NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 8552190" data-attributes="member: 508">ADVENTURE 26: SERPENTINE DREAMSPC Roster:Alewyth Putterpye, dwarf priestess of Aerik 6             Thurloe Pulver, human fighter 3/wizard 3             Wakuren, half-orc cleric of Cal 3/paladin 3             Xandro Silverstrings, human bard 5/rogue 1             Zander Quilson, elf sorcerer 6Game Session Date: 12 February 2022 - - -Arriving in the small farming village of Basker's Grove close to dusk, it was apparent there wasn't a whole lot to see there: other than a whole bunch of staggered farmhouses and their associated fields, the central hub seemed to consist of little more than a single tavern and a temple of Desdemona, Goddess of the Harvest."What do you think, tavern or temple?" Alewyth asked."Let's try the tavern," Xandro replied.  "People drinking at the end of a hard day are more likely to be willing to speak freely to strangers."That turned out to be quite prophetic, for after purchasing drinks for themselves and the few farmers in the tavern they found the villagers more than eager to tell them what they knew about someone being trapped in their sleep for weeks on end.  "Oh, you mean Calabar Condaman," replied one leather-skinned farmer of advancing years.  "Hard-working folks, the Condamans.  Moved in about a year or so ago, after the previous owners got sick and died.  Calabar's folks say he went to bed one night a couple of weeks back and nobody's been able to wake him up since, not even the new cleric from the temple.""New cleric?" asked Xandro."Yeah, Father Roballi.  He's a nice enough guy - showed up out of the blue after the prior cleric got called away for a family emergency of some sort, said he'd been sent by the Goddess.  He's real serious about his duties, and he's tried everything he can to wake poor old Calabar, but no luck."Other drinkers offered their own opinions.  "Y'ask me, it's probably somethin' t'do wit' th' illness what's been goin' around," mentioned a grizzled farm worker with straggly blond hair going to white.  He specified a flu that "knocked you off yer feet fer 'bout a week" that had stricken a few of the local farmhands a few weeks back.  Under Father Roballi's patient ministrations, they had all recovered.  "Not like them other hands what went missing," put in a hefty-sized woman, explaining there had also been a small rash of disappearances recently among some of the younger farmhands.  "That wasn't no disease, though, unless you consider laziness and slothfulness a disease - I reckon they just took off to other parts, hoping to avoid work."After finishing their drinks and asking for directions to the Condaman farmhouse, Wakuren was pleased to learn it was just down the road, practically adjacent to the temple of Desdemona.  The farmhouse was a single-story affair, the front door off to the right.  A length of rosebushes flanked the entire right side of the house, with a well and what looked like a shed further back.  Wakuren stepped down from the wagon and was about to go knock on the door when he remembered his fearsome, orcish visage often put people ill at ease at first - although the drinkers at the tavern hadn't seemed overly put off - and allowed Alewyth to do the honors.  He stood in the back of the group.The door opened after Alewyth knocked upon it and there in the doorway stood a human couple, Seth and Anya.  Alewyth explained they were here to help their son awaken and the farming couple gladly ushered them inside.  Calabar was asleep in his room, undisturbed after nearly four weeks, but his room was much too small for them to perform their ritual so Seth carried him out to the sitting room while the heroes helped Anya push the furniture up against the walls.  Seth gently placed his sleeping son down upon the floor and the five dreamwalkers sat in a circle around him.  Alewyth explained the procedure as she tied a bandana around Calabar's head, holding a dreamstone in place against his forehead.Zander activated his jade cooshee and had it stand guard, but that wasn't enough for Thurloe.  "Is there anybody else in the house?" he asked, and Anya answered they had two farmhands.  Seth explained, after further questions from Thurloe, there was just the one door to the building, the front door through which they had entered, and while there was no lock on the door it could be barred from inside.  Upon the fighter's direction, the two farmhands were stationed just outside and the door barred from the inside before Thurloe was satisfied.  "It's important we're not disturbed during the ritual," he explained to Seth and Anya, and they were all for taking whatever precautions were necessary if it meant getting their son back.  They promised to watch over the six during the ritual and not let anything disturb the dreamwalkers.  Alewyth even activated the giant bee from her amulet and stationed it by the front door, knowing full well its limited daily activation time meant it would have returned to her amulet by the time they (hopefully) had rescued Calabar from his dreams.After that, it was a simple matter of slowing the heart rate, the breathing, and thoughts themselves as each of the five willed themselves to sleep.  Once asleep, their minds went straight to the Dreamlands, where they were met by their moogle guides and taken to the Hallway of Dreams.  "In you go," said Mogo as they entered the door he opened for them.Calabar's dream was somewhat odd, for he was practically in the same position in his dream as he was in real life, lying upon his back on the floor with his hands at his sides.  However, this dream version was quite obviously awake, for his eyes dashed back and forth until the heroes stepped into view, at which time he looked imploringly at them.  His mouth was gagged with a strip of cloth and his wrists had been bound by a rope beneath his back.  His ankles were likewise tied together by thick ropes and Calabar wriggled back and forth, desperately trying to escape.Thurloe had his bastard sword out and spun about in a circle, looking for any potential threat, while Wakuren knelt beside the young man and pulled the cloth from between his lips.  "Who did this to you?" he asked.Rather than answer his question, Calabar just pleaded, "Free me!"  Zander cut at the ropes binding Calabar's ankles with his dagger while Alewyth likewise cut the rope tied to each wrist.  But though freed from his bindings, Calabar still lay there on the floor, writhing.  "Free me!" he continued to plead, now ripping at the skin of his face, his fingernails digging into his cheeks and drawing blood.  A lump moved beneath the skin of his stomach, bringing forth memories of fighting the dregworms back in Baron's Haven, although the hostess of those three had been already dead and Calabar seemed quite alive - although in a dream, one could never tell."You are free!" countered Alewyth, stepping back in confusion.  In her place, Thurloe stepped up, bastard sword at the ready.  "Let's see if we can't reset this dream to its beginning," he said, raising his blade above his head.  "I want to see the dream from the start - maybe we can see who tied him up in the first place!"  And with that, he brought his sword down, cutting into the farm lad's stomach.Calabar and Alewyth both screamed as one, the priestess in surprise at Thurloe's actions and the farm boy in jubilation.  His hands pulled at the slit Thurloe had cut into his stomach, pulling the gap even wider.  "Help me!" Calabar pleaded.  Not sure he was doing the right thing, Wakuren bent down beside the dark-haired youth and helped him pull the gaping hole in his stomach even wider.A triangular head poked out of the bleeding gap, its slick-scaled head followed by a seemingly endless length of sinewy body as the full-sized constrictor snake slid out from Calabar's body cavity.  "Ahhhh!" sighed the snake, finally free of the last of its confines.  "That feels so much better!"Thurloe was looking all around again, expecting the dream to start over from the beginning so he could see who had bound Calabar, but instead it seemed as if the dream had instead been brought to its final conclusion, for the walls were melting away in the same manner as they'd seen before whenever the dreamer's consciousness was waking back up and returning to the Mortal World.  As one, each of the five dreamwalkers began the mental techniques they'd been taught to bring themselves back to full wakefulness back in the Mortal World.  All six woke up at pretty much the same time, to see Calabar propped up on his elbows looking around at the heroes sitting in a circle around him and recognizing them instantly while the dream was still fresh in his memory.  Seth and Anya gasped in excitement at seeing their son back awake after his nearly month-long slumber.But Calabar wasn't pleased to be awake again so much as panicked.  "Mom!  Dad!" he cried out.  "They know what we are!"As the five heroes were still trying to piece together what exactly was going on, the Condamans leaped into instant action.  Seth's human body flowed until it became half as thick and twice as long, losing the arms and legs in the process.  Now a massive serpent, Seth fell forward onto Wakuren as the half-orc was scrambling to his feet.  At the same time, Anya Condaman had undergone a similar transformation and was biting her serpentine fangs into Zander Quilson.  Then, her venom injected into his veins, she slithered forward on her belly past the elven dog who was even now snapping at her scaled body with his fangs.  She went through the kitchen and into a hallway, on her way to the house's only exit door, still currently barred from the inside.Calabar began his own transformation, taking on the appearance of the snake from his dreams.  Lightning-quick, he darted to the front door and resumed his human form, calling out at the farmhands stationed outside to warn the village they were under attack by foreign bandits.  From the other side of the door came promises to get help.But by now the other dreamwalkers were back up onto their feet and ready for combat, if some of them were still a bit unsure of why it had been initiated in the first place.  "They're yuan-ti!" Thurloe called as he swung his bastard sword at the serpent that had been Seth and missing.  Alewyth shook her head, that explanation not explaining anything at all to the dwarven priestess - she'd never heard of "yuan-ti" before and had a somewhat limited exposure to snakes in any case as she'd grown up in an Underdark dwarven city.  But she trusted Thurloe knew what he was on about and raced over to attack Calabar, swinging at him with Sjondra and catching him unprepared from behind.  It felt like a cowardly attack to the good-hearted priestess, but these snake-people had started the fight unprovoked and she was perfectly willing to end it as soon as she could.Zander was struggling with the poison the snake-Anya had injected into him with her fangs; the increased heartiness brought on by his new amulet of health was being drained away with every moment.  But he had the presence of mind to cast a haste spell on the entire group of heroes - including his faithful cooshee, busy chasing after the Anya-serpent and snapping at her with his teeth - since that didn't involve any personal combat on his part.  Never one for hand-to-hand combat, the elven sorcerer felt even less fit for it now that at any other point in his life.Xandro pulled his frost short sword out of its scabbard and stabbed at Calabar, catching him in the lower side just above the beltline and the farmer's son fell over to the floor of the entryway, dead.  His body now lay directly against the front door, which he'd managed to unbar but not open before his death.Wakuren swung the edge of his shield at the Seth-serpent, slicing into a line of scales with its sharpened bottom.  The snake-man lashed out, biting the half-orc and injecting venom into his veins, but Wakuren was made of much tougher stuff than Zander and the bite didn't seem to faze the cleric of Cal in the least.  The cooshee was also bitten and likewise seemed to ignore the effects of the venom, continuing to bite and claw at Anya in her serpent form.  But then a magic missile came screaming from the sitting room and Anya collapsed in serpent-form, dead from the simple spell.  Thurloe grinned and lowered the wand he'd just used to slay her.  Then, seeing Zander still wincing in pain from his wounds at her fangs, he tossed another wand over to the elf: the wand of shield he'd just purchased from the gnomes in the Hidden Market.  Zander snatched the tossed wand from midair and nodded his appreciation, casting the shield spell upon himself to hopefully prevent any other snake-bites.  To further add to the likelihood of preventing such a course of action, he staggered over to the kitchen, away from the battle with the only remaining serpent, Seth Condaman.  The cooshee ran over to his side now that his own foe had been slain.Alewyth turned and faced Seth from the entryway, casting a magic circle against evil spell upon herself as she did so.  Then, stepping away from Calabar's corpse, she headed Seth's way with her warhammer in hand.  Xandro began his inspirational tune on his lute, content to aid from a distance against this remaining venomous foe.  And perhaps his tune helped guide Wakuren's next blow with his shield, for the edge came crashing down upon Seth's neck and decapitated the serpent with a single blow."It's over!" exclaimed Zander with a sigh of relief - just as he received another bite on the leg from behind.  Somehow, a creature had padded silently up a ramp leading from the kitchen down to some sort of root cellar without the elf having heard it.  The creature was the size and general build as a dog, but its head - and rather extensive neck - were those of a snake and its otherwise canine body was covered in scales.  Zander could feel the venom burning in this new wound and staggered away, back towards the cluttered sitting room and away from the venom dog that had bitten him.  The cooshee was quick to interpose his own body between this new threat and his master, allowing Thurloe to cast a shield spell on himself while fishing out a vial of antivenom to pass over to Zander.  The elf grabbed the flask and gratefully drank down its contents, but not without first casting a scorching ray spell at the venom dog, killing it instantly and coating its corpse in flames.  His faithful elven dog sniffed at the burning body of this strange hybrid creature, obviously not liking the alien scent."Those farmhands have gone to get help," Thurloe told the others.  "No idea if they're all going to be yuan-ti or not, but we're gonna have to be prepared to fight them off."  He cast a protection from evil spell on himself and indicated now would be the time for healing if anybody needed any.  Zander drank down a potion of cure serious wounds, sealing up the multiple puncture-wounds where he'd been bitten.  He still wasn't at his full strength after having been envenomed, he knew, but he was as in as good a shape as was possible for now.  Xandro cast a heroism spell on the elf to hopefully further toughen him up for the battle to come, while Alewyth cast a bless spell on the group.  Then Wakuren activated his ring of invisibility and stepped outside.Sure enough, there were people racing out of both ends of the Temple of Desdemona. some bursting out the front door of the temple and others coming from behind it, over by Father Robelli's dwelling where they'd apparently stopped off to grab up some of the farm implements he kept stored in his own shed there to tend to his personal gardens.  It looked to be about a full dozen in all, some armed with scimitars, others wielding only a hoe or rake.  There was a dog loping along from the back alongside one of the farmers, apparently a pet; from this distance, Wakuren thought the dog looked perfectly normal and not like that weird snake/dog hybrid Zander had slain back inside the Condamans' home.And now Father Roballi himself stepped out of the front doors of the temple, calling out to his brethren, "Save the Condamans, before the bandits slay them to steal their hard-earned goods!"  The man seemed earnest, eager to come to the aid of the people he'd been sent to oversee, but Wakuren wasn't sure if the cleric of Desdemona knew there were yuan-ti in the midst of his village or if he might even be one of the snake-men himself; after all, Seth, Anya, and Calabar had all seemed perfectly human themselves before transforming into snakes.  He cast a protection from evil spell upon himself and moved as silently as he could towards the approaching mob, knowing his ability to detect evil among the auras of people only worked at a certain range.Thurloe exited the Condaman house, bastard sword in both hands.  Zander followed suit, but stepped back, wanting to have the fighter between him and those who seemed eager to do them all harm.  The cooshee stood beside his master, growling in anger at the approaching group of angry farmers.  Then Alewyth stepped outside and moved forward, towards the mob, stopping beside Thurloe.  "They're not likely all evil," she cautioned the human beside her."Don't matter," Thurloe informed her.  "If they attack me, I'm attacking right back.  I got a right to defend myself."Xandro was the last to exit the house, but he cast an expeditious retreat spell on himself as he did so and then sprinted forward to the head of the dreamwalkers' formation, his lute stowed on his back and his short sword out and ready for business.  By then Wakuren had closed enough distance he could tell there was indeed evil present in the mob but he could not yet pinpoint which of the farmers were responsible for the overall miasma of evil he was detecting.And then the first salvo was cast by the one furthest away from the heroes: Father Roballi himself, still standing at the doors of his temple.  But he could easily cast an entangle spell on the "bandits" who had attacked the Condamans, at least according to their farmhands.  The grasses underfoot started sprouting at a remarkable speed, intertwining around the heroes' legs - and not just those of the heroes, either, for the Condamans' two farmhands were also within the area of effect of the spell, as was another farmer and his loyal hound.  Whether a testament to the cleric's spellcasting prowess or perhaps the distance involved, none of the potential targets were immobilized as had no doubt been intended, although movement through the area of writhing, oversized blades of grass and scraggly weeds was still difficult.Both farmhands slashed out at Xandro, in the front of the defensive formation, using scimitars the bard hadn't known they possessed.  He dodged one strike but was hit by the other, the entangling grasses around his feet slowing his ability to dodge.  But then Thurloe trudged up through the grasses, bringing his blade crashing into one of the two farmhands, causing him to hiss in pain.  The hiss was identifiably serpentlike enough for the fighter to categorize his opponent as some sort of yuan-ti, and in that assessment Thurloe was not wrong, for both farmhands were of the "tainted one" variety of yuan-ti capable of passing for human but with some tell-tale sign of their true heritage.  But before Thurloe could spot any telltale signs of snakehood on his combat opponent the foe was suddenly engulfed in flames from the waist up, Zander having successfully targeted a scorching ray spell at him.  The cooshee raced through the entangling grasses to bite the flaming foe's legs and he toppled over, dead from the combined assaults.Alewyth cast a summoning spell and a celestial bison suddenly appeared behind a group of human farmers approaching the area of entangling grasses where the "bandits" they'd been warned about were gathered.  Lowering its impressive horns, it stabbed the closest farmer in the back and flung him forward, stumbling to stay on his feet and keep a grip upon the scimitar in his right hand.Xandro extricated himself from the confines of the entangle spell and used his spell-enhanced speed to high-tail it all the way to the temple, intending to confront Father Roballi directly; who knew what all other combat spells the cleric could throw their way?  But the cleric saw Xandro coming and stepped back, throwing a hold person spell at the bard running his way.  Xandro had almost caught up to the cleric when he slowed instantly to a standstill, willing himself to finish the attack but finding his traitorous body unable to do so.Wakuren cast an obscuring mist spell over the approaching farmers, some of whom he had determined by this time were yuan-ti pure-bloods or tainted ones, the ones capable of successfully passing as human.  The dog, in the meantime, had decided it didn't like being attacked by mobile grass and exited the entangle spell's area of effect as quickly as it could, then turning and barking at the strange plants that didn't behave like plants were supposed to.The second yuan-ti tainted one farmhand from the Condaman household swung his scimitar at Thurloe, neither of the combatants even bothering to try to prevent the grasses from trying to entangle them anymore, each focused solely on the foe before him.  The other farmers who had been caught up in the overlapping spells - Father Roballi's entangle and Wakuren's obscuring mist - exited from one side or the other, about half heading in each direction.  Those that had gone east found themselves on the left side of the Condaman house and started skirting around it, hoping to catch the bandits from behind.  The dog's master was a part of this group so he accompanied them, tail wagging at the excitement but not really sure what all was going on.Thurloe slew the tainted one he'd been fighting and extricated himself from the entangle spell, heading over to one of the four farmers wielding scimitars.  By now, Wakuren's enhanced vision allowed him to determine which farmers were the sources with individual auras of evil and without much surprise it was the ones with the better weapons.  "The ones with scimitars are yuan-ti!" he called to the others, while still cloaked in invisibility.  Zander cast another scorching ray at the closest pure-blood, not wanting any of them to make it far enough to try to do him harm.  The yuan-ti burst into flames, screaming horribly as he burned to death.  The cooshee went after another pure-blood, biting at a leg and trying to pull the fake farmer down to the ground.Alewyth cast a spiritual weapon spell and sent a solid mass of force energy in the shape of a dwarven warhammer flying at the head of another pure-blood while her celestial bison gored the same foe he'd stabbed earlier with his horn.Sweat poured down Xandro's brow as he struggled to make his paralyzed body react to his mental commands, but with no luck.  "You'll regret having meddled in our affairs!" promised Father Roballi, pulling out a scimitar of his own and swinging it at the immobilized bard.  But luck was with Xandro as the blade struck a buckle holding his crossbow in place on his back and was deflected harmlessly to the side.  The cleric, apparently not used to hand-to-hand combat, snarled in irritation but then took a step back, for Thurloe had spotted the bard's immobility and was racing to the rescue, even though doing so meant racing past a few farmers more than willing to strike at his as he ran past them.The other pure-bloods were now advancing on Zander and his elven dog.  The cooshee raced forward and bit at the closest while Zander cast another scorching ray spell, this time firing hopelessly high and sending the gout of flames well over his target's head.  He stepped back away from the advancing group, whereas Alewyth stepped forward to meet them, very much so willing to have them face her instead of the weakened elven sorcerer.  Sjondra came swinging in to crush a pure-blood's kneecap, even as her spiritual warhammer and the celestial bison each finished off the pure-bloods they had been attacking.The dog and a group of farmers wielding hoes and rakes turned the corner around the Condaman house - past the colorful rose bushes - and one of them yelled, "There's the bandits there!" ruining any possibility of surprising the heroes with an attack from an unexpected direction.  "We're not your enemies - we're not bandits!" Zander called as he turned to face this new group of foes.  "Some of your villagers are secretly snake-men!  The Condamans - they were all snake-men!"  That seemed like crazy-talk to the puzzled farmers, who chocked it up to desperate ramblings of an elven bandit trying to talk his way out of the punishment he had coming.  And it was then that the farmers learned they weren't the only ones to have gone around the Condaman house to attack the bandits from behind, for the newest arrival to have done so made her own appearance, much to their surprise and fear.  This was a yuan-ti abomination, currently in the form of an oversized constrictor snake.  It had been sent by Father Roballi to slay the interlopers who had somehow learned of the yuan-ti's secret infiltration of Basker's Grove, replacing the human farmers one by one with those of their own kind.  She struck at Zander Quilson and bit him on the arm; fortunately, the antivenom the elf had swallowed earlier helped him fight off this new dose of venom, but the elf nonetheless swore to himself that he couldn't seem to catch a break this night.With supreme mental effort, Xandro finally managed to free himself from Father Roballi's hold person spell, just as Thurloe arrived and sliced at the cleric with his bastard sword.  "We know about your yuan-ti cult," he warned the cleric.  "The game's up!""Not yet it isn't!" replied the yuan-ti pure-blood cleric, stepping back out of range of the fighter's sword and casting a charm person spell at Xandro, knowing the bard had already failed to initially overcome the casting of one enchantment spell and hoping to pit one human against the other.  "Protect me from your friend!" Father Roballi commanded Xandro, hoping this second spell would give him a moment's respite against the fighter's vicious-looking bastard sword.Xandro looked over at Thurloe, who was forced to keep an eye on both the cleric and the bard, not sure which one would attack him next.  "Who, him?" Xandro asked.  "Protect you from him?  Nah, I don't think so!"  Thurloe grinned and slew the cleric with another strike of his blade.Two of the farmers had seen the slaying of the cleric of their temple, though, and rushed over to avenge his death.  "He killed the good father!" one cried in shock, ready to bring his hoe crashing down upon Thurloe's head in retaliation."That father of yours wasn't as good as you thought," Thurloe told him, stepping back as the hoe came crashing down at his feet.  "He was a snake man, tricking you and your townsfolk!""You lying--!" sputtered the first farmer, as Xandro made a show of holding his own blade off to the side, indicating he was not going to try fighting the enraged farmers."It's true!" Xandro added.  "We successfully woke Calabar Condaman, but he and his parents were all snake-people!  We can show you Seth and Anya - both snakes!""I'll kill you both!" vowed the farmer, but his partner put a hand on the first one's shoulder and pulled him back.  "Now just wait a minute, there, let's hear them out!" he suggested.  He didn't want to believe Father Roballi was anything but a kind-hearted priest who took care of his flock...but he also didn't want to go hoe-to-bastard-sword against an armored professional who had just demonstrated his own proficiency with his blade.Back by the Condaman house, down the road from the temple, Wakuren brought the full force of his shield slamming into the giant snake that had just bit Zander.  Zander cast a scorching ray at the serpent and this time the spell hit straight on, but it nevertheless fizzled out upon impact, coming up against an inherent resistance to spells he'd been unable to overcome.  The elf frowned in puzzlement; what kind of a snake could resist spells so efficiently?  The cooshee bit at the snake, catching it between its teeth but unable to get a grip as the scales caused the thing's body to slide right back out of the elven dog's jaws.A pair of pure-blood yuan-ti were attacking Alewyth and her celestial bison with limited success; the beast was now dripping blood from a lucky scimitar-strike while the priestess had managed to avoid any hits.  A final blow from Sjondra finished off the one Alewyth had been fighting, then the dwarf sent her spiritual warhammer over to aid the bison she'd summoned from the celestial planes.Xandro's expeditious retreat spell was still in effect and he could see the others fighting off some kind of giant snake; pointing it out to Thurloe and the farmers, the bard rushed off to see what he could do to help.  "C'mon," Thurloe called to the two farmers facing him.  "Come see for yourselves what these snake-men are up to!"  He raced off to follow the bard, the two farmers running behind him.The giant snake reared up and transformed, suddenly expanding to grow a pair of arms and a wide chest.  It flung a scale-covered arm in Wakuren's direction, flinging a baleful polymorph spell at the half-orc that would have turned him into a harmless garter snake.  Fortunately, Wakuren was able to avoid the unwanted transformation and the yuan-ti abomination hissed in irritation.  It hissed in pain a moment later as the half-orc sent his shield bashing into the serpent's face.  Zander took the opportunity to drink down another healing potion, as Wakuren had the snake-thing's full attention and Alewyth was still busy with the last of the pure-bloods.  The cooshee bit at the abomination and, barking furiously, the farmer's dog rushed in to bite at this strange thing that it hadn't even seen before yet knew didn't belong here in his master's village.The last of the pure-bloods was finally slain and Alewyth turned her attention - and her spiritual weapon spell - on the yuan-ti abomination, the celestial bison trailing in her wake.  Then Xandro came rushing in from seemingly nowhere, his frost short sword striking at the serpent and cutting a deep gash in her side.  The snake-thing reacted by grabbing up the bard in a bear hug, her scales exuding some kind of burning acid as she bit at the bard's neck, sharp fangs piercing Xandro's neck and pumping her venom into his body.  But the odds were stacked well against her and once Thurloe arrived with the two farmers once final swing of his bastard sword - empowered by the torc of the titans he wore around his neck - cut the head from her neck and the battle was over.Alewyth and Wakuren cast healing spells on those who needed them - including a few of the farmers - and examined the bodies of those they had slain.  Most could indeed pass for human, but the two Condaman farmhands had patches of skin on their arms - covered by the sleeves of their garments - covered in scales.  The farmers confirmed Thurloe's suspicions that the farmhands had both been two of the ones suffering from that week-long "flu" that knocked them off their feet; the fighter explained that was the way the yuan-ti transformed normal people into others of their brood.  The heroes also showed the amazed farmers the two serpentine bodies of the elder Condamans and the venom dog they'd had living hidden down in their root cellar.  A quick exploration of the root cellar resulted in the discovery of a hidden room just beyond, in which alchemical equipment had been set up, creating distillations of the yuan-ti venom used to create the elixir capable of transforming unwitting humans into yuan-ti.  Worse yet were four writhing bodies moaning behind another door, wretched creatures turning into half-human "brood guards" - four of the farmhands from the village who had been assumed to have run off.  Thurloe was quick to put them out of their misery.Next came an exploration of Father Roballi's house, just behind the temple to Desdemona.  He had a compost heap by his personal garden, which was apparently mostly for show judging by the contents of his larder just off his kitchen, where several slain rats and mice hung by cords from the ceiling, no doubt future meals for either him or his yuan-ti abomination companion (who, judging from some cast-off skin, apparently lived in serpent form underneath the pure-blood cleric's bed).  Wakuren, on a hunch, dug around the compost heap and soon unearthed a few bones from a human skeleton.  "This, I fear, is all that's left of your previous temple cleric," he told the villagers.The villagers thanked the heroes for having saved the town from eventual transformation into yuan-ti - and for "pulling their punches" when fighting off the enraged townsfolk who had been convinced they were nothing more than murderous bandits.  The group mounted back up and headed out of town, on towards the next dream victim Mogo had pointed out to them, south of their present location in a town called Caldovia, near the desert lands of the continent's interior.  It was already late, but none of the heroes felt it a good idea to spend the night in Basker's Grove, where there was too great a temptation for revenge by those who hadn't seen the truth for themselves (or those who refused to believe it).  They camped out on the side of the road a good couple of miles outside of town.And the next morning, once they were back on the road, there was a familiar face standing in the street when they rounded a corner.  "Good morning," said Wangle Turdblossom, pulling something from a back pocket and holding it out to Xandro.  "Your wand, as promised."  Xandro leaned down from the saddle and paid the gnome the other half of the price they had agreed upon."A pleasure doing business with you," the gnome said with a tip of an imaginary cap.  He waited until the group had continued down the road before turning back the way he had come and going his own way. - - -Yuan-ti were something new to Vicki and Harry (and possibly Joe as well), so this was a cool way to introduce them to a new foe.  And this marks twice now that I've used a temple of Desdemona in this campaign, while she was just an NPC in our "Wing Three" campaign (the one after which the gods of Erthe are all patterned).  Not to worry, though, for I have adventures planned that will bring some of the other, more prominent faiths from the Erthe pantheon to the forefront. - - -T-shirt worn: I was still wearing my "Duck Dynasty" shirt since this was the same game session - which was all for the best, since I don't own anything particularly yuan-ti appropriate.</blockquote>

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