courage; she'd opted to stay outside the temple with Beetle, Adriasta, and the dinosaur mounts, but she knew her magical song could boost the combat abilities of those daring to enter the temple and face down whatever snake-monster dwelt within.
Alewyth stomped her way inside and was told to leave by the other two drow; she ignored them and made a point of getting a firm grip on her dwarven warhammer Sjondra. Behind her, Zander cast a stoneskin spell on himself and followed her into the temple.
"There's a breach!" called out one of the drow, as all four reached behind them and pulled out shortswords. "Intruders in the temple!" From the back of the temple, three more drow came rushing forward, two from the left in clerical robes and a third from the right, dressed like the four up front. But they all had short swords out and ready as they approached.
Wakuren stepped into the temple and was immediately set upon by one of the four guards, as two more went for Alewyth and the fourth swung his blade at Zander. Thurloe swung his bastard sword Spellslicer at the drow cleric coming out of the office in the back, striking the man and triggering the two spells he'd loaded into his blade the night before: vampiric touch and bestow curse. Once again, the first spell flooded the spellsword's body with stolen vigor, but the second spell had no effect as the drow was already dead at that point. Then Xandro popped into view as he stabbed the second robed drow to death with his enchanted rapier Deathwhisper.
Alewyth made quick work of her two foes, slaying them one after the other with Sjondra, while Zander slid away to the right and checked out a closed door, finding nothing more exciting than an empty bathroom on the other side. But of the two remaining drow in the front of the temple, one continued his attacks upon Wakuren while the other chased down the elf, his blade striking the stoneskin spell protection and dealing the sorcerer little harm. Then Wakuren, using the new merciful property of his shield of Cal, knocked out the two drow one right after the other. He got a close look at them as he slammed his shield into the sides of their heads, specifically the way their pupils weren't completely round, as one would expect, but somewhat vertical. That, plus the occasional patches of scaly skin among the otherwise smooth, dark coloration of the drow, led him to an obvious conclusion: "Guys! These are yuan-ti we're fighting!"
There was only one such "drow" yuan-ti still standing, the one making his way down the aisle between pews towards Wakuren. But despite not understanding the half-orc's announcement (spoken, as it was, in the common tongue of Armaturia), he nevertheless saw the other six members of his race had already been taken out, and he stopped in his tracks, then decided it might be a better idea to head back the way he'd come and find a place to hide until these powerful intruders left.
Thurloe, out of immediate enemies to slay, wandered into the office the two drow had exited. He gave it a quick once-over, finding it looking like most temple offices he'd seen in his time, although he couldn't make any sense of the titles on the few books in the bookcase. But there was another door to the south, and he headed that way. Xandro, in the meantime, looked up at the statue of Holy Feron, trying to see if there was any damage to it at all; it didn't seem like the snake monster had managed to do it any harm.
"I think we're pretty much done in here," Alewyth called out the open front doors to Robin. The bard stowed her lute on her back, entered the temple (leaving Beetle and Adriasta to watch over the riding mounts), and helped Alewyth drag the two dead drow/yuan-ti up against the doors to keep them closed, since they didn't have any locking mechanisms. Then the dwarf checked out a nearby door, finding it to be the men's bathroom (Zander had unearthed the women's), but it had another door to the north. Going through it, she entered a curving corridor that led to Thurloe coming down it from the cleric's office. There was a door on the side that opened into a storage area, empty of any threats, so the two heroes went back the way Thurloe had come, through the head cleric's office and back into the main part of the temple.
Zander cast a shield spell on himself with the wand, while Wakuren slipped through a door to the north of the women's bathroom, went down a curving hallway, and met up with the seventh and final yuan-ti pureblood, attempting to find a place to hide. Unbeknownst to him, Xandro had renewed his invisibility and was standing behind him. When Wakuren called out for the drow to stop where he was and surrender peacefully, promising he wouldn't be hurt if he cooperated, the drow sheathed his short sword and raised his hands. "I'm casting a discern lies spell," Wakuren advised his captive. "I have a few questions for you, and I'll know if you stray from the truth."
"I wouldn't lie to you," replied the yuan-ti. "After all, you're my best friend, just as I am yours...." Wakuren's eyes started to glass over at the attempted charm person spell, but then he shook his head, regained his mental senses, and snarled at his supposed captive. Seeing the angry look on the half-orc's face, the yuan-ti turned and tried to flee - and impaled himself on the invisible Deathwhisper, which Xandro had out and pointed at Wakuren's suspicious captive. Blood spilling from his lips, the pureblood dropped to his knees, then fell over to the floor, dead. Xandro wiped his blade clean on the man's clothes.
Zander, in the meantime, had activated his scout's headband and granted himself a few minutes' worth of true seeing, looking all around to see if there were any hidden exits from the temple. He sent his pseudodragon familiar Petey up to the head of the statue of Feron, and his loyal friend called down telepathically that there was a horizontal line across the statue's neck. <I think it was made to swivel,> Petey surmised. <But it's too heavy for me to move.>
His discern lies spell still active, Wakuren stomped over to wake up one of the two yuan-ti he'd knocked unconscious earlier. "I can tell if you lie to me," he told the frightened "drow." "I already know you guys are yuan-ti, not drow. So, what's going on? What do you know about a snake monster with arms?"
"I don't know anything!" the false drow insisted.
"That was a lie."
"No, seriously! You should wake him up and interrogate him" - here he indicated the other unconscious yuan-ti able to pass for a drow lying next to him - "He's got a much lower pain threshold, so you could probably torture any answers you wanted out of him!"
"Another lie."
"I..." The drow face suddenly fell, as the yuan-ti pureblood realized he was in over his head and there was no real way out of this prediction in which he found himself. "Okay, listen, we really don't know all that's going on - we were just told to close down this temple for two hours or so while the leaders performed some kind of ritual downstairs. And that's it - we're not privy to the details of the plans of the higher echelons." Wakuren frowned; this time, his prisoner was telling him the truth.
"How do we get downstairs?" he demanded.
"I honestly don't know!" Wakuren's frown only intensified; he was telling the truth again. But then Alewyth called out, "I got it!" Looking toward the back of the temple, the others could see the dwarf priestess had activated her butterfly brooch and flown up to Holy Feron's head, giving it a good twist to the left. Once in position, the entire statue - and the plinth upon which it stood - moved forward with the grinding sound of stone on stone. Flying back down behind the statue, Alewyth saw a ramp leading down to an underground level.
"You're in luck - I don't have any more questions for you," Wakuren told his captive. Then he slammed his shield of Cal into his face, returning him to unconsciousness. There was no use tying him up; as far as he knew, all yuan-ti could transform into snakes, so he made do by dragging the two still-living yuan-ti into the women's bathroom and blocking it with a piton hammered into the floor.
Before going down into the darkness of the ramp, the heroes decided to cast another round of spells. Xandro provided both Alewyth and Wakuren with heroism spells; Alewyth cast a bless spell upon the group; Thurloe further protected himself with a shield spell from the wand he and Zander shared; and Wakuren cast a magic circle against evil spell on himself, freedom of movement spells upon himself, Alewyth, and Xandro, and a mass bear's endurance spell on the assembled group. Then Thurloe led the way, looking over to make sure Wakuren could see his blatant act of bravery.
The ramp led down for some distance, eventually opening up into a circular chamber with a pair of double doors at the far end. But in the middle of the chamber was a creature the likes of which none of the heroes had ever seen before: a giant snake with a humanoid torso and a pair of arms, but with a tangle of no less than six serpentine necks and heads exploding out between his shoulders. Flanking him, two to a side, stood four yuan-ti half-bloods, humanoid in build but with serpent heads and scales covering their bodies. They each wielded a curving-bladed scimitar, while their anathema leader held a massive falchion.
Thurloe plopped a fireball smack-dab in the middle of the circular chamber, the blast expanding to encompass all five yuan-ti. The four half-bloods hissed in pain, but the anathema in the middle seemed completely unscathed - inherent resistance to spell energy, most likely. Thurloe raised his lip into a snarl - he hated spell resistance! Back to being invisible, Xandro went down the ramp and stood by Thurloe, his rapier at the ready. From the top of the ramp came the song of inspirational courage, Robin knowing full well her part in this - and any - battle.
Alewyth was the next to react, and she cast a wall of stone spell across the back of the chamber, sealing off the double doors. "Are you crazy?" demanded Thurloe. "We might need to go through those!"
"An' I've a soften earth and stone spell at the ready when we do," Alewyth informed the spellsword as she hefted Sjondra in anticipation of an attack by the yuan-ti. She didn't have long to wait, for the four half-bloods came rushing up the ramp, scimitars raised for the attack. One went for Thurloe, and another tried to rush by the spellsword only to find Xandro there stabbing him through the gut. The rogue kicked the dead body off the tip of his rapier, now fully visible after his successful sneak attack. The other two half-bloods took the opportunity to rush past him to get to the others, and Xandro managed to slice one of the two up good as he passed.
Zander ignored the approaching half-bloods and cast an Elobar's black tentacles spell in the center of the circular chamber, causing waving ebon appendages to rise up from the floor. They managed to wrap themselves around the hindmost of the half-bloods, but once again the yuan-ti anathema seemed immune. Wakuren cast a chain lightning spell, targeting the entangled yuan-ti as his primary and sending arcs off to hit the others. All three remaining half-bloods were slain by the blasts of electricity, and if the anathema survived the attack at least this time he was affected by the spell. But the half-orc followed up his spell attack by running into the field of waving tentacles, secure in the knowledge his freedom of movement spell would keep him safe.
The anathema saw him coming and slithered forward, his movement slowed by the tentacles but not stopped. He brought his massive falchion down upon Wakuren, who caught the blade on his shield of Cal but still felt the strength of the blow all the way through his entire left arm. Thurloe fired a ray of enfeeblement at the six-headed yuan-ti, siphoning off a bit of his strength, while Xandro reactivated his ring of invisibility and went running into the tentacles. Alewyth followed suit, taking a blow from the anathema's falchion as she did so. But then she gave as much as she'd taken, bringing Sjondra swinging to crash into the serpent's side, likely crushing a rib or three.
Zander cast an enervation spell that made it past the yuan-ti's inherent resistance, weakening him even further. Then Wakuren channeled Cal's smiting energy into his shield and slammed the monster as hard as he could, choosing "battering to death" over "saving him alive to interrogate" for this once. The serpent's six snake heads came snapping forward to bite at Wakuren and Alewyth, but the heroes' feast they'd eaten that morning made them immune to the great serpent's venom, and their active freedom of movement spells prevented him from being able to tangle them up in his coils.
Thurloe, still on the ramp and unwilling to enter the tangling tentacle-field without a freedom of movement spell covering him, opted to cast a greater invisibility spell on himself and stand there, waiting for an opportunity to open up. But the other invisible hero, Xandro, had by that time made his way behind the anathema and was stabbing him again and again in the back, the power of his blade devouring bits of the serpent's strength and vitality with each strike. Alewyth swung Sjondra into the anathema's breastbone, causing an audible snap, and while Zander's next spell - a finger of death - failed to make it past the yuan-ti's spell resistance, Wakuren was there with some good old-fashioned shield-violence, bludgeoning the six-headed monstrosity to death. Once it lay unmoving on the floor, Zander dismissed his grasping tentacles and Alewyth cast her soften earth and stone spell on the section of stone wall she'd placed in front of the double doors, clawing her way through the now claylike substance until the doors were once again revealed.
Thurloe opened the doors, finding four more yuan-ti standing guard, all of them female and looking like drow until you noticed the white-scaled serpents entwined in their hair. But as they were standing in a uniform arc around the double doors, the spellsword cast a wall of fire spell that arced exactly where each of them stood, and they were all suddenly engulfed in flames. Before they could react, Xandro rushed up to the tainted ones and slew three of them in as many seconds, leaving the fourth for Alewyth to bludgeon to death with Sjondra. Just that quickly, they were dead, before they'd even had a chance to attack.
Over the strains of Robin's inspirational song, the heroes could hear chanting coming from the left side of the corridor, which seemed to curve around the back half of the circular chamber in which the first five yuan-ti guardians had just been slain. Not wanting to wait for Thurloe's wall of fire spell to run its course, the elf sorcerer estimated where it ended and used his magic staff to cast a passwall spell into the side wall of the circular chamber. A hole opened up in the wall, revealing a smaller, circular chamber, in the middle of which was carved some sort of summoning circle. At the five equidistant points of the pentagram inscribed within the circle stood a yuan-ti abomination: very much like an anathema, but with only one serpentine head. They were all focused on their sibilant hiss/chanting, and it was apparently working, for a form was taking place in the center of the pentagram: a being very much like themselves, but with a more human head and six arms in place of their two. With a start, Zander realized this was the first part of the dream they'd encountered when the dream naga was apparently giving them hints about their possible future. (Zander was a bit miffed the dream naga had failed to mention the five abominations they had to fight in addition to the marilith they'd already fought once in their dream-encounter.)
Thinking to stop their ritual before it had been completed, Wakuren cast a greater command spell, calling out (in the drow language, thinking if the yuan-ti were trying to pass for drow they must all speak that tongue), "Halt!" Unfortunately, of the four abominations he could see enough to target, three of them managed to shake off the effects and only one froze up as commanded, but it was too late in any case, for the marilith took solid form on the Material Plane and hissed in irritation: bad enough to be summoned away from Abyssia, but by mortal fools who couldn't see to their own proper defense? Bah!
Thurloe, who had run up to attack the tainted ones only to find Xandro and Alewyth had beaten him to it, returned to the circular chamber and spotted the marilith through the opening Zander had created between the two chambers. Robin saw her as well, and backed away from the opening, putting herself out of the demon's line of sight and still continuing to play her magical tune to the benefit of her friends. Xandro reactivated his ring, mentally prepared himself for pain, and ran through the still-active wall of fire, not wanting to waste the time required to backtrack and go through the passwall opening.
Alewyth cast an empowered flame strike spell into the summoning chamber, engulfing the marilith and three of the five abominations. They hissed in pain and advanced towards the passwall opening, the first abomination reaching in and clawing at Zander with its off-hand. The elf stepped back and cast a prismatic spray spell, slightly burning the first abomination with flames, slaying the next in line with a powerful blast of electricity, turning the third into a bubbling mass of acid-scarred tissue that collapsed into a pool of goo on the stone floor, and petrifying the fourth abomination into a stone statue. The fifth abomination - still immobile due to Wakuren's greater command spell - was fortunately around the corner and out of Zander's line of sight, and the marilith got off easy with a blast of fire to which it was already greatly resistant.
Wakuren cast a thunder strike spell on the marilith, which fizzled against the demon's resistance to spells. The marilith tried attacking Wakuren in turn, but found an invisible barrier - the half-orc's magic circle against evil - keeping her at bay. So she backed away and cast a blade barrier spell, the razor-sharp blades of force energy extending across the summoning chamber, directly in Wakuren's path and accidentally hitting the invisible Xandro as well. But while the armored half-orc stood there and took the numerous blade-strikes in surprise, the nimble Xandro leaped out of the way at once, landing on the side of the spell by the marilith and desperately hoping she had no way to easily detect him.
Expending a daily charge of his torc of the titans to momentarily increase his strength, Thurloe swung Spellslicer into the only abomination actively fighting, remaining invisible even after the attack. Xandro went straight for the marilith, popping back into visibility but somewhat safe inside the radius of Wakuren's protective spell. But seeing the open wounds on several of her friends, Alewyth cast a mass cure serious wounds spell to heal up at least some of the damage they'd suffered thus far.
The abomination backed away from Thurloe's blade and tried turning Wakuren into a snake, thinking to impress the marilith with its forward thinking. But Wakuren's mind was too strong to allow the transformation to take place and the attempt failed. But before the half-orc could step out of the blade barrier spell, it too fizzled away into nothingness - in this case thanks to a greater dispel magic spell Zander had just cast upon it. Wakuren staggered a bit but held up his shield of Cal, ready to do a bit of bashing if it became necessary.
Knowing she couldn't affect Wakuren with his magic circle against evil spell up and active, the marilith teleported into the larger circular chamber, hoping some of the other intruders weren't similarly protected. Thurloe pressed on his attacks against the abomination, slaying him at about the same time the fifth abomination finally snapped its mind out of Wakuren's greater command spell, no longer feeling compelled to halt everything. If he felt daunted by the deaths of the other four of his kind, he didn't let it show.
Xandro charged the marilith, sliding Deathwhisper's blade between her scales. Robin scooted back over to the ramp, still playing her inspirational tune while hoping to keep herself out of harm's way. Alewyth stepped up directly behind Xandro and tried an implosion spell, but failed to penetrate the marilith's spell resistance. Zander was a bit luckier with his finger of death spell, and while it didn't slay her at once it at least took a bit of the life out of her.
Wakuren was now a full chamber away from the marilith, but he could see her - so he cast a summoning spell, bringing forth a celestial polar bear directly behind the demon. The ursine roared and lashed out with its claws, to little initial effect. However, the marilith grinned an evil grin at seeing so many of her foes lined up like that and, slithering herself out of the way, brought forth another blade barrier that cut through the celestial polar bear, Xandro, Alewyth, Zander and Petey, and Wakuren; once again, only Xandro (who by this time was getting awful tired of blade barriers!) was able to leap aside in time.
Thurloe finally slew the last of the abominations over in the summoning chamber and looked around, wondering where everyone else had gotten to. Then he heard the cries of his friends as the blades of force energy cut them to ribbons, and he had his answer.
Xandro rushed up to the marilith and stabbed her for all he was worth. Alewyth extricated herself from the flashing blades of force and struck at the demon with Sjondra, getting in a good blow to the side of her head once she'd gained enough altitude with her butterfly brooch. Zander exited the blade barrier as well but wasn't as tough as his friends; he needed a moment to gather himself as Petey flapped back onto his shoulder, telepathically asking his master if he were okay. Wakuren came running out of the blade barrier next, slamming his shield of Cal into the demon after infusing it with the Storm God's smiting energy. Even the celestial polar bear gave it his best, swiping at the scaly demon with its claws. But even though the great bruin failed to pierce her thick scales, being surrounded by so many foes meant she was cut down in the act of trying to erect a third blade barrier to hopefully deal with at least some of her foes. As a summoned creature, once she was slain her body discorporated, returning to the fiendish plane from which she had been brought forth.
After taking a moment to heal up the worst of their wounds with curative spells, the group took the other way around the curving corridor, away from the summoning chamber, and found a pit containing three drow men writhing in pain. Guarding over them were three more yuan-ti, these broodguards the most serpentine-looking of any the heroes had dealt with thus far, with hunched backs, entire bodies encased in serpentine scales, and vestigial tails. All six figures were slain. the broodguards for being the monsters they were and the drow - already showing signs of their transformations into yuan-ti - to put them out of their misery. While the men were attending to that grisly detail, Alewyth went back to the summoning circle and used Sjondra to break it up, ensuring it could bever be used again.
"So now what?" asked Robin, stowing her lute on her back now that her contributions were no longer needed.
"Now," replied Wakuren, "we get to deal with the city government again - this time, to warn them the Temple of Feron had been overtaken by a den of yuan-ti in drow disguise. We've got these dead bodies as proof, and the two captives imprisoned in the bathroom upstairs, if they haven't awakened and found a way out by now. I imagine the Feronian faithful will need to reach out to other Feronian temples, to send over new clerics to tend to this one."
"But in the meantime," Alewyth added, "Adriasta will have a place to stay, off the streets at least. Nobody should have to live like that."
"And after that, we can leave this corrupt town?" asked Zander. "I don't think I like it here much at all." He wasn't the only one with that opinion of Endobar.
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Leave it to Dan have his PC kill the cobra and then try to beat the corrupt guardsman at his own game. (That corrupt guardsman, by the way, was a yuan-ti pureblood, and if they'd have refused to pay up, he'd have departed, only to return with six more guardsmen - these ones fully drow, and unaware of the yuan-ti in their midst - with a dark naga ally tossing in spells from afar as needed, but it didn't come to that.)
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T-shirt worn: My "Chaotic evil means never having to say you're sorry" black T-shirt, perfectly in alignment with a marilith demon (and the yuan-ti summoning her).
